Goodwin Sands

In the smother and the roar

Of a very hell of waters — hard and fast —

She shook beneath the stroke

Of each billow as it broke,

And the clouds of spray were mingled with
the clouds of swirling smoke

As the blazing barrels bellowed in the blast !

And the women and the little ones were
frozen dumb with fear ;

And the strong men waited grimly for the
last ;

When—as clocks were striking two in
Ramsgate town —

The little Aid came down,

The Azd, the plucky Az7—

The Azd flew down the gale

With the glimmer of the moon upon her
sail ;

And the people thronged to leeward ; stared
and prayed —

Prayed and stared with tearless eye and

breathless lip,
While the little boat drew near.
Ay, and then there rose a shout —

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