Maurice N. Corbett, "Cuba" (1914)
The Cuban soil from last to first
Has been with insurrections curst;
Her fertile fields untitled, neglected,
Her sons and daughters unprotected,
Her sturdy children made to feel
The grinding of the tyrant's heel;
Her crops destroyed, her cities razed,
And Cubans by injustice crazed.
But now has dawned a brighter day,
Her harsh task-masters swept away
Have been, by means of trusty guns
And daring of her noble sons.
She had as gallant leaders these:
Bandera, Garcia, and Gomez,
But he who struck the hardest blow
Was the intrepid Maceo.
The cruel Weyler, baffled.he
By his great feats of bravery.
Crossed he the "Trocha" at his will;
His fierce attacks planned he with skill,
And as the hawk in open day
The farmers' poultry bears away,
He took this leader's Spanish forts
And Spain to foul deceit resorts.
She knew no peace would Cuba know
While lived the fearless Maceo;
So she concocts a dastard's plot
To lure him to some lonely spot
With flag of truce and false pretense,
And, when removed from his defense,
To kill him basely in cold blood,
While all the world in horror stood.
Published in The Harp of Ethiopia, 1914