Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, SANTIAGO, by THOMAS ALLIBONE JANVIER


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

SANTIAGO, by                    
First Line: In the stagnant pride of an outworn race
Last Line: So the fight was won that our sampson planned!
Subject(s): Santiago, Battle Of (1898); Santiago, Cuba; Sea Battles; Spanish-american War (1898); Naval Warfare


IN the stagnant pride of an outworn race
The Spaniard sail'd the sea:
Till we haled him up to God's judgment place --
And smashed him by God's decree!

Out from the harbor, belching smoke,
Came dashing seaward the Spanish ships --
And from all our decks a great shout broke,
Then our hearts came up and set us a-choke
For joy that we had them at last at grips!

No need for signals to get us away --
We were off at score, with our screws a-gleam!
Through the blistering weeks we'd watched the bay
And our captains had need not a word to say --
Save to bellow and curse down the pipes for steam!

Leading the pack in its frightened flight
The Colon went foaming away to the west --
Her tall iron bulwarks, black as night,
And her great black funnels, sharp in sight
'Gainst the green-clad hills in their peace and rest.

Her big Hontaria blazed away
At the Indiana, our first in line.
The short-ranged shot drenched our decks with spray --
While our thirteen-inchers, in answering play,
Ripped straight through her frame to her very spine!

Straight to its end went our winning fight
With the thunder of guns in a mighty roar.
Our hail of iron, casting withering blight,
Turning the Spanish ships in their flight
To a shorter death on the rock-bound shore.

The Colon, making her reckless race
With the Brooklyn and Oregon close a-beam,
Went dashing landward -- and stopped the chase
By grinding her way to her dying-place
In a raging outburst of flame and steam.

So the others, facing their desperate luck,
Drove headlong on to their rock-dealt death --
The Vizcaya, yielding before she struck,
The riddled destroyers, a huddled ruck,
Sinking, and gasping for drowning breath.

So that flying battle surged down the coast,
With its echoing roar from the Cuban land;
So the dying war-ships gave up the ghost;
So we shattered and mangled the Philistine host --
So the fight was won that our Sampson planned!





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