Up from the poor man's cottage, forth from the mansion door
Sweeping across the valley and echoing along the shore
Caught by the morning breezes, borne on the evening gale
Comes the voice of mourning, a sad and solemn wail

Lost on the Lady Elgin! 
Sleeping to wake no more!
Numbered with those three hundred
Who failed to reach the shore

Staunch was the noble steamer, precious the freight she bore
Gaily she loosed her cables a few short hours before
Grandly she swept our harbor, joyfully rang her bell
Little thought we e'er morning 'twould toll so sad a knell

Lost on the Lady Elgin! 
Sleeping to wake no more!
Numbered with those three hundred
Who failed to reach the shore

A thunderstorm at midnight, big seas began to roll
One hundred miles of water was the noble steamer's goal
But a fatal slash on her portside of the Schooner baring fine
When the erie silence shrouded all, the dying engines whined

Lost on the Lady Elgin! 
Sleeping to wake no more!
Numbered with those three hundred
Who failed to reach the shore

Oh, here's to Captain Wilson, may his soul forever rest
When his noble steamer plunged beneath the surging crest
Leading songs and prayers for every woman and then child
He bravely faced the elements on that long night so wild

Lost on the Lady Elgin! 
Sleeping to wake no more!
Numbered with those three hundred
Who failed to reach the shore

And here's to Edward Spencer who lived along the shore
That night the waves came breaking in with cries above the roar
Sixteen times he plunged into the boiling surf to rest
Another soul to save, he asking: Did I do my best?

Oh, to the sound of children, crying for parents gone
Children slept that evening, but orphans woke at dawn
Sisters to brothers weeping, husbands were missing wives 
Such were the ties dissevered by those three hundred lives

Lost on the Lady Elgin! 
Sleeping to wake no more!
Numbered with those three hundred
Who failed to reach the shore

Lost on the Lady Elgin! 
Sleeping to wake no more!
Numbered with those three hundred
Who failed to reach the shore