A Wand'ring Minstrel I, Nanki Poo's aria from The Mikado A wand'ring minstrel I--a thing of shreds and patches, of ballads, songs, and snatches, and dreamy lullaby! My catalogue is long, through every passion ranging, and to your humours changing I tune my supple song! Are you in sentimental mood? I'll sigh with you,---Oh, sorrow, sorrow! On maiden's coldness do you brood? I'll do so, too---Oh, sorrow, sorrow! I'll charm your willing ears with songs of lover's fears, While sympathetic tears my cheeks bedew---Oh, sorrow, sorrow! But if patriotic sentiment is wanted, I've patriotic ballads cut and dried; For where'er our country's banners may be planted, all other local banners are defied! Our warriors, in serried ranks assembled, never quail--or they conceal it if they do-- and I shouldn't be surprised if nations trembled before the mighty troops of Titipu! chor: We shouldn't be surprised if nations trembled in alarm before the mighty troops of Titipu! And if you call for a song of the sea, we'll heave the capstan round, with a yeo heave ho, for the wind is free, her anchor's a-trip, and her helm's a-lee, hurrah for the homeward bound! chor: Yeo-ho----heave-ho, hurrah for the homeward bound! To lay aloft in a howling breeze may tickle a landsman's taste, but the happiest hour a sailor sees is when he's down at an inland town with his Nancy on his knees--yeo ho! and his arm around her waist! chor: Then man the capstan--off we go, as the fiddler swings us round, With a yeo heave ho, and a rumbelow, hurrah for the homeward bound! A wand'ring minstrel I--a thing of shreds and patches, of ballads, songs, and snatches, and dreamy lullaby! Lullaby!