182

"THE LAST BROADSIDE.”

Shall we give them a Broadside once more, my brave men?

Ay! Ay!" rose the full, earnest cry ;

"A Broadside! A Broadside! we'll give them

again!

Then for God and the Right nobly die.”

"Haste! Haste!"

for amid all that battling din

Comes a gurgling sound fraught with fear, As swift flowing waters pour rushingly in ; Up! Up! till her portholes they near.

No blenching!—no faltering!— still fearless all

seem;

Each man firm to duty doth bide;

A flash and a "Broadside!" a shout! a careen! And the Cumberland sinks 'neath the tide!

The "Star Spangled Banner" still floating above!
As a beacon upon the dark wave!

Our Ensign of Glory, proud streaming in love,
O'er the tomb of the "Loyal and Brave!”

Bold hearts! mighty spirits! "tried gold" of our land!

A halo of glory your meed!

All honored, the noble-souled Cumberland band? So true in Columbia's need!

A CALL FOR TRUE MEN.

183

A CALL FOR TRUE MEN.

BY ROBERT LOWELL.

P to battle! Up to battle!

UP

All we love is saved or lost!

Workshop's hum and wayside's tattle,
Off! This thing the life may cost.

Come, for your country! For all dear things,

come!

Come to the roll of the rallying drum!

You have seen the spring-swollen river
Hurling torrent, ice and wreck !
You have felt the strong pier quiver

Like a tempest-shaken deck:

Many a stout heart, quick hand, and eye,
Broke the water's mad strength, and it went by.

Look on this mad, threatening torrent,
Tumbling on, with blood and death!
Will we see our bulwarks war-rent?

Never! Snatch a stronger breath:

Here is good man's work! Break through, and through!

What matters hardship, or danger, to you?

184 VOYAGE OF THE GOOD SHIP UNION.

What were death to any true man,

If the cause be true and high? Beastly might quails under human Looking calmly in its eye.

Come with your fearless strength break yonder ranks!

God's blessing! glory! and evermore thanks !

VOYAGE OF THE GOOD SHIP UNION.

BY OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES.

"TIS midnight: through my troubled dream
Loud wails the tempest's cry;
Before the gale, with tattered sail,

A ship goes plunging by.

The good ship Union, Southward bound:

God help her and her crew!

And is the old flag flying still

That o'er your fathers flew,

With bands of white and rosy light,

And field of starry blue?

- Ay! look aloft! its folds full oft

Have braved the roaring blast,

VOYAGE OF THE GOOD SHIP UNION. 185

And still shall fly when from the sky
This black typhoon has past!

Speak, pilot of the storm-tost bark !
May I thy perils share?

Oh landsmen, these are fearful seas
The brave alone may dare!

– Nay, ruler of the rebel deep,
What matters wind or wave?

The rocks that wreck your reeling deck
Will leave me nought to save!

Oh, landsman, art thou false or true?
What sign hast thou to show?
- The crimson stains from loyal veins
That hold my heart-blood's flow!

- Enough! what more shall honor claim?
I know the sacred sign;

Above thy head our flag shall spread,

Our ocean path be thine!

The bark sails on the Pilgrims' Cape
Lies low along her lee,

Whose headland crooks its anchor flukes

To lock the shore and sea.

No treason here! it cost too dear

To win this barren realm!

186 VOYAGE OF THE GOOD SHIP UNION

And true and free the hands must be

That hold the whaler's helm!

Still on! Manhattan's narrowing bay
No Rebel cruiser scars;

Her waters feel no pirate's keel

That flaunts the fallen stars!

But watch the light on yonder height,
Ay, pilot, have a care!

Some lingering cloud in mist may shroud
The Capes of Delaware!

Say, pilot, what this fort may be
Whose sentinels look down

From moated walls that show the sea
Their deep embrasures' frown?
The Rebel host claims all the coast,
But these are friends, we know,

Whose footprints spoil the "sacred soil,"
And this is? . - Fort Monroe!

The breakers roar, how bears the shore?
The traitorous wreckers' hands

Have quenched the blaze that poured its rays
Along the Hatteras sands.

Ha! say not so! I see its glow!
Again the shoals display