Oh yesterday, I t'ink it was, while cruisin' down the street, <br />I met with Bill. - 'Hullo,' he says, 'let's give the girls a treat.' <br />We'd red bandanas round our necks 'n' our shrouds new rattled down, <br />So we filled a couple of Santy Cruz and cleared for Sailor Town. <br /> <br />We scooted south with a press of sail till we fetched to a caboose, <br />The 'Sailor's Rest,' by Dago Tom, alongside 'Paddy's Goose.' <br />Red curtains to the windies, ay, 'n' white sand to the floor, <br />And an old blind fiddler liltin' the tune of 'Lowlands No More.' <br /> <br />He played the 'Shaking of the Sheets' 'n' the couples did advance, <br />Bowing, stamping, curtsying, in the shuffling of the dance; <br />The old floor rocked and quivered, so it struck beholders dumb, <br />'N' afterwards there was sweet songs 'n' good Jamaikey rum. <br /> <br />'N' there was many a merry yarn of many a merry spree <br />Aboard the ships with royals set a-sailing on the sea, <br />Yarns of the hooker <br />Spindrift <br />, her as had the clipper-bow, &mdash <br />'There ain't no ships,' says Bill to me, 'like that there hooker now.' <br /> <br />When the old blind fiddler played the tune of 'Pipe the Watch Below,' <br />The skew-eyed landlord dowsed the glim and bade us 'stamp 'n' go,' <br />'N' we linked it home, did Bill 'n' I, adown the scattered streets, <br />Until we fetched to Land o' Nod atween the linen sheets.<br /><br />John Masefield<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-night-at-dago-tom-s/
