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3. The tidal wave, with fearful force went fifteen feet or more,
The fishennen's snug little homes were swept from off that shore,
Their boats and nets and stages and all their fishing gear,
Was carried away by the tidal wave and soon did disappear.
4. Pans of Burin on that coast and also Lamaline,
The place is strewn with wreckiness and scarce a house is seen,
Poor helpless women on that day were paralysed with fear,
To see their homes and families and children they loved dear.
5. The Aaron Mark and company. those strangers in our land,
Was the first to hold a concen and give a helping hand,
To those poor souls in poor distress, a grand omalian gave,
Who suffered most severely by that fatal tidal wave.
6. Success in this world is good to have and greal fommes fall for sure,
On those who give out freely to help the hungry poor;
For Newfoundland was always known and always did its share,
And she never let a Christian die when she had a cruSt to spare.
7. Now let us pray for those away here on the sea must rove,
Guide them in their tiny craft and send them safe at home;
But Pul your trust in Providence and always heed your prJyer,
And give your sttength and fortitude your heavy cross to bear.
8. They now are in that heavenly land, lhey're free from toil and care,
To rest with God in heaven, His splendor for to share;
They done their pan, they played their game like heroes brave that day.
Their work being done upon the earth when God called them away.
Wreck songs share the dynamic structure of funeral celebration for articulating the
successful resolution of the anxiety caused by death. The "come all ye" address as well as
the exhortation of the envoi in such tenns as "let us not forget our widows," or "we trust
they have reached the heavenly shore" suggest a communal wish or prayer for the repose
of the dead. The songs' fonnal and highly conventional diction adequately contributes to
this ritual function. In analogy with funeral rites, they reaffiml serenity and trust in thc
victims' rest, communal solidarity and support to their families, and finally successful
exorcization of death. Disaster songs thus present a script of the concerns underlying the
wake and funeral celebration, which reveals their symbolic meaning underneath apparent
morbidity, and their appeal closer to ritual celebration than to sensational entenainnlCnt.
As funeral practices came to be ritualized in Christian terms, so disaster song, a
popular fonn of obituary verse. draws on religious references. The songs' concluding
evocation of "God" granting "rest" to the victims, indeed, manifests the "juxtaposition" or
"hybridizalion" of tradilional and Christian elements. Kenneth Goldstcin's observation or