The Spirit of the Maine

By Tudor Jenks (1857–1922)

The blowing up of the Maine in the harbor of Havana on the night of Feb. 15, 1898, was the event which precipitated the war with Spain which had been impending for some months.

IN battle-line of sombre gray

Our ships of war advance,

As Red Cross knights in holy fray

Charged with avenging lance.

And terrible shall be thy plight,

O fleet of cruel Spain!

For ever in our van doth fight

The spirit of the Maine!

As when, beside Regillus Lake,

The great twin brethren came

A righteous fight for Rome to make

Against a deed of shame,

So now a ghostly ship shall doom

The fleet of treacherous Spain,

Before her guilty soul doth loom

The spirit of the Maine!

A wraith arrayed in peaceful white,

As when asleep she lay

Above the traitorous mine that night

Within Havana Bay,

She glides before the avenging fleet

A sign of woe to Spain.

Brave though her sons, how shall they meet

The spirit of the Maine?

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