Page:Poems Curwen.djvu/168

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160
the audley disaster.

When their famishing infants cry with pain,
And tug at their empty breast, in vain;
Then, by our motherhood, I plead,
Hear! and answer the children's need.

O sister! and you, my brother, too—
What if to-night God called for you?
What good have you e'er done, that He
Shall say, "Ye did it unto Me"?
And what, if t'were your bitter lot
To hear Him say—"I know ye not"?
Arise! e'er yet the day is o'er,
And freely give from out your store—
For learn, the password to the sky,
Is Charity! Sweet Charity!




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.