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Cossack and Russian

Reel'd from the sabre-stroke Shatter'd and sunder'd. Then they rode back, but not, Not the six hundred.

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,

Cannon behind them

Volley'd and thunder'd;

Storm'd at with shot and shell, While horse and hero fell,

They that had fought so well

Came thro' the jaws of Death,

Back from the mouth of hell,
All that was left of them,
Left of six hundred.

When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
All the world wonder 'd.
Honour the charge they made!
Honour the Light Brigade,
Noble six hundred!

THE CAPTAIN

A LEGEND OF THE NAVY

He that only rules by terror

Doeth grievous wrong.

Deep as hell I count his error.

Let him hear my song.

Brave the captain was; the seamen Made a gallant crew,

Gallant sons of English freemen,

Sailors bold and true.

But they hated his oppression;

Stern he was and rash,

So for every light transgression
Doom'd them to the lash.

Day by day more harsh and cruel
Seem'd the Captain's mood.

Secret wrath like smother'd fuel

Burnt in each man's blood. Yet he hoped to purchase glory, Hoped to make the name

Of his vessel great in story,

Wheresoe 'er he came.

So they past by capes and islands,

Many a harbour-mouth,

Sailing under palmy highlands

Far within the South.

On a day when they were going

O'er the lone expanse,

In the north, her canvas flowing,
Rose a ship of France.

40

50

10

20

Then the Captain's colour heightened,

Joyful came his speech;

But a cloudy gladness lighten 'd

In the eyes of each.

"Chase," he said; the ship flew forward,

And the wind did blow;

Stately, lightly, went she norward,

Till she near'd the foe.

Then they look'd at him they hated,

Had what they desired;

Mute with folded arms they waited

Not a gun was fired.

But they heard the foeman's thunder

Roaring out their doom;

All the air was torn in sunder,

Crashing went the boom,

Spars were splinter'd, decks were shatter'd, Bullets fell like rain;

Over mast and deck were scatter'd

Blood and brains of men.

Spars were splinter'd; decks were broken; Every mother's son

Down they dropt-no word was spoken

Each beside his gun.

On the decks as they were lying,

Were their faces grim.

In their blood, as they lay dying,
Did they smile on him.

Those in whom he had reliance

For his noble name

With one smile of still defiance

Sold him unto shame.

Shame and wrath his heart confounded,

Pale he turn'd and red,

Till himself was deadly wounded
Falling on the dead.

Dismal error! fearful slaughter!

Years have wandered by;

Side by side beneath the water

Crew and Captain lie;

There the sunlit ocean tosses

O'er them mouldering,

And the lonely seabird crosses
With one waft of the wing.

THE REVENGE*

A BALLAD OF THE FLEET

I

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59

50

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But Sir Richard bore in hand all his sick men from the land

Very carefully and slow,

Men of Bideford in Devon,

60 And we laid them on the ballast down below: For we brought them all aboard,

70

At Flores in the Azores Sir Richard Grenville lay,

And a pinnace, like a flutter'd bird, came flying from far away;

"Spanish ships of war at sea! we have sighted fifty-three!'

See Sir Walter Raleigh's account, p. 208.

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For I never turn'd my back upon Don or devil | Ship after ship, the whole night long, their yet." high-built galleons came,

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And the night went down, and the sun smiled out far over the summer sea,

70

And while now the great San Philip hung And the Spanish fleet with broken sides lay

above us like a cloud

Whence the thunderbolt will fall

Long and loud,

Four galleons drew away

From the Spanish fleet that day,

round us all in a ring;

But they dared not touch us again, for they
fear'd that we still could sting,.

So they watch'd what the end would be.
And we had not fought them in vain,

And two upon the larboard and two upon the But in perilous plight were we,

starboard lay,

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Seeing forty of our poor hundred were slain,
And half of the rest of us maim'd for life

In the crash of the cannonades and the des-
perate strife:

And the sick men down in the hold were most of them stark and cold,

And the pikes were all broken or bent, and the powder was all of it spent;

80

And the masts and the rigging were lying over
the side;

But Sir Richard cried in his English pride:
We have fought such a fight for a day and

a night

As may never be fought again!

We have won great glory, my men!
And a day less or more

At sea or ashore,

We die-does it matter when?

And the sun went down, and the stars came Sink me the ship, Master Gunner-sink her, out far over the summer sea,

split her in twain!

But never a moment ceased the fight of the Fall into the hands of God, not into the hands

one and the fifty-three.

of Spain!"

90

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But they sank his body with honour down into Thaw a knaws I hallus voäted wi' Squoire an' the deep. choorch an' staäte, And they mann'd the Revenge with a swarthier An' i' the woost o' toimes I wur niver agin

the raäte.

16

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V

I hallus coom'd to 's choorch afoor moy Sally wur deäd,

'eärd 'um a bummin' awaäy loike a buzzard-clock ower my 'eäd,

And or ever that evening ended a great gale 1 ou as in hour

blew,

And a wave like the wave that is raised by an

earthquake 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 shotshatter'd navy of Spain,

And the little Revenge herself went down by the island crags

To be lost evermore in the main.

2 cockchafer Note that in this dialect poem an a pronounced very lightly represents thou, as in "'asta" (hast thou), or he, as in "a says"; or it is a mere prefix to a participle, as in "a beän." "a sittin'"; or, pronounced broadly, it may stand for hare, as in "as I 'a done." Further. toitne= tithe barne = bairn; raäte = churchrate, or tax; 'siver howsoever; stubbed = grubbed; boggle bogle (ghost); raäved and rembled tore out and removed; 'soize = assizes: yows ewes ; 'aäpoth half-pennyworth sewer-loy surely; atta = art thou; hallus i' the owd taäle always urging the same thing. The numbered notes are Tennyson's.

An' I niver knaw'd whot a meän'd but I Done it ta-year I meän 'd, an' runn'd plow thowt a 'ad summut to saäy, thruff it an' all,

An' I thowt a said whot a owt to 'a said, an' If Godamoighty an' parson 'ud nobbut let ma I coom'd awaäy.

VI

20

Bessy Marris's barne! tha knaws she laäid it to meä.

aloän,

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Mowt a beän, mayhap, for she wur a bad un, Do Godamoighty knaw what a's doing a-taäkin'

sheä.

'Siver, I kep 'um, I kep 'um, my lass, tha mun

understond;

o' meä?

I beänt wonn as saws 'ere a beän an yonder a peä;

I done moy duty boy 'um, as I 'a done boy the An' Squoire 'ull be sa mad an' all-a' dear,

lond.

VII

24

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Keäper's it wur; fo' they fun 'um theer a-laäid I done moy duty by Squoire an' I done moy of 'is faäce

Down i' the woild 'enemies afoor I coom'd to

the plaäce.

duty boy hall.

XV

56

Noäks or Thimbleby-toäners 'ed shot 'um as Squoire 's i' Lunnon, an' summun I reckons dead as a naäil, 'ull 'a to wroite,

Noäks wur 'ang'd for it oop at 'soize-but git For whoä 's to howd the lond ater meä thot ma my aäle.

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Nobbut a bit on it 's left, an' I mean 'd to 'a Sin' I mun doy I mun doy, thaw loife they

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