Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Russia: Vol. XX. 1876–79.
The Tiger
By Sir Edwin Arnold (1832–1904)B
Washed by the Russian wave,
Shattered and black an English ship
Rots in her sandy grave.
The sea-shell clogs her cannon,
The sea-worm eats her oak,
And the sea-weeds dank cling to the plank
Whence English thunders spoke.
Under the Russian sky,
That noble vessel’s noble chief
In bloody grave doth lie.
Not bravely in fair battle
Cut down upon his deck,
But driving lost on an iron coast,
And shot on a helpless wreck.
Who comes for vengeance due?
A legion bold in steel and gold,—
A fleet with seamen true!
O, shame! no sworn avengers,
But a gentle lady there,
Sitting alone by an uncarved stone
Weeping her wifely tear.
Only his widow there!
O lonely, lonely sepulchre,
Only one falling tear!
Why roars no rage of cannon?
Why rings no levelled gun?
With sword and spear, not sigh and tear,
England should mourn her son.
Came o’er the stormy wave;
Shall women for the one they love
Alone be bold and brave?
How, England, will thy captains
Die bravely in thy strife,
When Giffard’s rest no mourner blest
But a woman and a wife?
His vessel’s jack was ta’en;
O for the death its champion died,
Win back that flag again.
Plant it with shot and sabre
Above the Russian’s best;
And the conquering shout, as the cross flaunts out,
Shall bring him better rest.