Sweethearts And Wives Poem by Cicely Fox Smith

The very first voyage as ever I made
I went to sea in the East Coast trade,
And I courted a gal at Seaton Sluice -
If her name warn’t Lizzie it must ha’ been Luce -
So I did!

And then I signed in a Colonies clipper
With a rare old rip of a racing skipper,
And there warn’t no sense nor there warn’t no use
A-courting a gal at Seaton Sluice;
So I looked for another down Melbourne way -
If her name warn’t Kitty it must ha’ been May -
So I did!

Oh, next I sailed in a pearlin’ brig
To the South Sea Ilses both little and big,
Where it warn’t no use, say what you may,
A-courting a gal down Melbourne way;
So I didn’t worry with her no longer,
But I soon picked up with a gal in Tonger,
An’ island gal as brown as a berry -
Don’t know her name, but I called her “Cherry” -
So I did!

(And so on ad lib.)

But last I signed in a Liverpool liner -
Go where you will and you won’t find a finer!
And it’s time, thinks I, to be settlin’ down,
So I married a widder in Monkeytown,
With a bit in the bank and a “corner-off,”
And when I’m ashore now I lives like a toff.
And as for the girl at Seaton Sluice
I ’ope she ain’t waitin’, for that ain’t no use,
And as for the ones at Montreal
And Tanger and Taltal and Melbourne and all,
And all the whole boilin’ from France to Fiji,
I ’ope they’re all married and ’appy like me -
So I do!