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A Life on the Ocean Wave

by Cornelia 

Posted: 06 July 2005
Word Count: 137
Summary: I wrote this a while ago, when I was teaching in secondary school.


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Come sail the telescope tunnel
From Greenwich to Canning Town
Where the white surf of the Blackwall
Is twenty fathoms down.

Climb up to my crow’s nest classroom
And meet my raffish crew
Apprenticed all to Pirate’s Lore,
Eye-patch o’er navy blue.

Where the cross-bones mark the blackboard
And the sharks all bask below,
We’ll walk the plank to tease them
In the place where breezes blow.

But carry a trusty cutlass,
Be ready to ride the swell,
For the Royal Navy’s ensign
Is a flag we know right well.

They’ll do their best to sink us,
Or clap us all in chains,
So keep your wits about you
And see they make no gains.

‘Til, many a ‘berg well skirted,
And many a skirmish won,
We’ll sail the Dock road home again,
Into the setting sun.









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Comments by other Members



joanie at 10:21 on 06 July 2005  Report this post
Hi Cornelia. Very well put. I like the shanty feel to this. It certainly is like battling with pirates! I shall think of this and smile as I skirt many 'bergs and perhaps even win a skirmish or two today.

I enjoyed it.

joanie

Cornelia at 13:00 on 06 July 2005  Report this post
Glad you liked it, Joanie. It certainly reminded me how I felt at the time: beleagured, on the run, at odds with what I was really supposed to be doing and feeling quite subversive. I hadn't realised I felt so jolly about it. The sea-shanty rhythm was no doubt suggested because I lived near the Maritime Museum and travelled under the Thames to get to school every day. I really did drive along the East India Dock Road, into the setting sun on the return journey.

Good luck, and try not to annoy the admiral.

Sheila

Beanie Baby at 21:36 on 06 July 2005  Report this post
I love this Cornelia! It has a jaunty oceany feel to it and is worthy of loud repeated reading! What a great way to teach history AND English. I wish I'd had a teacher like you!

Fantastic - adore it!
Beanie

Cornelia at 22:18 on 06 July 2005  Report this post
Thank you. I thought this poem might reinforce opinions that teachers just do what they like. Of course, that's why we become teachers - we do our best to encourage young people to become themselves, not knuckle under to whatever anyone else tells them. Except when it comes to correct spelling, grammar and punctuation, of course.

Sheila


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