Everything2 is a community for fiction, nonfiction, poetry, reviews, and more. Get writing help or enjoy nearly a half million pieces of original writing.
“Fetch aft the rum, Darby!”
-
The original title of this poem was
Derelict and written by a Kentucky poet in 1891. Young E. Allison (1853-1932), of Louisville published his long and gory impression of a rhyme from a popular novel of the day in the Louisville Courier-Journal. He promoted
Derelict as a reminiscence of Treasure Island the adventure novel penned by Robert Louis Stevenson.
As the authors original title points out, the verse is about a ship found adrift at sea. The crew have all done each other in and left behind a ship laden with plunder. The discoverers of this shipwreck of flotsam and jetsam have tossed the dead overboard with a