 | A Sonnet Chronicle |  |
73
To Admiral Togo
Tsu-shima, May, 27–28, 1905.
When the dark silence spoke, and all the world
Drew breath to feel Peace pleading from afar,
For now at length the duped duke-driven Tsar
Whose lips of scorn were once so proudly curled,
Whose ships and sea-borne thunder, fiercely hurled,
Were hurled in vain, has known that other star
Risen in the East, unquenchable in war,
And bade his battle-flag in truce be furled.
Drew breath to feel Peace pleading from afar,
For now at length the duped duke-driven Tsar
Whose lips of scorn were once so proudly curled,
Whose ships and sea-borne thunder, fiercely hurled,
Were hurled in vain, has known that other star
Risen in the East, unquenchable in war,
And bade his battle-flag in truce be furled.
Then we, an island people, holding dear
Fair Freedom's inextinguishable flame,
Remembering well how Howard loosed our fear
When to his doom the Don Sidonia came,
Took laurels, fresher for their hundredth year,
And crowned thee with our Nelson's deathless fame.
Fair Freedom's inextinguishable flame,
Remembering well how Howard loosed our fear
When to his doom the Don Sidonia came,
Took laurels, fresher for their hundredth year,
And crowned thee with our Nelson's deathless fame.
| A Sonnet Chronicle | |