Poems (Curwen)/The Audley Disaster

by Annie Isabel Curwen

The Audley Disaster.

Toll for the brave! Ay, toll
 For the brave souls that have fled,
  Not in warfare's strife,
  But in the battle of life,
 Toiling for daily bread.

Toll for the brave! Ay, toll
 Softly their funeral knell;
  For mortal will never know
  All they suffered below,
 Down in the pit's dark hell.

Far from the light of day—
 Beyond all human ken—
  In their living tomb,
  In the earth's dark womb,
 Death strove with these gallant men.

Toll for the brave! Ay, toll,
 They have fallen to rise no more.
  Oh, brave, brave host,
  They died at their post,
 And their battle of life is o'er.

A perilous life was their's,
 Yet daily they did go
  At duty's stern command,
  Bearing their lives in hand
 To the treacherous depths below.

Their hazardous tasks to ply,
 While death in ambush lay
  Waiting the fateful hour
  To rush forth and devour
 The unsuspecting prey.

Toll for the brave! Ay, toll
 For the brave who will never return;
  The troth-plight to keep
  With maidens who weep;
 And mourn for the mothers! mourn!

And weep for the widowed wives
 And babes whose fathers are lost.
  Then, as you hurry through the storm
  To the comforting glow of the fireside warm,
 Think what the coal has cost!