The Three Fishers

The Three Fishers

Original Text
Charles Kingsley, Alton Locke (1849).
1Three fishers went sailing away to the west,
2    Away to the west as the sun went down;
3Each thought on the woman who loved him the best,
4    And the children stood watching them out of the town;
5    For men must work, and women must weep,
6    And there's little to earn, and many to keep,
7       Though the harbour bar be moaning.
8Three wives sat up in the lighthouse tower,
9    And they trimmed the lamps as the sun went down;
10They looked at the squall, and they looked at the shower,
11    And the night-rack came rolling up ragged and brown.
12    But men must work, and women must weep,
13    Though storms be sudden, and waters deep,
14       And the harbour bar be moaning.
15Three corpses lay out on the shining sands
16    In the morning gleam as the tide went down,
17And the women are weeping and wringing their hands
18    For those who will never come home to the town;
19    For men must work, and women must weep,
20    And the sooner it's over, the sooner to sleep;
21       And good-bye to the bar and its moaning.
Publication Start Year
1851
RPO poem Editors
J. D. Robins
RPO Edition
2RP.2.486; RPO 1996-2000.
Rhyme