The Island - Canto The Second. Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: A BCDEFEEEGGHIBBCCJKBB A LLMMNNOOPPBBQRSPTTOB EEEEOOEEUUII A VVEEFPWOXXEE O YYZZEEBBOOA2A2OB2 O C2C2BBOOD2E2OOEEF2PG 2G2NNEEH2H2EE O H2H2COI2I2OOJ2J2EEE2 E2H2OOOOO O OOI2I2K2K2H2H2L2L2XX PPOOOOH2L2H2H2OOH2H2 OOH2H2L2L2OOH2H2B2B2 L2L2 O OOH2H2OO I2I2H2H2E2M2H2H2M2M2 OON2N2PPOOCCCI2I2OOO O H2 OOI2I2J2OOOI2OO2E2F2 P2CO H2 H2H2H2H2OOO2O2I2I2I2 I2H2H2OOHOB2B2PPXXOO O OOOOH2H2I2I2OOI2I2OO H2H2H2H2OOOOH2H2H2H2 OOH2H2H2H2OO H2 M2M2Q2Q2H2H2OOOOH2H2 OOXXL2L2J2J2OOOOO2O2 H2 M2M2J2J2L2L2L2L2OOOO OOOOOOOOH2H2I2I2H2H2 OOPPH2H2L2L2 O OOOOOOJ2J2I2I2OOOO O O2E2I2I2OOOOOOE2E2L2 L2XXOOOOH2H2OO O OOOOOOOOI2OL2L2OOH2H 2H2H2H2H2O2O2OOOOOO O E2E2H2H2I2I2OOL2L2XX OOOOPP O H2H2L2L2OOI2I2L2L2OO L2L2L2OOO H2 R2R2L2L2 OOL2L2OOH2H2M2E2OOH2 H2OOS2S2H2H2S2Q2 H2 OOOOS2S2Q2Q2I2I2H2H2 OOI2I2OOOOOOOOH2H2ZZ OOT2T2E2M2OOOOOO H2 OOOHOOCCOOL2L2OOOOH2 H2OOH2H2M2M2L2L2OOHH H2H2

I	A
	-
How pleasant were the songs of Toobonai	B
When Summer's Sun went down the coral bay	C
Come let us to the islet's softest shade	D
And hear the warbling birds the damsels said	E
The wood dove from the forest depth shall coo	F
Like voices of the Gods from Bolotoo	E
We'll cull the flowers that grow above the dead	E
For these most bloom where rests the warrior's head	E
And we will sit in Twilight's face and see	G
The sweet Moon glancing through the Tooa tree	G
The lofty accents of whose sighing bough	H
Shall sadly please us as we lean below	I
Or climb the steep and view the surf in vain	B
Wrestle with rocky giants o'er the main	B
Which spurn in columns back the baffled spray	C
How beautiful are these how happy they	C
Who from the toil and tumult of their lives	J
Steal to look down where nought but Ocean strives	K
Even He too loves at times the blue lagoon	B
And smooths his ruffled mane beneath the Moon	B
	-
	-
II	A
	-
Yes from the sepulchre we'll gather flowers	L
Then feast like spirits in their promised bowers	L
Then plunge and revel in the rolling surf	M
Then lay our limbs along the tender turf	M
And wet and shining from the sportive toil	N
Anoint our bodies with the fragrant oil	N
And plait our garlands gathered from the grave	O
And wear the wreaths that sprung from out the brave	O
But lo night comes the Mooa woos us back	P
The sound of mats are heard along our track	P
Anon the torchlight dance shall fling its sheen	B
In flashing mazes o'er the Marly's green	B
And we too will be there we too recall	Q
The memory bright with many a festival	R
Ere Fiji blew the shell of war when foes	S
For the first time were wafted in canoes fg	P
Alas for them the flower of manhood bleeds	T
Alas for them our fields are rank with weeds	T
Forgotten is the rapture or unknown fh	O
Of wandering with the Moon and Love alone	B
But be it so they taught us how to wield	E
The club and rain our arrows o'er the field	E
Now let them reap the harvest of their art	E
But feast to night to morrow we depart	E
Strike up the dance the Cava bowl fill high	O
Drain every drop to morrow we may die	O
In summer garments be our limbs arrayed	E
Around our waists the Tappa's white displayed	E
Thick wreaths shall form our coronal like Spring's	U
And round our necks shall glance the Hooni strings	U
So shall their brighter hues contrast the glow	I
Of the dusk bosoms that beat high below	I
	-
	-
III	A
	-
But now the dance is o'er yet stay awhile	V
Ah pause nor yet put out the social smile	V
To morrow for the Mooa we depart	E
But not to night to night is for the heart	E
Again bestow the wreaths we gently woo	F
Ye young Enchantresses of gay Licoo	P
How lovely are your forms how every sense	W
Bows to your beauties softened but intense fi	O
Like to the flowers on Mataloco's steep	X
Which fling their fragrance far athwart the deep	X
We too will see Licoo but oh my heart	E
What do I say to morrow we depart	E
	-
	-
IV	O
	-
Thus rose a song the harmony of times	Y
Before the winds blew Europe o'er these climes	Y
True they had vices such are Nature's growth	Z
But only the barbarian's we have both	Z
The sordor of civilisation mixed	E
With all the savage which Man's fall hath fixed	E
Who hath not seen Dissimulation's reign	B
The prayers of Abel linked to deeds of Cain	B
Who such would see may from his lattice view	O
The Old World more degraded than the New	O
Now new no more save where Columbia rears	A2
Twin giants born by Freedom to her spheres	A2
Where Chimborazo over air earth wave	O
Glares with his Titan eye and sees no slave fj	B2
	-
	-
V	O
	-
Such was this ditty of Tradition's days	C2
Which to the dead a lingering fame conveys	C2
In song where Fame as yet hath left no sign	B
Beyond the sound whose charm is half divine	B
Which leaves no record to the sceptic eye	O
But yields young History all to Harmony	O
A boy Achilles with the Centaur's lyre	D2
In hand to teach him to surpass his sire	E2
For one long cherished ballad's simple stave	O
Rung from the rock or mingled with the wave	O
Or from the bubbling streamlet's grassy side	E
Or gathering mountain echoes as they glide	E
Hath greater power o'er each true heart and ear	F2
Than all the columns Conquest's minions rear fk	P
Invites when Hieroglyphics are a theme	G2
For sages' labours or the student's dream	G2
Attracts when History's volumes are a toil	N
The first the freshest bud of Feeling's soil	N
Such was this rude rhyme rhyme is of the rude	E
But such inspired the Norseman's solitude	E
Who came and conquered such wherever rise	H2
Lands which no foes destroy or civilise	H2
Exist and what can our accomplished art	E
Of verse do more than reach the awakened heart	E
	-
	-
VI	O
	-
And sweetly now those untaught melodies	H2
Broke the luxurious silence of the skies	H2
The sweet siesta of a summer day	C
The tropic afternoon of Toobonai	O
When every flower was bloom and air was balm	I2
And the first breath began to stir the palm	I2
The first yet voiceless wind to urge the wave	O
All gently to refresh the thirsty cave	O
Where sat the Songstress with the stranger boy	J2
Who taught her Passion's desolating joy	J2
Too powerful over every heart but most	E
O'er those who know not how it may be lost	E
O'er those who burning in the new born fire	E2
Like martyrs revel in their funeral pyre	E2
With such devotion to their ecstacy	H2
That Life knows no such rapture as to die	O
And die they do for earthly life has nought	O
Matched with that burst of Nature even in thought	O
And all our dreams of better life above	O
But close in one eternal gush of Love	O
	-
	-
VII	O
	-
There sat the gentle savage of the wild	O
In growth a woman though in years a child	O
As childhood dates within our colder clime	I2
Where nought is ripened rapidly save crime	I2
The infant of an infant world as pure	K2
From Nature lovely warm and premature	K2
Dusky like night but night with all her stars	H2
Or cavern sparkling with its native spars	H2
With eyes that were a language and a spell	L2
A form like Aphrodite's in her shell	L2
With all her loves around her on the deep	X
Voluptuous as the first approach of sleep	X
Yet full of life for through her tropic cheek	P
The blush would make its way and all but speak	P
The sun born blood suffused her neck and threw	O
O'er her clear nut brown skin a lucid hue	O
Like coral reddening through the darkened wave	O
Which draws the diver to the crimson cave	O
Such was this daughter of the southern seas	H2
Herself a billow in her energies fl	L2
To bear the bark of others' happiness	H2
Nor feel a sorrow till their joy grew less	H2
Her wild and warm yet faithful bosom knew	O
No joy like what it gave her hopes ne'er drew	O
Aught from Experience that chill touchstone whose	H2
Sad proof reduces all things from their hues	H2
She feared no ill because she knew it not	O
Or what she knew was soon too soon forgot	O
Her smiles and tears had passed as light winds pass	H2
O'er lakes to ruffle not destroy their glass	H2
Whose depths unsearched and fountains from the hill	L2
Restore their surface in itself so still	L2
Until the Earthquake tear the Naiad's cave	O
Root up the spring and trample on the wave	O
And crush the living waters to a mass	H2
The amphibious desert of the dank morass	H2
And must their fate be hers The eternal change	B2
But grasps Humanity with quicker range	B2
And they who fall but fall as worlds will fall	L2
To rise if just a Spirit o'er them all	L2
	-
	-
VIII	O
	-
And who is he the blue eyed northern child	O
Of isles more known to man but scarce less wild	O
The fair haired offspring of the Hebrides	H2
Where roars the Pentland with its whirling seas	H2
Rocked in his cradle by the roaring wind	O
The tempest born in body and in mind	O
	-
His young eyes opening on the ocean foam	I2
Had from that moment deemed the deep his home	I2
The giant comrade of his pensive moods	H2
The sharer of his craggy solitudes	H2
The only Mentor of his youth where'er	E2
His bark was borne the sport of wave and air	M2
A careless thing who placed his choice in chance	H2
Nursed by the legends of his land's romance	H2
Eager to hope but not less firm to bear	M2
Acquainted with all feelings save despair	M2
Placed in the Arab's clime he would have been	O
As bold a rover as the sands have seen	O
And braved their thirst with as enduring lip	N2
As Ishmael wafted on his Desert Ship	N2
Fixed upon Chili's shore a proud cacique	P
On Hellas' mountains a rebellious Greek	P
Born in a tent perhaps a Tamerlane	O
Bred to a throne perhaps unfit to reign	O
For the same soul that rends its path to sway	C
If reared to such can find no further prey	C
Beyond itself and must retrace its way	C
Plunging for pleasure into pain the same	I2
Spirit which made a Nero Rome's worst shame	I2
A humbler state and discipline of heart	O
Had formed his glorious namesake's counterpart	O
But grant his vices grant them all his own	O
How small their theatre without a throne	O
	-
	-
IX	H2
	-
Thou smilest these comparisons seem high	O
To those who scan all things with dazzled eye	O
Linked with the unknown name of one whose doom	I2
Has nought to do with glory or with Rome	I2
With Chili Hellas or with Araby	J2
Thou smilest Smile 'tis better thus than sigh	O
Yet such he might have been he was a man	O
A soaring spirit ever in the van	O
A patriot hero or despotic chief fm	I2
To form a nation's glory or its grief	O
Born under auspices which make us more	O2
Or less than we delight to ponder o'er	E2
But these are visions say what was he here	F2
A blooming boy a truant mutineer	P2
The fair haired Torquil free as Ocean's spray	C
The husband of the bride of Toobonai	O
	-
	-
X	H2
	-
By Neuha's side he sate and watched the waters	H2
Neuha the sun flower of the island daughters	H2
Highborn a birth at which the herald smiles	H2
Without a scutcheon for these secret isles	H2
Of a long race the valiant and the free	O
The naked knights of savage chivalry	O
Whose grassy cairns ascend along the shore	O2
And thine I've seen Achilles do no more	O2
She when the thunder bearing strangers came	I2
In vast canoes begirt with bolts of flame	I2
Topped with tall trees which loftier than the palm	I2
Seemed rooted in the deep amidst its calm	I2
But when the winds awakened shot forth wings	H2
Broad as the cloud along the horizon flings	H2
And swayed the waves like cities of the sea	O
Making the very billows look less free	O
She with her paddling oar and dancing prow	H
Shot through the surf like reindeer through the snow	O
Swift gliding o'er the breaker's whitening edge	B2
Light as a Nereid in her ocean sledge	B2
And gazed and wondered at the giant hulk	P
Which heaved from wave to wave its trampling bulk	P
The anchor dropped it lay along the deep	X
Like a huge lion in the sun asleep	X
While round it swarmed the Proas' flitting chain	O
Like summer bees that hum around his mane	O
	-
	-
XI	O
	-
The white man landed need the rest be told	O
The New World stretched its dusk hand to the Old	O
Each was to each a marvel and the tie	O
Of wonder warmed to better sympathy	O
Kind was the welcome of the sun born sires	H2
And kinder still their daughters' gentler fires	H2
Their union grew the children of the storm	I2
Found beauty linked with many a dusky form	I2
While these in turn admired the paler glow	O
Which seemed so white in climes that knew no snow	O
The chace the race the liberty to roam	I2
The soil where every cottage showed a home	I2
The sea spread net the lightly launched canoe	O
Which stemmed the studded archipelago	O
O'er whose blue bosom rose the starry isles	H2
The healthy slumber earned by sportive toils	H2
The palm the loftiest Dryad of the woods	H2
Within whose bosom infant Bacchus broods	H2
While eagles scarce build higher than the crest	O
Which shadows o'er the vineyard in her breast	O
The Cava feast the Yam the Cocoa's root	O
Which bears at once the cup and milk and fruit	O
The Bread tree which without the ploughshare yields	H2
The unreaped harvest of unfurrowed fields	H2
And bakes its unadulterated loaves	H2
Without a furnace in unpurchased groves	H2
And flings off famine from its fertile breast	O
A priceless market for the gathering guest	O
These with the luxuries of seas and woods	H2
The airy joys of social solitudes	H2
Tamed each rude wanderer to the sympathies	H2
Of those who were more happy if less wise	H2
Did more than Europe's discipline had done	O
And civilised Civilisation's son	O
	-
	-
XII	H2
	-
Of these and there was many a willing pair	M2
Neuha and Torquil were not the least fair	M2
Both children of the isles though distant far	Q2
Both born beneath a sea presiding star	Q2
Both nourished amidst Nature's native scenes	H2
Loved to the last whatever intervenes	H2
Between us and our Childhood's sympathy	O
Which still reverts to what first caught the eye	O
He who first met the Highlands' swelling blue	O
Will love each peak that shows a kindred hue	O
Hail in each crag a friend's familiar face	H2
And clasp the mountain in his Mind's embrace	H2
Long have I roamed through lands which are not mine	O
Adored the Alp and loved the Apennine	O
Revered Parnassus and beheld the steep	X
Jove's Ida and Olympus crown the deep	X
But 'twas not all long ages' lore nor all	L2
Their nature held me in their thrilling thrall	L2
The infant rapture still survived the boy	J2
And Loch na gar with Ida looked o'er Troy	J2
Mixed Celtic memories with the Phrygian mount	O
And Highland linns with Castalie's clear fount	O
Forgive me Homer's universal shade	O
Forgive me Ph oe bus that my fancy strayed	O
The North and Nature taught me to adore	O2
Your scenes sublime from those beloved before	O2
	-
	-
XIII	H2
	-
The love which maketh all things fond and fair	M2
The youth which makes one rainbow of the air	M2
The dangers past that make even Man enjoy	J2
The pause in which he ceases to destroy	J2
The mutual beauty which the sternest feel	L2
Strike to their hearts like lightning to the steel	L2
United the half savage and the whole	L2
The maid and boy in one absorbing soul	L2
No more the thundering memory of the fight	O
Wrapped his weaned bosom in its dark delight	O
No more the irksome restlessness of Rest	O
Disturbed him like the eagle in her nest	O
Whose whetted beak and far pervading eye	O
Darts for a victim over all the sky	O
His heart was tamed to that voluptuous state	O
At once Elysian and effeminate	O
Which leaves no laurels o'er the Hero's urn	O
These wither when for aught save blood they burn	O
Yet when their ashes in their nook are laid	O
Doth not the myrtle leave as sweet a shade	O
Had C sar known but Cleopatra's kiss	H2
Rome had been free the world had not been his	H2
And what have C sar's deeds and C sar's fame	I2
Done for the earth We feel them in our shame	I2
The gory sanction of his Glory stains	H2
The rust which tyrants cherish on our chains	H2
Though Glory Nature Reason Freedom bid	O
Roused millions do what single Brutus did	O
Sweep these mere mock birds of the Despot's song	P
From the tall bough where they have perched so long	P
Still are we hawked at by such mousing owls	H2
And take for falcons those ignoble fowls	H2
When but a word of freedom would dispel	L2
These bugbears as their terrors show too well	L2
	-
	-
XIV	O
	-
Rapt in the fond forgetfulness of life	O
Neuha the South Sea girl was all a wife	O
With no distracting world to call her off	O
From Love with no Society to scoff	O
At the new transient flame no babbling crowd	O
Of coxcombry in admiration loud	O
Or with adulterous whisper to alloy	J2
Her duty and her glory and her joy	J2
With faith and feelings naked as her form	I2
She stood as stands a rainbow in a storm	I2
Changing its hues with bright variety	O
But still expanding lovelier o'er the sky	O
Howe'er its arch may swell its colours move	O
The cloud compelling harbinger of Love	O
	-
	-
XV	O
	-
Here in this grotto of the wave worn shore	O2
They passed the Tropic's red meridian o'er	E2
Nor long the hours they never paused o'er time	I2
Unbroken by the clock's funereal chime	I2
Which deals the daily pittance of our span	O
And points and mocks with iron laugh at man fn	O
What deemed they of the future or the past	O
The present like a tyrant held them fast	O
Their hour glass was the sea sand and the tide	O
Like her smooth billow saw their moments glide	O
Their clock the Sun in his unbounded tower	E2
They reckoned not whose day was but an hour	E2
The nightingale their only vesper bell	L2
Sung sweetly to the rose the day's farewell	L2
The broad Sun set but not with lingering sweep	X
As in the North he mellows o'er the deep	X
But fiery full and fierce as if he left	O
The World for ever earth of light bereft	O
Plunged with red forehead down along the wave	O
As dives a hero headlong to his grave	O
Then rose they looking first along the skies	H2
And then for light into each other's eyes	H2
Wondering that Summer showed so brief a sun	O
And asking if indeed the day were done	O
	-
	-
XVI	O
	-
And let not this seem strange the devotee	O
Lives not in earth but in his ecstasy	O
Around him days and worlds are heedless driven	O
His Soul is gone before his dust to Heaven	O
Is Love less potent No his path is trod	O
Alike uplifted gloriously to God	O
Or linked to all we know of Heaven below	O
The other better self whose joy or woe	O
Is more than ours the all absorbing flame	I2
Which kindled by another grows the same fo	O
Wrapt in one blaze the pure yet funeral pile	L2
Where gentle hearts like Bramins sit and smile	L2
How often we forget all time when lone	O
Admiring Nature's universal throne	O
Her woods her wilds her waters the intense	H2
Reply of hers to our intelligence	H2
Live not the Stars and Mountains Are the Waves	H2
Without a spirit Are the dropping caves	H2
Without a feeling in their silent tears	H2
No no they woo and clasp us to their spheres	H2
Dissolve this clog and clod of clay before	O2
Its hour and merge our soul in the great shore	O2
Strip off this fond and false identity	O
Who thinks of self when gazing on the sky	O
And who though gazing lower ever thought	O
In the young moments ere the heart is taught	O
Time's lesson of Man's baseness or his own	O
All Nature is his realm and Love his throne	O
	-
	-
XVII	O
	-
Neuha arose and Torquil Twilight's hour	E2
Came sad and softly to their rocky bower	E2
Which kindling by degrees its dewy spars	H2
Echoed their dim light to the mustering stars	H2
Slowly the pair partaking Nature's calm	I2
Sought out their cottage built beneath the palm	I2
Now smiling and now silent as the scene	O
Lovely as Love the Spirit when serene	O
The Ocean scarce spoke louder with his swell	L2
Than breathes his mimic murmurer in the shell	L2
As far divided from his parent deep	X
The sea born infant cries and will not sleep	X
Raising his little plaint in vain to rave	O
For the broad bosom of his nursing wave	O
The woods drooped darkly as inclined to rest	O
The tropic bird wheeled rockward to his nest	O
And the blue sky spread round them like a lake	P
Of peace where Piety her thirst might slake	P
	-
	-
XVIII	O
	-
But through the palm and plantain hark a Voice	H2
Not such as would have been a lover's choice	H2
In such an hour to break the air so still	L2
No dying night breeze harping o'er the hill	L2
Striking the strings of nature rock and tree	O
Those best and earliest lyres of Harmony	O
With Echo for their chorus nor the alarm	I2
Of the loud war whoop to dispel the charm	I2
Nor the soliloquy of the hermit owl	L2
Exhaling all his solitary soul	L2
The dim though large eyed wing d anchorite	O
Who peals his dreary P an o'er the night	O
But a loud long and naval whistle shrill	L2
As ever started through a sea bird's bill	L2
And then a pause and then a hoarse Hillo	L2
Torquil my boy what cheer Ho brother ho	O
Who hails cried Torquil following with his eye	O
The sound Here's one was all the brief reply	O
	-
	-
	-
XIX	H2
	-
But here the herald of the self same mouth	R2
Came breathing o'er the aromatic south	R2
Not like a bed of violets on the gale	L2
But such as wafts its cloud o'er grog or ale	L2
	-
Borne from a short frail pipe which yet had blown	O
Its gentle odours over either zone	O
And puffed where'er winds rise or waters roll	L2
Had wafted smoke from Portsmouth to the Pole	L2
Opposed its vapour as the lightning flashed	O
And reeked 'midst mountain billows unabashed	O
To olus a constant sacrifice	H2
Through every change of all the varying skies	H2
And what was he who bore it I may err	M2
But deem him sailor or philosopher	E2
Sublime Tobacco which from East to West	O
Cheers the tar's labour or the Turkman's rest	O
Which on the Moslem's ottoman divides	H2
His hours and rivals opium and his brides	H2
Magnificent in Stamboul but less grand	O
Though not less loved in Wapping or the Strand	O
Divine in hookas glorious in a pipe	S2
When tipped with amber mellow rich and ripe	S2
Like other charmers wooing the caress	H2
More dazzlingly when daring in full dress	H2
Yet thy true lovers more admire by far fp	S2
Thy naked beauties Give me a cigar	Q2
	-
	-
XX	H2
	-
Through the approaching darkness of the wood	O
A human figure broke the solitude	O
Fantastically it may be arrayed	O
A seaman in a savage masquerade	O
Such as appears to rise out from the deep	S2
When o'er the line the merry vessels sweep	S2
And the rough Saturnalia of the tar	Q2
Flock o'er the deck in Neptune's borrowed car	Q2
And pleased the God of Ocean sees his name	I2
Revive once more though but in mimic game	I2
Of his true sons who riot in the breeze	H2
Undreamt of in his native Cyclades	H2
Still the old God delights from out the main	O
To snatch some glimpses of his ancient reign	O
Our sailor's jacket though in ragged trim	I2
His constant pipe which never yet burned dim	I2
His foremast air and somewhat rolling gait	O
Like his dear vessel spoke his former state	O
But then a sort of kerchief round his head	O
Not over tightly bound nor nicely spread	O
And 'stead of trowsers ah too early torn	O
For even the mildest woods will have their thorn	O
A curious sort of somewhat scanty mat	O
Now served for inexpressibles and hat	O
His naked feet and neck and sunburnt face	H2
Perchance might suit alike with either race	H2
His arms were all his own our Europe's growth	Z
Which two worlds bless for civilising both	Z
The musket swung behind his shoulders broad	O
And somewhat stooped by his marine abode	O
But brawny as the boar's and hung beneath	T2
His cutlass drooped unconscious of a sheath	T2
Or lost or worn away his pistols were	E2
Linked to his belt a matrimonial pair	M2
Let not this metaphor appear a scoff	O
Though one missed fire the other would go off	O
These with a bayonet not so free from rust	O
As when the arm chest held its brighter trust	O
Completed his accoutrements as Night	O
Surveyed him in his garb heteroclite	O
	-
	-
XXI	H2
	-
What cheer Ben Bunting cried when in full view	O
Our new acquaintance Torquil Aught of new	O
Ey ey quoth Ben not new but news enow	O
A strange sail in the offing Sail and how	H
What could you make her out It cannot be	O
I've seen no rag of canvass on the sea	O
Belike said Ben you might not from the bay	C
But from the bluff head where I watched to day	C
I saw her in the doldrums for the wind	O
Was light and baffling When the Sun declined	O
Where lay she had she anchored No but still	L2
She bore down on us till the wind grew still	L2
Her flag I had no glass but fore and aft	O
Egad she seemed a wicked looking craft	O
Armed I expect so sent on the look out	O
'Tis time belike to put our helm about	O
About Whate'er may have us now in chase	H2
We'll make no running fight for that were base	H2
We will die at our quarters like true men	O
Ey ey for that 'tis all the same to Ben	O
Does Christian know this Aye he has piped all hands	H2
To quarters They are furbishing the stands	H2
Of arms and we have got some guns to bear	M2
And scaled them You are wanted That's but fair	M2
And if it were not mine is not the soul	L2
To leave my comrades helpless on the shoal	L2
My Neuha ah and must my fate pursue	O
Not me alone but one so sweet and true	O
But whatsoe'er betide ah Neuha now	H
Unman me not the hour will not allow	H
A tear I am thine whatever intervenes	H2
Right quoth Ben that will do for the marines	H2

George Gordon Byron

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