| |
| THAT night I think that no one slept; | |
| No bells were struck, no whistle blew, | |
| And when the watch was changed I crept | |
| From man to man of all the crew | |
| With whispered orders. Though we swept | 5 |
| Through roaring seas, we hushed the clock, | |
| And muffled every clanking block. | |
| |
| So when one fool, unheeding, cried | |
| Some petty order, straight I ran, | |
| And threw him sprawling o’er the side. | 10 |
| All life is but a narrow span: | |
| It little matters that one bide | |
| A moment longer here, for all | |
| Fare the same road, whate’er befall. | |
| |
| But vain my care; for when the day | 15 |
| Broke gray and wet, we saw the foe | |
| But half a stormy league away. | |
| By noon we saw his black bows throw | |
| Five fathoms high a wall of spray; | |
| A little more, we heard the drum, | 20 |
| And knew that our last hour had come. | |
| |
| All day our crew had lined the side | |
| With grim, set faces, muttering; | |
| And once a boy (the first that died) | |
| One of our wild songs tried to sing: | 25 |
| But when their first shot missed us wide, | |
| A dozen sprang above our rail, | |
| Shook fists, and roared a cursing hail. | |
| |
| Thereon, all hot for war, they bound | |
| Their heads with cool, wet bands, and drew | 30 |
| Their belts close, and their keen blades ground; | |
| Then, at the next gun’s puff of blue, | |
| We set the grog-cup on its round, | |
| And pledged for life or pledged for death | |
| Our last sigh of expiring breath. | 35 |
| |
| Laughing, our brown young singer fell | |
| As their next shot crashed through our rail; | |
| Then ’twixt us flashed the fire of hell, | |
| That shattered spar and riddled sail. | |
| What ill we wrought we could not tell; | 40 |
| But blood-red all their scuppers dripped | |
| When their black hull to starboard dipped. | |
| |
| Nine times I saw our helmsman fall, | |
| And nine times sent new men, who took | |
| The whirling wheel as at death’s call; | 45 |
| But when I saw the last one look | |
| From sky to deck, then, reeling, crawl | |
| Under the shattered rail to die, | |
| I knew where I should surely lie. | |
| |
| I could not send more men to stand | 50 |
| And turn in idleness the wheel | |
| Until they took death’s beckoning hand, | |
| While others, meeting steel with steel, | |
| Flamed out their lives—an eager band, | |
| Cheers on their lips, and in their eyes | 55 |
| The goal-rapt look of high emprise. | |
| |
| So to the wheel I went. Like bees | |
| I heard the shot go darting by; | |
| There came a trembling in my knees, | |
| And black spots whirled about the sky. | 60 |
| I thought of things beyond the seas— | |
| The little town where I was born, | |
| And swallows twittering in the morn. | |
| |
| A wounded creature drew him where | |
| I grasped the wheel, and begged to steer. | 65 |
| It mattered not how he might fare | |
| The little time he had for fear; | |
| So if I left this to his care | |
| He too might serve us yet, he said. | |
| He died there while I shook my head. | 70 |
| |
| I would not fall so like a dog, | |
| My helpless back turned to the foe; | |
| So when his great hulk, like a log, | |
| Came surging past our quarter, lo! | |
| With helm hard down, straight through the fog | 75 |
| Of battle smoke, and luffing wide, | |
| I sent our sharp bow through his side. | |
| |
| The willing waves came rushing in | |
| The ragged entrance that we gave; | |
| Like snakes I heard their green coils spin | 80 |
| Up, up, around our floating grave; | |
| But dauntless still, amid a din | |
| Of clashing steel and battle-shout, | |
| We rushed to drive their boarders out. | |
| |
| Around me in a closing ring | 85 |
| My grim-faced foemen darkly drew; | |
| Then, sweeter than the lark in spring, | |
| Loud rang our blades; the red sparks flew. | |
| Twice, thrice, I felt the sudden sting | |
| Of some keen stroke; then, swinging fair, | 90 |
| My own clave more than empty air. | |
| |
| The fight went raging past me when | |
| My good blade cleared a silent place; | |
| Then in a ring of fallen men | |
| I paused to breathe a little space. | 95 |
| Elsewhere the deck roared like a glen | |
| When mountain torrents meet; the fray | |
| A moment then seemed far away. | |
| |
| The barren sea swept to the sky; | |
| The empty sky dipped to the sea; | 100 |
| Such utter waste could scarcely lie | |
| Beyond death’s starved periphery. | |
| Only one living thing went by: | |
| Far overhead an ominous bird | |
| Rode down the gale with wings unstirred. | 105 |
| |
| Windward I saw the billows swing | |
| Dark crests to beckon others on | |
| To see our end; then, hurrying | |
| To reach us ere we should be gone, | |
| They came, like tigers mad to fling | 110 |
| Their jostling bodies on our ships, | |
| And snarl at us with foaming lips. | |
| |
| There was no time to spare: a wave | |
| E’en then broke growling at my feet; | |
| One last look to the sky I gave, | 115 |
| Then sprang my eager foes to meet. | |
| Loud rang the fray above our grave— | |
| I felt the vessel downward reel | |
| As my last thrust met thrusting steel. | |
| |
| I heard a roaring in my ears; | 120 |
| A green wall pressed against my eyes; | |
| Down, down I passed; the vanished years | |
| I saw in mimicry arise. | |
| Yet even then I felt no fears, | |
| And with my last expiring breath | 125 |
| My past rose up and mocked at death. | |
| |
