The Lowestoft Boat
Rudyard Kipling 1865 (Mumbai) – 1936 (London)
East Coast Patrols of the War, 1914-18
In Lowestoft a boat was laid,
Mark well what I do say!
And she was built for the herring-trade,
But she has gone a-rovin', a-rovin', a-rovin',
The Lord knows where!
They gave her Government coal to burn,
And a Q.F. gun at bow and stern,
And sent her out a-rovin', etc.
Her skipper was mate of a bucko ship
Which always killed one man per trip,
So he is used to rovin', etc.
Her mate was skipper of a chapel in Wales,
And so he fights in topper and tails--
Religi-ous tho' rovin', etc.
Her engineer is fifty-eight,'
So he's prepared to meet his fate,
Which ain't unlikely rovin', etc.
Her leading-stoker's seventeen,
So he don't know what the Judgments mean,
Unless he cops 'em rovin', etc.
Her cook was chef in the Lost Dogs' Home,
Mark well what I do say!
And I'm sorry for Fritz when they all come
A-rovin', a-rovin', a-roarin' and a-rovin',
Round the North Sea rovin',
The Lord knows where!
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 54 sec read
- 109 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | x aBacD cce ffe gge hhe cce xBxccD |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 914 |
Words | 176 |
Stanzas | 8 |
Stanza Lengths | 1, 5, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 6 |
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"The Lowestoft Boat" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Mar. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/33491/the-lowestoft-boat>.
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