Remember the Maine
The battleship Maine is afloat on the sea —
A huge white phantom of destiny!
Will she breast the storm as well?
The storm of war and the storm of the deep;
The storm that may come, with the sailor asleep,
From the dynamite diving-bell?
To the God of the sea and the God of the foam
The sailor-boy prays for his loves at home: —
" Remember all ships on the ocean wave;
Remember the tars and the gunners brave
In the war's fierce hurricane;
Remember the sailors wherever they are,
At sea, or at rest in the harbor bar,
O God, remember the Maine! "
As the guest of peace in a tropical bay
The flagship Maine aTher anchor lay,
With a tropical night begun:
A damnable plot, by infamy planned,
The cowardly touch of a villanous hand,
And a horrible deed is done:
A rumble, a roar! Have the fiends of hell
Exploded the world like a bursting shell?
They have wrecked the ship, and the blast has blown
The sleeping tars to the great unknown!
Two hundred and sixty slain!
The sailor has followed hard after his prayer,
But Sigsbee and fighting Wainwright swear
On their lives to remember the Maine!
A horrible night brings a ghastly day;
While the wreck and the floating corpses say
To the Spanish ships hard by: —
" When your battered squadrons shall writhe and burn
Like the shattered Maine, you shall come to learn
How the dead can make reply! "
See the vultures perch on the twisted steel,
Or, watching the corpses, greedily wheel;
But far above, in the clear blue sky,
A soaring eagle, with bloodshot eye,
Is watching the vultures of Spain!
While behind the wreck, and each pale, dead face,
Is the might of the Anglo-Saxon race,
With the power to remember the Maine!
When Dewey stole into Manila Bay,
Ere the dawn of the first retribution day,
He was facing a twofold doubt: —
'T will be war when the forts and fleets begin!
But the channel is mined, will he ever get in?
Once in, will he ever get out?
With a hooded lamp as a stern guide-light,
Like a torch of death for the dying night,
Those darkened hulls up the harbor steal,
With a trail of foam, where the pitiless keel
Has written the doom of Spain!
Soon those guns shall be roaring, from jaws of death,
What each gunner is whispering under his breath: —
" Remember! remember the Maine! "
While the forts are belching their terrible bombs,
The Philistines' challenging flag-ship comes,
Like the great Goliath of old!
But she turns, for a sling-shot smashes her prow,
While another has ripped her from stern to bow,
With the flames bursting up from her hold!
Her battered companions are all on fire,
To sink in the blaze of their funeral pyre!
The smoke of the battle made heaven to frown;
While the battle god, hurling his meteors down,
Shattered the war-dogs of Spain!
But the signal to Admiral Dewey ran: —
No harm hath fallen to ship or man
Of those who remember the Maine!
Outside Santiago de Cuba there lay,
On the morn of the next retribution day,
The squadrons of Sampson and Schley!
Who makes the next move on the chess board of fate?
From the funnel smoke choking the harbor gate
Cervera now thunders, " 'T is I. "
No fighters so eager as fighters of steel;
Each blockader now seeming to leap from her keel;
Oh, that long shot, that strong shot, has shattered a ship!
They 're flying! They're dying! Let none of them slip!
Chase Colon, that fleetwing of Spain!
Speed, Oregon! Brooklyn! She's panting for breath!
Oh, that shell shot was well shot — 't will burn her to death!
Leave her time to remember the Maine!
Schley signals to Wainwright: " Keep out of the way! "
But the man on the wee little Gloucester says: " Nay,
I'll close in! " At the Furor he rushed
With a fury that drove those torpedo-boats dread
On the battle-strewn rocks, where the surf was made red
And the bones of the Pluton were crushed!
The avenging Anglo-Saxon once more
Hath driven a Spanish Armada on shore.
Our fleet is unharmed! The Almighty had willed
Two great naval battles and nobody killed
But those who were fighting for Spain!
While the banner that never has known defeat
Is still floating o'er the victorious fleet
As it floated above the Maine!
A huge white phantom of destiny!
Will she breast the storm as well?
The storm of war and the storm of the deep;
The storm that may come, with the sailor asleep,
From the dynamite diving-bell?
To the God of the sea and the God of the foam
The sailor-boy prays for his loves at home: —
" Remember all ships on the ocean wave;
Remember the tars and the gunners brave
In the war's fierce hurricane;
Remember the sailors wherever they are,
At sea, or at rest in the harbor bar,
O God, remember the Maine! "
As the guest of peace in a tropical bay
The flagship Maine aTher anchor lay,
With a tropical night begun:
A damnable plot, by infamy planned,
The cowardly touch of a villanous hand,
And a horrible deed is done:
A rumble, a roar! Have the fiends of hell
Exploded the world like a bursting shell?
They have wrecked the ship, and the blast has blown
The sleeping tars to the great unknown!
Two hundred and sixty slain!
The sailor has followed hard after his prayer,
But Sigsbee and fighting Wainwright swear
On their lives to remember the Maine!
A horrible night brings a ghastly day;
While the wreck and the floating corpses say
To the Spanish ships hard by: —
" When your battered squadrons shall writhe and burn
Like the shattered Maine, you shall come to learn
How the dead can make reply! "
See the vultures perch on the twisted steel,
Or, watching the corpses, greedily wheel;
But far above, in the clear blue sky,
A soaring eagle, with bloodshot eye,
Is watching the vultures of Spain!
While behind the wreck, and each pale, dead face,
Is the might of the Anglo-Saxon race,
With the power to remember the Maine!
When Dewey stole into Manila Bay,
Ere the dawn of the first retribution day,
He was facing a twofold doubt: —
'T will be war when the forts and fleets begin!
But the channel is mined, will he ever get in?
Once in, will he ever get out?
With a hooded lamp as a stern guide-light,
Like a torch of death for the dying night,
Those darkened hulls up the harbor steal,
With a trail of foam, where the pitiless keel
Has written the doom of Spain!
Soon those guns shall be roaring, from jaws of death,
What each gunner is whispering under his breath: —
" Remember! remember the Maine! "
While the forts are belching their terrible bombs,
The Philistines' challenging flag-ship comes,
Like the great Goliath of old!
But she turns, for a sling-shot smashes her prow,
While another has ripped her from stern to bow,
With the flames bursting up from her hold!
Her battered companions are all on fire,
To sink in the blaze of their funeral pyre!
The smoke of the battle made heaven to frown;
While the battle god, hurling his meteors down,
Shattered the war-dogs of Spain!
But the signal to Admiral Dewey ran: —
No harm hath fallen to ship or man
Of those who remember the Maine!
Outside Santiago de Cuba there lay,
On the morn of the next retribution day,
The squadrons of Sampson and Schley!
Who makes the next move on the chess board of fate?
From the funnel smoke choking the harbor gate
Cervera now thunders, " 'T is I. "
No fighters so eager as fighters of steel;
Each blockader now seeming to leap from her keel;
Oh, that long shot, that strong shot, has shattered a ship!
They 're flying! They're dying! Let none of them slip!
Chase Colon, that fleetwing of Spain!
Speed, Oregon! Brooklyn! She's panting for breath!
Oh, that shell shot was well shot — 't will burn her to death!
Leave her time to remember the Maine!
Schley signals to Wainwright: " Keep out of the way! "
But the man on the wee little Gloucester says: " Nay,
I'll close in! " At the Furor he rushed
With a fury that drove those torpedo-boats dread
On the battle-strewn rocks, where the surf was made red
And the bones of the Pluton were crushed!
The avenging Anglo-Saxon once more
Hath driven a Spanish Armada on shore.
Our fleet is unharmed! The Almighty had willed
Two great naval battles and nobody killed
But those who were fighting for Spain!
While the banner that never has known defeat
Is still floating o'er the victorious fleet
As it floated above the Maine!
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