"Old Admirals" by Al Stewart, from Past, Present, and Future (1973)
"Old Admirals"‹"That's my favourite on the album [Past, Present, and Future]. I'd read an early two-volume biography about Admiral Sir John Fisher titled The Life of Lord Fisher, and the song traces his story.
"He was Britain's first Sea Lord, the man most instrumental in bringing in the dread-noughts prior to Word War I, and therefore responsible for the modern British navy. He resigned in 1915, during World War I after a dispute with [Winston] Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty, over how the Admiralty was being run.
"The story's poignancy comes in after Fisher's resignation. He knew more about the British navy than anyone [else]. He was very headstrong, and no doubt suffered through his enforced retirement realizing that he could have prosecuted the war more successfully than his successors. But he was never called back into service.
"The line in the song‹'Old Admirals that feel the wind and never put to sea': I had this image that whenever a breeze lifted and blew across his veranda, Lord Fisher would be standing there looking out over the sea, wishing he were on deck again. He was an exceptionally interesting guy, and probably at least 20 years ahead of his time."‹Al Stewart (1973).
I can well recall the first time I ever put to sea:
'Twas on the old Calcutta in 1853;
I was just a lad of fourteen years, a midshipman to be,
To make my way in sailing ships of the Royal Navy.4
By the time that I was twenty-one I'd sailed the world around,
And weathered storms in the China Sea with the hatches battened down,
And made my way by starlight off the coast of Newfoundland,
And dined on beer and herrings while the waves blew all around.8
I live in retirement now; and through my window comes the sound
Of seagulls, and sets my mind remembering;
The evening stars like memories
Sail far beyond the distant trees.
Way out across the open seas I hear them sing . . . .13
Oh, the wooden ships, they turned to iron, and the iron ships to steel,
And shed their sails like autumn leaves with the turning of the wheel.
And I was given captain's rank: soon to come to me
The proudest ship that ever sailed for Queen and country.17
Ah, the old Queen, she passed away with the new-born century,
And I received my calling up to the Admiralty.
Sands ran through the hour-glass each day more rapidly
As we watched the growing of the fleets of high Germany.21
So, at last, the Great War blazed.
I waited with the passing days
The call to arms that never came, writing letters . . . .24
I may be old now in your eyes,
But all my years have made me wise.[over.]
You don't see where the danger lies--
Oh, call me back, call me back!28
But the war, it ran its course; they could find no use for me.
And I live in the country now, grandchildren on my knee.
And sometimes thinking of this world, the saddest thing to be:
Old Admirals who feel the wind and never put to sea.32
Now, just like you I've sailed my dreams like ships across the sea.
And some of them, they come on rocks, and some face mutiny.
And when they're sunken, one by one, I'll join that company,
Old Admirals that feel the wind, and never put to sea.36
Questions
1. What narrative point-of-view does Al Stewart use here? How is it different from that which Joseph Conrad uses in "The Inn of the Two Witches"?
2. What is the poem's basic rhyme scheme?
3. Why does Stewart wander from this set rhyme scheme?
4. The song's theme focuses not so much on "old admirals" as "old people"‹
what point about the younger generation's attitude towards old people is Al
Stewart trying to make?
5. Why does Stewart compare the ship's sails to autumn leaves?
6. Who is "the old Queen" mentioned in this song?
7. What clues enable us to date the narrative?
8. What is the song's chief geographical setting?
9. Why is the verb "blazed" particularly effective in line 22?
10. Given the geographical and chronological setting, where does the old admiral feel the "danger" lies?
11. How is the phrase "the proudest ship" both a transferred epithet and
personification?
12. How does Stewart create an effective contrast in lines 6-8?
13. What is particularly effective in the imagery of lines 11-13?
14. Why should "Old Admirals" be classified as a lyric rather than a narrative?
15. What is the significance of the musical refrain?