Lyr Req: The Wreck of the Birkenhead

03 Aug 19 - 11:00 PM (#4003217)
Subject: Lyr Req: The Wreck of the Birkenhead
From: Allan C.

Does anyone know of a song about this wreck? Thanks in advance.

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04 Aug 19 - 09:46 AM (#4003280)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Wreck of the Birkenhead
From: GUEST,Starship

Can't find a song about it with Mr Google. Would make for a good one, though.

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04 Aug 19 - 07:44 PM (#4003385)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Wreck of the Birkenhead
From: GUEST,Bradfordian

Loss of the Birkenhead by Cicely Fox Smith performed by Daniel Kelly

Silent they stood upon that stranded wreck
Fast on a hidden shoal,
Drawn up in line upon the leaning deck
For their last muster-roll.
There was no wailing heard of wild affright,
No cry of those who drown:
All silent, in the darkness of the night,
The Birkenhead went down.

Many there were that hour who sank below,
Drown'd in the dark cold brine,
Who ne'er had tried their worth against the foe,
Nor stood in battle-line.
But bravely, truly, as in front of fight,
Each won a hero's crown,
When the staunch Birkenhead at dead of night
Off Danger Point went down.

Where lives the man dare say that all in vain
Those hero lives were spent?
Ever their proud example shall remain
A deathless monument.
Ever the tale of sacrifice shall shine
In England's long renown,
How, strong and still, drawn up in steadfast line,
Five hundred souls went down.

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05 Aug 19 - 10:52 PM (#4003542)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Wreck of the Birkenhead
From: GUEST

Thank you! As it turns out, there were several!

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06 Aug 19 - 04:42 PM (#4003585)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Wreck of the Birkenhead
From: Charley Noble

There's also one composed by Ken Stephens titled "Birkenhead Drill." I have Ken's handwritten lyrics but it won't be easy to transcribe them. Maybe someone else has already done that.

Charlie Ipcar

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07 Aug 19 - 09:12 PM (#4003727)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Wreck of the Birkenhead
From: Celtaddict

That was me at 1052 last night. I will have a link & post when I can get computer working.

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01 Sep 19 - 11:29 PM (#4006883)
Subject: Lyr Add: THE LOSS OF THE BIRKENHEAD (F H Doyle)
From: Jim Dixon

I don’t know that this poem has been set to music, but it looks like it could be.

From Lectures on Poetry: Delivered at Oxford, by Sir Francis Hastings Doyle (London: Smith, Elder, & Co., 1877), page 272:


THE LOSS OF THE ‘BIRKENHEAD’
Sir Francis Hastings Doyle (1810-1888)

Right on our flank the sun was dropping down;
The deep sea heaved around in bright repose;
When, like the wild shriek from some captured town,
A cry of women rose.

The stout ship ‘Birkenhead’ lay hard and fast,
Caught without hope upon a hidden rock;
Her timbers thrill’d as nerves, when through them pass’d
The spirit of that shock.

And ever like base cowards, who leave their ranks
In danger's hour, before the rush of steel,
Drifted away, disorderly, the planks
From underneath her keel.

So calm the air—so calm and still the flood,
That low down in its blue translucent glass
We saw the great fierce fish, that thirst for blood,
Pass slowly, then repass.

They tarried, the waves tarried, for their prey!
The sea turned one clear smile! Like things asleep
Those dark shapes in the azure silence lay,
As quiet as the deep.

Then amidst oath, and prayer, and rush, and wreck,
Faint screams, faint questions waiting no reply,
Our Colonel gave the word, and on the deck
Form'd us in line to die.

To die!—'twas hard, while the sleek ocean glow'd
Beneath a sky as fair as summer flowers:—
All to the boats! cried one—he was, thank God,
No officer of ours.

Our English hearts beat true—we would not stir:
That base appeal we heard, but heeded not:
On land, on sea, we had our Colours, sir,
To keep without a spot.

They shall not say in England, that we fought
With shameful strength, unhonour'd life to seek;
Into mean safety, mean deserters, brought
By trampling down the weak.

So we made women with their children go,
The oars ply back again, and yet again;
Whilst, inch by inch, the drowning ship sank low,
Still, under steadfast men.

—What follows, why recall?—The brave who died,
Died without flinching in the bloody surf,
They sleep as well beneath that purple tide
As others under turf.

They sleep as well! and, roused from their wild grave,
Wearing their wounds like stars, shall rise again,
Joint-heirs with Christ, because they bled to save
His weak ones, not in vain.

If that day's work no clasp or medal mark;
If each proud heart no cross of bronze may press,
Nor cannon thunder loud from Tower or Park,
This feel we none the less:—

That those whom God's high grace there saved from ill,
Those also left His martyrs in the bay,
Though not by siege, though not in battle, still
Full well had earned their pay.

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04 Sep 19 - 03:41 PM (#4007353)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Wreck of the Birkenhead
From: Mrrzy

There has got to be a parody about Birkenstocks...!

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