Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE TITANIC, by SAMUEL VALENTINE COLE



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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE TITANIC, by                    
First Line: Tell me, do ye never hear it when the wind is / from the sea?
Last Line: Was that loyal note of courage which goes singing through the world!
Subject(s): Courage; Disasters; Fights; Ships & Shipping; Shipwrecks; Titanic (ship); Valor; Bravery


TELL me, do ye never hear it when the wind is from the sea?
Not the thunder-roll of billows, nor the moaning of the bars,
Nor the throb of far-off engines; it must something rarer be—
Music, music that is silent like the music of the stars.

For they played, those brave musicians, in their places as before,
Though they felt the chilling Shadow closing slowly round them all;
Played to keep the hearts up of the men whose need was sore;
Played as soldiers march with banners when they march to fight and fall.

Did not think it any marvel, or that nothing mattered now;
Never dreamed the world would praise them, if indeed it ever knew—
One may of the crown be worthy though it pass untouched his brow—
And the music was immortal just because their hearts were true.

Passed into the Silence, playing; and the music is not done:
God and valor are not ended when the battle flags are furled:
Finer than what any master from his instrument e'er won
Was that loyal note of courage which goes singing through the world!





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