Help: Capital Ship's 'boxing glove'?!?!

Subject: Capital Ship's 'boxing glove'?!?!
From: Dani
Date: 28 Aug 00 - 08:13 AM

This is such a fun song to sing. But I HATE when there are words I can't figure out!

Some of them are obviously made up, but in the chorus you sing "I'm off to my love with a boxing glove 10,000 miles away. Anyone know why?

Dani

Subject: RE: Help: Capital Ship's 'boxing glove'?!?!
From: kendall
Date: 28 Aug 00 - 08:38 AM

More nonsense I always thought.

Subject: Lyr Add: A CAPITAL SHIP
From: Tiger
Date: 28 Aug 00 - 08:38 AM

This has been sung at home as long as I can remember, at least the first three stanzas. I think the original poem was written by a well known children's poet, perhaps James Whitcomb Riley.

A Capital Ship

A capital ship for an ocean trip
Was the "Walloping Window-Blind."
No wind that blew dismayed her crew,
Or troubled the captain's mind.
The man at the wheel was made to feel
Contempt for the wildest blow-w-w,
Though it oft' appeared when the gale had cleared
That he'd been in his bunk below.

CHORUS (each stanza)
So, blow ye winds, heigh-ho,
A-roving I will go;
I'll stay no more on England's shore,
So let the music play-ay-ay;
I'm off for the morning train,
I'll cross the raging main,
I'm off for my love with a boxing glove
Ten thousand miles away.

The bo'sn's mate was very sedate,
Yet fond of amusement, too.
He played hopscotch on the starboard watch,
While the captain tickled the crew.
And the gunner we had was apparently mad,
For he sat on the after rail-l-l
And fired salutes with the captain's boots
In the teeth of the booming gale.

The captain sat on the commodore's hat,
And dined in a royal way
Off pickles and figs, and little roast pigs,
And gunnery bread each day.
The cook was Dutch and behaved as such,
For the diet he served the crew-ew-ew,
Was a couple of tons of hot-cross buns
Served up with sugar and glue.

Then we all fell ill as mariners will
On a diet that's rough and crude;
And we shivered and shook as we dipped the cook
In a tub of his gluesome food.
All nautical pride we cast aside,
And we ran the vessel ashore-o-ore
On the Gulliby Isles, where the poopoo smiles,
And the rubbily ubdugs roar.

Composed of sand was that favored land,
And trimmed with cinnamon straws,
And pink and blue was the pleasing hue
Of the tickle-toe-teaser's claws.
We sat on the edge of a sandy ledge,
And shot at the whistling bee-ee-ee,
While the ring-tailed bats wore waterproof hats
As they dipped in the shining sea.

On rugbug bark from dawn to dark
We dined till we all had grown
Uncommonly shrunk, when a Chinese junk
Came up from the Torrible Zone.
She was chubby and square, but we didn't much care,
So we cheerily put to sea-ee-ea,
And we left all the crew of the junk to chew
On the bark of the rugbug tree.

Subject: RE: Help: Capital Ship's 'boxing glove'?!?!
From: sophocleese
Date: 28 Aug 00 - 08:44 AM

I'm with kendall on this one. I always thought it was rhyming nonsense.

Subject: RE: Help: Capital Ship's 'boxing glove'?!?!
From: Judy Cook
Date: 28 Aug 00 - 09:59 AM

The poem was written by Charles Edward Carryl who also wrote some good children's books, like _Davy and the Goblin_. The words he wrote vary in some minor details from those Tiger posted above... "Toasted pigs and pickles and figs", "...where the Poohpooh smiles, and the Anagazanders roar", "rubagrub tree", things like that.

I have the poem in Louis Untermeyer's _The Golden Treasury of Poetry_

I think it's a wonderful song and have also sung it since I was very small. Thanks for bringing it up.

--Judy Cook

Subject: RE: Help: Capital Ship's 'boxing glove'?!?!
From: Jeri
Date: 28 Aug 00 - 10:27 AM

The poem can be found here.

If you back up a bit and look at Joe Horn's Archive of Great Poetry, there are some good 'uns in there!

Subject: RE: Help: Capital Ship's 'boxing glove'?!?!
From: Barbara
Date: 28 Aug 00 - 10:59 AM

I think that kendall's got the right of it, and it's foolishness that rhymes -- he's going 10,000 miles to have a boxing match with his true love, or some such. Maybe it's really a wrestling match ;~>
Blessings,
Barbara

Subject: RE: Help: Capital Ship's 'boxing glove'?!?!
From: kendall
Date: 28 Aug 00 - 11:07 AM

Naw! that lime jello would raise hell with boxing gloves..

Subject: RE: Help: Capital Ship's 'boxing glove'?!?!
From: TonyK
Date: 28 Aug 00 - 01:59 PM

I always thought it had to do with sailing, but I don't remember why. I'm going to a weekend gathering of folkies and will ask around.

Subject: Lyr Add: MY TRUE LOVE SHE IS BEAUTIFUL (L Graham)
From: radriano
Date: 28 Aug 00 - 06:31 PM

I'm familiar with this as a sea song and I've been confused by the gloves line as well. I'd not heard the children's poem but Len Graham sings a version of the sea song that doesn't have the gloves line:

My True Love She is Beautiful

Len Graham


My true love she is beautiful, my true love she is young
Her eyes are as blue as the violets true and silvery sounds her tongue
Silvery sounds her tongue me boys (as I seen yer slay)
But she's due in a grand and a distant land, ten thousand miles away

Chorus:
Blow ye wind, hie-hoe, a-roving we will go
I'll stay no more in Erin's shore, let the music play
I'm off in the morning train, to cross the raging main
For I'm in the mood of my true love, ten thousands miles away

It was in a dark and a dismal night when first I met my Penn
She's a government band around her hand and another one round her neck
Another one round her leg, me boys (as I seen you slay)
But she's due in a grand and a distant land, ten thousand miles away

Hurrah for a gay and a gallant barque and a light and a gentle breeze
A captain too, and a jolly crew for to carry me o'er the sea
To carry me over to my true love, dressed up like a lady gay
Goodbye, says she, remember me, ten thousand miles away

And the sun shines bright in the Belfast fog and the tide is smooth and clear
May the ocean brine turn into wine if ever I see my dear
If ever I see my dear, my boys, dressed up like a lady gay
Goodbye, says she, remember me, ten thousand miles away
Radriano

Subject: RE: Help: Capital Ship's 'boxing glove'?!?!
From: Snuffy
Date: 28 Aug 00 - 06:35 PM

It's been in the DT since before they started putting dates in. Type Capital in the DigiTrad Lyrics Search box at the top of the page.

Wassail! V

Subject: RE: Help: Capital Ship's 'boxing glove'?!?!
From: Tiger
Date: 28 Aug 00 - 06:36 PM

Of course it's silly, it's a kids' song. As I understand it, it was written after watching his kids playing sailor using an old shutter as the ship, with assorted other kidlike props.

We do enjoy the song, always have, but seldom sing the last three verses - it makes the song awfully long, and they're REALLY silly.

And for Kendall and 'cleese, 50 choruses of "On top of Spaghetti."

Subject: RE: Help: Capital Ship's 'boxing glove'?!?!
From: Mooh
Date: 28 Aug 00 - 07:46 PM

You folks brought tears to my eyes.

I'd all but forgotten this song. My Dad, who died 3 weeks ago, would sing this (to me I always thought, but maybe as much to the open air)when we were motoring around in our little boat which he had built himself. I never had any idea what it all meant, but just going off to one's love with a boxing glove was enough to amuse me as a child, never mind the sight of Dad dropping all choral discipline and shouting this over the roar of the ancient 3 horse outboard as we rolled along with the waves. He had lots of old songs in his head, from a time before my childhood understanding, and I wish I could hear them one more time. I don't think I'd heard this one for 30 years or more, but I was immediately transported to a time when Dad was only a little older than I am now and I viewed him as a kind of protector.

Sorry for crying on the community shoulder. I AM happy I now have these words.

Peace and love, Mooh.

Subject: RE: Help: Capital Ship's 'boxing glove'?!?!
From: Troll
Date: 28 Aug 00 - 08:37 PM

I always looked on 'em as two different songs that shared a melody and a line or two.
As for the boxing glove, it rhymes with love. Do you really expect sense from a song with rubbley ubdugs,rugbug bark and a cook who makes,"...A number of tons of hot cross buns done up with sugar and glue." as the crew's principle diet?
I rest my case Your Honor.

troll

Subject: RE: Help: Capital Ship's 'boxing glove'?!?!
From: Dani
Date: 28 Aug 00 - 09:36 PM

Blessings on the Mudcat, blessings on Max, blessings on you and your precious memories of your dad, Mooh.

Dani

Subject: RE: Help: Capital Ship's 'boxing glove'?!?!
From: Mooh
Date: 28 Aug 00 - 09:59 PM

Dani, thanks. Mooh.

Subject: RE: Help: Capital Ship's 'boxing glove'?!?!
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 28 Aug 00 - 10:43 PM

G'day Dani,

The song quoted by Radriano raises the question of prior versions. That version is a fairly weatherworn version of the 10,000 Miles Away that is well known in Australia as a "Convict" song (more likely, a music Hall send up of a genuine convict era song ... much like Botany Bay ... the Toora li oora li aye one). This was well enough known in the goldrush era to spawn the song 1,000 Miles Away, about the Palmer River Rush of the 1870s and a later cattle droving The Roma Railway, from around the 1890s.

The 10,000 miles reference (the approximate distance from England to Australia by sailing ship), would be lifted from the first-mentioned song, which is in DigiTrad and (according to Stan Hugill) dates from the early 1800s. He may be right, but if so, it has been 'worked over' by the music hall.

I seem to remember coming across the Capital Ship version in 'Community Song books' from the 1920s/30s era.

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Help: Capital Ship's 'boxing glove'?!?!
From: GUEST,Gordon
Date: 12 May 08 - 03:52 PM

I listened to this as a child on Tom Chapin's album "Mother Earth". He does a great rendition of it (he skips the last two verses too) and I loved it so much. I never understood it really, but I knew it was silly, so it was perfect.

I was recently reminded of it when I heard my little cousin listening to it in the car. It's astounding how much of it I remember after what must be at least 12-15 years of never hearing it.

Subject: RE: Help: Capital Ship's 'boxing glove'?!?!
From: Jack Campin
Date: 12 May 08 - 08:42 PM

Paging Deb Cowan... I'm not going to pre-empt her magnificent explanation of this one...

Subject: RE: Help: Capital Ship's 'boxing glove'?!?!
From: GUEST,Steve Gardham
Date: 13 May 08 - 11:08 AM

I have in front of me the original c1860 sheet music for 'Ten Thousand Miles Away, popular song and chorus, written, composed and sung by J B Geoghegan' also sung by Harry Liston, pub. Hutchings and Romer of 9 Conduit Street, Regent St London. Geoghegan, who also wrote several other songs still sung in oral tradition and folk clubs, gave us Hey John Barleycorn. 'Walloping window Blind' must be a parody on this. On my copy someone has added a few bawdy lines from an oral version. It has 5 stanzas and the usual chorus. The boxing glove original line runs 'For I'm on the move to my own true love, Ten.......' As with most songs like this the parodies are much more fun.
An accessible copy is in the 'Scottish Students Songbook' also attributed to Geoghegan. If you want to know more try 'Yorkshire Garland' website and click on the notes for 'Glossop Road'.

Subject: RE: Help: Capital Ship's 'boxing glove'?!?!
From: GUEST
Date: 19 May 08 - 09:42 PM

My elementary school music teacher told us that the "love with a boxing glove" was a kangaroo--that the sailor was going off to Australia and was making a wry reference to the lack of women out there. Seem likely?

Subject: RE: Help: Capital Ship's 'boxing glove'?!?!
From: DebC
Date: 19 May 08 - 09:51 PM

Here I am, Jack!!! :-)

I recorded "The Walloping Window Blind" on my last CD "Dad's Dinner Pail and Other Songs From the Helen Hartness Flanders Collection". I wondered about the "boxing glove" line as well and I did get an explanation of sorts a couple of years ago.

I performed the song at South Shields Folk Club and a gentleman came up to me at the interval and told me that when young boys were at boarding school, boxing gloves were put on their hands to prevent them from "choking the chicken" under the covers.

Now whether this is true or not, I don't know. But it makes for great stage banter and I get a few nods from some of the gents in the audience when I offer that explanation.

You can hear the song on my MySpace page at http://www.myspace.com/debracowan

Deb Cowan

Subject: RE: Help: Capital Ship's 'boxing glove'?!?!
From: EBarnacle
Date: 20 May 08 - 09:52 AM

Either DebC's or Guest's explanation makes sense. I guess we will have to wait until Carryl is resurrected to find out what he meant.

Subject: RE: Help: Capital Ship's 'boxing glove'?!?!
From: Gurney
Date: 20 May 08 - 06:01 PM

Cyril Tawney sang:
'I'm taking a trip on a Government ship, ten thousand miles away."

No nonsense in that version. A song of a man following a 'transported' lover.

Subject: RE: Help: Capital Ship's 'boxing glove'?!?!
From: Dead Horse
Date: 21 May 08 - 07:25 AM

Maybe the boxing glove was worn to stave off self abuse during the long trip to meet his love.
Sorry, my mind is like that.

Subject: RE: Help: Capital Ship's 'boxing glove'?!?!
From: EBarnacle
Date: 21 May 08 - 11:10 AM

It may also be that the singer is a transportee, following his lady, who was also transported.

Subject: RE: Help: Capital Ship's 'boxing glove'?!?!
From: Amos
Date: 21 May 08 - 11:26 AM

The Walloping Window Blind is a nonsense song. The humorous implication that one must be prepared to defend oneself physically when reuniting with one's love is razor-sharp nonsense.


A

Subject: RE: Help: Capital Ship's 'boxing glove'?!?!
From: EBarnacle
Date: 21 May 08 - 10:05 PM

Amos, I'm preeeetty sure we all know that. Allow us our simple pleasures.

Subject: RE: Help: Capital Ship's 'boxing glove'?!?!
From: Amos
Date: 21 May 08 - 10:51 PM

Oh, sorry. I thought there was some question about it... :>(



A

Subject: RE: Help: Capital Ship's 'boxing glove'?!?!
From: Howard Kaplan
Date: 21 May 08 - 11:06 PM

We need to apply some linguistic analysis here. If Boxing Day is the day after Christmas, then clearly a boxing glove is a day after glove. Allowing for the inevitable loss of punctuation in the oral tradition, this must be the notorious day-after glove, an ineffective precursor to the morning-after pill. That would seem to be a sensible thing to be taking on a visit to one's love, in the days before its ineffectiveness had been conclusively demonstrated.

Subject: RE: Help: Capital Ship's 'boxing glove'?!?!
From: Gurney
Date: 22 May 08 - 12:23 AM

There have been conclusive demonstrations on this thread, Howard, your essay into linguistic analysis being one.

It seems obvious to me that you are completely on the wrong track (or tack, as this is a nautical theme) and that the gentleman's proffered piece of pugilistic equipment is merely an attempt to reduce the terrible effect of her knuckle butty, demonstrated last when he put the hard word on her.

Simple explanations are always best.

Subject: RE: Help: Capital Ship's 'boxing glove'?!?!
From: GUEST,Gay Keep
Date: 22 May 08 - 01:19 AM

I've been singing this with our Sea Music group Dogwatch for 30 years and I'm always amazed at the number of people who request it by a variety of names. Skip Henderson here in the bay area recently recorded it on his CD Poet & Pirate Overtures. I have a book titled "Songs of Western Colleges" published in 1902 where the song is called "Blow Ye Winds High- Ho", it has 5 verses. Here is a link to the online book, http://www.archive.org/stream/songsofwesternco00tullrich

The first person to request this song(in about 1979) was a woman in her 80s who told us it was sung to her in the nursery around 1900. She was thrilled when we told her we knew it.

More recently I was emailed by a man who found our bands webpage searching for the lyrics and a recording of the song for his father who in his 90s. This song has legs! They always sang it when camping and traveling. My kids love to sing it too.

I've also seen it in 1930s Navy Song Books.

Glad to hear from this thread that others have recorded it and it still has plenty of fans to pass it on to future generations.

Gary Keep

Subject: RE: Help: Capital Ship's 'boxing glove'?!?!
From: GUEST,Grumbler
Date: 20 Aug 08 - 07:16 AM

My mother told me the 10,000 miles away referred to Australia. The boxing glove, just nonsense. How absurd to visit your love with a boxing glove. Think Waltzing Matilda. I do think the kangaroo reference to a shortage of women makes sense. Please tell me my sainted mother was not slyly teaching us about self abuse.
We had a different version about the captain--that "it oft appeared when the gale had cleared that he'd been in his bunk below." I couldn't remember the lead-in to this line, which is why I Googled it, but see no one else seems to have our version. As a child, I loved singing this around the piano with immediate family as well as uncles, aunts, and cousins. There were a number of other nonsense songs in the family's repertoire, some ancient, some not. Apparently, the family has been signing Ol' Crumbles since the days of Cromwell (Ol' Crumbles) and the old woman (the queen). Political satire, of course.

Subject: RE: Help: Capital Ship's 'boxing glove'?!?!
From: GUEST,geomancere
Date: 26 Oct 09 - 02:28 PM

I always thought this referred to the Boxer Rebellion in China in 1898. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxer_Rebellion.

Subject: RE: Help: Capital Ship's 'boxing glove'?!?!
From: meself
Date: 26 Oct 09 - 02:50 PM

What ever made you think that?

Subject: RE: Help: Capital Ship's 'boxing glove'?!?!
From: GUEST,leeniea
Date: 26 Oct 09 - 02:59 PM

I googled this poem and found a version on Poemhunter.com which has nothing in it about a boxing glove.

The boxing glove line and all ensuing debate constitute a chimera. It's hard on all the guys who want to bring up masterbating, but there it is.

Meanwhile, unless somebody finds an old book with the poem in it, debate over various versions, either with or without a boxing glove, is probably futile.

Subject: RE: Help: Capital Ship's 'boxing glove'?!?!
From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego
Date: 26 Oct 09 - 03:55 PM

Whatever is meant with the "boxing glove" reference, my five-year-old grandson roars with laughter when he hears the song, one I've done for 50 years or more.

Subject: RE: Help: Capital Ship's 'boxing glove'?!?!
From: meself
Date: 26 Oct 09 - 03:55 PM

Not sure I understand your point - you found a version without a boxing glove, so that proves - what? and why?

Subject: RE: Help: Capital Ship's 'boxing glove'?!?!
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 26 Oct 09 - 05:02 PM

Leeniea is correct, the original poem by Carryl does not mention a boxing glove.
Written in 1884, his poem has no chorus, which is where the boxing glove appeared.

The song was printed in St. Nicholas magazine for children, with the boxing glove chorus, in the 1890s. The "Scottish Students' Song Book" of 1896 published this version, crediting St. Nicholas magazine but not citing an author.

Subject: RE: Help: Capital Ship's 'boxing glove'?!?!
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 26 Oct 09 - 06:12 PM

That odd 'boxing glove' chorus had an earlier form, in the song "Ten Thousand Miles Away," written and composed by J. B. Geoghegan.

Chorus-
So blow the winds, Heigh-ho,
A-roving I will go,
I'll stay no more on England's shore,
So let the music play!
I'll start by the morning train,
To cross the raging main,
For I'm on the move to my own true love,
Ten thousand miles away.

This song, with music, in Scottish Student's Song Book, 1896 edition. The music is that used for "A Capital Ship," in the same edition but printed without music.

I dont know how these songs relate to each other.

Subject: ADD: Ten Thousand Miles Away
From: Snuffy
Date: 26 Oct 09 - 08:17 PM

No boxing gloves or morning trains in the original song, only in the later parodies. Here's how I sing the vanilla convict version.

TEN THOUSAND MILES AWAY

Sing ho! for a bold and a gallant ship,
And a fast and favouring breeze,
A bully crew and skipper too,
To carry me o'er the seas;
To carry me o'er the seas, my boys,
To my true love far away,
For I'm taking a trip on a Government ship
Ten thousand miles away.

CHORUS: Then blow, ye winds hi-ho!
A-roving I will go.
I'll stay no more on England's shore
To hear the music play
I'm off on the morning tide
Across the ocean wide
I'm taking a trip on a Government ship
Ten thousand miles away.

Oh, dark and dismal was the day,
When last I saw my Meg
She'd a Government band around each hand
And another one round her leg
And another one round her leg, my boys
As the big ship left the bay,
"Adieu," said she, "remember me,
Ten thousand miles away!"

My true love she was beautiful,
My true love she was young,
Her eyes they shone like diamonds bright
And silvery was her tongue
And silvery was her tongue, my boys
But now she's far away
For she's taken a trip on a Government ship
Ten thousand miles away!

I wish I was a bosun bold
Or even a bombardier
I'd build me a boat and away I'd float
And straight for my true love steer;
And straight for my true love steer, my boys
Where the dancing dolphins play,
Where the whales and the sharks are having their larks
Ten thousand miles away.

Oh, the sun may shine through the London fog
And the Thames run fine and clear,
Or the ocean brine be turned to wine
If ever I forget my dear
If ever I forget my dear, my boys
Or the landlord's quarter-day
If ever I forget my own true love
Ten thousand miles away.

Subject: RE: Help: Capital Ship's 'boxing glove'?!?!
From: DebC
Date: 26 Oct 09 - 08:54 PM

I am sure that they relate in that they have traveled from person to person to person, with each person making changes along the way as folk songs usually do.

I got my version of "Walloping Window Blind" from Lena Borne Fish who sang that version for the Helen Hartness Flanders Collection. What is fascinating about this version is that there are two verses at the beginning of the song that are not in the poem. I suspect (and others as well that I have spoken with) that Mrs. Fish wrote the verses to explain how the ship got it's name.

When I perform this song, I always have a few older folks who recall the song from when they were children and most do remember the boxing glove line.

I have always suspected that the boxing glove line was some sort of mondegreen that might have occurred as the song evolved from "A Capitol Ship" to "Walloping Window Blind" with a bit of "Ten Thousand Miles Away" thrown in.

This is just my experience with the songs and what I found in doing some research in Flanders.

Deb Cowan

Subject: RE: Help: Capital Ship's 'boxing glove'?!?!
From: meself
Date: 26 Oct 09 - 10:49 PM

I would be surprised if "boxing glove" were a mondegreen. I can only imagine that it was deliberately contrived as a bit of nonsense befitting the rest of the nonsense of the song.

I agree that debate over the line is "futile" - but certainly not because it was a late addition, but rather because it is so obviously whimsical nonsense, and is meant to be taken as such.

Subject: RE: Help: Capital Ship's 'boxing glove'?!?!
From: GUEST,Jon Dudley
Date: 27 Oct 09 - 04:20 AM

This is also a favourite of dear old Bob Lewis. We always asked him to sing it at the extremely alcoholic singarounds at the White Horse Sutton and were convulsed with laughter at the ridiculous imagery every single time. The same with the late-lamented Ron Spicer with his "The goose and the gander walked over the green, the goose she went barefoot for fear of being seen" - he was never allowed home until he'd sung that one.

There was an ancient joke about a boxing glove and a pound of liver but I think it better not to venture into such waters. I'm sure it has no relevance to the song in question....

Subject: RE: Help: Capital Ship's 'boxing glove'?!?!
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 27 Oct 09 - 01:42 PM

meself, as noted, the boxing glove chorus, first appeared in the children's magazine, St. Nicholas, in a revised version of Carryl's poem.
I also doubt that it was a mondegreen in this unattributed revision, just an attempt to make the poem more palatable to small children.

The music's composer is J. B. Geoghegan; it is the tune to his "Ten Thousand Miles Away" (lyrics in the DT ), another variation on Carryl's poem.

In his children's book, "Davy and the Goblin," Carryl did not give a title for his poem, but it was later called "The Walloping Window Blind" by some and "A Capital Ship" by others (the latter adding confusion between the original and the revision).

Subject: RE: Help: Capital Ship's 'boxing glove'?!?!
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 27 Oct 09 - 03:42 PM

I slipped a cog and called Geoghegan's "Ten Thousand Miles Away" a variant on Carryl's poem; the reverse is true.
Geoghegan died in 1889; an unattributed copy in the Bodleian Library is dated 1840-1866 (Harding B11(3763)), posted in thread 62524, linked at the top of this thread.

This song caught on with sailors and is included in Hugill's "Shanties from the Seven Seas."

Subject: RE: Help: Capital Ship's 'boxing glove'?!?!
From: GUEST,George
Date: 26 May 10 - 05:42 PM

I heard a folk singer on the radio explain after she sang the song that boys in English Boarding schools had to wear boxing gloves to bed to stop them from masterbating. The song is about a young man dreaming about his love who is far away. So the lyrics about taking a train and crossing the raging seas to see her is in his dream.

Subject: RE: Help: Capital Ship's 'boxing glove'?!?!
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 26 May 10 - 06:09 PM

it is a sad thing about English, that there are so many songs about love and so few words that rhyme with it.

of
dove
glove

I'm afraid they have led to some pretty pathetic rhymes over the years. Even the talented Irving Berlin produced a weak one:

...a rubdown with a velvet glove.
There is nothing you can take
to relieve that pleasant ache.
you're not sick; you're just in love.

But what can we do about it? Nothing.

Subject: RE: Help: Capital Ship's 'boxing glove'?!?!
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 26 May 10 - 06:18 PM

I've heard the Admiral sing the boxing glove version for many years.

Kitty

Subject: RE: Help: Capital Ship's 'boxing glove'?!?!
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 26 May 10 - 07:03 PM

Leeneia,
What about the good old faithful turtle dove?
Or if they're a bit shy you could always give 'em a shove.
Or under the stars above.

And then there's plenty of visual rhymes
cove, drove, move, stove, rove, hove, Hove, grove, Jove, prove, trove, wove, or not!