Long John Silver is a fictional character in the novel Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson, but the name was taken from an otherwise unknown historical criminal.
Source: Wikipedia
John Edward Masefield, (1 June 1878 – 12 May 1967), was an English poet and writer, and Poet Laureate from 1930 until his death in 1967. He is remembered as the author of the classic children's novels The Midnight Folk and The Box of Delights and a great deal of memorable poetry, including "Sea-Fever", from his anthology Saltwater Ballads.
Source: Wikipedia
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Read the poem below and then answer some questions about it. When you have finished, do some writingyourself and see texts written by other users.
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(Print poem and do activity on paper) (pdf file - 67 KB)
We were schooner-rigged and rakish, with a long and lissome hull,
And we flew the pretty colours of the crossbones and the skull;
We'd a big black Jolly Roger flapping grimly at the fore,
And we sailed the Spanish Water in the happy days of yore.
We'd a long brass gun amidships, like a well-conducted ship,
We had each a brace of pistols and a cutlass at the hip;
It's a point which tells against us, and a fact to be deplored,
But we chased the goodly merchant-men and laid their ships aboard.
Then the dead men fouled the scuppers and the wounded filled the chains,
And the paint-work all was spatter dashed with other peoples brains,
She was boarded, she was looted, she was scuttled till she sank.
And the pale survivors left us by the medium of the plank.
O! then it was (while standing by the taffrail on the poop)
We could hear the drowning folk lament the absent chicken coop;
Then, having washed the blood away, we'd little else to do
Than to dance a quiet hornpipe as the old salts taught us to.
O! the fiddle on the fo'c'sle, and the slapping naked soles,
And the genial "Down the middle, Jake, and curtsey when she rolls!"
With the silver seas around us and the pale moon overhead,
And the look-out not a-looking and his pipe-bowl glowing red.
Ah! the pig-tailed, quidding pirates and the pretty pranks we played,
All have since been put a stop to by the naughty Board of Trade;
The schooners and the merry crews are laid away to rest,
A little south the sunset in the islands of the Blest.
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Write a poem or story about pirates. Send it to us.
The Bloody Buccaneer
Outcast, Outlaw, Cutthroat, Pirate-
the words strike hate and dread and fear.
The life is one of wreck and plunder-
“Avast the bloody Buccaneer”
Cast your eyes upon the Ocean-
o’er the Horizon a ship draws near,
it comes to sack your town this night-
and brings the bloody Buccaneer.
Bowers drop in the bay at midnight,
A ghostly vessel it doth appear.
In the dark unfurled the Jolly Roger-
the pennant of the Buccaneer.
In silence then the boats are launched-
in whispers to the beach they steer.
With stealth the intruders row ashore-
to land the bloody buccaneer.
Footsteps tread across the shingle,
armed with Cutlass Knife and Spear.
Flaming torches lit they walk the streets-
a murderous band of Buccaneers.
Throats are slit while you slumber-
and home’s burned to the ground I fear.
Their pistols crack the night like thunder-
“Avast them bloody Buccaneers”
Daylight dawns and the Red coats gather,
too late to save the town austere,
its been fairly torn asunder-
by the bloody buccaneers.
Along with Plundered Cobs and Golden Ducats,
they took your women and drank your beer.
Were they lead by Captain Mucknell,
Scilly’s own bloody Buccaneer.
Todd Stevens
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