THE BALLAD OF PENELOPE LOU . . . AND ME

Stevenson's ballad tells of the narrator's ploy to win stout-hearted sailor Penelope Lou, who's been ""all over the seven seas"" on her own and now wants to settle down with a man as brave on the sea as herself. The hero, who fears water, fakes a year-long voyage and then accidentally, but impressively, returns to port on the back of a whale. Sewall gives the young man a suitably bookish and awkward appearance (largely a matter of eyeglasses resting low on the nose), but Stevenson's narration is never rollicking--the only variations in his predictable jog-trotting verse consist of occasional awkward breaks in the rhythm.