POOR JACK. English, Air (2/4 time). B Flat Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. "Poor Jack" is a song by the prolific wikipedia:Charles_Dibdin (1745–1814), the best-known English songwriter of his day--especially of sea songs, popularly said to have recruited more men to the Navy than the press-gang. "Poor Jack"[1] was his most successful song to that date, later supplanted by "Tom Bowling." The first two stanza go:
Go patter to lubbers and swabs, do you see, 'Bout danger, and fear, and the like; A tight-water boat and good sea-room give me, And it ain’t to a little I’ll strike. Though the tempest topgallant-mast smack smooth should smite And shiver each splinter of wood, Clear the deck, stow the yards, and house everything tight, And under reef foresail we’ll scud: Avast! nor don’t think me a milksop so soft, To be taken for trifles aback;vFor they say there’s a Providence sits up aloft, To keep watch for the life of poor Jack!
I heard our good chaplain palaver one day About souls, heaven, mercy, and such; And, my timbers! what lingo he’d coil and belay; Why, ’twas just all as one as High Dutch; For he said how a sparrow can’t founder, d’ye see, Without orders that come down below; And a many fine things that proved clearly to me oft That Providence takes us in tow: For, says he, do you mind me, let storms ne’er so oft Take the topsails of sailors aback, There’s a sweet little cherub that sits up aloft, To keep watch for the life of poor Jack!
Additional notes
Printed sources : - David Sime (The Edinburgh Musical Miscellany vol. 1), 1792; pp. 137-140.
