We were schooner-rigged and rakish,
with a long and lissome hull,
And we flew the pretty colours of the crossbones and the skull;
We'd a big black Jolly Roger flapping grimly at the fore,
...
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Words give a graphic description of baser pirate days of the wood sail, cutlass, brains and blood. Then the circle of joy over the booty.
This is wonderfully-made poem. You can see the the retired old pirate over his grog at an Inn from which he can see the ocean on which he was once such a terror regretting the passing of his exciting, if blood-soaked and nefarious, life.
na na NA na na na NA na na na NA na na na Na...It's a wonderful ballad, with an enjoyable rythm and an interesting content. This really deserves to be the poem of the day. And the pirate life aboard the ship is really described as a LIFE! Wooo! A great thumbs-up to you Ser!
Who minds a good romp and a lusty battle fought to the death on the high seas with the sun overhead and the blue seas rolling? There's no time for sentimental musing in piracy, nor for genteel regret on any good pig-tailed pirate's part, Silver suggests. The lissome-hulled schooners and merry crews are at rest now in the sacred islands of the Blest, so do not grieve for the days long gone! Masefield has written a merry ballad of a carefree life of ships and men under the big black Jolly Roger! A man after my own heart, Masefield was a poet, dramatist, and novelist of some renown. If you get a chance to read 'Sea Fever' and 'Cargoes, ' you'll get my point!
This poem is very funny with the lookout not looking but it is also realistic with the brains of the men spattered everywhere. I think that John Silver does not mind at all apart from the messy paintwork and having to clean it up, I'd hate to think what the pretty pranks they played were.
a masefield poem by john masefield. i couldnt put this all in better words.