Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE HARTLEY COLLIERY CATASTROPHE, by JANET HAMILTON Poet's Biography First Line: Dark gulf of death! Black cavern of despair! Last Line: The widows' judge is he in holiness. Alternate Author Name(s): Hamilton, Janet Thompson Subject(s): Coal Mines & Miners; Death; Tragedy; Dead, The | ||||||||
DARK gulf of death! black cavern of despair! From your foul depths to breathe the upper air, No victim comesone common living grave Encloses allno human aid can save! Not onenot oneto tell the fearful tale How hope expired, and life began to fail; How poisonous gases drank the fainting breath The scene around one sweltering mass of death And was there nought but darkness, death, despair, In that low dungeon? Hark! the voice of prayer, The solemn agony of wrestling faith, Passing through life to the dark gates of death, And forms celestial, 'mid the gloom profound, Bright messengers of heaven are hovering round, To waft the ransomed spirits as they rise On their swift pinions to the upper skies. Broad Britain's heart is moved, its troubled deeps Are full of grief and horror while she weeps Her perished onesthose pale and ghastly sleepers She spurns the pleaare we our brothers' keepers? "Thy brother's blood cries to me from the ground": An awful truthstern, solemn, and profound, By Heaven proclaimedthe loss so deep lamented, By obvious means, couldshouldhave been prevented. Could tender sympathy and generous deeds Bind up each stricken heart that inly bleeds In widowed bosomsstill the orphans' cries These generous pity prompt, and kind supplies? Ah! these are wounds which only God can heal; The strength He gives shall never faint nor fail; Your orphans' wrongs and yours He will redress The widows' Judge is He in holiness. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A FRIEND KILLED IN THE WAR by ANTHONY HECHT FOR JAMES MERRILL: AN ADIEU by ANTHONY HECHT TARANTULA: OR THE DANCE OF DEATH by ANTHONY HECHT CHAMPS D?ÇÖHONNEUR by ERNEST HEMINGWAY NOTE TO REALITY by TONY HOAGLAND A BALLAD FOUNDED ON A REAL INCIDENT WHICH OCCURED IN HIGH LIFE by JANET HAMILTON |
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