The Countess of Jersey, of Fowey

 

By Lieutenant Sivori Antonio Joachim LEVEY. 19/4/1918

 

The Countess of Jersey’s a smart little thing,

She’s an up-to-date lady, so agile and smart;

She chaperones many: she has a good heart;

And likes taking new charges under her wing.

 
She sails along brightly and gracefully, too;

Though when she’s excited she gives a little spurt;

All the vessels that follow clutch hold of her skirts,

And they do what the Countess declares they must do.

 
You can hear her heart beating with trepidant joy;

She’s had many a “flutter” as gossips will tell:

There was one time when she h’anchored after some swell;

And another when she was attached to a buoy.

 
A Society leader, the Countess, you’ll find;

Who has many followers; and you may be sure

And if I’m not mistaken, she’ll have many more.

She smokes-for the Countess is that way inclined.

 

All vessels her vassals,-she keeps them in tow;

She has, as it were, all the  lot on a string,

And she puff in her pride, but she has a good fling,

Though she’s always the “Countess” she’d have you to know.

 

A mere buoy attachment- oh! hobble de hoy!

And h’anchoring after the swells- and such airs!

But she greets all remarks with deserv’d haughty stares,

Seeing she is the Countess of Jersey, of Fowey.

 

Soft feathery ripples she wears in her train,

But when she gets tied to her moorings she’ll stay;

There’s a strong tie of friendship between them, they say,

And she likes to be near them, in sunshine or rain.

 

With her off with the old love and on with the new,

With her flightiness-hardly at home-mostly out-

And because of the way she keeps gadding about-

Don’t think that she frivols,- she’s really true blue.

 

Then here’s to the Countess,-Good luck and much joy;

Let’s say what we all say in Flanders and France,

Tout a vous-Too de sweet-Tootle-oo­-and Bon Chance-

To the Delectable Countess of Jersey, of Fowey.


Sivori Antonio Joachim Levey (1879–1924) was a Lieutenant in The Prince of Wales's Own (13th West Yorkshire Regiment).

He was a pianist, composer, poet and arranger of musical recitals and dramatic plays, he also published commentaries on Shakespeare and Browning.

During the war he wrote “The duck board”,Britishers! And Other Songs for the War : Mr. Sivori Levey's Sixpenny Booklets of Verse, No. 8  After the war re wrote ROEHAMPTON RHYMES in which he reflects on losing his leg and the wooden replacement.

He composed Selections of a Dover House Revue. Words written and music and wrote the song “He met her on the stairs”

He was presumably convalescing in Fowey from his injuries where he wrote “Flanders to Fowey verses of Active service, hospital and convalescence by a wounded warrior” in 1917