26 A BALLAD OF JOHN SILVER

We were schooner-rigged and rakish, with a long and lissome hull,

And we flew the pretty colors of the cross-bones and the skull;

We’d a big black Jolly Roger flapping grimly at the fore,

And we sailed the Spanish Water in the happy days of yore.

We’d a long brass gun amidship, like a well-conducted ship;

We had each a brace of pistols and a cutlass at the hip;

It’s a point which tells against us, and a fact to be deplored,

But we chased the goodly merchant-men and laid their ships aboard.

Then the dead men fouled the scuppers, and the wounded filled the chains,

And the paint-work all was spatter-dashed with other people’s brains;

She was boarded, she was looted, she was scuttled till she sank,

And the pale survivors left us by the medium of the plank.

Oh! then it was (while standing by the taffrail on the poop)

We could hear the drowning folk lament the absent chicken-coop;

Then, having washed the blood away, we’d little else to do

Than to dance a quiet hornpipe as the old salts taught us to.

Oh! the fiddle on the fo’c’s’le, and the slapping naked soles,

And the genial “Down the middle, Jake, and curtsey when she rolls!”

With the silver seas around us and the pale moon overhead,

And the lookout not a-looking and his pipe-bowl glowing red.

Ah! the pig-tailed, quidding pirates and the pretty pranks we played

All have since been put a stop to by the naughty Board of Trade;

The schooners and the merry crews are laid away to rest,

A little south the sunset in the Islands of the Blest.

( John Masefield )

Biography

John Masefiel (1875-1967) is an English poet. At an early age he took to sea and for several years was a sailor. This experience furnished the basis for Salt-WaterBallads and a collection of short sea-tales. During the World War Masefield made a study for the English government of the campaign on the Gallipoli Peninsula, having taken part in the engagement there, and served in France in Red Cross work. In 1916 the poet lectured in America, arousing great interest in his poetry.

Word list

lissome : graceful

aboard : went onto

scuttled : filled with hole

salts : sailors

You Practice

Answer the following questions.

1) In this poem, who does “we” refer to?

2) What do the skull and cross-bones signify?

3) What body of water was called the Spanish water?

4) How was the ship armed?

5) How were the sailors armed and why?

6) What did they do to the merchant ships and their crews?

7) What did the pirates do to amuse themselves?

8) What are several modern inventions that have gotten rid of pirates?