—Oh the billows of fire!

With maëlstrom-like swirl,

Their surges they hurl

Over roof—over spire,

Mad—masterless—higher,—

Till with rumble—crack—crash,

Down boom with a flash,

Whole columns of granite and marble;—see! see!

Sucked in as a weed on the ocean might be,

Or engulfed as a sail

In the hurricane riot and wreak of the gale!

Ha! yonder they rush where the death-dealing stream,

Over-pent, waits their gleam,

To shiver the city with earthquake!—Who, who

Will adventure, mid-flame, and unfasten the screw,—

Set the fiend loose, and save us so?—Fireman, you,

You willing?—Would God you might hazard it!—

Nay,

The red tongues are licking the faucets now: Stay!

—Too late,—'tis too late!

If ruin comes, wait

Its coming: To go, is to perish:—Hold! Hold!

You are young,—I am old,—

You've a wife, too—and children?—O God! he is gone

Straight into destruction! The pipes, men! On, on,

Play the water-stream on him,—full—faster—the whole!

And now—Christ save his soul!

—I stifle—I choke;

And he,—Heaven grant that he smother in smoke

Ere the fearful explosion comes. Hark! What's the shout?

—Is he saved?—Is he out?

—Did he compass his purpose,—the Hero?—(One name

To-night we shall write on the records of fame,—

The perilous deed was so noble!) Why here

On my cheek is a tear,

Which not a whole city in ashes could claim!

—His name, now: Can nobody tell me his name?