Queens’ ships, Queens’ ships.
Gloriana’s mariners,
Putting forth to sea
Afire to beard the Spaniard
Wherever he may be .
Hanging on the Plate fleets’ flanks
Like hounds upon the deer,
Roving, raiding, voyaging
Year on weary year.
Leaking, reeking, nail-sick,
Rolling home again
With their scurvy-rotten seamen
And the plunder of the Main.
Queens’ ships, Queens’ ships.
Stately first rates
Of Good Queen Anne’s day,
Plunging deep their gilded bows
In the trampled spray —
With their fighting ship’s companies
That well the Frenchmen knew
And their brave bewigged admirals
Of the white, red and blues —
Rooke that gained Gibraltar,
And gallant Leake also,
Myngs and stout old Shovell
And honest Benbow.
Queens’ ships, Queens’ ships.
Little ships and great ships,
The seven seas over,
Keeping up the long patrol
From Davis Straits to Dover.
(Franklin in the Arctic,
Gunboats at Rangoon,
Calliope at Apia
Fighting the Typhoon) —
Cruising, sounding searching,
Keeping clear the seas,
Through the little wars of Britain
And the piping times of peace.
Queens’ ships, Queens’ ships.
Great ships, small ships,
From the wide seas beckoned,
Gather to salute
Elizabeth the Second.
Ships pass, men pass,
The old ways grow strange,
All but the old faith
That knows not any change —
The old love that alters not
Through all the years between
Valiant Tudor cockleshell
And sleek grey submarine.
Love and faith to England
And to England’s Queen!
(Cicely Fox Smith)
More Poetry from Cicely Fox Smith:
Cicely Fox Smith Poems based on Topics: Man, War & Peace, Kings & Queens, Love, Change- The Quest Of The Queen (Cicely Fox Smith Poems)
- Missing (Cicely Fox Smith Poems)
- The Rhyme Of The Four Strong Men (Cicely Fox Smith Poems)
- Resurrection (Cicely Fox Smith Poems)
- The King's Grief (Cicely Fox Smith Poems)
- The Three Ships (Cicely Fox Smith Poems)
Readers Who Like This Poem Also Like:
Based on Topics: Love Poems, Man Poems, War & Peace Poems, Kings & Queens Poems, Change PoemsBased on Keywords: rates, calliope, gibraltar, voyaging, leaking, frenchmen, typhoon, submarine, spaniard, admirals, tudor
- Out Of The East (John Freeman Poems)
- The Golden Legend: VI. The School Of Salerno (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Poems)
- Book III - Part 03 - The Soul is Mortal (Lucretius Poems)
- Of The Nature Of Things: Book II - Part 03 - Atomic Forms And Their Combinations (Lucretius Poems)
- Clifton Grove (Henry Kirke White Poems)