Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, OLD COMMODORE, by ANONYMOUS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

OLD COMMODORE, by                    
First Line: Od's blood! What a time for a seaman to skulk
Last Line: "shall kill, till they grapple him at sea"
Subject(s): Death;sailing & Sailors;sea; "dead, The;ocean;


Od's blood! what a time for a seaman to skulk
Under gingerbread hatches ashore,
What a d----- bad job that this batter'd old hulk
Can't be rigg'd out for sea any more;
But the puppies as they pass,
Cocking up their squinting glass,
Thus run down the old commodore;
That's the old commodore,
The run old commodore,
The gouty old commodore -- he
Whom the bullets and the gout
Have so knock'd his hull about,
That he'll never more be fit for sea.

* * *

What! no more to be afloat! blood and fury, they lie,
I'm a seaman, and only three score;
And if, as they tell me, I'm likely to die,
Gadzooks! let me not die ashore.
As to death it's all a joke,
Sailors live in fire and smoke,
So, at least, says the old commodore;
The fighting old commodore -- he
Whom the bullets nor the gout,
Nor the French dogs to boot,
Shall kill, till they grapple him at sea.





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