Davy Jones's Lament

[hillwalker]

DAVY JONES’S LAMENT

I’ve sailed the high seas for the last fifty years
from the Cape of Good Hope to Nantucket.
I’ve drunk Navy rum ‘til it came out my ears
and supped Newcastle Brown by the bucket.

From Kuala Lumpur to Dar-es-Salaam,
from Cairo to Cerrigydrudion,
From Rio to Rochdale, in tempest and calm,
I’ve strayed far from the Greenwich Meridian.

From Saigon to Santa Fe, Quito to Queensland,
from Ullapool to Ulan Bator
I’ve drained every bar on the coast and inland
North and South of the blessed Equator.

I’ve sipped Margaritas outside Marrakech
and Mojitos in fair Manitoba,
But the wife never knew that I drank like a fish
until I got home one night sober.

H :cheers2:

[miyako73]

I liked it. Playful.

[blank|verse]

Good one, hill - that's a test of one's pronunciation!

Surely ballad quatrains and not couplets are more fitting for this sea-shanty?! Also, I'd consider removing 'seven' from the first line to help the rhythm... but then, it's not the type of poem where it has to be spot-on.

What with you as well as Hawkman, I'm beginning to feel like the only land-lubber round these parts...

[dafydd manton]

As one who has supped the odd drop in the odd place, I just loved that one. I never thought I'd live to find somebody not only mentioning Cerrigydrudion in a poem, but finding a rhyme for it! I bow in the presence of genius!

[Bar22do]

Among casks of wine and barrels of beer, he rolled across the globe, sober only for his wife and not enough sober not to die drunk... Your poem reminded me of Pound's famous Epitaphs:

Fu I

Fu I loved the high cloud and the hill,
Alas, he died of alcohol.

Li Po

And Li Po also died drunk.
He tried to embrace a moon
In the Yellow River.

Be well, Bar

[hillwalker]

@b|v - thanks for the tip - now quatrained, and line 1 amended (I think it now reads better than it did) - I don't know how I missed that when I first sang it to my accordion accompaniment.....

and fear not, I am most definitely a land-lubber - who got talking to a local sea-farer this afternoon and heard the line about the husband arriving home sober for the first time (which got me thinking - there must be a poem in there somewhere!)

@Dafydd - I'm pleased you enjoyed the Cerrigydrudion reference (a place deserving of a rhyme to remember it by - since there's not much else there) - and I'm still working on Blaenau Ffestiniog.

@miyako and Bar - thak you also for your kind comments; happy to put a smile into your day.

H

[PrinceMyshkin]

"supped Margaritas" must be a typo?

What glorious rhyming throughout and a great laugh at the end!

[hillwalker]

@Prince - what an eagle eye you have, kind sir.

'sipped' was always the intention - even though supping might have been more in tune with his prodigious thirst.

Thanks for your comment. H

[dafydd manton]

How strange - I thought "supped" was deliberate! Shades of "Ee, we supped some stuff last neet!" Shows how much I know (and I still love it!)

[hillwalker]

Pay attention - we've already supped all that Newc'e Brown - time for some more refined cocktails don't ya think?

[Jerrybaldy]

In my young opinion.. tugs forelock ;) It reminds me of a mixture of the Pogues Rum, Sodomy and the Lash and Ian Dury singing Hit me with your rythym stick:
In the deserts of Sudan
And the gardens of Japan
From Milan to Yucatan
Every woman, every man.

I would say Mr McGowan and Mr Dury were good company. Either way it was very enjoyable H.
JB

[dafydd manton]

Pay attention - we've already supped all that Newc'e Brown - time for some more refined cocktails don't ya think?

I shtand (albeit a shade unshteadily....you're my best mate) corrected. I hadn't sheen th' shupped 'bout the Newkie borwn....I mean brown. Sh...hic...Shorry, mate...*bursts in to tears*

[Delta40]

tee hee hee!

[hillwalker]

@Jerry - all I'll say in my defence is I still have more teeth than McGowan, but I'm probably a Blockhead.

@Dafydd - try taking more water with it (oh never mind, it's chucking out time now anyway)

@Delta - cryptic and concise as ever

[Maryd.]

This one, just cracked me up... I loved it. Keep these funny ones coming. By the way is it non fiction?

[angliholic]

Thanks, Hillwalker,

Are you and the narrator the same alcoholic?

Little wonder you can create a poem so imaginative!

There was an ancient devine poet in China, who was both famous for his poems and as a drinking fish.

The last two lines throw me off!

Why did the wife never knew that you drank like a fish
until you got home one night sober?

[adityasam]

Oh God, Davy Jones drank too much. An apt description for it 'Drank like a fish', very good simile. My favourite line was
I’ve drunk Navy rum ‘til it came out my ears.
Cool and funny poem. Thanks for entertaining me.

[hillwalker]

@Mary and angliholic - not based on fact I'm afraid, very much my rampant imagination.
But I was chatting to an old sailor yesterday who told me his wife never knew he had a drink problem until he came home sober one night (and that's inspiration, folks)

- oh, and she never knew he had a drink problem angliholic, because every night he came home he was happy and loving (but then suddenly one night he came home sober, miserable and hateful!)

@adityasam - thanks for your comment - happy to put a smile on your face.

H

[angliholic]

-

angliholic[/B], because every night he came home he was happy and loving (but then suddenly one night he came home sober, miserable and hateful!)


H

Thanks, Hillwalker, for the entertaining and enlightening explanation.

Little wonder, there are so many alcoholics in the world; I never knew that alcohol can be so nice sometimes.
Unfortunately, I can't never get along with him!

[lallison]

Good one hill, how can you go wrong with a pirate diddy. Reminds me a bit of the incredible "I've been Everywhere" By Johnnie Cash. Nice little punch line at the end as well.