The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1878-03-29
TENNYSON.


New Poem by the Poet Laureate.
The last number Of the Nineteenth
Century opens with a poem from the
pen of Alfred Tennyson, entitled "The
Revenge A Ballad OF the Fleet" Mr..
Tennyson's poem begins:
At Flores in the Azores Sir Richard Grenvile lay,
And a pinnace, like nuttered bird, came dying
from far away;
"Spanish ships of war ut sea we have sighted
hfty-three 7"
Then sware Lord Thomas Howard: "'Fore God
am coward,
But cannot meet them here, for my ships are out
of gear,
And the half my men sick. must fly, but fol-
low quick.
We az a saipe Of tho line; fl IN. with
hfty-thi ee?"
Then spake Sir Richard Grenvilie: al know you
You fly them for a moment to fight with them
again,
But I've ninety men or more that are lying slck
should count myself the coward If left them, my
Lord Howard,
To these Inquisition dogs aud the devildoms of
Spain"
Lord Howard passes away, and Sir
Richard Granville is left with his own
ship, containing ninety sick men and a
hundred seamen fit to work the ship and
to fight. They encounter the Spanish
feet, one to fifty-three.
over the summer sea,
But never moment ceased the fight of the onennd
the ffty-three.
Ship after ship, the whole night long, their high
built galeons came:
Ship after ship, the hoo nj n. long with her bat
tle-thund and hame
Ship after ship the whole night long, drew back
with her dead and her shame,
For some were sunk and many were shattered, and
so could fight us no more
God of battles, battle like this IN the
world before?
For he said, Flight on Fight on! !"
Though his vessel was all but wreck:
And it CHANGED that, when half of the summer
night was gone,
With a grisly wound to be dressed he had left tho
But bullet struck him that was dressing it sudden:
ly dead,
And himself he wounded again in the side and
the head,
And he said, Eight on Fight on ~
And the night went down, and the sun smiled out
far over the summer sea,
And the Spanish feet, with broken sides Law round
us all in ring;
But they dared not touch again, for they feared
that we still could sting.
So they watched what the end would be.
The end was not doubtful, and Sir
Richard Granville had his way of en-
countering it.
" Sink me the ship, Master Gunner-sink her. split
her in twain
FAN into the hands of God, not into the hands of
Spainp
But the crew were of less heroic
mood, for "the lion there lay dying, and
they yielded to the foe"
And the stately Spanish men to their flagship bore
Where they laid him by the mast, old Sir Richard
caught at last,
And they praised him his face with their courty
foreign grace;
But he rose upon their decks and he cried:
al have fought for Queen and Faith like valiant
man and true;
have only done my duty a man is bound to do:
With joyful spirit l. Sir Richard Grenville, die ~
And he fell upon their decks, and he died.
And they stared at the dead that had been valiant
AMI true,
And had holden the power and glory of Spain SO
cheap
That he dared her with one little ship and his En-
glish few;
Was he devil or man? He was devil for aught they
knew,
But they sank his body with honor down into the
deep,
And they manned the Revenge with swarthier
alien crew,
And away che sailed with her loss and onged for her
own;
When wind from the lands they had ruined awoke
from sleep,
And the water began 10 heavo and the weather to
moan,
And ever that evening ended great gale blew,
And a like the that il raised by earth
quake grew,
Till it smote their hulls and their sails and their
masts and their flags,
And the whole plunged and fell on the shotshat
tered navy of Spain,
And the little Revenge herself went down by the
island crags
To be lost evermore in the main.