Ships — they’re all right, said Murphy, “for all you hear folks tell.
There some shoves their bows under in a seaway, and there’s some rolls like hell;
There’s some as can’t wear nor stay, and some won’t steer a course
Without pullin’ the arms out of you like a bad tempered horse;
And some’s wet and some’s wicked — but taking them all together
And allowing for things like bad crews an’ contrary weather,
And owners that skinny they’d die afore they’d bust a farden on paint —
Why ships ain’t bad,” said Murphy — “not to my thinkin’ they ain’t.”
“The sea’s all right,” said Murphy, “if it’s took as it comes —
good an’ bad, rough an’ smooth, Trade an’ Doldrums.
There’s pamperos and southerly busters, and maybe a hurricane
Or a typhoon or such little diversion just now and again;
But takin’ the high with the low latitudes and all the way round,
Why, the sea ain’t that bad,” said Murphy — “leastways not as I’ve found.”
“Chaps, they’re all right,” said Murphy, “took one with another —
There’s some as’d slit your throat for a nickel if you was their born brother;
There’s them as never earns their whack or work a traverse or pull their weight;
And some’s that crooked they’d make a dog’s hind-leg look straight;
Some’d pinch the pennies of a man’s eyes and he lyin’ dead;
But look at ’em wholesale and in the lump, why chaps is mostly decent,” he said.
(Cicely Fox Smith)
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Based on Topics: Man Poems, Brothers Poems, Hell Poems, Business & Commerce Poems, Dogs Poems, Horse Poems, Weather PoemsBased on Keywords: whack, typhoon, earns, lyin, latitudes, diversion, some, nickel, shoves, wholesale, pullin