Sea Songs :: :: University of Virginia Library

If Britons need to nerve them,
The way of death to take,
Whose deeds for that will serve them,
As well as those of Blake,
Of him, the grandest Captain
That English deck has trod,
Who wrought and won for England,
Who lived and died for God?
While others strove for honours
And, earthly crowns, to take,
To serve his God and England,
Fought grand old Robert Blake.

'Twas his to deal on heroes
Our blows, in that old day;
'Twas with Van Tromp and De Ruyter,
That, gun to gun, he lay;
Great hearts had those grand Dutchmen,
For they too lived to feel
Not for kings they fought, but freedom,
For the State and Commonweal;
But our Puritan outmatched them
When they played at give and take;
How, at Beechy-head, they knew him,
When they fought and fled from Blake!

Ever, unchanged, we see him,
Through all his Cromwell's days,
A heart that knew but duty,
A life that earned but praise;
The same in storm and battle,
No doubt—no fear, was his
'Mongst Vera Cruz's hell-fire,
Tunis's batteries;
If a hero then you're needing,
To live to, can you take
A nobler life to guide you
Than that of grand old Blake?

His deeds are England's greatness;
His name, no years can dim;
Our Red Cross knew but glory
While it rode the seas with him;
Pope and King, from it, took terror;
As they thought who that flag bore,
They bowed to the might it fluttered,
As it swept from shore to shore;
Hating, they crouched to England;
No mock they dared to make
Of the kingless land he stood for,
That was strong through Robert Blake.