 | Poetry for seamen |  |
25
THE HEROIC SAILOR.
[_]
The circumstances here related, took place during the great fire in the city of New York, on the night of December 16th, 1836.
It was a fearful night!
The fire devouring spread
From roof to roof, from street to street,
And on their treasures fed;
Hark! 't is a mother's cry,
Shrill mid the tumult wild,
As rushing toward her flame-wrapped home,
She shrieks, “My child! my child!”
The fire devouring spread
From roof to roof, from street to street,
And on their treasures fed;
Hark! 't is a mother's cry,
Shrill mid the tumult wild,
As rushing toward her flame-wrapped home,
She shrieks, “My child! my child!”
A wanderer from the wave,
A sailor marked her woe,
And in his feeling bosom woke
The sympathetic glow,—
Quick up the cleaving stairs,
With daring step he flew,
Though sable clouds of stifling smoke
Concealed him from their view.
A sailor marked her woe,
And in his feeling bosom woke
The sympathetic glow,—
26
With daring step he flew,
Though sable clouds of stifling smoke
Concealed him from their view.
The astonished crowd beheld
His bold, adventurous part,
And while they for his safety feared,
Admired his noble heart,—
For blazing timbers fell
To choke his dangerous road,
And the far chamber where he groped
Like reeking oven glowed.
His bold, adventurous part,
And while they for his safety feared,
Admired his noble heart,—
For blazing timbers fell
To choke his dangerous road,
And the far chamber where he groped
Like reeking oven glowed.
How loud the exulting shout!
When from that mass of flame,
Unhurt, unshrinking, undismayed,
The brave deliverer came,—
While in his victor arms
A smiling infant lay,
Pleased with the flash that round his bed
Had wound its glittering ray.
When from that mass of flame,
Unhurt, unshrinking, undismayed,
The brave deliverer came,—
27
A smiling infant lay,
Pleased with the flash that round his bed
Had wound its glittering ray.
The mother's speechless tears
Forth like a torrent sped,
Yet ere the throng could learn his name
That generous hero fled;
Not for the praise of man
He wrought this deed of love,
But on a bright, unfading page,
'T is registered above.
Forth like a torrent sped,
Yet ere the throng could learn his name
That generous hero fled;
Not for the praise of man
He wrought this deed of love,
But on a bright, unfading page,
'T is registered above.
| Poetry for seamen | |