Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


ANDY BATTLE'S AND NOD'S SONG by WALTER JOHN DE LA MARE

Poet Analysis

First Line: ONCE AND THERE WAS A YOUNG SAILOR, YEO HO!
Last Line: AND WAITS FOR HIS SORROWFUL END.

Once and there was a young sailor, yeo ho!
And he sailed out over the say
For the isles where pink coral and palm-branches blow,
And the fire-flies turn night into day,
Yeo ho!
And the fire-flies turn night into day.

But the @3Dolphin@1 went down in a tempest, yeo ho!
And with three forsook sailors ashore,
The Portingals took him where sugar-canes grow,
Their slave for to be evermore,
Yeo ho!
Their slave for to be evermore.

With his musket for mother and brother, yeo ho!
He warred wi' the Cannibals drear,
In forests where panthers pad soft to and fro,
And the Pongo shakes noonday with fear,
Yeo ho!
And the Pongo shakes noonday with fear.

Now lean with long travail, all wasted with woe,
With a monkey for messmate and friend,
He sits 'neath the Cross in the cankering snow,
And waits for his sorrowful end,
Yeo ho!
And waits for his sorrowful end.



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