The Bumboat Woman's Story Poem Rhyme Scheme

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I'm old my dears and shrivelled with age and work and grief	A
My eyes are gone and my teeth have been drawn by Time the Thief	A
For terrible sights I've seen and dangers great I've run	B
I'm nearly seventy now and my work is almost done	B
	-
Ah I've been young in my time and I've played the deuce with men	C
I'm speaking of ten years past I was barely sixty then	C
My cheeks were mellow and soft and my eyes were large and sweet	D
POLL PINEAPPLE'S eyes were the standing toast of the Royal Fleet	D
	-
A bumboat woman was I and I faithfully served the ships	E
With apples and cakes and fowls and beer and halfpenny dips	E
And beef for the generous mess where the officers dine at nights	F
And fine fresh peppermint drops for the rollicking midshipmites	F
	-
Of all the kind commanders who anchored in Portsmouth Bay	G
By far the sweetest of all was kind LIEUTENANT BELAYE '	-
LIEUTENANT BELAYE commanded the gunboat HOT CROSS BUN	B
She was seven and thirty feet in length and she carried a gun	B
	-
With a laudable view of enhancing his country's naval pride	H
When people inquired her size LIEUTENANT BELAYE replied	H
quot Oh my ship my ship is the first of the Hundred and Seventy ones quot	H
Which meant her tonnage but people imagined it meant her guns	F
	-
Whenever I went on board he would beckon me down below	I
quot Come down Little Buttercup come quot for he loved to call me so	I
And he'd tell of the fights at sea in which he'd taken a part	H
And so LIEUTENANT BELAYE won poor POLL PINEAPPLE'S heart	H
	-
But at length his orders came and he said one day said he	J
quot I'm ordered to sail with the HOT CROSS BUN to the German Sea quot	H
And the Portsmouth maidens wept when they learnt the evil day	H
For every Portsmouth maid loved good LIEUTENANT BELAYE	K
	-
And I went to a back back street with plenty of cheap cheap shops	F
And I bought an oilskin hat and a second hand suit of slops	F
And I went to LIEUTENANT BELAYE and he never suspected ME	J
And I entered myself as a chap as wanted to go to sea	J
	-
We sailed that afternoon at the mystic hour of one	B
Remarkably nice young men were the crew of the HOT CROSS BUN	B
I'm sorry to say that I've heard that sailors sometimes swear	L
But I never yet heard a BUN say anything wrong I declare	L
	-
When Jack Tars meet they meet with a quot Messmate ho What cheer quot	H
But here on the HOT CROSS BUN it was quot How do you do my dear quot	H
When Jack Tars growl I believe they growl with a big big D	H
But the strongest oath of the HOT CROSS BUNS was a mild quot Dear me quot	H
	-
Yet though they were all well bred you could scarcely call them slick	M
Whenever a sea was on they were all extremely sick	M
And whenever the weather was calm and the wind was light and fair	L
They spent more time than a sailor should on his back back hair	L
	-
They certainly shivered and shook when ordered aloft to run	B
And they screamed when LIEUTENANT BELAYE discharged his only gun	B
And as he was proud of his gun such pride is hardly wrong	N
The Lieutenant was blazing away at intervals all day long	N
	-
They all agreed very well though at times you heard it said	H
That BILL had a way of his own of making his lips look red	H
That JOE looked quite his age or somebody might declare	L
That BARNACLE'S long pig tail was never his own own hair	L
	-
BELAYE would admit that his men were of no great use to him	O
quot But then quot he would say quot there is little to do on a gunboat trim	O
I can hand and reef and steer and fire my big gun too	H
And it IS such a treat to sail with a gentle well bred crew quot	H
	-
I saw him every day How the happy moments sped	H
Reef topsails Make all taut There's dirty weather ahead	H
I do not mean that tempests threatened the HOT CROSS BUN	B
In THAT case I don't know whatever we SHOULD have done	B
	-
After a fortnight's cruise we put into port one day	H
And off on leave for a week went kind LIEUTENANT BELAYE	K
And after a long long week had passed and it seemed like a life	P
LIEUTENANT BELAYE returned to his ship with a fair young wife	P
	-
He up and he says says he quot O crew of the HOT CROSS BUN	B
Here is the wife of my heart for the Church has made us one quot	H
And as he uttered the word the crew went out of their wits	F
And all fell down in so many separate fainting fits	F
	-
And then their hair came down or off as the case might be	H
And lo the rest of the crew were simple girls like me	H
Who all had fled from their homes in a sailor's blue array	H
To follow the shifting fate of kind LIEUTENANT BELAYE	K
	-
	-
	-
It's strange to think that I should ever have loved young men	C
But I'm speaking of ten years past I was barely sixty then	C
And now my cheeks are furrowed with grief and age I trow	I
And poor POLL PINEAPPLE'S eyes have lost their lustre now	Q

William Schwenck Gilbert

The Bumboat Woman's Story Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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