A "Maine"-ly Tragic Tale
The Story of the U.S.S. Maine
Text of the Poem
Oh gather round ye children
And listen to the tale
About the menacing Maine
And how it ceased to sail
A brother to the Texas
A beacon in the dark
The eagle that was soaring
Is swimming with the shark
A mammoth of a vessel
Could crush a football game
Sailed all the way to Cuba
And was consumed in flame
February was the month
Issues were not dire
When the calm Havana bay
Erupted in great fire
Shocked Sigsbee shook and shuddered
His ship had gone away
Three hundred voices silenced
On a dark dreary day
News of the ship spread quickly
Stirred up an awful roar
“This shall not go unpunished!”
People demanded war
Cubans were liberated
The Spaniards fate was sealed
But in all this commotion
Was everything revealed?
The cause was not looked in to
The truth was not ideal
That a weapons malfunction
Started that great ordeal