Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE GREAT EXPLORER by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY

Poet Analysis

First Line: HE SAILED O'ER THE WELTERY WATERY
Last Line: OF THE KINKABLE CANNIBAL ISLES.
Subject(s): EXPLORERS; ISLANDS; SAILING & SAILORS; EXPLORING; DISCOVERY; DISCOVERERS;
HE sailed o'er the weltery watery miles
For a tabular year-and-a-day,
To the kindless, kinkable Cannibal Isles
He sailed and he sailed away!
He captured a loon in a wild lagoon,
And a yak that weeps and smiles,
And a bustard-bird, and a blue baboon,
In the kindless Cannibal Isles
And wilds
Of the kinkable Cannibal Isles.

He swiped in bats with his butterflynet,
In the kindless Cannibal Isles
And got short-waisted and over-het
In the haunts of the crocodiles;
And nine or ten little Pigmy Men
Of the quaintest shapes and styles
He shipped back home to his old Aunt Jenn,
From the kindless Cannibal Isles
And wilds
Of the kinkable Cannibal Isles.



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