The Surrender of the German Fleet
Ship after ship, and every one with a high-resounding name,From the robber-nest of Heligoland the German war-fleet came;Not victory or death they sought, but a rendezvous of shame.
Sing out, sing out,A joyful shout,Ye lovers of the sea!The "Kaiser" and the "Kaiserin,"The "Koenig" and the "Prinz,"The potentates of piracy,Are coming to surrender,And the ocean shall be free.
They never dared the final fate of battle on the blue;Their sea-wolves murdered merchantmen and mocked the drowning crew;They stained the wave with martyr-blood,--but we sent our transportsthrough!
What flags are these that dumbly droop from the gaff o' the mainmasttall?The black of the Kaiser's iron cross, the red of the Empire's fall!Come down, come down, ye pirate flags. Yea, strike your colors all.
The Union Jack and the Tricolor and the Starry Flag o' the WestShall guard the fruit of Freedom's war and the victory confest,The flags of the brave and just and free shall rule on the ocean'sbreast.
Sing out, sing out,A mighty shout,Ye lovers of the sea!The "Kaiser" and the "Kaiserin,"The "Koenig" and the "Prinz,"The robber-lords of death and sin,Have come to their surrender,And the ocean shall be free!
Words in this poem
- rendezvous n.
- A place appointed for a meeting, or at which persons customarily meet.
- kaiser n.
- The ancient title of emperors of Germany assumed by King William of Prussia when crowned sovereign of the new German empire in 1871. [Gr., fr. L. Caesar. Cf. Kesar, and Czar.]
- piracy n.
- The act or crime of a pirate. [Cf. LL. piratia, Gr. Pirate.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- dumbly adv.
- In silence; mutely.
- tricolor n.
- The national French banner, of three colors, blue, white, and red, adopted at the first revolution. [F. tricolore, drapeau tricolore a tricolored flag, fr. tricolore three-colored; tri (see Tri-) + L. color color.]
- starry a.
- Abounding with stars; adorned with stars.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Surrender of the German Fleet is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of Henry Van Dyke, Project Gutenberg ebook #16229; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Henry Van Dyke, The Surrender of the German Fleet, in The Poems of Henry Van Dyke (1925), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16229, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/van-dyke-poems/the-surrender-of-the-german-fleet.html, id L22950.
Form and metre
The Surrender of the German Fleet is 31 lines in 6 stanzas. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic pentameter.
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 AAA nameA · cameA · shameA
- 2 AAB----B outA · shoutA · seaB · kaiserin · prinz · piracy · surrender · freeB
- 3 AA-A blueA · crewA · transports · throughA
- 4 -AAA mainmast · tallA · fallA · allA
- 5 AA-A westA · confestA · ocean's · breastA
- 6 AAB----B outA · shoutA · seaB · kaiserin · prinz · sin · surrender · freeB
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Ship after ship, and every one with a high-resounding name, | 15 | ·····/˘····˘/˘· |
| From the robber-nest of Heligoland the German war-fleet came; | 16 | ··/˘·······/˘··· |
| Not victory or death they sought, but a rendezvous of shame. | 14 | ·/˘······/˘··· |
| Sing out, sing out, | 4 | ···· |
| A joyful shout, | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Ye lovers of the sea! | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| The "Kaiser" and the "Kaiserin," | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The "Koenig" and the "Prinz," | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| The potentates of piracy, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘˘ |
| Are coming to surrender, | 7 | ·/˘·˘/˘ |
| And the ocean shall be free. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| They never dared the final fate of battle on the blue; | 13 | ·/··/˘··/˘··· |
| Their sea-wolves murdered merchantmen and mocked the drowning crew; | 13 | ···/˘/˘···/˘· |
| They stained the wave with martyr-blood,--but we sent our transports | 14 | ·····/˘····/˘/ |
| through! | 1 | · |
| What flags are these that dumbly droop from the gaff o' the mainmast | 15 | ·····/˘······/˘ |
| tall? | 1 | · |
| The black of the Kaiser's iron cross, the red of the Empire's fall! | 14 | ····//·····/˘· |
| Come down, come down, ye pirate flags. Yea, strike your colors all. | 14 | ·····/˘····/˘· |
| The Union Jack and the Tricolor and the Starry Flag o' the West | 16 | ·/˘···/˘··/˘···· |
| Shall guard the fruit of Freedom's war and the victory confest, | 14 | ·····/˘···/˘·· |
| The flags of the brave and just and free shall rule on the ocean's | 15 | ·············/˘ |
| breast. | 1 | · |
| Sing out, sing out, | 4 | ···· |
| A mighty shout, | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Ye lovers of the sea! | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| The "Kaiser" and the "Kaiserin," | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The "Koenig" and the "Prinz," | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| The robber-lords of death and sin, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Have come to their surrender, | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| And the ocean shall be free! | 7 | ··/˘··· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.