Harp Song of the Dane Women (Kipling)
Hymnal Index | Ship's Company Website

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What is a woman that you forsake her,
And the hearthfire and the home-acre,
To go with the old grey Widow-maker

She has no house to lay a guest in
But one chill bed for all to rest in
That the pale suns and the stray bergs nest in

She has no strong white arms to fold you
But the ten-times-fingering weed to hold you
Out on the rocks where the tide has rolled you

Yet when the signs of summer thicken
And the ice breaks, and the birchbuds quicken
Yearly you turn from our side and sicken

Sicken again for the shouts and the slaughter
You steal away to the lapping waters
And look at your ship in her winter quarters

You forget our mirth and talk at the tables
The kine in the shed and the horse in the stables
To tar her sides and go over her cables

Then you drive out where the storm clouds swallow
And the sound of your oarblades, falling hollow
Is all we have left through the months to follow

Ah, what is Woman that you forsake her
And the hearthfire and the home-acre
To go with the old grey Widow-maker