Tell me what sail the seas
Under the stars?
Ships, and ships’ companies,
Off to the wars.
Steel are the ship’s great sides,
Steel are her guns,
Backward she thrusts the tides,
Swiftly she runs;
Steel is the sailor’s heart,
Stalwart his arm,
His the Republic’s part
Through cloud and storm....
No freeman, saith the wise, thinks much on death:
No man with soul he dareth call his own
Liveth in dread lest there be no atone
In time to come for yesterday’s warm breath,
No more than he for such and hungereth
As falls to those who speed their souls a-groan;
Death may be King, to sit a tottering throne
And hale men hence—let cowards...
Of old, a man who died
Had, in his pride,
Woman and steed and slave
Heaped at his grave;
Given this sudden end
Their souls to send,
Still serving, witherward
Their lord had fared.
Grown wiser, we, to-day,
A happier way
Find for our love and grief
And death’s relief:
Flowers their fragrance strew...
