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James and Mary Ford, eds. Every Day in the Year. 1902.

February 15

Off Havana

By John Hall Ingham (1860–1931)

THERE came at night a clarion call from Heaven

To heroes’ souls that unto mortal ears

Sounded the blasts of Hell. The hopes and fears,

The loves and hates that earth and time had given,

Through pain and death passed to Eternity.

The shattered vessel, shivering in the flood

Of hostile waters, stained with martyrs’ blood,

Uprose and sank.—Silence was on the sea.

Silence was there, but in the hearts of men

Through all the echoing centuries shall roll

That thunderpeal of foe or fate. Again,

Whene’er our Country calls,—forgetting not,

Her sons shall press undaunted to the goal,

Die in their duty and be unforgot.