These tales full of rancorous cankering Of peevishness, jaundice, and bile, They give me a pain. I am hankering For stuff of more glamorous style. Od's bodkins; S'Death! I'm fed up upon This food, realistic and stale, I want some raw beefsteak to sup upon I want a fine swashbuckling tale, An "Up-clubs-and-bat-'em-all, Out-swords-and-at-'em-all" Tale. Hi! buckoes, tremendous and swaggering With lace at your necks and your wrists, Get busy with fencing and daggering; Come bravoes, reënter the lists. Out, rapiers flashing and shimmering To fight for some popular frail Whose eyes with enchantment are glimmering. Oh, give me a swashbuckling tale; A "Thrust-and-that's-done-for-you, Lady-I've-won-for-you" Tale. Come, pirates of bloodiest memory, With all of your murderous pack Whose hearts were much harder than emery, Whose oaths were much blacker than black. Come on, do your stuff, be unbearable, "Git hung" at the end without fail, I want to be thrilled something terrible; I long for a swashbuckling tale; An "Oh-boy, the-throes-of-it," Clinch-at-the-close-of-it Tale. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...LIBERTY FOR ALL by WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON A LETTER FROM A GIRL TO HER OWN OLD AGE by ALICE MEYNELL THE MOUNTAIN ECHO by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH THE DIRGE OF WALLACE by THOMAS CAMPBELL TOWARDS DEMOCRACY: PART 4. NOT THE ACCEPTED TIME by EDWARD CARPENTER A VOICE TO THE DYING by GEORGE HERBERT CLARKE THE ROMANCE OF A GLOVE by HENRY SAVILE CLARKE |