Clear Eyes/Captain Lean [DE LA MARE poems set to music]
Channel: tobydarling
Date: 2020-06-16

Clear Eyes    By Walter De La Mare 

E
Clear eyes do dim at last,
Am Dm7 Em7/D
    And cheeks outlive their rose.
E
Time, heedless of the past,
Am Dm7 Em7/D
    No loving-kindness knows;
Am7 D
Chill unto mortal lip
Am E7
     Still Lethe flows.

Griefs, too, but brief while stay,
    And sorrow, being o'er,
Its salt tears shed away,
    Woundeth the heart no more.
Stealthily lave those waters
     That solemn shore.

Ah, then, sweet face burn on,
    While yet quick memory lives!
And Sorrow, ere thou art gone,
    Know that my heart forgives - 
Ere yet, grown cold in peace,
     It loves not, nor grieves.
Captain Lean

Am D
     Out of the East a hurricane
F G Am
        Swept down on Captain Lean - 
D Am
     That mariner and gentleman
F G Am
        Will ne'er again be seen.

D Am
     He sailed his ship against the foes
D Am
        Of his own country dear,
F G Am D
     But now in the trough of the billows
F G Am
        An aimless course doth steer.

     Powder was violets to his nostril,
        Sweet the din of the fighting-line,
     Now he is flotsam on the seas,
        And his bones are bleached with brine.

     The stars move up along the sky,
        The moon she shines so bright,
     And in that solitude the foam
        Sparkles unearthly white.

D Dm
     This is the tomb of Captain Lean,
Am D
        Would a straiter please his soul?
F G Am
     I trow he sleeps in peace,
E7 Am D Am
        Howsoever the billows roll!

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