They saw the cables loosened, they saw the gangways cleared, <br />They heard the women weeping, they heard the men that cheered; <br />Far off, far off, the tumult faded and died away, <br />And all alone the sea-wind came singing up the Bay. <br /> <br />'I came by Cape St. Vincent, I came by Trafalgar, <br />I swept from Torres Vedras to golden Vigo Bar, <br />I saw the beacons blazing that fired the world with light <br />When down their ancient highway your fathers passed to fight. <br /> <br />'O race of tireless fighters, flushed with a youth renewed, <br />Right well the wars of Freedom befit the Sea-kings' brood; <br />Yet as ye go forget not the fame of yonder shore, <br />The fame ye owe your fathers and the old time before. <br /> <br />'Long-suffering were the Sea-kings, they were not swift to kill, <br />But when the sands had fallen they waited no man's will; <br />Though all the world forbade them, they counted not nor cared, <br />They weighed not help or hindrance, they did the thing they dared. <br /> <br />'The Sea-kings loved not boasting, they cursed not him that cursed, <br />They honoured all men duly, and him that faced them, first; <br />They strove and knew not hatred, they smote and toiled to save, <br />They tended whom they vanquished, they praised the fallen brave. <br /> <br />'Their fame's on Torres Vedras, their fame's on Vigo Bar, <br />Far-flashed to Cape St. Vincent it burns from Trafalgar; <br />Mark as ye go the beacons that woke the world with light <br />When down their ancient highway your fathers passed to fight.'<br /><br />Sir Henry Newbolt<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-sailing-of-the-long-ships/
