The very first voyage as ever I made <br />I went to sea in the East Coast trade, <br />And I courted a gal at Seaton Sluice - <br />If her name warn’t Lizzie it must ha’ been Luce - <br />So I did! <br /> <br />And then I signed in a Colonies clipper <br />With a rare old rip of a racing skipper, <br />And there warn’t no sense nor there warn’t no use <br />A-courting a gal at Seaton Sluice; <br />So I looked for another down Melbourne way - <br />If her name warn’t Kitty it must ha’ been May - <br />So I did! <br /> <br />Oh, next I sailed in a pearlin’ brig <br />To the South Sea Ilses both little and big, <br />Where it warn’t no use, say what you may, <br />A-courting a gal down Melbourne way; <br />So I didn’t worry with her no longer, <br />But I soon picked up with a gal in Tonger, <br />An’ island gal as brown as a berry - <br />Don’t know her name, but I called her “Cherry” - <br />So I did! <br /> <br />(And so on ad lib.) <br /> <br />But last I signed in a Liverpool liner - <br />Go where you will and you won’t find a finer! <br />And it’s time, thinks I, to be settlin’ down, <br />So I married a widder in Monkeytown, <br />With a bit in the bank and a “corner-off,” <br />And when I’m ashore now I lives like a toff. <br />And as for the girl at Seaton Sluice <br />I ’ope she ain’t waitin’, for that ain’t no use, <br />And as for the ones at Montreal <br />And Tanger and Taltal and Melbourne and all, <br />And all the whole boilin’ from France to Fiji, <br />I ’ope they’re all married and ’appy like me - <br />So I do!<br /><br />Cicely Fox Smith<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/sweethearts-and-wives/
