Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, BATTLE OF THE SUMMER ISLANDS, by EDMUND WALLER


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BATTLE OF THE SUMMER ISLANDS, by             Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Aid me bellona, while the dreadful fight
Last Line: But while I do these pleasing dreams indite, %I am diverted from the promised fight
Subject(s): Bermuda


Aid me Bellona, while the dreadful fight
Betwixt the English and Bermudians write.
The field with grass, the sea with foam was green,
Filled with dead bodies either side was seen:
No quarter given, none desired was;
For in the van of either army was
Their general's body, which by each was fought
For as a trophy eagerly they sought.
Our long pikes broke, and, halberts in their stead,
With which, like conflicts, every foot was led.
Each one the other to destroy contends,
Both Englishmen and those they call their friends;
Till neither could the other's force abide,
But by the tomahawk, or else the tide,
All, all were sent to wade to Charon's side.
Long did the doubtful combat last,
Long ere the summer's sun was past:
Comets, which flame at their approach, did fright
The vulgar, and foretell the ensuing fight.
The setting sun, as he in crimson died,
Looks sadly on the doubtful battle's side;
But the bright queen of heaven, with cheerful ray,
Lighted the English on to victory.
The English come, and for their right did fight,
And not to be subdued, but in their right:
No savage could their courage long withstand,
Nor Indian force, nor nature of the land.
This only was their error and their crime,
To part with fountains to preserve their time;
And in a country that abounds with store,
To drive the indigent to seek for more;
To seek for wealth, as if without it life
Were but a journey to eternal strife.
A mighty bulwark raised upon the deep
Whose hasty structure scarce their bounds could keep;
The waves so often washed the fort away,
That still they laboured, and they built in clay:
But on this laboured bulwark could they place
No trust, the fort still floated with the base.
Yet every evening at the setting sun,
The staff was mounted, and the volleys done;
Which he whose fortune led him to the place
For safety heard, but turned away his face:
For he that was, and is the guard of all,
Would never suffer that his holy wall
Should by the smoke of powder be defiled,
Nor had the fight upon his earth compiled.
But while I do these pleasing dreams indite,
I am diverted from the promised fight.






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