 | Poems, Ballads and Bucolics |  |
206
A HERO'S CROWN.
Basil! that name demands a kingly deed,And thou hast set a crown on it, to shine
As bright as the Equator's burning line;
For while the stars in heaven alone could plead,
The stars that bend o'er all—though the sharks' greed
Made terror of the deep, thou didst divine
A drowner asked for life, yea, even for thine,
And in the darkness, springing to his need,
Thou didst forget thy happy English home—
Thy mother's yearning and thy father's face,
Didst only see the fierce wave break to flame
About a dying man of unknown race,
And thou didst gather diamonds of the foam
To sparkle ever round a hero's name.
207
Basil Thomson, son of the Archbishop of York, has just received The Humane Society's Medal for an act of gallantry off the coast of New Guinea. Two men quarrelled in a boat that was coming off to his ship, and the cry of “Man overboard!” was heard. Thomson could only make out by the sparkling of the phosphorescence on the water where the drowning man was, but, regardless of the fact That it was dark, and that the water was infested with sharks, he knew his duty and did it. He dashed in to succour the poor fellow, and was able to support him till the boat could come to the rescue. —September, 1890.
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