Page:The Muse in Arms, Osborn (ed), 1917.djvu/122

80 They scarred me and pocked my beauty with the bursts of their well-aimed shell,

When they found me showing my colour to the westward of Coronel;

I hated being torn and tattered; they gave me no time to mend,

But they saw my honour untarnished, for my halliards held to the end.

I covered the sleeping corpses, for they slept there for my sake,

And I tethered myself to the shingle, till my country bade me wake;

Then I once more danced to the wind's tune and the Southern oceans knew

That the men and the ships they carried were safer because I flew.

I strained at my bow-taut halliards from Messina to Cape Matapan ;

It wasn't the wind that frayed me, but the speed of the ships in the van;

And for many a long day after, I flew midst despair and loss,

But none disputed the honour of my jack and my great red cross.