Half a hundred terrible pig-tails, pirates famous in song and story,
Hoisting the old black flag once more, in a palmy harbour of Caribbee,
"Farewell" we waved to our negro lasses, and chorussing out to the billows of glory,
Billows a-glitter with rum and gold, we followed the sunset over the sea.
  While earth goes round, let rum go round,
  Our capstan song we sung:
  Half a hundred broad-sheet pirates
  When the world was young!

2. Sea-roads plated with pieces of eight that rolled to a heaven by rum made mellow,
Heaved and coloured our barque's black nose where the Lascar sang to a twinkling star,
And the tangled bow-sprit plunged and dipped its point in the west's wild red and yellow,
Till the curved white moon crept out astern like a naked knife from a blue cymar.
  While earth goes round, let rum go round,
  Our capstan song we sung:
  Half a hundred terrible pirates
  When the world was young!

 ... 

4. There was Captain Hook (of whom ye have heard -- so called from his terrible cold steel twister,
His own right hand having gone to a shark with a taste for skippers on pirate-trips),
There was Silver himself, with his cruel crutch, and the blind man Pew, with a phiz like a blister,
Gouged and white and dreadfully dried in the reek of a thousand burning ships.
  While earth goes round, let rum go round,
  Our capstan song we sung:
  Half a hundred cut-throat pirates
  When the world was young!

 ... 

6. And our black prow grated, one golden noon, on the happiest isle of the Happy Islands,
An isle of Paradise, fair as a gem, on the sparkling breast of the wine-dark deep,
An isle of blossom and yellow sand, and enchanted vines on the purple highlands,
Wi' grapes like melons, nay clustering suns, a-sprawl over cliffs in their noonday sleep.
   ... 

7. And lo! on the soft warm edge of the sand, where the sea like wine in a golden noggin
Creamed, and the rainbow-bubbles clung to his flame-red hair, a white youth lay,
Sleeping; and now, as his drowsy grip relaxed, the cup  ... 
Slipped from his hand and its purple dregs were mixed with the flames and flakes of spray.
  While earth goes round, let rum go round,
  Our capstan song we sung:
  Half a hundred diffident pirates
  When the world was young!

 ... 

9. Now Timothy Hook (of whom ye have heard, with his talon of steel) our doughty skipper,
A man that, in youth being brought up pious, had many a book on his cabin-shelf,
Suddenly caught at a comrade's hand with the tearing claws of his cold steel flipper
And cried, "Great Thunder and Brimstone, boys, I've hit it at last! 'Tis Bacchus himself."
  And the earth went round, and the rum went round,
  And never a word we sung:
  Half a hundred tottering pirates
  When the world was young!

 ... 

12. We had caught our god, and we got him aboard ere he woke (he was more than a little heavy);
Glittering, beautiful, flushed he lay in the lurching bows of the old black barque,
As the sunset died and the white moon dawned, and we saw on the island a star-bright bevy
Of naked Bacchanals stealing to watch through the whispering vines in the purple dark!
  While earth goes round, let rum go round,
  Our capstan song we sung:
  Half a hundred innocent pirates
  When the world was young!

 ... 

15. Beautiful, white, at the break of day, He woke and, the net in a smoke dissolving,
He rose like a flame, with his yellow-eyed pards and his flame-red hair like a windy dawn,
And the crew kept back, respectful like, till the leopards advanced with their eyes revolving,
Then up the rigging went Silver and Hook, and the rest of us followed with case-knives drawn.
  While earth goes round, let rum go round,
  Our cross-tree song we sung:
  Half a hundred terrified pirates
  When the world was young!

16. And "Take me home to my happy island!" he says. "Not I," sings Hook, "by thunder;
We'll take you home to a happier isle, our palmy harbour of Caribbee!"
"You won't!" says Bacchus, and quick as a dream the planks of the deck just heaved asunder,
And a mighty Vine came straggling up that grew from the depths of the wine-dark sea.
  And the sea went round, and the skies went round,
  As our cross-tree song we sung:
  Half a hundred horrified pirates
  When the world was young!

17. We were anchored fast as an oak on land, and the branches clutched and the tendrils quickened,
And bound us writhing like snakes to the spars! Ay, we hacked with our knives at the boughs in vain,
And Bacchus laughed loud on the decks below, as ever the tough sprays tightened and thickened,
And the blazing hours went by, and we gaped with thirst and our ribs were racked with pain
  And the skies went round, and the sea swam round,
  And we knew not what we sung:
  Half a hundred lunatic pirates
  When the world was young!

 ... 

19. Over the waters the white moon winked its bruised old eye at our bowery prison,
When suddenly we were aware of a light such as never a moon or a ship's lamp throws,
And a shallop of pearl, like a Nautilus shell, came shimmering up as by magic arisen,
With sails: of silk and a glory around it that turned the sea to a rippling rose.
  And our heads went round, and the stars went round,
  At the song that cruiser sung:
  Half a hundred goggle-eyed pirates
  When the world was young!

20. Half a hundred rose-white Bacchanals hauled the ropes of that rosy cruiser!
Over the seas they came and laid their little white hands on the old black barque;
And Bacchus he ups and he steps aboard: "Hi, stop!" cries Hook, "you frantic old boozer!
Belay, below there, don't you go and leave poor pirates to die in the dark!"
  And the moon went round, and the stars went round,
  As they all pushed off and sung:
  Half a hundred ribbonless Bacchanals
  When the world was young!

 ... 

23. Over the seas in the pomp of dawn a king's ship came with her proud flag flying.
Cloud upon cloud we watched her tower with her belts and her crowded zones of sail;
And an A.B. perched in a white crow's nest, with a brass-rimmed spy-glass quietly spying,
As we swallowed the lumps in our choking throats and uttered our last faint feeble hail!
  And our heads went round as the ship went round,
  And we thought how coves had swung:
  All for playing at broad-sheet pirates
  When the world was young!

 ... 

26. Ah, yet (if ye stand me a noggin of rum) shall the old Blue Dolphin echo the story!
We'll hoist the white cross-bones again in our palmy harbour of Caribbee!
We'll wave farewell to our negro lasses and, chorussing out to the billows of glory,
Billows a-glitter with rum and gold, we'll follow the sunset over the sea!
  While earth goes round, let rum go round!
  O, sing it as we sung!
  Half a hundred terrible pirates
  When the world was young!