A Note On Wyatt
See
her
come
bearing
down,
a
tidy
craft!
Gaily
her
topsails
bulge,
her
sidelights
burn!
There's
jigging
in
her
rigging
fore
and
aft,
And
beauty's
self,
not
name,
limned
on
her
stern.
See
at
her
head
the
Jolly
Roger
flutters!
"God,
is
she
fully
manned?
If
she's
one
short…"
Cadet,
bargee,
longshoreman,
shellback
mutters;
Drowned
is
reason
that
should
me
comfort.
But
habit,
like
a
cork,
rides
the
dark
flood,
And,
like
a
cork,
keeps
her
in
walls
of
glass;
Faint
legacies
of
brine
tingle
my
blood,
The
tide-wind's
fading
echoes,
as
I
pass.
Now,
jolly
ship,
sign
on
a
jolly
crew:
God
bless
you,
dear,
and
all
who
sail
in
you.
Kingsley Amis
Kingsley Amis, (born April 16, 1922, London, England—died October 22, 1995, London), novelist, poet, critic, and teacher who created in his first novel, Lucky Jim, a comic figure that became a household word in Great Britain in the 1950s. Amis was educated at the City of London School and at St. John’s College, Oxford (B.A., 1949). His education was interrupted during World War II by his service as a lieutenant in the Royal Corps of Signals. From 1949 to 1961 he taught at universities in Wales, England, and the United States.