Any idea what's its bout?

Question

Glee! the great storm is over!
Four have recovered the land;
Forty gone down together
Into the boiling sand.

Ring, for the scant salvation!5
Toll, for the bonnie souls, –
Neighbor and friend and bridegroom,
Spinning upon the shoals!

How they will tell the shipwreck
When winter shakes the door,10
Till the children ask, “But the forty?
Did they come back no more?”

Then a silence suffuses the story,
And a softness the teller’s eye;
And the children no further question,15
And only the waves reply.

Answer 1

I think only four survived the shipwreck

Answer 2

the people rejoice that the terrbile storm is over, but it caused a shipwreck in which there were 4 survivors and 40 went down with the ship. the church bells will ring and the family and friends of those who died will mourn the loss of their loved ones. the children will ask what happened to the 40 who died, but the storie tellers are at a loss for words. the children will cease to question this as the only answer they receive is from the endless waves of the ocean.

Answer 3

Only 4 men survived a shipwreck after a storm, leaving behind friends and loved ones. The children will ask "Where's daddy?" The people telling the children what happened will start to cry, and they will know, as they look out to the sea that they died in the ocean.