| Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895. |
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| A Sea Story |
| | | Emily Henrietta Hickey (b. 1845) |
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| 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, | 5 |
| This day upon the sea. | |
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| A chance for one of two; | |
| Young, strong, are he and he, | |
| Just in the manhood prime, | |
| The comelier, verily, | 10 |
| For the wrestle with wind and weather and wave, | |
| In the life upon the sea. | |
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| One of them has a wife | |
| And little children three; | |
| Two that can toddle and lisp, | 15 |
| And a suckling on the knee: | |
| Naked they ’ll go, and hunger sore, | |
| If he be lost at sea. | |
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| One has a dream of home, | |
| A dream that well may be: | 20 |
| 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. | |
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| “Wife and kids at home!— | 25 |
| 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. | 30 |
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