A Teagoing Admiral + 

Once the Queen of Nether China + 

(So benign a Messalina!) + 

Said: “I’ll make a Naval Hero + 

Without fear⁠—O brave as Nero! + 

He shall dominate the ocean + 

By promotion, that’s my notion. + 

All my other sons of thunder + 

Then shall plunder vainly under + 

This Incomparable Person, + 

Interspersin’ lively cursin’ + 

With their futile strife to shiver + 

Every river-pirate’s liver, + 

And to ascertain the measure + 

Of his treasure at their leisure. + 

For I’ll so arrange the looting + 

And the shooting and the hooting, + 

And the making frightful faces + 

(These grimaces are the bases + 

Of our tactics) that they never, + 

Howsoever brave and clever, + 

Shall have any kind of inning + 

In the skinning now beginning. + 

And I’ll see that in the story + 

Of the gory game of glory + 

The historian shall slight ’em + 

Or indict ’em⁠—maybe bite ’em. + 

But the Hero of my making, + 

Whom I’m aching to be waking + 

Into visible existence, + 

He shall distance these Philistines. + 

Fame’s loud trumpet⁠—he shall hear it. + 

Blown with spirit in his ear, it + 

Shall extol his birth and breeding, + 

His exceeding knack at leading + 

In a sanguinary sea fight, + 

Or a tea fight, or a flea fight, + 

Till he burst with admiration + 

Of his station in the nation! + 

Then while all the people mock him, + 

I’ll unfrock him! That will shock him.” + 

Thus the Queen of Nether China, + 

The Regina Mun-Kee-Shina, + 

Made to Naval Evolution + 

A Confucian contribution. + 