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by Dorothy Foster Brown

The Jolly Roger
Language: English 
Ship ahoy!  Yo-ho!
Sing a song of pirates, sailing o'er the main,
On the trail of treasure-ships from Salvador to Spain,
Following the glint of gold to Hell and back again,
For they're following the Jolly Roger.

Rough, tough sailormen, naked to the waist,
Black and tan and yellow men, lean and evil faced,
Out-at-elbows   gentlemen, dirty and disgraced,
For they're following the Jolly Roger.

Sing a song of pirates, sailing o'er the main,
On the trail of treasure-ships from Salvador to Spain,
*Following the glint of gold to Hell and back again,
For they're following the Jolly Roger.

Swaggering adventurers, with histories to hide,
Jailbirds and water-rats, cruel, shifty-eyed;
Outlaws of the seven seas fighting side by side,
For they're following the Jolly Roger.

Sing a song of pirates, sailing up and down;
Some of them will die by steel, some of them will drown,
Some will grace a gallows-tree in a harbor town,
For they're following the Jolly Roger.
Yo-ho!  Yo-ho!  Yo-ho!

View text with all available footnotes

Text Authorship:

  • by Dorothy Foster Brown  [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

  • by R. Ritchie Robertson , "The Jolly Roger" [
     text verified 1 time
    ]

Researcher for this page: Brian Charles Witkowski

This text was added to the website: 2004-06-27
Line count: 22
Word count: 164

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