John Marr and Other Poems by Herman Melville
page 19 of 138 (13%)
page 19 of 138 (13%)
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D--ning us only in decorous strain;
Preaching 'tween the guns--each cutlass in its place-- From text that averred old Adam a hard case. I see him--Tom--on _horse-block_ standing, Trumpet at mouth, thrown up all amain, An elephant's bugle, vociferous demanding Of topmen aloft in the hurricane of rain, "Letting that sail there your faces flog? Manhandle it, men, and you'll get the good grog!" O Tom, but he knew a blue-jacket's ways, And how a lieutenant may genially haze; Only a sailor sailors heartily praise. Wife, where be all these chaps, I wonder? Trumpets in the tempest, terrors in the fray, Boomed their commands along the deck like thunder; But silent is the sod, and thunder dies away. But Captain Turret, _"Old Hemlock"_ tall, (A leaning tower when his tank brimmed all,) Manoeuvre out alive from the war did he? Or, too old for that, drift under the lee? Kentuckian colossal, who, touching at Madeira, The huge puncheon shipped o' prime _Santa-Clara;_ Then rocked along the deck so solemnly! No whit the less though judicious was enough In dealing with the Finn who made the great |
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