A Night at Dago Tom’s
Oh yesterday, I t’ink it was, while cruisin’ down the street,I met with Bill.--‘Hullo,’ he says, ‘let’s give the girls a treat.’We’d red bandanas round our necks ’n’ our shrouds new rattled down,So we filled a couple of Santy Cruz and cleared for Sailor Town.
We scooted south with a press of sail till we fetched to a caboose,The ‘Sailor’s Rest,’ by Dago Tom, alongside ‘Paddy’s Goose.’Red curtains to the windies, ay, ’n’ white sand to the floor,And an old blind fiddler liltin’ the tune of ‘Lowlands no more.’
He played the ‘Shaking of the Sheets’ ’n’ the couples did advance,Bowing, stamping, curtsying, in the shuffling of the dance;The old floor rocked and quivered, so it struck beholders dumb,’N’ arterwards there was sweet songs ’n’ good Jamaikey rum.
’N’ there was many a merry yarn of many a merry spreeAboard the ships with royals set a-sailing on the sea,Yarns of the hooker ‘Spindrift,’ her as had the clipper-bow,--‘There ain’t no ships,’ says Bill to me, ‘like that there hooker now.’
When the old blind fiddler played the tune of ‘Pipe the Watch Below,’The skew-eyed landlord dowsed the glim and bade us ‘stamp ’n’ go,’’N’ we linked it home, did Bill ’n’ I, adown the scattered streets,Until we fetched to Land o’ Nod atween the linen sheets.
Words in this poem
- caboose n.
- A house on deck, where the cooking is done; -- commonly called the galley. [Cf. D. kabuis, kombuis, Dan. kabys, Sw. kabysa, G. kabuse a little room or hut. The First part of the word seems to be allied to W. cab cabin, booth. Cf. Cabin.]
- dago n.
- A nickname given to a person of Spanish (or, by extension, Portuguese or Italian) descent. [U. S.] [Cf. Sp. Diego, E. James.]
- fiddler n.
- One who plays on a fiddle or violin. [AS. fi.]
- quivered a.
- Furnished with, or carrying, a quiver.
- aboard adv.
- On board; into or within a ship or boat; hence, into or within a railway car. [Pref. a- on, in + board.]
- clipper n.
- One who clips; specifically, one who clips off the edges of coin.
- glim n.
- Brightness; splendor.
- bade
- A form of the pat tense of Bid.
- adown adv.
- From a higher to a lower situation; downward; down, to or on the ground. [OE. adun, adoun, adune. AS. of dune off the hill. See Down.]
- atween adv.
- Between. Spenser. [See Atwain, and cf. Between.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Night at Dago Tom’s is in the public domain. This text is taken from Salt-Water Ballads, Project Gutenberg ebook #52761; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John Masefield, A Night at Dago Tom’s, in Salt-Water Ballads (1902), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #52761, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/masefield-salt-water/a-night-at-dago-tom-s.html, id L12656.
Form and metre
A Night at Dago Tom’s is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABB. The metre is iambic heptameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 83%). 90% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 14.4 syllables. 5% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic heptameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 AABB streetA · treatA · downB · townB
- 2 AABB cabooseA · gooseA · floorB · moreB
- 3 AABB advanceA · danceA · dumbB · rumB
- 4 AABB spreeA · seaA · bowB · nowB
- 5 AABB belowA · goA · streetsB · sheetsB
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic heptameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Oh yesterday, I t’ink it was, while cruisin’ down the street, | 14 | ·/˘··········· |
| I met with Bill.--‘Hullo,’ he says, ‘let’s give the girls a treat.’ | 14 | ····˘/········ |
| We’d red bandanas round our necks ’n’ our shrouds new rattled down, | 15 | ···/˘·/··/··/˘· |
| So we filled a couple of Santy Cruz and cleared for Sailor Town. | 16 | ····/˘·/˘····/˘· |
| We scooted south with a press of sail till we fetched to a caboose, | 16 | ·/˘···········˘/ |
| The ‘Sailor’s Rest,’ by Dago Tom, alongside ‘Paddy’s Goose.’ | 14 | ·/˘··/˘·˘///˘· |
| Red curtains to the windies, ay, ’n’ white sand to the floor, | 14 | ·/˘··/˘······· |
| And an old blind fiddler liltin’ the tune of ‘Lowlands no more.’ | 15 | ····/˘·····/··· |
| He played the ‘Shaking of the Sheets’ ’n’ the couples did advance, | 15 | ···/˘·····/˘·˘/ |
| Bowing, stamping, curtsying, in the shuffling of the dance; | 14 | /˘/˘/˘˘··/˘··· |
| The old floor rocked and quivered, so it struck beholders dumb, | 14 | ·····/˘···˘/˘· |
| ’N’ arterwards there was sweet songs ’n’ good Jamaikey rum. | 14 | ·············· |
| ’N’ there was many a merry yarn of many a merry spree | 14 | ···/·/˘··/·/˘· |
| Aboard the ships with royals set a-sailing on the sea, | 14 | ˘/···/˘··/˘··· |
| Yarns of the hooker ‘Spindrift,’ her as had the clipper-bow,-- | 14 | ···/˘/˘····/˘· |
| ‘There ain’t no ships,’ says Bill to me, ‘like that there hooker now.’ | 14 | ···········/˘· |
| When the old blind fiddler played the tune of ‘Pipe the Watch Below,’ | 15 | ····/˘········· |
| The skew-eyed landlord dowsed the glim and bade us ‘stamp ’n’ go,’ | 14 | ···/·········· |
| ’N’ we linked it home, did Bill ’n’ I, adown the scattered streets, | 15 | ·········˘/·/˘· |
| Until we fetched to Land o’ Nod atween the linen sheets. | 14 | ········˘/·/˘· |
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