Goodbye Little Sister (The Long Sad Voyage of 1882)
The ships tall masts reaching high to the sky
Awesome for a boy of six // wondering why
His family packed up and left their home
Heading for a new world they travel alone
Brothers left behind grown and married
Younger brothers and sisters stay with the family
Watching the Alps fade as the shadows wane
To the port of Le Havre floating down the Seine
Ready to board this giant bucket of timber
Excitement rising trying to remember
All of his friends left behind in Basel
New adventures unseen in this perilous travel
Noise and activity surrounds them all
White sails slide up and begin to unfurl
Down to steerage on the ships second level
The family of Roths find a place to settle
Into the briny dark seas they sail
To New York Harbor where liberty hails
As the week drags on the voyage is rough
Young Christian and sister find sleeping is tough
The food is bad // unlike cooking back home
The water in barrels kept from the rats’ roam
But somehow this packed and unsanitary condition
Made some folks sick with dysentery emissions
Little sister was one whose resistance was lacking
As the days dragged on her fever not slacking
Worried mother and father prayed for God’s backing
Little sister got worse // there was nothing to do
As her fever raged on everyone knew
Late one night while everyone slept
Little sister passed on our little angel had left
O how we cried // and mourned this great loss
Little sister had died before we’re across
The captain came by early that dawn
Saying sadly “She’s gone and we must send her on,”
The day was spent in tears and sad wails
As the orange sun was setting we bid our farewells
Wrapped in a blanket lowered into the swell
Into the briny blue she fell
With prayers and weeping // sadness abounds
Young Christian stood watching as folks gathered round
Little sister was gone // for her t’was too late
Wondering if he might be next for this unhappy fate
On reaching New York the emigrants unloaded
Ellis Island was crowded // each family recorded
Christian and family moved on to Ohio
With promise of hope always held high
Words still to come reflect how it should be
Give me your tired // your poor // yearning to be free
Give me your sad // your distraught // still counting the cost
Seeking religious freedom in a land unknown
Where Freedom and Liberty stand alone!
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Le Havre port – Bing Photo
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Bjorn at d’Verse asked us to write a poem using a story narrative. I wrote this poem last years about my Grandfather’s experience of coming to America at the age of six. I decided to repost this fictional narrative. The only fact I had was that when they sailed from France to come to America his little sister died on the journey. I had to fill in the details from my imagination. I took all the details I had and wrote a fictional biograpy of my grandfather Christian Roth.
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Most of us who live in America are descendants of immigrants by choice or by force. We have no idea the sacrifices that were made to come and live in freedom. In the year 1882, my Grandfather came as a young boy of six, only to see his sister die on the way across the Atlantic. (In those days when a child died the name was not always recorded in the family tree. This seems to be the case in this case!) His parents left Switzerland for freedom of religion. Many immigrants have come in the years following for many reasons. It is sad that emigration today has been equated with fear and criminality.
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