HAIL to thee, gallant foe! Well hast thou struck thy blow -- Hopeless of victory -- Daring unequal strife, Valuing more than life Honor and chivalry. Forth from the harbor's room Rushing to meet thy doom, Lit by the day's clear light. "Out to the waters free! Out to the open sea! There should a sailor fight." Where the red battle's roar Beats on the rocky shore, Thunders proclaiming How the great cannon's breath Hurls forth a dreadful death, Smoking and flaming. While her guns ring and flash, See each frail vessel dash, Though our shots rend her, Swift through the iron rain, Bearing the flag of Spain, Scorning surrender. Hemmed in 'twixt foe and wreck, Blood soaks each slippery deck, Still madly racing, Till their ships burn and reel, Crushed by our bolts of steel, Firing and chasing. Driven to the rocks at last, Now heels each shattered mast, Flames the blood drinking, Each with her load of dead, Wrapped in that shroud of red, Silenced and sinking. Vanquished! but not in vain: Ancient renown of Spain, Coming upon her. Once again lives in thee, All her old chivalry, All her old honor. Ever her past avers, When wealth and lands were hers, Though she might love them, Die for their keeping, yet Spain, in her pride, has set Honor above them. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE GOLDEN CORPSE by STEPHEN VINCENT BENET CAESAR'S LOST TRANSPORT SHIPS by ROBERT FROST A DIM DOORWAY by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON WAITER IN A CALIFORNIA VIETNAMESE RESTURANT by CLARENCE MAJOR SIXTEEN MONTHS by CARL SANDBURG |