Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE SACK OF BALTIMORE, by THOMAS OSBORNE DAVIS Poet's Biography First Line: The summer sun is falling softly on carbery's hundred isles Last Line: More. Subject(s): Baltimore, Ireland; Kidnapping; Pirates; Tragedy; Piracy; Buccaneers | ||||||||
THE summer sun is falling soft on Carbery's hundred isles, The summer sun is gleaming still through Ga- briel's rough defiles, -- Old Inisherkin's crumbled fane looks like a moult- ing bird; And in a calm and sleepy swell the ocean tide is heard: The hookers lie upon the beach; the children cease their play; The gossips leave the little inn; the households kneel to pray; And full of love and peace and rest, -- its daily labor o'er, -- Upon that cosy creek there lay the town of Balti- more. A deeper rest, a starry trance, has come with mid- night there; No sound, except that throbbing wave, in earth or sea or air. The massive capes and ruined towers seem con- scious of the calm; The fibrous sod and stunted trees are breathing heavy balm. So still the night, these two long barks round Dunashad that glide Must trust their oars -- methinks not few -- against the ebbing tide. O, some sweet mission of true love must urge them to the shore, -- They bring some lover to his bride, who sighs in Baltimore! All, all asleep within each roof along that rocky street, And these must be the lover's friends, with gently gliding feet. A stifled gasp! a dreamy noise! The roof is in a flame! From out their beds, and to their doors, rush maid and sire and dame, And meet upon the threshold stone, the gleaming sabre's fall, And o'er each black and bearded face the white or crimson shawl. The yell of "Allah!" breaks above the prayer and shriek and roar -- O blessed God! the Algerine is lord of Balti- more! Then flung the youth his naked hand against the shearing sword; Then sprung the mother on the brand with which her son was gored; Then sunk the grandsire on the floor, his grand- babes clutching wild; Then fled the maiden moaning faint, and nestled with the child. But see, yon pirate strangling lies, and crushed with splashing heel, While o'er him in an Irish hand there sweeps his Syrian steel; Though virtue sink, and courage fail, and misers yield their store, There's one hearth well avenged in the sack of Baltimore! Midsummer morn, in woodland nigh, the birds begin to sing; They see not now the milking-maids, deserted is the spring! Midsummer day, this gallant rides from the dis- tant Bandon's town, These hookers crossed from stormy Skull, that skiff from Affadown. They only found the smoking walls with neigh- bors' blood besprent, And on the strewed and trampled beach awhile they wildly went, Then dashed to sea and passed Cape Clear, and saw, five leagues before The pirate-galleys vanishing that ravaged Balti- more. O, some must tug the galley's oar, and some must tend the steed, -- This boy will bear a Scheik's chibouk, and that a Bey's jerreed. O, some are for the arsenals by beauteous Darda nelles, And some are in the caravan to Mecca's sandy dells. The maid that Bandon gallant sought is chosen for the Dey, She's safe, -- she's dead, -- she stabbed him in the midst of his Serai; And when to die a death of fire that noble maid they bore, She only smiled, -- O'Driscoll's child, -- she thought of Baltimore. 'T is two long years since sunk the town beneath that bloody band, And all around its trampled hearth a larger con- course stand, Where high upon a gallows-tree a yelling wretch is seen, -- 'T is Hackett of Dungarvan, -- he who steered the Algerine! He fell amid a sullen shout, with scarce a passing prayer, For he had slain the kith and kin of many a hun- dred there: Some muttered of MacMorrogh, who had brought the Norman o'er, Some cursed him with Iscariot, that day in Balti- more. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...BLUEBEARD'S CLOSET by ROSE TERRY COOKE HOW WE BURNED THE 'PHILADELPHIA' by BARRETT EASTMAN THE LAST BUCCANEER by CHARLES KINGSLEY THE TARRY BUCCANEER by JOHN MASEFIELD REUBEN JAMES by JAMES JEFFREY ROCHE PIRATE STORY by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON BLOUDIE JACKE OF SHREWSBERRIE; THE SHROPSHIRE BLUEBEARD by RICHARD HARRIS BARHAM THE WEDDING DAY; OR, THE BUCCANEER'S CURSE; A FAMILY LEGEND by RICHARD HARRIS BARHAM THE BALLAD OF BAZILE BORGNE by IDA COLE BARTLATT CLARE'S DRAGOONS by THOMAS OSBORNE DAVIS FONTENOY by THOMAS OSBORNE DAVIS LAMENT FOR THE DEATH OF EOGHAN RUADH (OWEN ROE) O'NEIL by THOMAS OSBORNE DAVIS |
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