Charles Dickens
The Song of the Wreck


The wind blew high, the waters raved,
A ship drove on the land,
A hundred human creatures saved
Kneel'd down upon the sand.
Threescore were drown'd, threescore were thrown
Upon the black rocks wild,
And thus among them, left alone,
They found one helpless child.

A seaman rough, to shipwreck bred,
Stood out from all the rest,
And gently laid the lonely head
Upon his honest breast.
And travelling o'er the desert wide
It was a solemn joy,
To see them, ever side by side,
The sailor and the boy.

In famine, sickness, hunger, thirst,
The two were still but one,
Until the strong man droop'd the first
And felt his labours done.
Then to a trusty friend he spake,
"Across the desert wide,
Oh, take this poor boy for my sake!"
And kiss'd the child and died.

Toiling along in weary plight
Through heavy jungle, mire,
These two came later every night
To warm them at the fire.
Until the captain said one day
"O seaman, good and kind,
To save thyself now come away,
And leave the boy behind!"

The child was slumbering near the blaze:
"O captain, let him rest
Until it sinks, when God's own ways
Shall teach us what is best!"
They watch'd the whiten'd, ashy heap,
They touch'd the child in vain;
They did not leave him there asleep,
He never woke again. 

 

7 February 2012 marked the 200th anniversary of Charles Dickens' birth.

   

February news

9 Syrian poet Adonis condemns 'savage' Homs bombardment (Guardian)

9 Poland's president honours Szymborska at funeral (ajc.com)

7 Michael Rosen: Who owns literacy? (Blog)

7 Crawshaw Prize shortlist includes PS member Kaddy Benyon and former Foyle winner Caleb Klaces (Salt)

5 Basil Payne obituary (Guardian)

4 Children's Laureate Julia Donaldson pens protest poem against library closures (BBC)

4 Dorothea Tanning, painter, sculptor and poet, obituary (Independent)

3 Tess Gallagher: all poets must be survivors (Vancouver Sun)

3 Robert Montgomery: the artist vandalising advertising with poetry (Independent)

3 Haunting Scottish ballads like Tam o' Shanter 'empower' women (BBC)

2 Timothy Donnelly wins $100,000 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award (Wall Street Journal)

1 Wislawa Szymborska, Nobel winning poet, dies at 88 (New York Times)

1 Fourteen groups share £100,000 in Clore Foundation's Poetry and Literature Awards (Culture24.org)

1 On designing the cover for Larkin's 'Complete Poems' (Creative Review)

January news

31 As neo-fascists claim Ezra Pound, his family says, 'hands off' (Time World)

31 Poet Laureate compared to writers of 'Mills & Boon' (Telegraph)

30 Theodore Enslin obituary (Guardian)

27 Adonis: a life in writing (Guardian)

26 Wanted: poetry to inspire a nine-year-old girl (Telegraph)

25 Celebrate Burns Night and Rabindranath Tagore anniversary with indian haggis (Telegraph)

24 Is the Costa book of the year to go to poetry for the 3rd year running? (Guardian)

23 There's more to Burns Night than haggis and neeps (Scotsman)

23 Tam o' Shanter voted best Burns (BBC)

23 The mystery of poetry editing: from Eliot to Burnside (Telegraph)

20 Andrew Motion reads a poem for his friend WG Sebald (BBC)

20 Meet the author: Carol Ann Duffy (BBC)

20 Meet the author: Matthew Hollis (BBC)

18 What are the most quoted lines of poetry? (Guardian)

17 John Burnside: How poetry can change lives (Telegraph)

16 John Burnside wins TS Eliot Prize (BBC)

13 Dean Atta's poem about Stephen Lawrence goes viral (Guardian)

12 Quentin Blake has an exhibition at the Foundling Museum of works commissioned for hospitals (Telegraph)

12 Armitage "Sometimes there is nothing sweeter in poetry than a deliberate anachronism." (New Statesman)

3 Carol Ann Duffy wins the poetry category of the Costa Book Prize (BBC)

3 OBE for Poetry Society's SLAMbassadors mentor Chris Preddie (Bookseller)

1 Edward Lear's life as an artist is remembered as his bicentenary year begins (Guardian)

December news

 31 Geoffrey Hill has been Knighted in the New Year Honours List (Guardian)

31 Welsh poet and playwright Dannie Abse becomes a CBE

31 Author, poet and broadcaster Clive James has been awarded a CBE (Telegraph)

24 Jo Shapcott wins Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry (Independent)

More Poetry in the News