Who is it knocks so gently?

Who is it knocks so gently at my door?

That looks so way-worn, desolate, and poor;

A paid-off sai - lor, once his Country’s pride

But now a wanderer on the highway’s side;

Whose haggard looks real misery bespeak

Famine and care o’spread his sun-burnt cheek

‘Help a poor sailor’ is his supplant cry

‘Grant me a pittance , lest for want I die’

‘At Trafalgar, I play’d a Britons’s part;

‘Strength in my limbs, and courage in my heart:

‘But now a-drift, distress has brought me low,

‘As this poor wasted form will plainly shew.

‘I little thought, the day great Nelson fell,

‘That I should live so sad a tale to tell:

‘Far better I had died that glorious morn,

‘Than lived a wretch so miserably forlorn.’

(Reprise)

Come in, my friend and share a poor man’s meal,

Curse on all Villans, with hearts of steel,

That cannot for your fate some pity feel.

Curse on all Villans, with hearts of steel,

That cannot for your fate some pity feel.

Words Source: The Naval Chronicle (1817)

Music: © R. Garcia