My Schools and Schoolmasters; Or, The Story of My Education

by Hugh Miller

Her dark caves echoed back th' expiring moan;

And luckless maidens mourned their lovers gone,

And friendless orphans cried in vain for bread;

And widow'd mothers wandered forth alone;—

Restore, O wave, they cried,—restore our dead!

And then the breast they bared, and beat th' unsheltered head.

Of thee, my Sire, what mortal tongue can tell!

No friendly bay thy shattered barque received;

Ev'n when thy dust reposed in ocean cell,

Strange baseless tales of hope thy friends deceived