Shells, Shells, Shells!
The song of the city of steel;
Hammer and turn, and file,
Furnace, and lathe and wheel.
Tireless machinery,
Man’s ingenuity,
Making a way for the martial devil’s meal.
Shells, Shells, Shells,
Out of the furnace blaze;
Roll, Roll, Roll,
Into the workshop’s maze.
Ruthless machinery
Boring eternally
Boring a hole for the shattering charge that stays.
Shells, Shells, Shells!
The song of the city of steel;
List to the devil’s mirth,
Hark to their laughter’s peal:
Sheffield’s machinery
Crushing humanity
Neath devil-ridden death’s impassive heel.