Spain’s Hour of Doom

By Albert Rowland Haven

Written on the declaration of Cuban independence by the American Congress, April 20, 1898.

SPAIN’S hour has struck. No more her flag

Shall float o’er Cuba’s fateful isle.

Her reign of treachery and guile

Is o’er. No more shall vengeance lag.

Back to their gaunt Iberian crag

Her desolating legions hurl,

Or let the wild Atlantic’s swirl

Their souls and bodies hellward drag.

Ay, let her new armada flee

Westward her tyranny to maintain.

We will, in memory of the Maine,

Meet it and sink it in the sea.

Out of the Western Hemisphere

Spain’s yellow banner soon shall fade.

No more by her shall graves be made

Where grain should grow and fruits appear.

No more her fiends with sword and fire

The Cuban’s homes shall devastate,

Slay sons, and daughters violate

Before their mother and their sire.

The infamy of Spain shall loom

Black over the devoted isle

No longer. Not by force or wile

Can she put back the hour of doom.

That hour has struck. From Morro’s height

Haul down her old dishonored flag,

While back to her Iberian crag,

She takes her ignominious flight.