Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, GENTLEMAN JIM, by DANIEL O'CONNELL (1849-1899)


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

GENTLEMAN JIM, by                    
First Line: In the diamond shaft worked gentleman jim
Last Line: In the glory that hallows the martyr's grave.
Subject(s): Death; Diamonds; Graves; Martyrs; Dead, The; Tombs; Tombstones


IN the Diamond Shaft worked Gentleman Jim,
Handsome of face and stout of limb,
Coarse in dress; but something in him,
Whether down in the coal mine, soiled and grim,
Or wandering alone in holiday time,
Won the love and respect of all in that clime.

He had no sweetheart, he had no wife,
Some mighty sorrow had dimmed his life --
His earnings hardly won, and small,
Were aye at the orphans' and widows' call --
Of those who had perished in shaft or winze,
He was the friend of all living things,
And moving along in those toilsome ways,
He wore the demeanor of gentler days.

In April last, when the mine fell in,
Beneath the timbers stood Gentleman Jim;
With a giant grasp he flung two of the boys
Clear of the danger -- with deafening noise
The shaft gave way on every side;
The boys were safe, but Jim -- he died;
Died as men die, and will die again,
Giving their lives for their fellow-men.

When rocks and timbers were cleared away,
And Jim borne up to the light of day,
They took from his bosom, stained with blood,
Two withered leaves and a withered bud
Pinned on a card. "Toute a toi -- Marie,"
Was written beneath them; beneath it he,
On this relic his heart for years had worn,
Had written, "All withered -- except the thorn."

What life romance, what story of wrong,
This man had locked up in his soul so long,
None who loved him may ever know;
But the tale of his glorious chivalric deed
Shall not perish as long as men hold this creed, --
That the hero whose blood for his kind is shed
Wins a deathless fame and an honored bed;
A monument grander than sculptor ere gave,
In the glory that hallows the martyr's grave.





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