Lines on the Finding of a Young Man’s Body in Toronto Bay

A young man’s body long it lay
In bottom of Toronto Bay,
But at last the waters bore,
And raised him up near to the shore.

But no one knew his rank or station,
No one knew his home or nation,
But his form and dress were genteel,
And sorrow many they did feel.

Kind man took charge of the remains,
And was well rewarded for his pains,
So skilful he did him embalm,
Restored the features sweet and calm.

The father came and he did bless
The man who did restore the face,
And saved for him his son’s remains,
And thus he fame and honor gains.

Where this text comes from

First published in Poems of James McIntyre (1889). First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established. [1]

Structure read from the source's markup; the words have not been compared against a page scan. Last checked 2026-08-20.

Taken from Standard Ebooks, standardebooks/james-mcintyre_poetry, poetry.xhtml. Rights: public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931).

Earlier sources (3)

This poem as JSON or plain text. Line anchors #L1–#L16.

Cite this poem

James McIntyre (1828?–1906). “Lines on the Finding of a Young Man’s Body in Toronto Bay.” First published in Poems of James McIntyre (1889). Text: Poem Index, https://poemindex.org/james-mcintyre/lines-on-the-finding-of-a-young-mans-body-in-toronto-bay/. Append #L14 to cite line 14, or #L4-L9 for lines 4–9.

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