Another:—
“At East Looe, R.S.O., you’ll find
A ‘Ship’ in which you’ll make your home;
’Tis safely anchor’d near the shore
Above the angry billows’ foam.
* * * * *
Three voyages in this ‘Ship’ I’ve made,
The wind was fair, the ocean calm:—
And ‘Captain Cook,’ he knows his book,
His wife’s and sister’s hearts are warm.”
THE “JOLLY SAILOR.”
But “Captain” Cook did not know his book sufficiently well to know that he had entertained a minor poet unawares. In the Visitors’ Book is the signature of Mr. Edmund Gosse, and the landlord had no recollection of him, although his visit had been, as another poet (minimis!) sings, “only a year ago.”
“The ‘Captain’s’ wife and sister too
Will do their best to make your lip
So much enjoy your food[9] that you
Again will take another trip
In that most comfortable ‘Ship.’”
Fragment:—
“At Looe again: This makes my Trinity
Of visits here; that is, they number Three.
Despite storms, wrecks, and stress of life
I anchor here, away from strife
For briefest stay.”...