Excerpt from The Wisdom of Waloopi

("Full fathom five thy Father lies.")
How deep have they buried thee? Ben Lee -
Since you would not creep like a serpent wise
Nor, crouched to earth o'er the hummocked rise,
Take a cautious word of me.

("Of his bones are coral made.")
Would ye rather fling them free? Ben Lee -
As they flung lang syne when the music played
And the troop-ship parted man and maid,
On the shore of Acadie?

("Those are pearls that were his eyes.")
And what may your brown eyes be? Ben Lee -
They twinged to a shock that was not surprise
When you bent to the wound whose bearer dies
In a spume of agony.

("Nothing of him that doth fade")
'Twill not be thy memory, Ben Lee -
That loses lustre at turn of a spade,
Nor the fame of a soldier, unafraid
Of the million-tongued Menie.

("But hath suffered a sea change")
Do you think on our western sea? Ben Lee -,
As you moulder far on an Afric range,
Long, long away from your Kentish grange
And the ranch on Kootanie.

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