Up from the poor man's cottage-- <br />Forth from the mansion door; <br />Sweeping across the waters, <br />And echoing 'long the shore; <br />Caught by the morning breezes-- <br />Borne on the evening gale; <br />Cometh a voice of mourning, <br />A sad and solemn wail. <br /> <br />Lost on the Lady Elgin! <br />Sleeping to wake no more! <br />Number'd in that three hundred, <br />Who fail'd to reach the shore! <br /> <br />Oh! 'tis the cry of children, <br />Weeping for parents gone; <br />Children who slept at evening, <br />But orphans woke at dawn. <br />Sisters for brothers weeping, <br />Husbands for missing wives-- <br />Such are the ties dis-sever'd <br />With those three hundred live. <br /> <br />Staunch was the noble steamer-- <br />Precious the freight she bore; <br />Gaily she loosed her cables, <br />A few short hours before. <br />Grandly she swept out harbor, <br />Joyfully ran her bell; <br />Little thought we, 'ere morning, <br />'Twould toll so sad a knell.<br /><br />Henry Clay Work<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/lost-on-the-lady-elgin/
