O FAIR to see, scudding with gull-like motion,
Or hovering poised on shadowing wings of snow;
The ships that won the empire of the ocean
A hundred years ago!
What could yon vessel tell of combats glorious,
That now so calmly at her anchor rides,
When the deep voice of England's guns victorious
Spoke from those oaken sides?
Those that ne'er bowed to man, to Time surrender,
And, as the passing years at last prevail,
Gone are the tapering masts, the rigging slender,
And snow-white spread of sail.
Gone — once the terror of the pirate-rover;
But, following on the steps of such as these,
We forge wherewith to bridge the ocean over,
A sword to cleave the seas.
That — a memory of the struggles of our nation,
When England staunchly stay'd Napoleon's plan;
This — emblem of a younger generation
And the wondrous art of man.
And, tho' beneath that banner, famed in story,
No snow-white sails across the seas are blown,
Our — ocean-greyhounds boast a new-won glory,
A beauty all their own.
Sped forward by their hearts' fierce palpitations,
White foam from those resistless bows far-hurled,
They watch upon the highway of the nations,
And the markets of the world.
And should the cannon's roar and broadside's rattle
Call Britain's bulwarks to defend her shore,
They will bear themselves right bravely in the battle
Tho' wooden walls no more!
Notes
This was taken from pages 19-21 of Miss Fox Smith's book Songs of Greater Britain (and other poems) published by Sherratt and Hughes, 27 St. Anne's Street, Manchester, England in 1899.
It was published when she was only 19 years of age and shortly after she, like the rest of Great Britain, had undergone the mass celebrations for Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897. It is hardly surprising that this last mass celebration of the British Empire at it's height influenced the young Cicely to such patriotic outpourings.
In the harking back to Napoleonic times it is obvious that, even at this early age, Cicely's thoughts were on naval matters and the wooden ships rather than the newer iron clads of her own time.
JS
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