Poems (Chilton, 1885)/Herndon
HERNDON.
The storm is wild; the merciless winds, elate,Drive o'er the waves, and scatter them like sands:Calm on the vessel's deck, confronting Fate,The dauntless sailor stands.
No thought of self invades his manly heart,Though men grow pale and women wail and weep:Unmoved he sees gaunt Death, with lifted dart,Rise from the yawning deep!
In that dark hour, when staggering to her doom,His wounded ship plunged madly through the foam;While, gleaming like a star above the gloom,Rose his; own distant home:
He strove for others—strove to reuniteThe frantic mother and her helpless child;[*]And kept stern watch and ward till came the night—That night of terror wild.
Ah! gallant sailor! trusted, tried, and true!The crown is thine, the martyr's deathless crown:Henceforth thy name shall live among the fewWhich tears alone can drown!
↑ * "My little girl remained on board, and I did not discover that she was absent until I had got into the boat. I afterwards learned that Captain Herndon took charge of her and sent her to me by the next boat by a lady named Mrs. Kitteridge, who handed the child to me soon after I reached the Marine." [Statement of Mrs. Ann Small.]