Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE BOASTING OF SIR PETER PARKER, by CLINTON SCOLLARD


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE BOASTING OF SIR PETER PARKER, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Twas the proud sir peter parker came sailing in from the sea
Last Line: The stars of victory burning bright over sullivan's sandy isle.
Subject(s): American Revolution; Charleston, South Carolina; Parker, Sir Peter (1721-1811)


'T WAS the proud Sir Peter Parker came sailing in from the sea,
With his serried ships-of-line a-port, and his ships-of-line a-lee;
A little lead for a cure, he said, for these rebel sires and sons!
And the folk on the Charleston roof-tops heard the roar of
the shotted guns;
They heard the roar of the guns off shore, but they marked,
with a hopeful smile,
The answering ire of a storm of fire from Sullivan's sandy isle.

'T was the proud Sir Peter Parker who saw with the climbing noon
Ruin and wreck on each blood-stained deck that day in the
wane of June, --
The shivered spar and the shattered beam and the torn and
toppling mast
And the grimy gunners wounded sore, and the seamen falling fast;
But from the stubborn fort ashore no sight of a single sign
That the rebel sires and sons had quailed before his
ships-of-the-line.

'T was the proud Sir Peter Parker who saw the fall of the flag
From the fortress wall; then rang his call: --
They have lost their rebel rag!
And the fifty guns of the Bristol flamed, and the volumed
thunder rolled;
'T is now, the haughty Admiral cried, we'll drive them out
of their hold!
But little he knew, and his British crew, how small was
their vaunted power,
For lo, to the rampart's crest there leaped the dauntless
man of the hour!

'T was the proud Sir Peter Parker who saw with a wild amaze
This hero spring from the fortress height 'mid the hail and
the fiery haze;
Under the wall he strode, each step with the deadliest danger fraught,
And up from the sand with a triumph hand the splintered
staff he caught.
Then, still unscathed by the iron rain, he clambered the parapet,
And 'mid the burst of his comrades' cheers the flag on the
bastion set.

'T was the proud Sir Peter Parker who slunk through the night to sea,
With his shattered ships-of-line a-port and his ships-of-line a-lee;
Above there was wreck, and below was wreck, and the sense
of loss and woe,
For the sneered-at rebel sires and sons had proved them a direful foe;
But War's dark blight on the land lay light, and they
hailed with a joyful smile
The stars of victory burning bright over Sullivan's sandy isle.





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