The Admiral's Ghost Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABAB CDCD EFAF GHCH CIJI KLML NCCC OPAP QRJR SKTK CFUF VWXW CY Y CZA2 CKAB2 CC2CD2 E2WC F2B2CB2 G2FCF H2AI2 J2B2K2B2 DZL2Z WC CB2MB2 CM2N2M2 B2ACA CWO2W P2IJI tell you a tale to night | A |
Which a seaman told to me | B |
With eyes that gleamed in the lanthorn light | A |
And a voice as low as the sea | B |
- | |
You could almost hear the stars | C |
Twinkling up in the sky | D |
And the old wind woke and moaned in the spars | C |
And the same old waves went by | D |
- | |
Singing the same old song | E |
As ages and ages ago | F |
While he froze my blood in that deep sea night | A |
With the things he seemed to know | F |
- | |
A bare foot pattered on deck | G |
Ropes creaked then all grew still | H |
And he pointed his finger straight in my face | C |
And growled as a sea dog will | H |
- | |
'Do 'ee know who Nelson was | C |
That pore little shrivelled form | I |
With the patch on his eye and the pinned up sleeve | J |
And a soul like a North Sea storm | I |
- | |
'Ask of the Devonshire men | K |
They know and they'll tell you true | L |
He wasn't the pore little chawed up chap | M |
That Hardy thought he knew | L |
- | |
'He wasn't the man you think | N |
His patch was a dern disguise | C |
For he knew that they'd find him out d'you see | C |
If they looked him in both his eyes | C |
- | |
'He was twice as big as he seemed | O |
But his clothes were cunningly made | P |
He'd both of his hairy arms alright | A |
The sleeve was a trick of the trade | P |
- | |
'You've heard of sperrits no doubt | Q |
Well there's more in the matter than that | R |
But he wasn't the patch and he wasn't the sleeve | J |
And he wasn't the laced cocked hat | R |
- | |
'Nelson was just a Ghost | S |
You may laugh But the Devonshire men | K |
They knew that he'd come when England called | T |
And they know that he'll come again | K |
- | |
'I'll tell you the way it was | C |
For none of the landsmen know | F |
And to tell it you right you must go a starn | U |
Two hundred years or so | F |
- | |
- | |
- | |
'The waves were lapping and slapping | V |
The same as they are today | W |
And Drake lay dying aboard his ship | X |
In Nobre Dios Bay | W |
- | |
'The scent of foreign flowers | C |
Came floating all around | Y |
'But I'd give my soul for the smell o' the pitch ' | - |
Says he 'in Plymouth Sound | Y |
- | |
''What shall I do ' he says | C |
'When the guns begin to roar | Z |
An' England wants me and me not there | A2 |
To shatter 'er fores once more ' | - |
- | |
' You've heard what he said maybe | C |
But I'll mark you the p'ints again | K |
For I want you to box your compass right | A |
And get my story plain | B2 |
- | |
' 'You must take my drum' he says | C |
'To the old sea wall at home | C2 |
And if ever you strike that drum ' he says | C |
'Why strike me blind I'll come | D2 |
- | |
''If England needs me dead | E2 |
Or living I'll rise that day | W |
I'll rise from the darkness under the sea | C |
Ten thousand miles away ' | - |
- | |
'That's what he said and he died | F2 |
An' his pirates listenin' roun' | B2 |
With their crimson doublets and jewelled swords | C |
That flashed as the sun went down | B2 |
- | |
'They sewed him up in his shroud | G2 |
With a round shot top and toe | F |
To sink him under the salt sharp sea | C |
Where all good seamen go | F |
- | |
'They lowered him down in the deep | H2 |
And there in the sunset light | A |
They boomed a broadside over his grave | I2 |
As meaning to say 'Good night ' | - |
- | |
'They sailed away in the dark | J2 |
To the dear little isle they knew | B2 |
And they hung his drum by the old sea wall | K2 |
The same as he told them to | B2 |
- | |
- | |
- | |
'Two hundred years went by | D |
And the guns began to roar | Z |
And England was fighting hard for her life | L2 |
As ever she fought of yore | Z |
- | |
''It's only my dead that count ' | - |
She said as she says today | W |
'It isn't the ships and it isn't the guns | C |
'Ull sweep Trafalgar's Bay ' | - |
- | |
'D'you guess who Nelson was | C |
You may laugh but it's true as true | B2 |
There was more in that pore little chawed up chap | M |
Than ever his best friend knew | B2 |
- | |
'The foe was creepin' close | C |
In the dark to our white cliffed isle | M2 |
They were ready to leap at England's throat | N2 |
When O you may smile you may smile | M2 |
- | |
'But ask of the Devenshire men | B2 |
For they heard in the dead of night | A |
The roll of a drum and they saw him pass | C |
On a ship all shining white | A |
- | |
'He stretched out his dead cold face | C |
And he sailed in the grand old way | W |
The fishes had taken an eye and his arm | O2 |
But he swept Trafalgar's Bay | W |
- | |
'Nelson was Francis Drake | P2 |
O what matters the uniform | I |
Or the patch on your eye or your pinned up sleeve | J |
If your soul's like a North Sea storm ' | - |
Alfred Noyes
(1)
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