Explore "Ode to the British Fleet" by Ella Wheeler Wilcox on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
‘Invisible and silent'-Mystery / Surrounded that great Guardian of the Sea. / That Father-Mother-of the mighty main. / While loud in valley and on field and hill- / And over anguished plain / The battles thundered. God himself is still / And hidden from men's view; and it were meet / That this subliminal force / Should move in utter silence on its course / Invisible-Inaudible-till that hour / When Time, Fate's Minister, should speak and say- / ‘Come forth! and show thy power! ' / When Time commands, even the gods obey.
‘Invisible and silent'; yet the foe / Was driven from the Sea. All impotent / The brazen braggart went. / While commerce sent her brave ships to and fro; / And from Columbia's shores there sailed away / Ten thousand men a day- / Ten thousand men a day! who reached their goals / Bringing new courage to war-weary souls.