| |
| YOU dare to say with perjured lips, | |
| “We fight to make the ocean free”? | |
| You, whose black trail of butchered ships | |
| Bestrews the bed of every sea | |
| Where German submarines have wrought | 5 |
| Their horrors! Have you never thought,— | |
| What you call freedom, men call piracy! | |
| |
| Unnumbered ghosts that haunt the wave | |
| Where you have murdered, cry you down; | |
| And seamen whom you would not save, | 10 |
| Weave now in weed-grown depths a crown | |
| Of shame for your imperious head,— | |
| A dark memorial of the dead,— | |
| Women and children whom you left to drown | |
| |
| Nay, not till thieves are set to guard | 15 |
| The gold, and corsairs called to keep | |
| O’er peaceful commerce watch and ward, | |
| And wolves to herd the helpless sheep, | |
| Shall men and women look to thee— | |
| Thou ruthless Old Man of the Sea— | 20 |
| To safeguard law and freedom on the deep! | |
| |
| In nobler breeds we put our trust: | |
| The nations in whose sacred lore | |
| The “Ought” stands out above the “Must,” | |
| And Honor rules in peace and war. | 25 |
| With these we hold in soul and heart, | |
| With these we choose our lot and part, | |
Till Liberty is safe on sea and shore.
February 11, 1917 | |
| |
