Poetry Catalog

(From Many Inventions). Heh! Walk her round. Heave, ah heave her short again!Over, snatch her over, there, and hold her on the pawl.Loose all sail, and brace your yards aback and full—Ready jib to pay her off and heave short all! Well, ah fare you well; we can stay no more with you, my love—Down, set down your liquor and your girl from off your knee;For the wind has come … [Read more...] about Anchor Song, By: Rudyard Kipling

The fear was on the cattle, for the gale was on the sea,An' the pens broke up on the lower deck an' let the creatures free—An' the lights went out on the lower deck, an' no one down but me. I had been singin' to them to keep 'em quiet there,For the lower deck is the dangerousest, requirin' constant care,An' give to me as the strongest man, though used to drink and … [Read more...] about Mulholland’s Contract, By: Rudyard Kipling

The Liner she's a lady, an' she never looks nor 'eeds—The Man-o'-War's 'er 'usband, an' 'e gives 'er all she needs;But, oh, the little cargo-boats, that sail the wet seas roun',They're just the same as you an' me a-plyin' up an' down! Plyin' up an' down, Jenny, 'angin' round the Yard,All the way by Fratton tram down to Portsmouth 'Ard;Anythin' for business, an' we're growin' … [Read more...] about The Liner She’s a Lady, By: Rudyard Kipling

You couldn't pack a Broadwood half a mile—You mustn't leave a fiddle in the damp—You couldn't raft an organ up the Nile,And play it in an Equatorial swamp.I travel with the cooking-pots and pails—I'm sandwiched 'tween the coffee and the pork—And when the dusty column checks and tails,You should hear me spur the rearguard to a walk! With my "Pilly-willy-winky-winky popp!"[O … [Read more...] about The Song of the Banjo, By: Rudyard Kipling

"And reports the derelict Mary Pollock still at sea." Shipping News. I was the staunchest of our fleetTill the Sea rose beneath our feetUnheralded, in hatred past all measure.Into his pits he stamped my crew,Buffeted, blinded, bound and threw;Bidding me eyeless wait upon his pleasure. Man made me, and my willIs to my maker still,Whom now the currents con, the rollers … [Read more...] about The Derelict, By: Rudyard Kipling