AS rose the misty sun, Our men the North Sea scanned, And each rejoicing gun Welcomed a foe at hand, And longed, from thunderous throat, To sound for all afloat The world-awakening note The world can understand. For ev'n as birds of night, Hoary and tawny owl, Do sometimes brave the light, Like bolder, nobler fowl, So did the foe that day Come venturing forth for prey, -- Yonder, in goodly array, On ocean foam to prowl. But brief and plain, 'mid men Not born to yield or flee, Our cannon spoke out then The speech that keeps us free, And battered, with hoarse boom, Four warships to their doom, While one, to a lonelier tomb, Fled blazing down the sea. Sleep on, O Drake, sleep well, In days not wholly dire! Grenville, whom nought could quell, Unquenched is still thy fire. And thou that hadst no peer, Nelson, thou need'st not fear! Thy sons and heirs are here, Nor have they shamed their sire. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...WOMAN, GALLUP, N.M. by KAREN SWENSON PROTESTS (AFTER A PAINTING BY HUGO BALLIN) by LOUIS UNTERMEYER THE IRISH RAPPAREES; A PEASANT BALLAD OF 1691 by CHARLES GAVAN DUFFY SOJOURN IN THE WHALE by MARIANNE MOORE THE LAKE ISLE OF INNISFREE by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS INTAGLIOS by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH MEDITATION by CHARLES BAUDELAIRE THE MAPLE TREE OVER THE WAY by LEVI BISHOP POET FLAYS TEMPTATIONS OF CITY LIFE by MORRIS GILBERT BISHOP |