Читать книгу More Bab Ballads - William Schwenck Gilbert - Страница 9

I sing a legend of the sea,

So hard-a-port upon your lee!

A ship on starboard tack!

She’s bound upon a private cruise—

(This is the kind of spice I use

To give a salt-sea smack).

Behold, on every afternoon

(Save in a gale or strong Monsoon)

Great CAPTAIN CAPEL CLEGGS

(Great morally, though rather short)

Sat at an open weather-port

And aired his shapely legs.

And Mermaids hung around in flocks,

On cable chains and distant rocks,

To gaze upon those limbs;

For legs like those, of flesh and bone,

Are things “not generally known”

To any Merman TIMBS.

But Mermen didn’t seem to care

Much time (as far as I’m aware)

With CLEGGS’S legs to spend;

Though Mermaids swam around all day