Our Lady of Victories: Take 1

Okay, okay, so I have an amazing ability to procrastinate but I half made the due date. Here is the first draft of the Song. My paper is too discombobulated to post yet but I am still working on it. The poetry is a little week and I haven't done syllable count yet but this is a solid first/scratch draft. Let me know what you think and how it can improve and we'll go on to draft 2. Yay! ;)

~Ambra ;)
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Our Lady of Victories
by Samantha A. Moore

Refrain
Be not too bold in your boasting
Victory’s chalice is frail
Though you have won your ease
Look sharply to the seas
Hark! Hear the whisper of Ottoman sails

First in the year fourteen ninety and nine,
When History witnessed unparalleled sight,
Where all who survived saw the Turks truly shine
With ship carried cannon’s to herald new might
And as the Venetian’s great vessels were burned
They bent knee to peace as for battle they yearned

Lepanto was host to a second sea war
Rebellion had sewn the false hope of their skill
Bearing the fruit of a bombarded shore
The coastline once more bowed to Ottoman will
It seemed for a time we could live to see peace
But rosaries sharpened their hate sought release

In all holy tales we find fate falls in threes,
The year fifteen seventy one marks our shame
Lepanto once more witnessed new destinies
But, Ala forgive, twas not one we could claim
The Christian pope Phillip the second decreed
That those who loved God would assemble with speed

Refrain

Genoan, Spaniard, Venetian, and more
Led by an emperor’s bastard, Don Juan
Gathered in numbers near equal our score
With two times the count of our cannons fixed on
Even our allies the corsairs knew well
The day would find Turks facing heaven or hell

Uluj Ali Pasha, of Italy’s shore,
Was honored an Ottoman admiral proud
But once long ago, a slave’s life he bore
In generous oath to his own thralls he vowed
“If I win the battle, I’ll grant liberty
If they win the day it is Ala’s decree.”

The battle was fought by three major details
The north, south, and center each separately led
Their great Holy League facing Ottoman sails
The first blow was theirs in the south when they spread
For trickery guised as supplies dearly cost
Nearly a third of our galleys were lost

Our northern ships managed to outflank their line
Facing Venetians who sailed by the coast
And though Barbarigo on arrow did dine
The Christian’s sent ships to rebalance the host
(As) The Turks saw the battle too lost to ignore
Ali’s sixteen galleys slammed into their core!

From the first shot to the last we sailed true
For five hell-streaked hours our death came in waves
The Gulf of Patras stirred an unholy brew
Both Islam and Christian in unhallowed graves
Ever before undefeated our fleet
This failure was one we vowed ne’er to repeat

Refrain

Constantinople our home-bound retreat
We gathered our numbers spread thin by the fray
Although Ali Pasha would tell of defeat
He offered the Sultan a victor’s display
The Flagship of none but the grand Maltese Knights
Sat now in our harbor still warm from the fight

Our vessels rebuilt we count much we have paid
Our bowmen, our seaman, our oarsmen are few
And though the Venetian’s have won their crusade
They’d not sleep so soundly if they only knew
That we shall return, turn the waters once more
From blue unto crimson from see to the shore!

Refrain +
Our Lady of Victories
Dull well their rosaries
Hark! Hear the whisper of Ottoman sails