‘Since I needs must say my say,
Since on board the duty’s done—
And from Malo Roads to Croisie Point what is it but a run?
“‘Since ’tis ask and have, I may—
Since the others go ashore—
Come! a good whole holiday!
Leave to go and see my wife, whom I call the Belle Aurore!’
That he asked and that he got—nothing more.”
Turn we now to a “new departure” in sea poetry, one partially inaugurated by the Dibdins, carried on by Tom Hood the elder, and having of late years William Schwenck Gilbert for its principal exponent. It is often as full of nature as the serious productions of other poets, yet itself favours the ludicrous and satirical side. Hood’s “Demon Ship” is a fair example—
“Down went my helm—close-reefed—the tack held freely in my hand—