Explore "The Sunset Gun" by Ambrose Bierce on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Off Santa Cruz the western wave / Was crimson as with blood: / The sun was sinking to his grave / Beneath that angry flood.
Sir Walter Turnbull, brave and stout, / Then shouted, "Ho! lads; run -- / The powder and the ball bring out / To fire the sunset gun.
"That punctual orb did ne'er omit / To keep, by land or sea, / Its every engagement; it / Shall never wait for me."
Behold the black-mouthed cannon stand, / Ready with charge and prime, / The lanyard in the gunner's hand.
Sir Walter waits the time.
The glowing orb sinks in the sea, / And clouds of steam aspire, / Then fade, and the horizon's free.
Sir Walter thunders: "Fire!"
The gunner pulls -- the lanyard parts / And not a sound ensues.
The beating of ten thousand hearts / Was heard at Santa Cruz!
Off Santa Cruz the western wave / Was crimson as with blood; / The sun, with visage stern and grave, / Came back from out the flood.