Classic Poem

AB ALLAD OF THE O HIO

Fourteen comrades laid in a row!
The Louisville people shudder and stare;
The hush is horrible; I declare
The sob of that woman bending low,
And the " Oh, God help us! " and then the prayer
Blesses the curse of the silent air,
My tears are beginning to flow.

Dumb drowned corpses fit for the clay,
But meant for the holiest work God sends —
Toil from the morn till the hard day ends
For wife and for babe. A rivet gave way
So the caisson flooded, you know my friends
When a rivet gives way and a wall-plate bends
In a caisson, it ends the day.

You are gazing long on the pale white face,
But the pale white face, it can stare you out.
" Did they suffer in death? " you ask; no doubt,
Rats in a trap die hard; you may trace
Pain in the look of a beast's death pout,
And the beast leaves little it cares about —
These were leaving the hope of their race.

Look at the fingers and hands that were strong,
Strong for the hammer, and pick, and spade,
Fighting like demons was never their trade!
But scrabbles of flesh the whole cheek long,
Tufts of hair clenched tightly, are made
Signs of a battle where none were afraid
And where all that they did was done wrong.

Like enough! for with Heaven before
And Hell behind, it was swim or sink,
And death that had closed on them all but a chink
Was foaming up thro' the floor.
Prisoners they, could they stop to think?
In a case like theirs we should none of us shrink
From pushing a bit for the door.

But here lies a man like a prince, so tall,
Such a proud fixed smile, on his lips no pain,
You might almost think he would wake again.
He has long since waked to a clearer call
Than the cries of a wife and her sobs in vain,
He has gone with the mates whom he loved, to reign
Foreman King of them all.

I speak, I was one of the four that past
Out from that prison of pain and death,
Of struggle, of throttle, and stamping beneath,
Tearing at flesh while the flood rose fast,
Fighting like devils all hooves and teeth;
I can tell there was one drew a bold man's breath,
Yea, God's brave breath, to the last.

For the river hissed in, and we saw the sky,
A narrow slit in the caisson's top,
And first one climbed o'er his fellows to drop
Back with an oath to be trodden and die —
" He has had his chance, stamp him into a sop,
Let his body be rags so the rift it stop! "
And the water it rose breast high.

And I who was smallest knew the wave
Gurgling cold at the nape, at the chin,
And I struck at the fallen and felt it no sin,
Got him beneath my feet; then a brave
Calm voice cried out thro' the dark and the din:
" Mates, be men! let the weaker win!
Let the strong be strong but to save! "

Then lips were hushed that had loudest cursed,
And hands were stayed that had fought like giaours.
The calm voice cried, " The man who towers
Above his brothers will not fare worst!
There are heads will be sooner beneath than ours!
Help them, by God, and by God's own powers!
Let all that are short go first! "

Then I felt from the whirl of death that an host
Of hands were laid on me, struck for the light
And gained the heaven; there pale with affright
Another, a third, and a fourth, like a ghost
Bubbled up thro' the man-hole, the blood of the fight
Red on their brows; and the voice cried " Right?
Say the Foreman died at his post. "