Page:Fifes and Drums, Poems of America at War, Vigilantes, 1917.djvu/48



up your Black Flag,

Skull and crossbones display!

Why should you palter—why should you lag?—

For never was freebooting crew,

From Heligoland to Cathay—

And the Coast of Barbary, too,

So deserved the foul ensign as you!

Yes, run up the Black Flag,

Too long have your colors been hid!

Make good your insolent brag,

Who have staked off the waters at will,

And the honored sea-law have defied,

Going forth to plunder and kill!

You have staked off the waters at will—