SHE has gone to the bottom! the wrath of the tide | |
| Now breaks in vain insolence o’er her; | |
| No more the rough seas like a queen shall she ride, | |
| While the foe flies in terror before her! | |
| |
| Now captive or exiled, or silent in death, | 5 |
| The forms that so bravely did man her; | |
| Her deck is untrod, and the gale’s stirring breath | |
| Flouts no more the red cross of her banner! | |
| |
| She is down ’neath the waters, but still her bright name | |
| Is in death, as in life, ever glorious, | 10 |
| And a sceptre all barren the conqueror must claim, | |
| Though he boasts the proud title “Victorious.” | |
| |
| Her country’s lone champion, she shunned not the fight, | |
| Though unequal in strength, bold and fearless; | |
| And proved in her fate, though not matchless in might, | 15 |
| In daring at least she was peerless. | |
| |
| No trophy hung high in the foe’s hated hall | |
| Shall speak of her final disaster, | |
| Nor tell of the danger that could not appall, | |
| Nor the spirit that nothing could master! | 20 |
| |
| The death-shot has sped—she has grimly gone down, | |
| But left her destroyer no token, | |
| And the mythical wand of her mystic renown, | |
| Though the waters o’erwhelm, is unbroken. | |
| |
| For lo! ere she settles beneath the dark wave | 25 |
| On her enemies’ cheeks spreads a pallor, | |
| As another deck summons the swords of the brave | |
| To gild a new name with their valor. | |
| |
| Her phantom will yet haunt the wild roaring breeze, | |
| Causing foemen to start and to shudder, | 30 |
| While their commerce still steals like a thief o’er the seas, | |
| And trembles from bowsprit to rudder. | |
| |
| The spirit that shed on the wave’s gleaming crest | |
| The light of a legend romantic | |
| Shall live while a sail flutters over the breast | 35 |
| Of thy far-bounding billows, Atlantic! | |
| |
| And as long as one swift keel the strong surges stems, | |
| Or “poor Jack” loves his song and his story, | |
| Shall shine in tradition the valor of Semmes | |
| And the brave ship that bore him to glory! | 40 |
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