Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, HERNDON, by SILAS WEIR MITCHELL


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

HERNDON, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Ay, shout and rave, thou cruel sea
Last Line: Such knighthood as the grave can give.
Subject(s): Disasters; Herndon, William Lewis (1818-1891); Shipwrecks


AY, shout and rave, thou cruel sea,
In triumph o'er that fated deck,
Grown holy by another grave --
Thou hast the captain of the wreck.

No prayer was said, no lesson read,
O'er him; the soldier of the sea:
And yet for him, through all the land,
A thousand thoughts to-night shall be.

And many an eye shall dim with tears,
And many a cheek be flushed with pride;
And men shall say, There died a man,
And boys shall learn how well he died.

Ay, weep for him, whose noble soul
Is with the God who made it great,
But weep not for so proud a death, --
We could not spare so grand a fate.

Nor could Humanity resign
That hour which bade her heart beat high,
And blazoned Duty's stainless shield,
And set a star in Honor's sky.

O dreary night! O grave of hope!
O sea, and dark, unpitying sky!
Full many a wreck these waves shall claim
Ere such another heart shall die.

Alas, how can we help but mourn
When hero bosoms yield their breath!
A century itself may bear
But once the flower of such a death;

So full of manliness, so sweet
With utmost duty nobly done;
So thronged with deeds, so filled with life,
As though with death that life begun.

It has begun, true gentleman!
No better life we ask for thee;
Thy Viking soul and woman heart
Forever shall a beacon be, --

A starry thought to veering souls,
To teach it is not best to live;
To show that life has naught to match
Such knighthood as the grave can give.





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