I am looking for a poem that had a line that went "err the steamer
bore him westward"

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Request for Question Clarification by bobbie7-ga on 23 Jul 2004 17:05 PDT

I found a poem that has the line Ere the steamer bore him Eastward.

If this is the poem you have in mind I can provide you with  a link to
the complete poem and the name of the author.

Thanks, Bobbie7

Dear Gaskell01,

After doing additional research,  I am confident that the poem you
have in mind is ?The Post that Fitted? by Rudyard Kipling.

?Though tangled and twisted the course of true love
        This ditty explains,
No tangle?s so tangled it cannot improve
        If the Lover has brains.
 
ERE the steamer bore him Eastward, Sleary was engaged to marry
An attractive girl at Tunbridge, whom he called ?my little Carrie.?

Sleary?s pay was very modest; Sleary was the other way.
Who can cook a two-plate dinner on eight poor rupees a day? 

Long he pondered o?er the question in his scantly furnished quarters?
Then proposed to Minnie Boffkin, eldest of Judge Boffkin?s daughters.

Certainly an impecunious Subaltern was not a catch,
But the Boffkins knew that Minnie mightn?t make another match. 

So they recognised the business and, to feed and clothe the bride,
Got him made a Something Something somewhere on the Bombay side.

Anyhow, the billet carried pay enough for him to marry?
As the artless Sleary put it:??Just the thing for me and Carrie.? 

Did he, therefore, jilt Miss Boffkin?impulse of a baser mind?
No! He started epileptic fits of an appalling kind.

[Of his modus operandi only this much I could gather:?
?Pears's shaving sticks will give you little taste and lots of lather.?] 

Frequently in public places his affliction used to smite
Sleary with distressing vigour?always in the Boffkins? sight.

Ere a week was over Minnie weepingly returned his ring,
Told him his ?unhappy weakness? stopped all thought of marrying. 

Sleary bore the information with a chastened holy joy,?
Epileptic fits don?t matter in Political employ,?

Wired three short words to Carrie?took his ticket, packed his kit?
Bade farewell to Minnie Boffkin in one last, long, lingering fit. 

Four weeks later, Carrie Sleary read?and laughed until she wept?
Mrs. Boffkin?s warning letter on the ?wretched epilept.? . . .

Year by year, in pious patience, vengeful Mrs. Boffkin sits
Waiting for the Sleary babies to develop Sleary?s fits. ?
 
http://whitewolf.newcastle.edu.au/words/authors/K/KiplingRudyard/verse/p2/postthatfitted.html


The poem can read online at the following link as well
http://www.readbookonline.net/readOnLine/2775/

Search criteria:

?the steamer bore?
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%E2%80%9Cthe+steamer+bore%E2%80%9D

I hope this helps!

Best regards,
Bobbie7

we have been looking for this for ever.  Thank you so much.

Dear Gaskell01,

Thank you for the five stars and generous tip! I'm delighted that I
was able to locate the poem for you.

Sincerely,
Bobbie7

Good work bobbie

Thank you Psychopoet!