Loss Of The “Yongala.”

Toll, ocean, toll thy melancholy dirge! Hard fought that gallant ship with foaming surge; Ere morning broke, scarce was there left a trace-- Youth, beauty, all clasped in thy cold embrace. Gone like a dream! dear eyes and gleaming hair, And Queensland’s noble manhood with a prayer Laid on their lips, now cold and still, and dumb, All their last thoughts of God and home, sweet home. Oh, avalanche of grief! see Austral weep For those, her sacred dead, who calmly sleep Inside the Barrier Reef, on coral bed.

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Mourn, Austral, mourn! our country’s heart stands still! E’en though rebellious, kneel we to His will. Mourn for the beautiful, who, in the bloom Of life and health, were destined for the tomb! Roll on, remorseless and resistless waves, Incline the mourner’s ear to Him who saves, And at the fiat “Time shall no more be,” May thou restore our dead to us, O Sea.