Mine Sweepers [KIPLING poem set to music]
Channel: tobydarling
Date: 04/12/2014

Here is another of Kipling's poems, that I have set to music:

the video shows the Solent in April 2103 at sunset.

Mine Sweepers
1914-18
Sea Warfare



Am                G                         Am
Dawn off the Foreland--the young flood making
E7
    Jumbled and short and steep—
C                   G                        
Black in the hollows and bright where it's breaking—
Am                           G
   Awkward water to sweep.
F                                      C
   "Mines reported in the fairway,
Am                              D
   "Warn all traffic and detain.
G            Dm       C      G      C              G                      B7
'Sent  up  Unity,  Cralibel,  Assyrian,  Stormcock,  and Golden
        Gain."

 Noon off the Foreland--the first ebb making
   Lumpy and strong in the bight.
 Boom after boom, and the golf-hut shaking
   And the jackdaws wild with fright!
   "Mines located in the fairway,
   "Boats now working up the chain,
 "Sweepers--Unity,  Claribel,  Assyrian,  Stormcock,  and Golden
         Gain."

Dusk off the Foreland--the last light going
  And the traffic crowding through,
And five damned trawlers with their syreens blowing
   Heading the whole review!
   "Sweep completed in the fairway.
   "No more mines remain.
"'Sent back  Unity, Claribel, Assyrian, Stormcock, and Golden
        Gain."