SALLY SIMPKIN'S LAMENT;

[algy]

From the 'Comic Annual' 1834.

 

Poem about a poor sailor having fallen overboard and into the sea.

 

 

SALLY SIMPKIN'S LAMENT;

 

OR, JOHN JONES'S KIT-CAT-ASTROPHE.

 

 

"He left his body to the sea,

And made a shark his legatee."

 

BRYAN AND PEREENE.

 

 

"OH! what is that comes gliding in,

And quite in middling haste?

It is the picture of my Jones,

And painted to the waist.

 

"It is not painted to the life,

For where's the trowsers blue?

Oh Jones, my dear!—Oh dear! my Jones,

What is become of you?"

 

"Oh! Sally dear, it is too true,—

The half that you remark

Is come to say my other half

Is bit off by a shark!

 

"Oh! Sally, sharks do things by halves,

Yet most completely do!

A bite in one place seems enough,

But I've been bit in two.

 

"You know I once was all your own,

But now a shark must share!

But let that pass—for now, to you

I'm neither here nor there.

 

"Alas! death has a strange divorce

Effected in the sea,

It has divided me from you,

And even me from me!

 

"Don't fear my ghost will walk o'nights

To haunt, as people say;

My ghost can't walk, for, oh! my legs

Are many leagues away!

 

"Lord! think when I am swimming round,

And looking where the boat is,

A shark just snaps away a half,

Without "a quarter's notice."

 

"One half is here, the other half is near

Columbia placed;

Oh! Sally, I have got the whole

Atlantic for my waist.

 

"But now, adieu—a long adieu!

I've solved death's awful riddle,

And would say more, but I am doomed

To break off in the middle!"

[harry hayes]

Behind the funny stuff, a lot of emotion in there Algy, I would guess.

 

Happy days

[algy]

Behind the funny stuff, a lot of emotion in there Algy, I would guess.

 

Happy days

 

Harry, I hope you read this reply as I think the link below will provide a great deal interest for you:

 

http://www.gerald-massey.org.uk/index.htm

 

it has a wealth of Victorian authors, stories and poems, a great site with anyone interested in literature to explore.

[harry hayes]

Thanks Algy. Will give it a go at the week-end. sounds interesting.

 

Happy days