Doff hats to Decatur! But where is his blazon?
Must merited fame endure time's wrong—
Glory's ripe grape wizen up to a raisin?
Yes! for Nature teems, and the years are
    strong,
And who can keep the tally o' the names that
    fleet along!

But his frigate, wife, his bride? Would
    blacksmiths brown
Into smithereens smite the solid old renown?
Rivetting the bolts in the iron-clad's shell,
Hark to the hammers with a rat-tat-tat;
"Handier a derby than a laced cocked hat!
The Monitor was ugly, but she served us right
    well,
Better than the Cumberland, a beauty and the
    belle."

Better than the Cumberland!—Heart alive
    in me!
That battlemented hull, Tantallon o' the sea,
Kicked in, as at Boston the taxed chests o' tea!
Ay, spurned by the ram, once a tall, shapely
    craft,
But lopped by the Rebs to an iron-beaked
    raft—
A blacksmith's unicorn in armor cap-a-pie.

Under the water-line a ram's blow is dealt:
And foul fall the knuckles that strike below the
    belt.
Nor brave the inventions that serve to replace
The openness of valor while dismantling the
    grace.

Aloof from all this and the never-ending game,
Tantamount to teetering, plot and counterplot;
Impenetrable armor—all-perforating shot;
Aloof, bless God, ride the war-ships of old,
A grand fleet moored in the roadstead of fame;<