Analysis of A Night At Dago Tom's

John Masefield 1878 (Ledbury) – 1967 (Abingdon)



Oh yesterday, I t'ink it was, while cruisin' down the street,
I met with Bill. "Hullo," he says, "let's give the girls a treat."
We'd red bandanas round our necks 'n' our shrouds new rattled down,
So we filled a couple of Santy Cruz and cleared for Sailor Town.

We scooted south with a press of sail till we fetched to a caboose,
The "Sailor's Rest," by Dago Tom, alongside "Paddy's Goose."
Red curtains to the windies, ay, 'n' white sand to the floor,
And an old blind fiddler liltin' the tune of "Lowlands No More."

He played the "Shaking of the Sheets" 'n' the couples did advance,
Bowing, stamping, curtsying, in the shuffling of the dance;
The old floor rocked and quivered, so it struck beholders dumb,
'N' afterwards there was sweet songs 'n' good Jamaikey rum.

'N' there was many a merry yarn of many a merry spree
Aboard the ships with royals set a-sailing on the sea,
Yarns of the hooker Spindrift, her as had the clipper-bow,
"There ain't no ships," says Bill to me, "like that there hooker now."

When the old blind fiddler played the tune of "Pipe the Watch Below,"
The skew-eyed landlord dowsed the glim and bade us "stamp 'n' go,"
'N' we linked it home, did Bill 'n' I, adown the scattered streets,
Until we fetched to Land o' Nod atween the linen sheets.


Scheme AABB CCDD EEFF GGHH IIJJ
Poetic Form Quatrain 
Metre 1101111111101 1111111110101 1110110111011101 1110101101011101 111101111111001 0101111011101 1101011111101 01111001011111 110101011010101 101010010101 01110111111 110011111111 1111001011100101 01011101010101 1101010110101 11111111111101 1011100101110101 0111101011111 11111111110101 0111111110101
Closest metre Iambic octameter
Characters 1,262
Words 245
Sentences 8
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 20
Letters per line (avg) 48
Words per line (avg) 12
Letters per stanza (avg) 190
Words per stanza (avg) 46
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Submitted on August 03, 2020

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:12 min read
10

John Masefield

John Edward Masefield, OM was an English poet and writer, and Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 1930 until his death in 1967. He is remembered as the author of the classic children's novels The Midnight Folk and The Box of Delights, and poems, including "The Everlasting Mercy" and "Sea-Fever". more…

All John Masefield poems | John Masefield Books

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