by Coleridge · Cluster: Journey · Ship
Abstract
A jaunty sea-toast saluting a ship’s captain who rightly foretold a fair wind, with refrain ‘Bravo! Captain Findlay’; conviviality and the sea voyage to Malta.
Connections
Motifs: Sea, Wind, Journey Themes & Concepts: Joy Forms & Genres: Comic Verse Song Settings: Ship
Testo integrale / Full text
When the squalls were flitting and fleering
And the vessel was tacking and veering;
Bravo! Captain Findlay,
Who foretold a fair wind
Of a constant mind;
For he knew which way the wind lay,
Bravo! Captain Findlay.
A Health to Captain Findlay,
Bravo! Captain Findlay!
When we made but ill speed with the Speedwell,
Neither poets nor sheep could feed well:
Now grief rotted the Liver,
Yet Malta, dear Malta, as far off as ever!
Bravo! Captain Findlay,
Foretold a fair wind,
Of a constant mind,
For he knew which way the wind lay!
May 4, 1804.
Now first published from a Notebook. The rhymes are inserted between the
following entries:—’Thursday night — Wind chopped about and about, once
fairly to the west, for a minute or two — but now, 1/2 past 9, the
Captain comes down and promises a fair wind for to-morrow. We shall
see.’ ‘Well, and we have got a wind the right way at last!’