<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">The Fleets</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line"><span class="smallcaps">Are</span> you out with the fleets through the long, dark night,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Admiral Drake?</p><p class="line">Are you keeping watch, when with never a light</p><p class="line">They patrol the seas and wait for a fight?</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">In that far South Sea were you standing by,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Admiral Drake?</p><p class="line">Did your masthead catch that wireless cry?</p><p class="line">Did you in sorrow watch them die?</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Once more at the guns do your gunners strain,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Admiral Drake?</p><p class="line">Do their voices ring o'er the decks again,</p><p class="line">"Have at them, boys!" in the old refrain?</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">When the shining death leaps through the wave,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Admiral Drake,</p><p class="line">Are your boats all out in a rush to save?</p><p class="line">Do you stand to salute the death of the brave?</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Are there others out on the heaving blue,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Admiral Drake?</p><p class="line">Are Collingwood, Blake and Nelson, too,</p><p class="line">In their high-decked ships, along with you?</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Oh, seamen of old, the shadowy gates</p><p class="line">Swing wide to let you through,</p><p class="line">And out o'er the seas your galleons sweep</p><p class="line">To fight for the flag anew.</p></div><p class="byline">-- M. G. Meugens.</p></body></html> · Great War