Come all you wild young men and a warning take by me Never lead your single life astray or into bad company As I myself have done, being all in the month of May When I, as pressed by a sea captain, a privateer to trade To the East Indies we were bound to plunder the raging main And it's many the brave and a galliant ship we sent to a watery grave Ah, for Freeport we did steer, our provisions to renew When we did spy a bold man of-war sailing three feet to our two
Oh, she fired across our bows, Heave to and don't refuse Surrender now unto my command or else your lives you'll lose And our decks they were sputtered with blood and the cannons did loudly roar And broadside and broadside a long time we lay till we could fight no more And a thousand times I wished myself alone all alone with my Polly on the shore
She's a tall and a slender girl with a dark and a-rolling eye And here am I, a-bleeding on the deck and for a sweet saint must lie Farewell, my family and my friends, likewise my barley too I'd never have crossed the salt sea wide if I'd have been ruled by you And a thousand times I saw myself again, all alone with my Polly on the shore
When love, with unconfined wings, hovers within my gates And my ?divine now fear? brings to whisper at my grates When I lie tangled in her hair and fettered with her eye Birds that wanton in the air know no such liberty When flowing cups run swiftly round with no allaying ?tense? Our careless heads with roses crowned, our hearts with royal flames When first decreeth in wine we steep when healths and rafts run free Fishes that tipple in the deep know no such liberty Stone walls do not a prison make not iron bars a gate Minds innocent and quiet take that as a hermitage If I have freedom in my love and in my soul am free Angels alone that soar above enjoy such liberty
Time stood dark and silent and the stars they gave no light I wandered in an endless dream, haunted by the night I saw four ghostly riders, the horses in a line Each in turn did point at me and say I'm on full ?rein? We are the sculptors of the land, the rulers of the sea We are the falcons of your sins, gardeners of the trees The air about you is burning and the sea below does drown And the legacy you leave your ?swan? will surely bring 'em down Bring 'em down Bring 'em down Bring 'em down Bring 'em down Bring 'em down Bring 'em down A curse upon you men of war, with gun or pen in hand The power sword or . . . the castles made of sand You always have good reason to take more than you need Your hearts are full of paper and your minds are full of greed Bring 'em down Bring 'em down Bring 'em down Bring 'em down Bring 'em down Bring 'em down What is deeper than the ocean, colder than the grave Stronger than your armies all and braver than the brave? Those who know and ?knowing know? will sow on fertile ground Those who don't and never would are those you will go down Bring 'em down Bring 'em down Bring 'em down Bring 'em down Bring 'em down Bring 'em down
