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| Miss Eva Carmichael Departing Australia aboard the P&O Steamer, Tanjore. The Australasian Sketcher with Pen and Pencil |
Access Under the Lino's, Loch Ard Index here.
As mentioned in my previous blog post, this poem is a follow up from W. S. of Blackwood's poem 'The Wreck of the Loch Ard'. The Bacchus Marsh Express republished that poem on the day that this poem was written. Whether the poet had been contemplating the matter and the republishing prompted them to write is hard to determine. Perhaps rereading their poem in the paper made them realise they had more to say on the matter.
The poem clearly has Eva Carmichael in focus, even assuming her voice, as this verse shows.
Where foam-crested billows, in fury and madness,
Dealt death and destruction with hideous roar;
And left me an orphan, alone and in sadness,
A pilgrim to pine on a far-distant shore.
The only other survivor of the wreck, Tom Pearce, could not claim to be left an orphan by the event. In the first eleven verses the poet assumes Eva's voice, and the language is heavily nuanced in a way that suggests demonic forces at work in the wrecking of the ship. Those thoughts were absent from the first poem.
In the final two verses Eva clearly becomes the subject of the verse, rather than the imagined author, as the poet laments Eva's departure from Australia. It would in many ways be better to treat the final two verses as a separate poem.
Eva Carmichael departed Australia aboard the P&O Steamer, Tanjore, on the 6th August 1878 [1]. Yet to read the final two verses of this poem, written three weeks previous, you would assume she had already departed. Perhaps by this time she had departed the shelter of the Gibson home, and the journey to Melbourne indicated that a journey to Ireland (poetically referenced as Erin's Isle) was imminent.
REFLECTIONS ON THE WRECK OF THE LOCH ARD. [2]
When evening's shadows round me close,
My soul in slumber backward goes
To scenes of wreck and rending woes
By yonder goblin cave.
Where fiends the forms of bats assume,
By day concealed in caverned tomb,
But sally forth in evening's gloom
Like vultures to the wave.
Where Satan in his demon's pride,
With water imps on every side,
Commands the billows far and wide
With spells to scathe and sere:
Till terror-seized by ocean's swell,
And sounds of victims' drowning yell,
And sights of which I dare not tell,
My senses sink in fear.
'Midst scenes appalling to the eye,
And meteors flashing through the sky,
And victims unprepared to die,
My brain with fever burns;
Till bathed in perspiration's stream
In frenzy wild for help I scream--
The sounds awake me from the dream
And consciousness returns!
Now, bereft of home and gladness;
Family, friends, and comrades brave:
Sunk at once in bitter sadness,
Hopeless by the cruel wave.
Still my senses seem to borrow
Sounds that ape the ocean's swell.
And forms, alas! I left in sorrow
Gasping still a last farewell.
Where foam-crested billows, in fury and madness,
Dealt death and destruction with hideous roar;
And left me an orphan, alone and in sadness,
A pilgrim to pine on a far-distant shore.
Where heartrending cries never fade from my hearing,
Where grim visions sinking in death seem to glare;
Where my heart-breaking parents, midst foam disappearing,
Cling to brothers and sisters in pangs of despair!
They who smiled at my gladness, my sorrows would share,
And tenderly turn every grief from my brow;
Oh! how could I value their infinite care
If Providence pleased to award it me now!
But, alas! cruel fate has destined us to sever,
And leave me lamenting in anguish and pain,
To mourn o'er the dear ones departed forever;
Oh! how can I live and not see them again!
May the sun that descends to enliven with blossom
The hearts of the herds or the lambs on the lea,
Not dispel the dark gloom that abounds in my bosom
And shed a kind ray of condolence on me?
Victoria's hearts and her land of green bushes,
While memory survives will be honoured by me;
Though the home of my childhood to memory rushes
And binds me more closely now, Erin to thee!
….
May your bark in safety glide
O'er the ocean's billows wide,
Till you view with native pride
The land you long to see, Eva.
Where friends of youth in Erin's isle
Your cares with kindness will beguile,
And the gentle shamrock's smile
Awaits to welcome thee, Eva.
Though we sadly say adieu
Our hearts in unison beat true
With love for Erin's isle and you,
Since there you wish to dwell, Eva;
There may you be by fortune blessed,
By care and happiness caressed.
Though loth to part, you say we must,
Then ever fare thee well, Eva!
W. S., Blackwood, 13th July 1878.
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