Charles Dickens: The Song of the Wreck

Charles Dickens

(1812-1870)

 

The Song of the Wreck

 

THE wind blew high, the waters raved,

A ship drove on the land,

A hundred human creatures saved

Kneel’d down upon the sand.

Threescore were drown’d, threescore were thrown

Upon the black rocks wild,

And thus among them, left alone,

They found one helpless child.

 

A seaman rough, to shipwreck bred,

Stood out from all the rest,

And gently laid the lonely head

Upon his honest breast.

And travelling o’er the desert wide

It was a solemn joy,

To see them, ever side by side,

The sailor and the boy.

 

In famine, sickness, hunger, thirst,

The two were still but one,

Until the strong man droop’d the first

And felt his labors done.

Then to a trusty friend he spake,

"Across the desert wide,

Oh, take this poor boy for my sake!"

And kiss’d the child and died.

 

Toiling along in weary plight

Through heavy jungle, mire,

These two came later every night

To warm them at the fire.

Until the captain said one day

"O seaman, good and kind,

To save thyself now come away,

And leave the boy behind!"

 

The child was slumbering near the blaze:

"O captain, let him rest

Until it sinks, when God’s own ways

Shall teach us what is best!"

They watch’d the whiten’d, ashy heap,

They touch’d the child in vain;

They did not leave him there asleep,

He never woke again.

 

Charles Dickens poetry

kempis poetry magazine

More in: Charles Dickens, Dickens, Charles