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...CONTRA MORTEM: THE WHEEL OF BEING II by HAYDEN CARRUTH THE EXISTING POOL by HAYDEN CARRUTH WE FACE THE FUTURE by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON BATTLEDORE AND SHUTTLECOCK by AMY LOWELL CHILD OF MY HEART by EDWIN MARKHAM |