THE BALLAD OF THE "CLAMPHERDOWN."
"The Ballad of the _Clampherdown_," by Rudyard Kipling, is included
because my boys always like it. It needs a great deal of explanation,
and few boys will hold out to the end in learning it. But "it pays."
(1865-.)
It was our war-ship _Clampherdown_
Would sweep the Channel clean,
Wherefore she kept her hatches close
When the merry Channel chops arose,
To save the bleached marine.
She had one bow-gun of a hundred ton,
And a great stern-gun beside;
They dipped their noses deep in the sea,
They racked their stays and stanchions free
In the wash of the wind-whipped tide.
It was our war-ship _Clampherdown_,
Fell in with a cruiser light
That carried the dainty Hotchkiss gun
And a pair o' heels wherewith to run,
From the grip of a close-fought fight.
She opened fire at seven miles--
As ye shoot at a bobbing cork--
And once she fired and twice she fired,
Till the bow-gun drooped like a lily tired
That lolls upon the stalk.
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