You dare to say with perjured lips, <br />"We fight to make the ocean free"? <br />You, whose black trail of butchered ships <br />Bestrews the bed of every sea <br />Where German submarines have wrought <br />Their horrors! Have you never thought, -- <br />What you call freedom, men call piracy! <br /> <br />Unnumbered ghosts that haunt the wave <br />Where you have murdered, cry you down; <br />And seamen whom you would not save, <br />Weave now in weed-grown depths a crown <br />Of shame for your imperious head, -- <br />A dark memorial of the dead, -- <br />Women and children whom you left to drown. <br /> <br />Nay, not till thieves are set to guard <br />The gold, and corsairs called to keep <br />O'er peaceful commerce watch and ward, <br />And wolves to herd the helpless sheep, <br />Shall men and women look to thee -- <br />Thou ruthless Old Man of the Sea -- <br />To safeguard law and freedom on the deep! <br /> <br />In nobler breeds we put our trust: <br />The nations in whose sacred lore <br />The "Ought" stands out above the "Must," <br />And Honor rules in peace and war. <br />With these we hold in soul and heart, <br />With these we choose our lot and part, <br />Till Liberty is safe on sea and shore.<br /><br />Henry Van Dyke<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/mare-liberum/
