Classic Poem

1. Oh, a long, long time and a very long time, To me
way , haay, hay, yah! Oh, a long, long time, and a
very long time, Oh, a long time a go .

2 Old Noah, he built a Hark for to sail (to go)

3 Around (Oh, around) the world and home again.

4 Now, I went down to the docks one morn for a ship.

5 There was an old wooden packet a-lyin' there,

6 So I went on board and asked for a job.

7 Oh, it (she) must have been the old Ark that Noah built.

8 Her hatch you had never saw nothing before!

9 About thirty-six feet long and nowhere insured.

10 Oh, her knees were so thick that you could not discern.

11 It's a long, long time and a very long time.

12 Now, this is the hatch the animals must have gone down.
Now, this is the hatch where the animals went down.

13 The gangway it was built of tim ber six foot high.

14 I thought that I had struck an 'ome at last,

15 Where I could make a pay-day and go

16 Out to the western shores and away,

17 But I had (I had) made a mistake when I judged her that way,

18 For at last, when we got out and to sea,

19 Her bow it was bluff and her counter was round,

20 Her fores'l would come to within about six points,

21 Her fo'c'sle was low and her poop was so high

22 That she looked just like a Dutch galley-old-yacht [galleotte].

23 So, it's a long, long time and a very long time.
Oh, a long, long time and a very long time, etc .