John Joy Bell
John Joy Bell Poems
For many years I've watched the ships a-sailing to and fro,
The mighty ships, the little ships, the speedy and the slow:
...
I’d rather be a cyclist
Than any other beast,
For thou he slays but never stays
Upon the slain to feast.
...
'Nearly home, nearly home!' says the screw that whips the foam,
And the engine is a-throbbing like a heart,
...
I've never traveled for more'n a day,
I never was one to roam,
But I likes to sit on the busy quay,
...
One afternoon when the sun was hot
I takes a snooze on the quay;
An' a kink in my neck I must ha' got,
...
A rare good life I've surely had
In fifty year at sea;
A finer life, I tells ye, lad,
I don't believe could be,
...
Glad folk and sad folk, rich folk and poor,
Folk that doubt if they'll come back and folk that whisper 'sure!'
...
John Joy Bell Biography
John Joy Bell (1871–1934 ), known professionally as J J Bell, was a journalist and author. Born in Hillhead, Glasgow, Bell was schooled at Kelvinside Academy and Morrison's Academy. He attended the University of Glasgow, where he studied chemistry. After becoming a journalist, Bell worked for the Glasgow Evening Times, and as sub-editor of the Scots Pictorial. His articles described the life of working-class Glaswegians, and were often written in the vernacular. He created the character of 'MacGreegor' for his Evening Times articles, and the stories were so popular that they were published in book form, and later made into a film. Bell has often been criticised for being overly sentimental, however it is also said that his vernacular was accurately representative, which is partly what made them popular. During recent years though, Bell's books are increasingly neglected.)
The Best Poem Of John Joy Bell
The Ships
For many years I've watched the ships a-sailing to and fro,
The mighty ships, the little ships, the speedy and the slow:
And many a time I've told myself that someday I would go
Around the world that is so full of wonders.
The swift and stately liners, how they run without a rest!
The great three-masters, they have touched the East and told the West!
The monster burden-bearers - oh, they all have plunged and pressed
Around the world that is so full of wonders.
The cruiser and the battleship that loom as dark as doubt,
The devilish destroyer and the hateful hideous scout -
These deadly things may also rush, with roar and snarl and shout,
Around the world that is so full of wonders.
My lord he owns a grand white yacht, most beautiful and fine,
But seldom does she leave the firth lest he should fail to dine.
I'd find a thousand richer feasts than his - if she were mine -
Around the world that is so full of wonders.
The shabby tramp that like a wedge is hammered through the seas,
The little brown-sailed brigantine that traps the slightest breeze -
Oh, I'd be well content to fare aboard the least of these
Around the world that is so full of wonders.
The things I've heard, the things I've read, the things I've dreamed might be,
The boyish tales, the old men's yarns, they will not pass from me.
I've heard, I've read, I've dreamed - - - - But all the time I've longed to see -
Around the world that is so full of wonders.
So year by year watched the ships a-sailing to and fro,
The ships that come as strangers and the ships I've learned to know.
Folk smile to hear an old man say that someday he will go
Around the world that is so full of wonders.
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