Me leg is a peg, me hand is a hook,

me surname be less real than either

Yo ho, yo ho, it’s a pirates life for me

 

Seas gave me scurvy; Brits want me

for bounty; me has suffered a mutiny:

marooned me at midnight, to rot on

the isle, with no vessel, nor me crew,

 

which murdered me first-mate, he was

boiled in oil; and tortured me son, he

was chained left to spoil; planned also

to plank me–me wishes they’d done it

 

Yo ho, yo ho, it’s a pirates life for me

Betrayed by ye old code is me, yo ho

 

Captain Kidd, were he living, he’d say

that gold is always best never found:

Me hook’s not so bad, it works fine as

a hammer; me peg’s ugly but sturdy;

 

Me name might be false, but should

protect me own family, including me

son–he was captured by the French,

where, now, he live freely, no bounty

 

Although me first-mate was murdered,

his death was but certain, as was Kidd’s

Above the Thames Kidd gibbets, yo ho