SILENCE. A while ago Shrieks went up piercingly; But now is the ship gone down; Good ship, well manned, was she. There's a raft that's a chance of life for one, This day upon the sea. A chance for one of two Young, strong, are he and he, Just in the manhood prime, The comelier, verily, For the wrestle with wind and weather and wave, In the life upon the sea. One of them has a wife And little children three; Two that can toddle and lisp, And a suckling on the knee: Naked they'll go, and hunger sore, If he be lost at sea. One has a dream of home, A dream that well may be: He never has breathed it yet; She never has known it, she. But some one will be sick at heart If he be lost at sea. "Wife and kids at home! -- Wife, kids, nor home has he! -- Give us a chance, Bill!" Then, "All right, Jem!" Quietly A man gives up his life for a man, This day upon the sea. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...CORN-LAW HYMN by EBENEZER ELLIOTT DULCE ET DECORUM EST by WILFRED OWEN ENOCH ARDEN by ALFRED TENNYSON THE APOLOGY OF THE BISHOPS IN ANSWER TO BONNER'S GHOST by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD T.T. IN COMMENDATION OF THE AUTHOR HIS WORKE by RICHARD BARNFIELD THE WOLF AND SHEPHERDS; A FABLE by JAMES BEATTIE |