A powerful poem that’s an even more powerful song recorded by, among others, Joan Baez, Richard Dyer-Bennet, and Stan Rogers.

Three Fishers
by Charles Kingsley (1819-1875)

Three fishers went sailing out into the West,
   Out into the West as the sun went down;
Each thought on the woman who lov’d him the best;
   And the children stood watching them out of the town;
For men must work, and women must weep,
And there’s little to earn, and many to keep,
   Though the harbour bar be moaning.

Three wives sat up in the light-house tower,
   And they trimm’d the lamps as the sun went down;
They look’d at the squall, and they look’d at the shower,
   And the night wrack came rolling up ragged and brown!
But men must work, and women must weep,
Though storms be sudden, and waters deep,
   And the harbour bar be moaning.

Three corpses lay out on the shining sands
   In the morning gleam as the tide went down,
And the women are weeping and wringing their hands
   For those who will never come back to the town;
For men must work, and women must weep,
And the sooner it’s over, the sooner to sleep—
   And good-by to the bar and its moaning.

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