Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE UNDEFEATED FLAG, by WILLIAM A. PHELON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE UNDEFEATED FLAG, by                    
First Line: Aye, set that banner in the sky--let every towering crag
Last Line: Show out old glory in the sun—the undefeated flag!
Subject(s): Flags - United States; World War I; American Flag; First World War


AYE, set that banner in the sky—let every towering crag
Show out Old Glory in the sun—the Undefeated Flag!

The flag that fluttered in the gale on Saratoga's height,
When brave Burgoyne, hemmed in and crushed, bowed low in piteous plight—
The flag of Monmouth's burning day, of Eutaw's haunted fen—
The flag that rallied Sumter's clans, and gathered Marion's men—
It floated over Yorktown's forts, when in a blaze of fire
The lion's emblem hurtled down—the sons had balked the sire!
A brief but glorious interlude—that flag led proud advance
When those who manned our wooden ships defied the pride of France—
In tropic lands that standard gleamed through many a glorious scene,
When hardy tars, of Yankee ports, struck down the Algerine!
High from the mastheads glowed a flag, tossed by the ocean breeze,
But it was not thy red-crossed flag, O, Mistress of the Seas!
From Guerriere to Lake Champlain, we held thee on the waves,
And on the plain of New Orleans, the grass grows o'er thy braves!
Far off in sunny Mexico, that flag knew not a check,
From Palo Alto's ringing morn to red Chapultepec!
Shell-tattered, riddled through and through, that banner fronts the sky,
Where the wild swirl of Shiloh's field had staggered bleeding by—
On the green heights of Gettysburg it topped the devil's den
While the long bursts of shrapnel-fire mowed down Marse Robert's men—
At Appomattox in the dawn, that flag victorious flew
When kindly hand and generous word united gray and blue!
Again we watched, resistless borne, amid the roaring fray,
The flag that flashed at San Juan Hill and Santiago bay!

There fell a war in a foreign land, a land across the sea,
A land that spoke of Lafayette, and beckoned you and me—
Upon the Flanders hillsides, men died to shield the right,
And our lads, the flag before them, went out again to fight!
A war of gas and murder, a war of mask and hood,
And a war that brought Cantigny, and the sweep through Belleau Wood!
Thierry and St. Mihiel—and a cringing hostile line
Crushed to a pulp of cowardice—and hurled across the Rhine!
Such is the tale of the final fight—and we see the closing year
Give noblest glory to the flag of all its bright career!

Aye, set that banner in the sky—let every towering crag
Show out Old Glory in the sun—THE UNDEFEATED FLAG!





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