Familiar Songs - Their Authors & Histories

300 traditional songs, inc sheet music with full piano accompaniment & lyrics.

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POOB JACK.
181
I said to our Poll, for, you see, she would cry,
When last we weighed anchor for sea, What argufies sniveling and piping your eye ?
Why, what a great fool you must be ! Can't you see the world's wide, and there's room for us all,
Both for seamen and lubbers ashore ! And if to old Davy I should go, friend Poll,
Why you never will hear of me more: What then, all's a hazard, come, don't be so soft,
Perhaps, I may laughing coming back ; For, d'ye see, there's a cherub sits smiling aloft,
To keep watch for the life of poor Jack.
D'ye mind me, a sailor should be every inch
All as one as a piece of the ship, And with her brave the world, without offering to flinch,
From the moment the anchor's a trip : As for me, in all weathers, all times, sides and ends,
Nought's a trouble from duty that springs, For my heart is my Poll's, and my rhino my friend's,
And as for my life, 'tis the king's. Even when my time comes, ne'er believe me so soft
As with grief to be taken aback: That same little cherub that sits up aloft,
Will look out a good birth for Poor Jack-
THREE FISHERS.
The great English preacher, novelist, and poet, Chaeles Kingsley, was born at Holne Vicarage, Devonshire, June 12, 1S19. He was a distinguished student at Magdalen College, Cambridge, and became rector of Eversley, in Hampshire. In 1859 he was ap­pointed Professor of Modern History, at Cambridge, which chair he resigned to become Canon of Westminster, and Chaplain to the Queen. His tour in the United States, in 1873-4, will long be pleasantly remembered. He died in London, January 23, 1875.
While Mr. Kingsley was a boy, his father was rector of the parish of Clovelly, and from that little fishing village he had often seen the herring fleet put to sea. On such occasions, it was his father's custom to hold a short religious service on the quay, in which not only the fishermen, but their mothers, wives, sweethearts and children joined fervently. Years afterward, at the close of a weary day's work, remembering these scenes, he wrote the song.
"Three Fishers" was set to its most familiar air by John Hullah, who was born in Worcester, England, in 1812. His comic opera, "The Village Coquettes," written in con­junction with Dickens, and brought out in 1836, first made him known to the public. He wrote a few more operas, and then gave his attention to establishing in England a style of popular music school, which had proved successful in Paris. A spacious hall was built for him, but was burned down in I860. He was Professor of Vocal Music and Harmony in King's, Queen's and Bedford colleges, London; organist of the Charter-house; conductor of the orchestra and chorus in the Royal Academy of Music; Musical Inspector for the United Kingdom, and a musical writer of repute. He died in February, 1884.