I set off for eleven oceans
After I'd sailed seven seas
Four more I could not fail
I thought it would be a breeze
I was a lonesome vagabond
in search of riches, tourism and drink
But on that eleventh ocean
was where my ship did sink
A-drowning I was ship-wrecked
my raft it was marooned
upon the shore of a far off Isle
by a whale I had Harpooned
For where is this poor countree
that ye have towed me to?
He said well lonesome vagabond
I've towed ye to Peru
Peru I said and startled up
Where canst a man walk home?
Neigh dear lonesome Mariner
For too far have ye now roamed
But Lo what Majestic sky turned out
When I did turn me Head
For Heaven displayed a plethora of stars
One if followed must home me led
To orient I fixed the whale
Again out on the ocean
And told him hence to beat his tail
And thus from this dark Isle we shall give motion
And so on the crew of one did wend
It's starlit toiling passion
For the sea was as green as a wild monster
Calling my heart's courage to ration
Never a boat had thus put sail
Upon these treacherous seas
Nor chart or map to orient
Our pathless way to ease
We journeyed on without rainfall,
Our mouths were parched as sands
And the rats which fled from my raft
The searing heat they could not stand
Then to me appeared a visage of a friend
One I had known but now long lost
A man I had betrayed in love
And now before me visited his ghost
Accusing eyes they pierced me
And cut me to the quick
That I should live, while he had died
No candle burns a faster wick
Then flames in cohorts filled the scene
And seemed to set a light the timber
And in each flame a visage appeared
Of a man who was my crew member
They called to me and cried still worse
Why have you forsaken your brothers?
Because your life and his were tied together
Now his death will be your curse
So, on I fled, crying “take me away from this guilt”
And soon from the air came a wandering dove
The evil which gave voice to these spirits
Had been dissolved by a face of love
The mermaid (dove?) joined my vessel and led the
Whale towards dark cliffs,
“It is land “I cried
And so grateful was I
That no line written could tell of my bliss
Thank you said I, but then down had he died
Exhausted upon the deck
My future still lay in the balance, so for luck
I wore the bird around my neck
The Island was old and grey from a distance
But with speed became more familiar
It was the very spot I had sailed from
In June fifteen long years past clear
The wedding guests had arrived and there
I went with upmost haste
Now to you I regale my tale
Of eleven ocean's to which I lay waste
