The Lowland Sea Poem by Cicely Fox Smith

Oh, sailed you by the Goodwins,
Oh, came you by the Sound?
And saw you there my true love.
That was homeward bound?

'Oh, never will he anchor
Again in English ground;
A-sailing by the Lowlands
Your sailorman is drowned.'

'They gave his ship her death-blow
As she was sailing by,
And every soul aboard her,
Oh, they left them all to die.'

'They were not common pirates
Nor rovers of Sallee . . .
But gentlemen of high estate
Come out of Germanie!'

It was no worthy gentleman.
Though he were crowned King;
It was no honest seaman
That wrought so vile a thing.

But the foulest of all pirates
That ever sailed the sea . . .
And they should swing as pirates swing
Upon the gallows tree,
A-sailing by the Lowlands
That took my lad from me!