A Sea Story

Emily Henrietta Hickey (b. 1845)

SILENCE. A while ago
Shrieks went up piercingly;
But now is the ship gone down;
Good ship, well manned, was she.
There ’s a raft that ’s a chance of life for one,
This day upon the sea.

A chance for one of two;
Young, strong, are he and he,
Just in the manhood prime,
The comelier, verily,
For the wrestle with wind and weather and wave,
In the life upon the sea.

One of them has a wife
And little children three;
Two that can toddle and lisp,
And a suckling on the knee:
Naked they ’ll go, and hunger sore,
If he be lost at sea.

One has a dream of home,
A dream that well may be:
He never has breathed it yet;
She never has known it, she.
But some one will be sick at heart
If he be lost at sea.

“Wife and kids at home!—
Wife, kids, nor home has he!—
Give us a chance, Bill!” Then,
“All right, Jem!” Quietly
A man gives up his life for a man,
This day upon the sea.