Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE ALABAMA, by MAURICE BELL


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE ALABAMA, by                    
First Line: She has gone to the bottom! The wrath of the tide
Last Line: And the brave ship that bore him to glory!
Subject(s): Alabama (ship); American Civil War; Sea Battles; United States - History; Naval Warfare


SHE has gone to the bottom! the wrath of the tide
Now breaks in vain insolence o'er her;
No more the rough seas like a queen shall she ride,
While the foe flies in terror before her!

Now captive or exiled, or silent in death,
The forms that so bravely did man her;
Her deck is untrod, and the gale's stirring breath
Flouts no more the red cross of her banner!

She is down 'neath the waters, but still her bright name
Is in death, as in life, ever glorious,
And a sceptre all barren the conqueror must claim,
Though he boasts the proud title "Victorious."

Her country's lone champion, she shunned not the fight,
Though unequal in strength, bold and fearless;
And proved in her fate, though not matchless in might,
In daring at least she was peerless.

No trophy hung high in the foe's hated hall
Shall speak of her final disaster,
Nor tell of the danger that could not appall,
Nor the spirit that nothing could master!

The death-shot has sped -- she has grimly gone down,
But left her destroyer no token,
And the mythical wand of her mystic renown,
Though the waters o'erwhelm, is unbroken.

For lo! ere she settles beneath the dark wave
On her enemies' cheeks spreads a pallor,
As another deck summons the swords of the brave
To gild a new name with their valor.

Her phantom will yet haunt the wild roaring breeze,
Causing foemen to start and to shudder,
While their commerce still steals like a thief o'er the seas,
And trembles from bowsprit to rudder.

The spirit that shed on the wave's gleaming crest
The light of a legend romantic
Shall live while a sail flutters over the breast
Of thy far-bounding billows, Atlantic!

And as long as one swift keel the strong surges stems,
Or "poor Jack" loves his song and his story,
Shall shine in tradition the valor of Semmes
And the brave ship that bore him to glory!





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