WILLIAM HOPE HODGSON: Horror Classics, Supernatural Tales and Poems. William Hope Hodgson
star-bells knelling unto me
Who in all space am most alone!
“An hungered, to the shore I creep,
Perchance some comfort waits on me
From the old Sea’s eternal heart;
But lo! from all the solemn deep,
Far voices out of mystery
Seem questioning why we are apart!
“Where’er I go I am alone
Who once, through thee, had all the world.
My breast is one whole raging pain
For that which was, and now is flown
Into the Blank where life is hurled
Where all is not, nor is again!”
The Ghost Pirates
II What Tammy the ’Prentice Saw
VII The Coming of the Mist, and that which it Ushered
VIII After the Coming of the Mist
“Strange as the glimmer of the ghastly light
That shines from some vast crest of wave at night.”
To Mary Whalley
“Olden memories that shine
against death’s night —
Quiet stars of sweet enchantments,
that are seen
In Life’s lost distances . . . ”
The World of Dreams
Preface
This book forms the last of three. The first published was “The Boats of the ‘Glen Carrig’ “; the second, “The House on the Borderland”; this, the third, completes what, perhaps, may be termed a trilogy; for, though very different in scope, each of the three books deals with certain conceptions that have an elemental kinship. With this book, the author believes that he closes the door, so far as he is concerned, on a particular phase of constructive thought.
The Hell O! O! Chaunty
Chaunty Man..Man the capstan, bullies!
Men. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ha!-o-o! Ha!-o-o!
Chaunty Man..Capstan-bars, you tarry souls!
Men. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ha!-o-o! Ha!-o-o!
Chaunty Man..Take a turn!
Men. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ha!-o-o!
Chaunty Man..Stand by to fleet!
Men. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ha!-o-o!
Chaunty Man..Stand by to surge!
Men. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ha!-o-o!
Chaunty Man..Ha! — o-o-o-o!
Men. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . TRAMP!
And away we go!
Chaunty Man..Hark to the tramp of the bearded shellbacks!
Men. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Hush!
O hear ’em tramp!
Chaunty Man..Tramping, stamping — treading, vamping,
While the cable comes in ramping.
Men. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Hark!
O hear ’em stamp!
Chaunty Man..Surge when it rides!
Surge when it rides!
Round-o-o-o
handsome as it slacks!
Men. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ha!-o-o-o-o!
hear ’em ramp!
Ha!-o-o-o-o!
hear ’em stamp!
Ha!-o-o-o-o-o-o!
Ha!-o-o-o-o-o-o!
Chorus..They’re shouting now; oh! hear ’em
A-bellow as they stamp:—
Ha!-o-o-o! Ha!-o-o-o!
Ha!-o-o-o!
A-shouting as they tramp!
Chaunty Man..O hark to the haunting chorus
of the capstan and the bars!
Chaunty-o-o-o
and rattle crash —
Bash against the stars!
Men. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ha-a!-o-o-o!