Voyage Of The Good Ship Union

'T is midnight: through my troubled dream     Loud wails the tempest's cry;     Before the gale, with tattered sail,     A ship goes plunging by.     What name? Where bound? - The rocks around     Repeat the loud halloo.      - The good ship Union, Southward bound:     God help her and her crew!     And is the old flag flying still     That o'er your fathers flew,     With bands of white and rosy light,     And field of starry blue?      - Ay! look aloft! its folds full oft     Have braved the roaring blast,     And still shall fly when from the sky     This black typhoon has past!     Speak, pilot of the storm-tost bark!     May I thy peril share?      - O landsman, there are fearful seas     The brave alone may dare!      - Nay, ruler of the rebel deep,     What matters wind or wave?     The rocks that wreck your reeling deck     Will leave me naught to save!     O landsman, art thou false or true?     What sign hast thou to show?      - The crimson stains from loyal veins     That hold my heart-blood's flow      - Enough! what more shall honor claim?     I know the sacred sign;     Above thy head our flag shall spread,     Our ocean path be thine!     The bark sails on; the Pilgrim's Cape     Lies low along her lee,     Whose headland crooks its anchor-flukes     To lock the shore and sea.     No treason here! it cost too dear     To win this barren realm     And true and free the hands must be     That hold the whaler's helm!     Still on! Manhattan's narrowing bay     No rebel cruiser scars;     Her waters feel no pirate's keel     That flaunts the fallen stars!      - But watch the light on yonder height, -     Ay, pilot, have a care!     Some lingering cloud in mist may shroud     The capes of Delaware!     Say, pilot, what this fort may be,     Whose sentinels look down     From moated walls that show the sea     Their deep embrasures' frown?     The Rebel host claims all the coast,     But these are friends, we know,     Whose footprints spoil the "sacred soil,"     And this is? - Fort Monroe!     The breakers roar, - how bears the shore?      - The traitorous wreckers' hands     Have quenched the blaze that poured its rays     Along the Hatteras sands.      - Ha! say not so! I see its glow!     Again the shoals display     The beacon light that shines by night,     The Union Stars by day!     The good ship flies to milder skies,     The wave more gently flows,     The softening breeze wafts o'er the seas     The breath of Beaufort's rose.     What fold is this the sweet winds kiss,     Fair-striped and many-starred,     Whose shadow palls these orphaned walls,     The twins of Beauregard?     What! heard you not Port Royal's doom?     How the black war-ships came     And turned the Beaufort roses' bloom     To redder wreaths of flame?     How from Rebellion's broken reed     We saw his emblem fall,     As soon his cursed poison-weed     Shall drop from Sumter's wall?     On! on! Pulaski's iron hail     Falls harmless on Tybee!     The good ship feels the freshening gales,     She strikes the open sea;     She rounds the point, she threads the keys     That guard the Land of Flowers,     And rides at last where firm and fast     Her own Gibraltar towers!     The good ship Union's voyage is o'er,     At anchor safe she swings,     And loud and clear with cheer on cheer     Her joyous welcome rings:     Hurrah! Hurrah! it shakes the wave,     It thunders on the shore, -     One flag, one land, one heart, one hand,     One Nation, evermore!