| |
| “WEIGH anchor!” cried the Padishah, | |
| “Quick! ere the day be a moment older, | |
| And launch the peerless Bashtardah! | |
| No nobler vessel sails or bolder.” | |
| Who hear the order must obey: they get the proud one under weigh, | 5 |
| And along her dark blue road she sweeps, | |
| The jewel of the world, behold her! | |
| |
| Walking the Bosphorus like a queen, | |
| Unparalleled and uncontrolled, her | |
| Green flag will centuries hence be seen, | 10 |
| When kiosks and mosques and deereks moulder. | |
| Let Venice galleys menace now, armed all and manned from poop to prow; | |
| There goes the Empress of the Seas! | |
| The jewel of the world, behold her! | |
| |
| Long as her gallant mainmast towers, | 15 |
| Long as the joyous waves uphold her, | |
| So long her crew will dare the Giaours, | |
| Will meet them shoulder up to shoulder; | |
| O, the days of Selim shall return! again the Moslem’s breast shall burn, | |
| Pondering what Marmora was of yore, | 20 |
| When rich in such. Our boast, behold her! | |
| |
| Cold is the Captain-Pasha’s lay, | |
| But may his heart be even colder, | |
| May his eyes and mouth be filled with clay, | |
| And a winding-sheet be his enfolder, | 25 |
| When he shall see with heedless eye yon glorious pennon flout the sky! | |
| It is her pennon, there she goes! | |
| The jewel of the world, behold her! | |
| |
