|
THE FRIGATE CONSTITUTION
"Old
Ironsides"
To
Her Commander
Louis
J. Gulliver
The old Frigate Constitution
Barely missed the Revolution
For the men that laid her keel were just too
slow,
But her deadly metal spittings
Won a perfect score of hittings
In her later scraps shot out with the same
old foe.
Well we know from song and story
How she crowned herself with glory,
Bearing battle‑scars of seafights
forty‑two,
And she struck her flag to no‑man ‑‑
And she always felled her foe‑man ‑‑
Till his colors lay bedraggled in the blue.
In her class no sail could beat her.
'Twas a thrilling sight to see her
As she plowed her way on crest of slapping
seas,
With her bronzy faces beaming
And her colors gaily streaming ‑‑
Every thread of canvas bulging to the
breeze.
When no ship afloat could sink her,
And old age began to chink her,
Soulless landsmen sought to junk her like a
scow.
Up rose Poet Holmes to save her
When commercial minds would grave her
And a hundred million hearts adore her now.
Ho!
She's young in strength and beauty!
And she's spick‑and‑span for
duty!
Aye!
from stem to stern, and tip of truck to keel!
And the tubs that treat her haughty
Still will find her just as naughty
As the day her thunders made them rock and
reel!
‑‑
"Poems for Many Minds"
by Felix J. O'Neill
Schilling Press,
Inc.,
|
|
The Captain’s Clerk |