1852 (posthumous) ‘The Old Seaport (Culross, Perthshire)’

Poets of the Victorian period had little doubt as to Spen’s heroism. They were the first poets to draw on this aspect of the ballad. In, ‘The Old Seaport’, David Moir, a Scottish poet, essayist, and doctor, places Spens on the level of Sir Aubrey Barton, the Scottish High Admiral and privateer:

Links: University of Virginia Library; GoogleBooks

[Excerpt]

It spake of swart grey-headed men,
Now dust within their graves,
Who sailed with Barton or with Spens,
To breast the trampling waves;
And how, in shallops picturesque,
Unawed they drifted forth,
Directed by the one bright star,
That points the stormy North.