Down In The Dark: The Ferndale Colliery Explosion

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Title:     Down In The Dark: The Ferndale Colliery Explosion
Author: J. C. Manning [More Titles by Manning]

A RECOLLECTION OF THE FERNDALE COLLIERY EXPLOSION.
NOVEMBER, 1867.

Down in the dark--in the blinding dark;
Away from the sunshine bright above:
Away from the gaze of those they love,
They are lying stony and stark.

Down in the dark--deep down in the dark,
With the terror of death in each sightless eye,
Which tells how hard 'tis to burn and die
Down--down in the poisonous dark.

Up in the light--in the broad noon-light--
Poor hearts are breaking: hot tears are shed,
As, tenderly shrouding each cinder-like head,
It is hid from the aching sight.

Up in the light--in the soft gas-light
Of the draperied room, in luxurious guise;
In our comfort forgetting who plods and plies
Far down in eternal night.

Up in the light--further up in the light;
In the pure clear light of a Queenly crown,
A widowed monarch is looking down
Tow'rds the dark, with compassion bedight.

Up in the light--further up in the light--
From the dazzling light of a Maker's throne--
The angel of Pity came down to zone
Human hearts through that dreadful night.

[The end]
J. C. Manning's poem: Down In The Dark: The Ferndale Colliery Explosion

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