Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE BALLAD OF MACINDOE, by PATRICK MACGILL


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE BALLAD OF MACINDOE, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Macindoe was a scotchman-had other failings, too
Last Line: But I never believed the tale.
Subject(s): Death; Hunger; Sailing & Sailors; Sea; Dead, The; Ocean


MACINDOE was a Scotchman — had other failings, too,
Unco sour and moody, hankered as Scotchmen do
After the gill almighty — bibulous MacIndoe!

Out on a steamer southward breasting a heavy swell,
The captain roared, "To the lifeboats," MacIndoe roared "To
H———,"
And stood by a whiskey barrel aboard of the Heather Bell.

Out in the teeth of the swirling, ranting, riotous sea,
The yardarms battered to larboard, the hatchways shattered to lee —
(Something like that he told me — the cook of the Buzzy Bee.)

The Bell went this way and that way, forward and back again,
Then sank on the seething billows, leaving poor Mac alane,
Perched on a whiskey barrel out on the Spanish main.

But his was a courage undaunted, courage that never could fail,
He placed himself up for a mainmast, spread out his coat for a sail,
And wondering where he was going, he drifted before the gale.

On to his slippery foothold grimly and gaunt he clung,
Till daybreak its shafts of carmine over the waters flung —
"Noo," said the thirsty sailor, "I think I'll tak' oot the bung."

But the plans o' a moose or sailor gang aften times agley,
And you'll hardly open a barrel, labour and tug as you may,
Out on the frivolous ocean in the old methodical way.

So Sandy found to his terror, and cursed his luckless star,
That poor benighted, sweating, swearing, sorrowing tar,
Who murmured loud in his anguish, "So near and yet so far."

He watched the languid ocean in leisurely wavelets roll;
The fiery sun in the heaven was scorching his very soul —
"Oh, for a raft of an iceberg, near tae the Arctic Pole."

He seated himself on his barrel and pondered on Auld Lang Syne,
Brose and bannocks and Burns, water and women and wine,
Then scooped up the waves of the ocean, and drank of the arid brine.

Below the sensuous waters, above him the heavens grim —
What was it rose for a moment ominous, vague and dim?
MacIndoe shuddered in horror — a shark was following him!

Night came dreary and darkling, he saw the cleaving fin
Of the fish draw near and nearer, ugly and fell as sin —
"God," said the shivering sailor, "such a fix to be in!"

He tore his coat to ribbons and lashed himself to his raft,
Slept, and dreamt of devils, woke from his sleep and laughed,
There was the sign of the monster slowly following aft.

The moon was up in the heavens ghastly, gibbous and wan,
But not as pale as the lonely, sorrowful, sinful mon,
Who, tied to a whiskey barrel, waited till day would dawn.

Day and the young day's blushes spread away to the rear,
The man stood up on his timbers and feared with a deadly fear,
There was the fin of the monster ever approaching near.

Opal and ruby and diamond glimmered the eastern sky,
And the waters that circled the barrel laughed to the sun on high,
"Christ!" — and the sailor shuddered, "a beautiful day to die."

He thought of the mother who bore him, he thought of the homely croft,
Where the heath of the hill was purple, the grass of the field was soft,
Then he looked to the sky above him, and thought of the God aloft.

He ventured to kneel to heaven and pray for a drop of rain,
His knees were creaking and aching, he moaned as a child in pain,
But found he forgot what the words were, and rose to his feet again.

Down in the deep below him he saw the sword fish swim,
The weird uncanny spectres rise from their caverns dim,
But one still stayed on the surface waiting he knew for him.

Morning and night and morning, light and darkness and light,
Hungry when stars were beaming, thirsty when noon was bright,
Hungry and tired and thirsty and — Heavens, a sail in sight!

They picked him up from the ocean, the grinning, gibbering Gael,
Nude as a nymph on his barrel, using his shirt for a sail —
Thus they told it to me on the Buzzy Bee,
But I never believed the tale.





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