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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
PAUL JONES, by WILLIAM A. PHELON
First Line: Once more the favoring breezes blow
Last Line: He voyages no more!
Subject(s): Jones, John Paul (1747-1792)
First Line: Once more the favoring breezes blow
Last Line: He voyages no more!
Subject(s): Jones, John Paul (1747-1792)
ONCE more the favoring breezes blow
In briny piping gales —
Housed in a warship as of old
Once more the hero sails.
With bended head and lifted cap
They raised him from his grave
And placed him where he loved to rest —
Upon the white-topped wave.
The night came down upon the deep,
The warship calmly rides,
And proudly on the quarter-deck
The sailor's spirit strides.
"These turrets and these iron plates
Seem more than strange to me —
For walls of oak were fort enough
When I was on the sea!
These throbbing engines, and the lack
Of sail to dare the blast —
All strange and new — but what care I?
My pennon crowns the mast!
The flag first danced above a ship
I sailed amid the foam —
And now floats high above the craft
That bears me back to home!"
The mist grows thicker, and the night
Is black with heavier clouds —
A crew of ghosts glides down the deck,
Or clambers up the shrouds.
A phantom shape, a phantom ship,
Looms grimly through the shade —
And George's cross above the peak
Gleams spectrally displayed!
The rusty cannon flash and flame,
And through the haunted night
Rings out that old defiance — "I
Have just begun to fight!"
With grisly yard-arms lashed they strive —
Smoke-palled each reeling wreck,
The ghostly hero leads his tars
Upon the wan-lit deck!
A deadly struggle in the murk —
The stars flash up in pride,
And through the reek the George's cross
Goes fluttering o'er the side!
The smoke-clouds pass — the parting night
Gives way before the dawn —
The ship of steel swings on her way —
The phantom crew is gone!
Once more the favoring breezes blow
In briny piping gales —
Housed in the warship as of old
Once more the hero sails.
With bended head and lifted cap
They wait upon the shore —
To greet him from his final cruise —
He voyages no more!
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