NAVAL RECOLLECTIONS IN SHREDS AND PATCHES WITH STRANGE REFLECTIONS ABOVE AND UNDER HATCHES.

I know nothing of grammar;

At school they never could hammer

Or beat it into my head.

The bare word made me stammer,

And turn pale as if I were dead.

And here I may as well be telling

I’m often damned out in my spelling.

And this is all the apology

I offer for my chronology,

And biographical sketches

Of mighty men, and lubberly wretches,

From seventeen hundred and seventy-seven—

Their rank, their titles, and their names are given.

14th June 1836.

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