Have rules, and they endure.

Nor less the Fleet that warred for Right,
And, warring so, prevailed,
In geometric beauty curved,
And in an orbit sailed.

The rebel at Port Royal felt
The Unity overawe,
And rued the spell. A type was here,
And victory of Law.



The Stone Fleet.[2]
An Old Sailor's Lament.
(December, 1861.)


I have a feeling for those ships,
Each worn and ancient one,
With great bluff bows, and broad in the beam;
Ay, it was unkindly done.
But so they serve the Obsolete--
Even so, Stone Fleet!

You'll say I'm doting; do but think
I scudded round the Horn in one--
The Tenedos, a glorious
Good old craft as ever run--