The Lord of Misrule, and Other Poems Part 9

_The Guns of H.M.S. Royal Sovereign_

Ocean-mother of England, thine is the crowning acclaim.

Here, in the morning of battle, from over the world and beyond, Here, by our fleets of steel, silently foam into line Fleets of our glorious dead, thy shadowy oak-walled ships.

Mother, for O, thy soul must speak thro' our iron lips!

How should we speak to the ages, unless with a word of thine?

Utter it, Victory! Let thy great signal flash thro' the flame!

Answer, _Bellerophon_, _Marlborough_, _Thunderer_, _Condor_, respond!

II

_The Guns of H.M.S. Majestic_

Out of the ages we speak unto you, O ye ages to be.

Rocks of Sevastopol, echo our thunder-word, bruit it afar.

Roll it, O Mediterranean, round by Gibraltar again.

Buffet it, Porto Bello, back to the Nile once more.

Answer it, great St. Vincent! Answer it, Elsinore, Buffet it back from your crags and roll it over the main!

Heights of Quebec, O hear and re-echo it back to the Baltic Sea!

Answer it, _Camperdown_! Answer it, answer it, _Trafalgar_!

III

_The Guns of H.M.S. Rainbow_

How should we speak to the ages, if not with a word of thine, Maker of cloud and harvest, foam and the sea-bird's wing, Ocean-Mother of England and all things living and free?

Deep that wast moved by the Spirit to bloom with the first white morn, Mother of Light and Freedom, mother of hopes unborn, Speak, O world-wide welder of nations, O Soul of the sea!

Thine was the watchword that called us of old o'er the gray sky-line: Lift thy stormy salute. It is freedom and peace that we bring.

IV

_The Guns of H.M.S. Victory_

Therefore on thee we call, O Mother, for we are thy sons.

Speak, with thy world-wide voice, O wake us anew from our sleep!

Speak, for the Light of the world still lives and grows on thy face.

Give us the ancient Word once more, the unchangeable Word,-- This that Nelson knew, this that Effingham heard, This that resounds for ever in all the hearts of our race, This that lives for a moment on the iron lips of our guns, This--that echoes for ever and ever--the Word of the Deep.

V

_The Guns of H.M.S. Dreadnought_

How shall a king be saved by the mult.i.tude of an host?

Was not the answer thine, when fleet upon fleet swept, hurled Blind thro' the dark North Sea, with all their invincible ships?

Thine was the answer, O mother of all men born to be free!

Witness again, Cape Wrath!--O thine, everlastingly, Thine as Freedom arose and rolled thy song from her lips, Thine when she 'stablished her throne in thy sight, on our rough rock-coast, Thine with thy l.u.s.tral glory and thunder, washing the world.

VI

_The Guns of H.M.S. Temeraire_

O for that ancient cry of the watch at the midnight bell, Under the unknown stars, from the decks that Frobisher trod.

Hark, _Before the world?_--he questions a fleet in the dark!

Answer it, friend or foe! And, ringing from mast to mast, Mother, hast thou forgotten what cry in the dark went past, Answering still as he questioned? _Before the world?_ O, hark, Ringing anear, _Before the world?_ ... _was G.o.d_ ... All's well!

Dying afar ... _Before the world?_ ... All's well ... _was G.o.d!_

VII

_The Guns of H.M.S. Revenge_

Raleigh and Grenville heard it, Knights of the Ocean-sea.

Have we forgotten it only, we with our leagues of steel?

Give us our watchword again, O mother, in this great hour!

Here, in the morning of battle, here as we gather our might, Here, as the nations of earth in the light of thy freedom unite, Shake our hearts with thy Word, O 'stablish our peace on thy power!

'Stablish our power on thy peace, thy glory, thy liberty, 'Stablish on thy deep Word the throne of our Commonweal.

VIII

_The Guns of H.M.S. Leviathan_

They that go down to the sea in ships--they heard it of old-- They shall behold His wonders, alone on the Deep, the Deep!

Have _we_ forgotten, we only? O, rend the heavens again, Voice of the Everlasting, shake the great hills with thy breath!

Roll the Voice of our G.o.d thro' the valleys of doubt and death!

Waken the fog-bound cities with the shout of the wind-swept main, Inland over the smouldering plains, till the mists unfold, Darkness die, and England, England arise from sleep.

IX

_The Guns of H.M.S. Triumph_

Queen of the North and the South, Queen of our ocean-renown, England, England, England, O lift thine eyes to the sun!

Wake, for the hope of the whole world yearns to thee, watches and waits!

Now on the full flood-tide of the ages, the supreme hour Beacons thee onward in might to the purpose and crown of thy power.

Hark, for the whole Atlantic thunders against thy gates, Take the Crown of all Time, all might, earth's crowning Crown, Throne thy children in peace and in freedom together, O weld them in one.

X

_The Guns of the Fleet_

_Throne them in triumph together. Thine is the crowning cry!

Thine the glory for ever in the nation born of thy womb!

Thine the Sword and the Shield, and the shout that Salamis heard, Surging in aeschylean splendour, earth-shaking acclaim!