I'm going to be a pirate with a bright brass pivot-gun, And an island in the Spanish Main beyond the setting sun, And a silver flagon full of red wine to drink when work is done, Like a fine old salt-sea scavenger, like a tarry Bucca- neer. With a sandy creek to careen in, and a pig-tailed Spanish mate, And under my main-hatches a sparkling merry freight Of doubloons and double moidores and pieces of eight, Like a line old salt-sea scavenger, like a tarry Buc- caneer. With a taste for Spanish wine-shops and for spending my doubloons, And a crew of swart mulattoes and black-eyed octo- roons, And a thoughtful way with mutineers of making them maroons, Like a fine old salt-sea scavenger, like a tarry Bucca- neer. With a sash of crimson velvet and a diamond-hilted sword, And a silver whistle about my neck secured to a golden cord, And a habit of taking captives and walking them along a board, Like a fine old salt-sea scavenger, like a tarry Bucca- neer. With a spy-glass tucked beneath my arm and a cocked hat cocked askew, And a long low rakish schooner a-cutting of the waves in two, And a flag of skull and cross-bones the wickedest that ever flew, Like a fine old salt-sea scavenger, like a tarry Bucca- neer. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE BOSTON ATHENAEUM by AMY LOWELL SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: ELMER BARR by EDGAR LEE MASTERS THE INEBRIATE by RICHARD HARRIS BARHAM THE CENTENARIAN'S STORY by WALT WHITMAN DESTINY by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH THE BRIDE'S TRAGEDY by THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES |