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Canto I: Exposition Canto II: Aleron Out to sea are thirty-three That with me sail the tides With these men, I trust my life They follow where I guide And so weâre gone from warm Toulon Just days from the decree Noble men off far ahead And me with bourgeoisie Bonaparte has aimed his fleet To Egyptâs sandy shores Through pirate gangs and ill intent His roaring cannons tore We follow in this taintless route As far as we can trail But soon weâll turn half-way to stern; To Gibraltar we shall sail Days upon the Aleron Are short but riveting My men maintain their cheery air And working still, they sing No more of cloudy restlessness No more of shady days The blazing sun and windy waves Have chased off my malaise We pull our sheets and head from east To curve around southwest Past Ibiza, whose northern shore Our Aleron caressed The choppy sea grows thinner And our nerves become unstill The pirates of the Barbary Coast Could leap in for the kill And now, a sign above the line Where water meets the sky A towâring plume of certain doom Is growing ever high The heavens choke with blackest smoke As fires burn a boat The raw, impending fear of Death Is clawing at my throat Canto III: Skull and Bones âTis hours later and weâre chased Beneath the star-dogged moon We tried to break away to north But broke away too soon Unknown, we tailed the pirate ship Then saw the far black dot The crowâs nest signaled skull and bones; We held onto our knot We much too late had turned around The Aleron spun slow Sheets so white in plain of sight Had sold us to our foe Our heaviest of itemry Into the sea we cast Rusty tools and iron spools: Submerged, and sinking fast Yet still we could not make a pace To lose the rotten crew; On our backs, they sailed our tracks And split our wake in two And so the misty moon is here And watches like a ghoul As we divorce our southern course For Pillars of Hercule The flickâring light behind us Like a glimmer in an eye Stares and preys upon us In cover of black dye It grows and throws upon our ship A light of fear and blood It digs into our drowsy eyes With sharpness of a spud We hold on to our frantic pace Till night invites the day When to our right, in bright sunlight, An ally heads our way With Godly sound the cannons pound The scoundrels far in back Our brothers there in ship so fair Repelled the foul attack Canto IV: Gibraltar In safer seas, our Aleron Met with Le Taureau Bleu We buy and sell and trade our stock And praise and thank the crew For safetyâs sake, along we take Two cannons of our own Weâll stand a better chance against The skull and crossĂ©d bones On we sail, on more and more On through the placid day No longer faced with poor intent We make our merry way Finally, from the vociferous chum Upon the tall crowâs nest âLand ho! Land ho!â Enthused, we know Gibraltarâs over the crests I decide to park (good-will flag on ark) At the British colonial base With cannons in stow, civilians are we Attacking is surely bad taste Just then, as I stood face-front on the deck, A shrill squawking was cast To the back I turned, and quickly discerned A yellow bird up on a mast How dare it perch there! Iâd kill it, I swear But Iâd fire not a gun Britons who spy me would surely deny me Fair entrance, if thatâs what Iâd done Instead Iâll sit tight; my crew is all right They donât mind the bird at all Iâll listen and bear it, and try to forget That the bird is the cause of my fall Closer we draw to Gibraltarâs port The Britons are within clear view With a wave of a flag, they accept us in But my anger cannot be subdued I ready my gun; to the bird I have spun And fire my shots to the air The Britons, upset, rush onboard and get Me constrained; and ensued despair Canto V: The Crimson Owl Silver chains kept me detained As questioning carried on Was I a spy for whom I ally? Or was I simply a con? I kept face as the questioner paced And the brute slapped me around Lastly, I smiled, as after a while They had no evidence found With regret, they set me free Determining I was no harm But seconds before I went through the door A fellow rushed in with alarm Cannons, found inside my ship As rifles point at me Again, they had me cuffed and chained And threatened hostilely âSmuggling arms to enemy shipsâ Was written in their book Chained and gagged and stowed was I No better than a crook Between the pillars I was passed But not as I had hoped Both my arm and legs were bound My fragile neck was choked In the bowels of The Crimson Owl I slept in dark distress No other day, with truth I say, Had I known such duress The days had passed and Iâd amassed A hunger, fierce and true All my thought was set aside To find something to chew When suddenly, the shrillest sound Came flying from afar A cannon shot had hit its mark The mainmast it would mar Sounds of death came all around And finally toward me My blind removed, I held in view The pirates of this sea Canto VI: Captain Riceau I stepped aboard by point of sword And left the burning Owl âBienvenue Ă Le Chat Fouâ Said a fellow through his scowl But when I talked, they stopped and gawked Surprised at me they were A fellow French, I was embraced; The Crazy Cat could purr They brought me on, my captors gone, And took me as their own And for the time, I went along And made this Cat my home I was kept live, and was used for My knowledge of the sea For vengeance âgainst the Britons I complied happily For months - perhaps three seasons passed I rode upon this ship Captain Riceau valued me He named me second skip For cause unknown, we crossed the sea Old Captain held his tongue He would not tell us why we trekked And chased the setting sun He brought us âround the chilly tip Of Chileâs southern shore No reason from his crazy lips Though long did we implore Then at last, the day had passed When Riceau caught a cold His eyes were red, his limbs were dead His breathing: hoarse and old I became the skipper then And buried him at sea We cut up north to flee the cold But at a loss were we Confused and crazy weâd become Just like the Cat, rode we I thought to keep Old Captainâs path And that meant mutiny Canto VII: Mutiny Two days itâd take for them to make The foul and bitter plan That Iâd be through with Le Chat Fou And theyâd return to Cannes I lay asleep, in sleep so deep Dreaming of Calais The maiden fair with yellow hair Who one day would betray In this dream, I heard her scream And went to touch her cheek But standing as a statue does Her gaze was still and bleak They dragged me back into this world Then dragged me off the port My lungs too filled with shockĂ©d air To object to this tort They threw my pants and diary, And sandals, as they laughed For shoes could serve no purpose On the oceanâs liquid draft The flickâring light before me Like a glimmer in an eye Stares but grows more distant And retreats into black dye An injury had placed me in A lesser swimming league Then again, itâd only serve To cause me great fatigue Three days, I had rode the tide Of the western oceanâs waves No shark, no squid, no slimy thing For my flesh did crave The crests came up like daggers And fell like hulking trees I prayed to God almighty I survive the vicious seas Finally, I set my stare Upon the northwest sky Far away, but clear as day: An object in my eye Canto VIII: Abyss Although I swam me âcross the sea As fast as my arm can Dry throat and sun win victory Oâer me: a fainted man Trapped in darkness once again I spy my fair Calais Screaming, shrill in bleakness then With not a word to say Over me her head hangs low Her arm is slightly raised Blood drips off her elbow Her expression leaves me dazed Sheâs gone; the air is hard to breathe The wind is biting cold A canopy of restless leaves Is stirring uncontrolled Lost inside this world of wood I struggle to emerge Feels like years have I withstood While searching for the verge No chirpings from my yellow bird No noises all around Not a sound is to be heard But footsteps at the ground No rodents gnawing at the bark No insects in the trees Alone I sleep in brush so dark With nobody but me In the drying mud I'm laid Despondent of my fate Looking through the verdant shade The sun does penetrate Streaming down, the light is rich Bespeckled on the floor Dancing 'round without a hitch Its presence I implore I call upon the pouring light To lift me from this hell To nullify the chilly blight Incite the warmth to swell Canto IX: Land Forgets Itself The burning light lends me its faith Yet suddenly absconds The dulling light projects a wraith: My soul from the Beyond The day retreats and turns to night The moon in place of sun Mute, and without touch or sight I desperately run Fleeing from my fading soul Myself, I do berate For no such being should extol Escaping from my fate Luscious leaves all turn to brown They wither and fall fast Suddenly, upon the ground A dune of sand's amassed Crawling on the desert floor And shaking from the cold I hate and bitterly abhor The night's begrudging hold In the distance, at the line The land forgets itself The beaming rays of light do shine And warmth indeed does swell Basking in the drenching sun My coldness is expelled Frigidity that night had won Has fully been repelled In the sands, I've laid to rest To steal the heat of day Yet no sooner had the sun caressed Than sourly betray Melted on the scorching sands My body burned and scarred I cannot lift my torrid hand My feet have both been charred The burning heat has ripped my lust For life and will to live My last resolve is brutely thrust Through Death's unyielding sieve Canto X: L'Oiseau Jaune I coughed and spat the water that I swallowed with my snores Upon the sand my hand did land; Iâd made my way to shore The beach was bright with fiery light My skin was hot and red I tried to get out of my head Those visions that I dread A novelist I once had been Writing was my joy With pen in hand, I could withstand Each plot set to destroy Yet Calais came and stole my heart But also my free time We wed and had a baby boy Our life was too sublime I raised my pen to write again To feed the family right I spent my days filling the page And toiled all the night When finally, sheâd lost her mind She needed to be loved I tried to calm her shrill attacks With no help from Above My raging wife had grabbed a knife And stabbed my writing hand Yet somehow I had speared her eye I couldnât understand At the elbow, I was chopped And no more could I write The widespread fact Iâd killed my mate Had augmented my plight I beached onto an island; This was no Chilean land I walked around the grainy ground And found nothing but sand But soon a rescue ship had come I was not too long gone I read the name upon the port It was L'Oiseau Jaune |
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