"The Fireman[']s Death" (1852)
Song & Chorus as sung by J. A. Herman
of
Wood's Minstrels
The Words Written and Presented to Henry Wood,
by Francis S. Smith.
Music by A. Sedgwick

New York, NY: Gould & Berry, 297 Broadway
Boston, MA: O. Ditson
Newark, NY: S. P. Hinds
Easton, PA: H. W. Lowrey
Columbus, OH: Truax & Pease
Petersburg, VA: Simmons & Whitmore
Lith. of Sarony & Major, N.Y.
Swain, Eng[ra]v[e]r
[Source: 179/039@Levy]

1. He slept, and o’er his dauntless brow,
  A shade of sorrow stole
As tho’ some scene of deep distress
  Was busy with his soul
When suddenly the dread alarm
  Came ringing shrill and clear
Cleaving the night air till it struck
  Upon his startled ear.

CHORUS 1
He bounded up— His practiced eye,
Was turn’d upon the lurid sky,
Lit by the flames, which mounting higher,
Soon cloth’d the night in a robe of fire.

2. With lightning speed, he reached the scene
  Oh! what a sight was there!
A mother stood amid the flames
  And sheiked in wild dispair!
Her arms around her fightened babe,
  Were thrown with frenzied clasp,
As tho’ she feared the Fire fiend
  Would tear it from her grasp.

CHORUS 2
With helmet turn’d, thro’ fire and smoke,
The gallant fellow fearless broke;
He saved them both, but ah! his life,
Was lost in the unequal strife. 

3. Now in sweet Greenwood’s peaceful shade
  The noble hero sleeps
And o’er his grave, full many a friend
  In silent sorrow weeps.—
A monument erected there
  Is pointed to with pride
By those with whom he oft has fought,
  The fire, side by side.

CHORUS 3
Sweet flow’rs exhale their fragrant breath
Where now he, peacefully, sleeps in death
And trees their spreading branches wave
Above his solemn Greenwood grave.