200 Years After Cook

Would Cook, I wonder, ever have dreamt

Of seventeen eighty-eight,

Of convict ships and dismal cargoes

Rushing onward to their fate?

As he sailed the eastern waters

Did he see the prison yards,

Were the gallows, gaunt and tall

Surrounded by the spectral guards?

Did he hear the groans and cries,

The cat ‘o nine, its evil hiss…

Could he possibly have known

Discovery would come to this?

 

David Lewis Paget

Reviews

[Tate Morgan]

I hae to say it But I think Cook would have expected it