Calm as that second summer which precedes
The first fall of the snow,
In the broad sunlight of heroic deeds
The City bides the foe.
Through his eyes we look seaward to where
Dark Sumter, like a battlemented cloud,
Looms o'er the solemn deep.
We behold the Queen City of the Sea standing majestically on the sands, the storm-clouds lowering darkly over her, the distant thunders of war threatening her, and the pale lightnings of the coming tempest flashing nearer,
And down the dunes a thousand guns lie couched,
Unseen, beside the flood—