"Stand to your guns! my hearts of oak, / Let not a word on board be spoke."
— Thomas Carter (c. 1735, d. 1804)
Work Title
Date
1777
Metaphor
"Stand to your guns! my hearts of oak, / Let not a word on board be spoke."
Metaphor in Context
Stand to your guns! my hearts of oak,
Let not a word on board be spoke,
Victory soon will crown the joke;
Be silent and be ready.
Ram home your guns and sponge them well,
Let us be sure.-- the balls will tell,
The cannon's roar shall sound their knell,
Be steady, boys, be steady.
Not yet, nor yet, nor yet.--
Reserve your fire,
I do desire, fire!
Now, the elements do rattle,
The Gods amaz'd behold the battle -
A broadside, my boys.
See the blood in purple tide,
Trickle down her batter'd side,
Wing'd with fate the bullets fly,
Conquer, boys, or bravely die!
Hurl destruction on your foes!
She sinks, Huzza! to the bottom,
To the bottom down she goes!
Let not a word on board be spoke,
Victory soon will crown the joke;
Be silent and be ready.
Ram home your guns and sponge them well,
Let us be sure.-- the balls will tell,
The cannon's roar shall sound their knell,
Be steady, boys, be steady.
Not yet, nor yet, nor yet.--
Reserve your fire,
I do desire, fire!
Now, the elements do rattle,
The Gods amaz'd behold the battle -
A broadside, my boys.
See the blood in purple tide,
Trickle down her batter'd side,
Wing'd with fate the bullets fly,
Conquer, boys, or bravely die!
Hurl destruction on your foes!
She sinks, Huzza! to the bottom,
To the bottom down she goes!
Categories
Citation
A popular song, much collected in late eighteenth-century song-books. Three editions of the comic opera in which the song appears printed in 1777. At least 35 entries in ECCO and ESTC (1777, 1781, 1782, 1783, 1784, 1785, 1786, 1787, 1788, 1789, 1790, 1792, 1795, 1798, 1800).
See Isaac Jackman's The Milesian: A Comic Opera. In Two Acts. (London: Printed for J. Wilkie, 1777), p. 22. <Link to ECCO>
See Isaac Jackman's The Milesian: A Comic Opera. In Two Acts. (London: Printed for J. Wilkie, 1777), p. 22. <Link to ECCO>
Date of Entry
09/14/2009
