 | W. V. Her Book and Various Verses |  |
O'er the side
Two sailors, slung in bowlines, hung to help the women down—
Poor women, shrinking back in their dismay
As they saw their ark of refuge, smothered up in spray,
Ranging wildly this and that way in the racing of the tide;
As they watched it rise and drop, with its crew of stalwart men,
When a huge sea swung it upward to the bulwarks of the ship,
And, sweeping by in thunder, sent it plunging down again.
Still they shipped them—nine-and-twenty, (God be blessed!)
When a man with glaring eyes
Rushed up frantic to the gangway with a cry choked in his throat—
Thrust a bundle in a sailor's ready hands.
Two sailors, slung in bowlines, hung to help the women down—
Poor women, shrinking back in their dismay
As they saw their ark of refuge, smothered up in spray,
Ranging wildly this and that way in the racing of the tide;
As they watched it rise and drop, with its crew of stalwart men,
When a huge sea swung it upward to the bulwarks of the ship,
And, sweeping by in thunder, sent it plunging down again.
118
When a man with glaring eyes
Rushed up frantic to the gangway with a cry choked in his throat—
Thrust a bundle in a sailor's ready hands.
| W. V. Her Book and Various Verses | |