Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE PIRATE, by FLORENS FOLSOM


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE PIRATE, by                    
First Line: What d'ye think I want o' stars?-risin'
Last Line: I feel them—o, I feel them a-draggin' of me down!
Subject(s): Disasters; Gold; Sailing & Sailors; Sea; Shipwrecks; Treasures; Seamen; Sails; Ocean


WHAT d'ye think I want o' stars?—risin' white above the bars
Where flood-tide is wellin' in, tellin' once again
All the wights I used to be, all the sights I used to see,
When I sailed the Ocean with my pack o' merry men
Fifty lads o' mettle
On the old Sea-Nettle;
Davy Jones's kettle is a-bilin' all my men.

Stars! When what I want o' bright is some City's roisterin' Night,
Song an' dance an' wimmin'—Life brimmin' to my lips;
Life a-swirlin' hot an' red.—Here it's gray an' cold, instead;
Naught's to do but huntin' horizon-line fer ships.
Gray an' still, an' lonely;
Fer company, me only;
Rotten crew yerself is, when you've sunk a many ships!

Old Sea-Nettle's topmast black sticks above spray's flyin' rack,
Like a finger pointin' where I'll never, never go;
Where I sent them when they sank, when I made them walk the plank,
When the bitter brine they drank, sinkin' slow below:
I sent them over, under.
Now I sort o' wonder,
Will they be waitin' for me, when I go where I must go?

They come around me thick last night, when flint an' steel had made me light,
An' o'er my driftwood fire I huddled from the cold;
They pointed at this iron chest I brought ashore —long looting's best,
The pick of all the jewels, the richest, purest gold—
Here will your plundered treasure
Procure you food or pleasure?
The gulls that haunt this island can't be cozened by Our gold!

They'll hover round you till you die; and when you do, in troops they'll fly
To pick your eyes out, Bully, your eyes that saw Us drown!
I heard Them cryin' in the night, I saw Their faces drawn an' white,—
Like when They begged fer mercy, like when They bubbled down.
I hear Them laughin', cryin',
I see Them drownin', dyin',
I feel Them—O, I feel Them a-draggin' of me down!





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