The Mary Gloster Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEEFFFFGGFFHH IIEEFFJJKKEELLMMNNOO PPDDFFQQRRFFSSFFFFFF FFFFFFDDTUEEVWEEJJFF XXFFYYFFFFZZA2B2C2FE EFFD2D2DDE2E2FFFFFFF 2F2HHXXG2G2EEFFLLEEF FH2H2MMYYFFI2I2YYFFE EJ2J2K2K2FFJJNNFFXXF FPPDDKKFFEEL2PEEG2G2 FFFFM2M2CC| I've paid for your sickest fancies I've humoured your crackedest whim | A |
| Dick it's your daddy dying you've got to listen to him | A |
| Good for a fortnight am I The doctor told you He lied | B |
| I shall go under by morning and Put that nurse outside | B |
| 'Never seen death yet Dickie Well now is your time to learn | C |
| And you'll wish you held my record before it comes to your turn | C |
| Not counting the Line and the Foundry the yards and the village too | D |
| I've made myself and a million but I'm damned if I made you | D |
| Master at two and twenty and married at twenty three | E |
| Ten thousand men on the pay roll and forty freighters at sea | E |
| Fifty years between 'em and every year of it fight | F |
| And now I'm Sir Anthony Gloster dying a baronite | F |
| For I lunched with his Royal 'Ighness what was it the papers a had | F |
| Not least of our merchant princes Dickie that's me your dad | F |
| I didn't begin with askings I took my job and I stuck | G |
| And I took the chances they wouldn't an' now they're calling it luck | G |
| Lord what boats I've handled rotten and leaky and old | F |
| Ran 'em or opened the bilge cock precisely as I was told | F |
| Grub that 'ud bind you crazy and crews that 'ud turn you grey | H |
| And a big fat lump of insurance to cover the risk on the way | H |
| The others they dursn't do it they said they valued their life | I |
| They've served me since as skippers I went and I took my wife | I |
| Over the world I drove 'em married at twenty three | E |
| And your mother saving the money and making a man of me | E |
| I was content to be master but she said there was better behind | F |
| She took the chances I wouldn't and I followed your mother blind | F |
| She egged me to borrow the money an' she helped me to clear the loan | J |
| When we bought half shares in a cheap 'un and hoisted a flag of our own | J |
| Patching and coaling on credit and living the Lord knew how | K |
| We started the Red Ox freighters we've eight and thirty now | K |
| And those were the days of clippers and the freights were clipper freights | E |
| And we knew we were making our fortune but she died in Macassar Straits | E |
| By the Little Paternosters as you come to the Union Bank | L |
| And we dropped her in fourteen fathom I pricked it off where she sank | L |
| Owners we were full owners and the boat was christened for her | M |
| And she died in the Mary Gloster My heart how young we were | M |
| So I went on a spree round Java and well nigh ran her ashore | N |
| But your mother came and warned me and I wouldn't liquor no more | N |
| Strict I stuck to my business afraid to stop or I'd think | O |
| Saving the money she warned me and letting the other men drink | O |
| And I met M'Cullough in London I'd turned five 'undred then | P |
| And 'tween us we started the Foundry three forges and twenty men | P |
| Cheap repairs for the cheap 'uns It paid and the business grew | D |
| For I bought me a steam lathe patent and that was a gold mine too | D |
| Cheaper to build 'em than buy 'em I said but M'Cullough he shied | F |
| And we wasted a year in talking before we moved to the Clyde | F |
| And the Lines were all beginning and we all of us started fair | Q |
| Building our engines like houses and staying the boilers square | Q |
| But M'Cullough 'e wanted cabins with marble and maple and all | R |
| And Brussels an' Utrecht velvet and baths and a Social Hall | R |
| And pipes for closets all over and cutting the frames too light | F |
| But M'Cullough he died in the Sixties and Well I'm dying to night | F |
| I knew I knew what was coming when we bid on the Byfleet's keel | S |
| They piddled and piffled with iron I'd given my orders for steel | S |
| Steel and the first expansions It paid I tell you it paid | F |
| When we came with our nine knot freighters and collared the long run trade | F |
| And they asked me how I did it and I gave 'em the Scripture text | F |
| You keep your light so shining a little in front o' the next | F |
| They copied all they could follow but they couldn't copy my mind | F |
| And I left 'em sweating and stealing a year and a half behind | F |
| Then came the armour contracts but that was M'Cullough's side | F |
| He was always best in the Foundry but better perhaps he died | F |
| I went through his private papers the notes was plainer than print | F |
| And I'm no fool to finish if a man'll give me a hint | F |
| I remember his widow was angry So I saw what the drawings meant | F |
| And I started the six inch rollers and it paid me sixty per cent | F |
| Sixty per cent with failures and more than twice we could do | D |
| And a quarter million to credit and I saved it all for you | D |
| I thought it doesn't matter you seemed to favour your ma | T |
| But you're nearer forty than thirty and I know the kind you are | U |
| Harrer an' Trinity College I ought to ha' sent you to sea | E |
| But I stood you an education an' what have you done for me | E |
| The things I knew was proper you wouldn't thank me to give | V |
| And the things I knew was rotten you said was the way to live | W |
| For you muddled with books and pictures an' china an' etchin's an' fans | E |
| And your rooms at college was beastly more like a whore's than a man's | E |
| Till you married that thin flanked woman as white and as stale as a bone | J |
| An' she gave you your social nonsense but where's that kid o' your own | J |
| I've seen your carriages blocking the half o' the Cromwell Road | F |
| But never the doctor's brougham to help the missus unload | F |
| So there isn't even a grandchild an' the Gloster family's done | X |
| Not like your mother she isn't She carried her freight each run | X |
| But they died the pore little beggars At sea she had 'em they died | F |
| Only you an' you stood it you haven't stood much beside | F |
| Weak a liar and idle and mean as a collier's whelp | Y |
| Nosing for scraps in the galley No help my son was no help | Y |
| So he gets three 'undred thousand in trust and the interest paid | F |
| I wouldn't give it you Dickie you see I made it in trade | F |
| You're saved from soiling your fingers and if you have no child | F |
| It all comes back to the business Gad won't your wife be wild | F |
| 'Calls and calls in her carriage her 'andkerchief up to 'er eye | Z |
| Daddy dear daddy's dyin' and doing her best to cry | Z |
| Grateful Oh yes I'm grateful but keep her away from here | A2 |
| Your mother 'ud never ha' stood 'er and anyhow women are queer | B2 |
| There's women will say I've married a second time | C2 |
| Not quite But give pore Aggie a hundred and tell her your lawyers'll fight | F |
| She was the best o' the boiling you'll meet her before it ends | E |
| I'm in for a row with the mother I'll leave you settle my friends | E |
| For a man he must go with a woman which women don't understand | F |
| Or the sort that say they can see it they aren't the marrying brand | F |
| But I wanted to speak o' your mother that's Lady Gloster still | D2 |
| I'm going to up and see her without it's hurting the will | D2 |
| Here Take your hand off the bell pull Five thousand's waiting for you | D |
| If you'll only listen a minute and do as I bid you do | D |
| They'll try to prove me crazy and if you bungle they can | E2 |
| And I've only you to trust to O God why ain't he a man | E2 |
| There's some waste money on marbles the same as M'Cullough tried | F |
| Marbles and mausoleums but I call that sinful pride | F |
| There's some ship bodies for burial we've carried 'em soldered and packed | F |
| Down in their wills they wrote it and nobody called them cracked | F |
| But me I've too much money and people might All my fault | F |
| It come o' hoping for grandsons and buying that Wokin' vault | F |
| I'm sick o' the 'ole dam' business I'm going back where I came | F2 |
| Dick you're the son o' my body and you'll take charge o' the same | F2 |
| I want to lie by your mother ten thousand mile away | H |
| And they'll want to send me to Woking and that's where you'll earn your pay | H |
| I've thought it out on the quiet the same as it ought to be done | X |
| Quiet and decent and proper an' here's your orders my son | X |
| You know the Line You don't though You write to the Board and tell | G2 |
| Your father's death has upset you an' you're goin' to cruise for a spell | G2 |
| An' you'd like the Mary Gloster I've held her ready for this | E |
| They'll put her in working order and you'll take her out as she is | E |
| Yes it was money idle when I patched her and put her aside | F |
| Thank God I can pay for my fancies the boat where your mother died | F |
| By the Little Paternosters as you come to the Union Bank | L |
| We dropped her I think I told you and I pricked it off where she sank | L |
| 'Tiny she looked on the grating that oily treacly sea | E |
| 'Hundred and eighteen East remember and South just three | E |
| Easy bearings to carry three South three to the dot | F |
| But I gave M'Andrew a copy in case of dying or not | F |
| And so you'll write to M'Andrew he's Chief of the Maori Line | H2 |
| They'll give him leave if you ask 'em and say it's business o' mine | H2 |
| I built three boats for the Maoris an' very well pleased they were | M |
| An' I've known Mac since the Fifties and Mac knew me and her | M |
| After the first stroke warned me I sent him the money to keep | Y |
| Against the time you'd claim it committin' your dad to the deep | Y |
| For you are the son o' my body and Mac was my oldest friend | F |
| I've never asked 'im to dinner but he'll see it out to the end | F |
| Stiff necked Glasgow beggar I've heard he's prayed for my soul | I2 |
| But he couldn't lie if you paid him and he'd starve before he stole | I2 |
| He'll take the Mary in ballast you'll find her a lively ship | Y |
| And you'll take Sir Anthony Gloster that goes on 'is wedding trip | Y |
| Lashed in our old deck cabin with all three port holes wide | F |
| The kick o' the screw beneath him and the round blue seas outside | F |
| Sir Anthony Gloster's carriage our 'ouse flag flyin' free | E |
| Ten thousand men on the pay roll and forty freighters at sea | E |
| He made himself and a million but this world is a fleetin' show | J2 |
| And he'll go to the wife of 'is bosom the same as he ought to go | J2 |
| By the heel of the Paternosters there isn't a chance to mistake | K2 |
| And Mac'll pay you the money as soon as the bubbles break | K2 |
| Five thousand for six weeks' cruising the staunchest freighter afloat | F |
| And Mac he'll give you your bonus the minute I'm out o' the boat | F |
| He'll take you round to Macassar and you'll come back alone | J |
| He knows what I want o' the Mary I'll do what I please with my own | J |
| Your mother 'ud call it wasteful but I've seven and thirty more | N |
| I'll come in my private carriage and bid it wait at the door | N |
| For my son 'e was never a credit 'e muddled with books and art | F |
| And 'e lived on Sir Anthony's money and 'e broke Sir Anthony's heart | F |
| There isn't even a grandchild and the Gloster family's done | X |
| The only one you left me O mother the only one | X |
| Harrer and Trinity College me slavin' early an' late | F |
| An' he thinks I'm dying crazy and you're in Macassar Strait | F |
| Flesh o' my flesh my dearie for ever an' ever amen | P |
| That first stroke come for a warning I ought to ha' gone to you then | P |
| But cheap repairs for a cheap 'un the doctors said I'd do | D |
| Mary why didn't you warn me I've allus heeded to you | D |
| Excep' I know about women but you are a spirit now | K |
| An' wife they was only women and I was a man That's how | K |
| An' a man 'e must go with a woman as you could not understand | F |
| But I never talked 'em secrets I paid 'em out o' hand | F |
| Thank Gawd I can pay for my fancies Now what's five thousand to me | E |
| For a berth off the Paternosters in the haven where I would be | E |
| I believe in the Resurrection if I read my Bible plain | L2 |
| But I wouldn't trust 'em at Wokin' we're safer at sea again | P |
| For the heart it shall go with the treasure go down to the sea in ships | E |
| I'm sick of the hired women I'll kiss my girl on her lips | E |
| I'll be content with my fountain I'll drink from my own well | G2 |
| And the wife of my youth shall charm me an' the rest can go to Hell | G2 |
| Dickie he will that's certain I'll lie in our standin' bed | F |
| An' Mac'll take her in ballast an' she trims best by the head | F |
| Down by the head an' sinkin' her fires are drawn and cold | F |
| And the water's splashin' hollow on the skin of the empty hold | F |
| Churning an' choking and chuckling quiet and scummy and dark | M2 |
| Full to her lower hatches and risin' steady Hark | M2 |
| That was the after bulkhead She's flooded from stem to stern | C |
| Never seen death yet Dickie Well now is your time to learn | C |
Rudyard Kipling
(1)
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