The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1878-03-28
savsnea
TENN YSON.
/ New poam Nv the Poet laureate.

A New Poem by the Poet Laureate.
The last number of the Nineteenth
Cegota5g,O opens with a poem from the
pen of Alfred Tennyson, entitled : Ihe
Revenge IA Ballad OF the Fleet. ]" Mr.
Tennyson's poem begins:
AT Flores in the Azores Sir Richard Grenvile lay,
And a pinnace, like futtered bird, came flying
Spanish rGn ships hi Of war at seal we have sighted
Then swaro Lord Thomas Howard "'Fore God
But cannot meet them here, for my ships are out
of gear,
And the half my men are sick. must fly, but fol-
We are SIX ships Of tho line; can we fight with
ffty-three?"
Then spaka Sir Richard Grenyille: know you
are 10 coward
You 6y them for moment to tight with them
again,
But I've ninety men or more that are lying sick
ashore.
I should count myself tee coward II LETT them, my
Lord Howard
To these Inquisition dogs and the deyildcms Of
Spain"
Lord Howard passes away, and Sir
Richard Granville is left with his own
ship, containing ninety sick men an& a
hundred sean0en fit to work the ship and
to fight. They encounter the Spanish
feet, one to ffty-three.
And the sun went down. and the stars came out far
over The summer sea,
But never a moment ceased the fight of the and
the ffty-tbree.
Ship after ship, the whole night long, their high
built galeons came;
Ship after ship, the whole night long, with her bat
tle-thunder and fame;
Sdip after ship the whole niQht long, drew back
with her dead az ler shmn
For some wera sunk and many were shattered, and
SO could fight us more
God Of battles, ever battle like this IN the
world before?
For he said Fight on Fight onr'
Though his vessel was ali but wreck;
And it CHANGED that, when half Of the summer
night was gone,
With grisly wound to be dressed he had left the
deck,
But bullet struck him that was dressing it sudden
ly dead,
And himself he was wounded again in the side and
the head,
And he said, "Fight on Fight on p
And the night went down, and the sun smiled out
far over the summer sea,
And the Spanish feet, with broken sides, lay round
all in a 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 Grenville had his way Of en-
countering it.
" Sink me the ship, Master Gunner-sink her, split
her in twain!
Fall into the hands Of God, not into the hands of
Spainl"
But the crew we're 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 to his face with their courty
foreign grace;
But he rose upon their decks, and he cried:
have fought for Queen and Faith like q valiant
man and true;
have only done my duty man is bound to do;
With joyful spirit l, Sir Richard GrenviIle, die =!
And he fell upon their decks, and he died
And they stared at the dead that had been so valiant
and true,
And had holden the power and glory of Spain so
cheap
That be dared her with one little ship and his En-
ghsh few;
Was he devil or man? He was devil for augbt they
knew,
But they sank his body with honor down into the
deep,
And they manned the Revenge with swarthier
alien crew,
And away she sailed with her loss and onged for her
own;
When a wind from the lands they had ruined awoke
from sleep,
And the water began to heave and the weather to
moan,
And or ever that evening ended great gale blew
And wave like the wave that is raised by earth
quake grew,
Till it smote on their hulls and their sails and their
masts and their flags
and the whole sea plunged and fell on the shot shat
tered navy of Spain,
And the little Revenge herself went down by the
island crags
To be lost evermore in the MAN,