THE BALLAD OF THE GOOD SHIP AGAPË

There was a ship called Agapë
	(Tandaradei! O gai! Wee mij!)
for seven years rode fair at sea
	but sank in the Lowlands Race.

The Captain bade no crew aboard
	(Tandaradei! O gai! Wee mij!)
for Eros was that lonely lord
	who sank in the Lowlands Race.

The cargo was a pearl, by art
	(Tandaradei! O gai! Wee mij!)
set whole within a living heart:
	it sank in the Lowlands Race.

In evil darkness below
	(Tandaradei! O gai! Wee mij!)
The chisel-rats ran to and fro
	to sink it in the Lowlands Race.

So busy were those breakless teeth, 
	(Tandaradei! O gai! Wee mij!)
and thin the timbers underneath,
	that sank in the Lowlands Race.

a thousand holes in the bottom boards
	(Tandaradei! O gai! Wee mij!)
let-through the sea in shining swords;
	and they sank in the Lowlands Race.

One rat would bear at the Captain's hands
	(Tandaradei! O gai! Wee mij!)
caresses or his kind commands - 
	till he sank in the Lowlands Race.

Now when he called, she disobeyed,
	(Tandaradei! O gai! Wee mij!)
for she was guilty and afraid
	who sank him in the Lowlands Race.

Up the companion-way they poured,
	(Tandaradei! O gai! Wee mij!)
the water and the shrieking horde
	that had sunk in the Lowlands Race.

She trotted over tilting decks
	(Tandaradei! O gai! Wee mij!)
bit him on lip and heart and sex,
	and sank him in the Lowlands Race.

Sour was the mortal sacrament
	(Tandaradei! O gai! Wee mij!)
he drank as down his body went
	in the black of the Lowlands Race.

But happy she, swum safe and free
	(Tandaradei! O gai! Wee mij!)
from that dishevelled ship while he
	lay drowned in the Lowlands Race.