List, shipmates, to a seamen's lay: <br />Jack Temperance and Jack Grog <br />Are gallant sailors in their way, <br />As ever hove a log: <br />But Grog's a lad of fits and starts; <br />You'll find him sharp and slow; <br />Now hot, now cold: his spirits up, <br />He's all for dash and blow. <br /> <br /> <br />But if at times he's sharp and quick, <br />'T is soon he'll flag and tire; <br />And then so hot, he'd eat Old Nick, <br />Or set the sea on fire! <br />And though you hear him brag full oft <br />He bangs the other hollow, <br />I never knew him go aloft, <br />When Temperance would not follow. <br /> <br /> <br />But when he's had the drop he likes- <br />He loves his glass we know- <br />The squall comes on, the boatswain pipes <br />All hands to reef and stow: <br />'T is then aloft, and lying out, <br />To reef, or stow, or bend, <br />Jack Temperance has the ready hand <br />To stay his falling friend. <br /> <br /> <br />Oh! Temperance is a seaman bold <br />As ever trod the deck; <br />And oft, when seas like mountains roll'd, <br />Has saved the ship from wreck; <br />And when there rolls that mountain-sea, <br />All theatening to o'erwhelm, <br />White breakers thundering on the lee, <br />Let Temperance take the helm.<br /><br />John Pierpont<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-seaman-s-lay/
