The Revenge - A Ballad Of The Fleet Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BBCDEFC A DGHDI A BJKLJLMIM NNOAOAPJQP LLLRR A S TT A UVUBBBV A WWKTTKT TTXXXHH T YZZA2A2Y T TB2B2TITIAAC2WD2D2NG GHHGIIT ATTLLL T GE2TD2F2F2AD2 L F2G2F2F2G2F2H2G2H2F2 F2TITII | A |
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AT Flores in the Azores Sir Richard Grenville lay | B |
And a pinnace like a flutter d bird came flying from far away | B |
Spanish ships of war at sea we have sighted fifty three | C |
Then sware Lord Thomas Howard Fore God I am no coward | D |
But I cannot meet them here for my ships are out of gear | E |
And the half my men are sick I must fly but follow quick | F |
We are six ships of the line can we fight with fifty three | C |
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II | A |
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Then spake Sir Richard Grenville I know you are no coward | D |
You fly them for a moment to fight with them again | G |
But I ve ninety men and more that are lying sick ashore | H |
I should count myself the coward if I left them my Lord Howard | D |
To these Inquisition dogs and the devildoms of Spain | I |
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III | A |
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So Lord Howard past away with five ships of war that day | B |
Till he melted like a cloud in the silent summer heaven | J |
But Sir Richard bore in hand all his sick men from the land | K |
Very carefully and slow | L |
Men of Bideford in Devon | J |
And we laid them on the ballast down below | L |
For we brought them all aboard | M |
And they blest him in their pain that they were not left to Spain | I |
To the thumb screw and the stake for the glory of the Lord | M |
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IV | - |
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He had only a hundred seamen to work the ship and to fight | N |
And he sailed away from Flores till the Spaniard came in sight | N |
With his huge sea castles heaving upon the weather bow | O |
Shall we fight or shall we fly | A |
Good Sir Richard tell us now | O |
For to fight is but to die | A |
There ll be little of us left by the time this sun be set | P |
And Sir Richard said again We be all good Englishmen | J |
Let us bang these dogs of Seville the children of the devil | Q |
For I never turn d my back upon Don or devil yet | P |
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V | - |
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Sir Richard spoke and he laugh d and we roar d a hurrah and so | L |
The little Revenge ran on sheer into the heart of the foe | L |
With her hundred fighters on deck and her ninety sick below | L |
For half of their fleet to the right and half to the left were seen | R |
And the little Revenge ran on thro the long sea lane between | R |
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VI | A |
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Thousands of their soldiers look d down from their decks and laugh d | - |
Thousands of their seamen made mock at the mad little craft | S |
Running on and on till delay d | - |
By their mountain like San Philip that of fifteen hundred tons | T |
And up shadowing high above us with her yawning tiers of guns | T |
Took the breath from our sails and we stay d | - |
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VII | A |
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And while now the great San Philip hung above us like a cloud | U |
Whence the thunderbolt will fall | V |
Long and loud | U |
Four galleons drew away | B |
From the Spanish fleet that day | B |
And two upon the larboard and two upon the starboard lay | B |
And the battle thunder broke from them all | V |
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VIII | A |
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But anon the great San Philip she bethought herself and went | W |
Having that within her womb that had left her ill content | W |
And the rest they came aboard us and they fought us hand to hand | K |
For a dozen times they came with their pikes and musqueteers | T |
And a dozen times we shook em off as a dog that shakes his ears | T |
When he leaps from the water to the land | K |
IX | T |
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And the sun went down and the stars came out far over the summer sea | T |
But never a moment ceased the fight of the one and the fifty three | T |
Ship after ship the whole night long their high built galleons came | X |
Ship after ship the whole night long with her battle thunder and flame | X |
Ship after ship the whole night long drew back with her dead and her shame | X |
For some were sunk and many were shatter d and so could fight us no more | H |
God of battles was ever a battle like this in the world before | H |
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X | T |
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For he said Fight on fight on | Y |
Tho his vessel was all but a wreck | Z |
And it chanced that when half of the short summer night was gone With a grisly wound to be drest he had left the deck | Z |
But a bullet struck him that was dressing it suddenly dead | A2 |
And himself he was wounded again in the side and the head | A2 |
And he said Fight on fight on | Y |
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XI | T |
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And the night went down and the sun smiled out far over the summer sea | T |
And the Spanish fleet with broken sides lay round us all in a ring | B2 |
But they dared not touch us again for they fear d that we still could sting | B2 |
So they watch d what the end would be | T |
And we had not fought them in vain | I |
But in perilous plight were we | T |
Seeing forty of our poor hundred were slain | I |
And half of the rest of us maim d for life | A |
In the crash of the cannonades and the desperate strife | A |
And the sick men down in the hold were most of them stark and cold | C2 |
And the pikes were all broken or bent and the powder was all of it spent | W |
And the masts and the rigging were lying over the side | D2 |
But Sir Richard cried in his English pride | D2 |
We have fought such a fight for a day and a night | N |
As may never be fought again | G |
We have won great glory my men | G |
And a day less or more | H |
At sea or ashore | H |
We die does it matter when | G |
Sink me the ship Master Gunner sink her split her in twain | I |
Fall into the hands of God not into the hands of Spain | I |
XII | T |
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And the gunner said Ay ay but the seamen made reply | A |
We have children we have wives | T |
And the Lord hath spared our lives | T |
We will make the Spaniard promise if we yield to let us go | L |
We shall live to fight again and to strike another blow | L |
And the lion there lay dying and they yielded to the foe | L |
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XIII | T |
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And the stately Spanish men to their flagship bore him then | G |
Where they laid him by the mast old Sir Richard caught at last | E2 |
And they praised him to his face with their courtly foreign grace | T |
But he rose upon their decks and he cried | D2 |
I have fought for Queen and Faith like a valiant man and true | F2 |
I have only done my duty as a man is bound to do | F2 |
With a joyful spirit I Sir Richard Grenville die | A |
And he fell upon their decks and he died | D2 |
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XIV | L |
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And they stared at the dead that had been so valiant and true | F2 |
And had holden the power and glory of Spain so cheap | G2 |
That he dared her with one little ship and his English few | F2 |
Was he devil or man He was devil for aught they knew | F2 |
But they sank his body with honor down into the deep | G2 |
And they mann d the Revenge with a swarthier alien crew | F2 |
And away she sail d with her loss and long d for her own | H2 |
When a wind from the lands they had ruin d awoke from sleep | G2 |
And the water began to heave and the weather to moan | H2 |
And or ever that evening ended a great gale blew | F2 |
And a wave like the wave that is raised by an earthquake grew | F2 |
Till it smote on their hulls and their sails and their masts and their flags | T |
And the whole sea plunged and fell on the shot shatter d navy of Spain | I |
And the little Revenge herself went down by the island crags | T |
To be lost evermore in the main | I |
Alfred Lord Tennyson
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