The Downing legends : Stories in Rhyme :: :: University of Virginia Library

Rejoiced to meet his child again
And break anew Apollyon's chain,
Our commodore pursued his cruise
And found no little to amuse
A Yankee fond of information
Who loved to study all creation.

Around him, thick and tame as sheep,
Appeared the wonders of the deep;
Sea-serpents two miles long, or more,
(For Downing often called it four),
Reefs overrun with ocean maids
(Who sang, of course, and twined their braids),
Leviathans, behemoths, whales,
And bugling tritons dressed in scales;
While, far aloft, flew deadlier forms,
Foreboding wrack of wheeling storms;
For now a wizard, now a wraith,
(If Downing's tale deserves our faith)

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Shot swiftly o'er the frighted seas
With angry hum like bumblebees,
The messengers of George's rage
To Arnold, Clinton, Howe and Gage.

Alas that Downing failed to smite
These caitiffs in their eldritch flight,
For, peering through their skinny claws,
They spied the Thor of freedom's cause
And guessed aright his daring plan
To martellate the Hessian clan.
So, spurring goat and cat and broom,
They bustled on through sheen and gloom
To Arnold, famed and mighty traitor,
Their evil commonwealth's dictator,
And brought him word of Downing's antic
Attempt to cross the fierce Atlantic.