StoryTitle("caps", "The Wreck of the \"Hesperus\"") ?>
Wreck of the Hesperus," by Longfellow (1807-82), on "Norman's Woe,"
off the coast near Cape Ann, is a historic poem as well as an imaginative
composition.
PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "It was the schooner Hesperus,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "That sailed the wintry sea;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And the skipper had taken his little daughter,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "To bear him company.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Blue were her eyes as the fairy-flax,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Her cheeks like the dawn of day,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And her bosom white as the hawthorn buds", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "That ope in the month of May.", "") ?>
PagePoem(139, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The skipper he stood beside the helm,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "His pipe was in his mouth,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And he watched how the veering flaw did blow", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "The smoke now west, now south.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Then up and spake an old sailor,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Had sailed the Spanish Main,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"I pray thee put into yonder port,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "For I fear a hurricane.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"Last night the moon had a golden ring,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And to-night no moon we see!\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The skipper he blew a whiff from his pipe,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And a scornful laugh laughed he.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Colder and louder blew the wind,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "A gale from the northeast,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The snow fell hissing in the brine,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And the billows frothed like yeast.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Down came the storm, and smote amain", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "The vessel in its strength;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "She shuddered and paused, like a frighted steed,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Then leaped her cable's length.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"Come hither! come hither! my little daughter,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And do not tremble so;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "For I can weather the roughest gale", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "That ever wind did blow.\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "He wrapped her warm in his seaman's coat", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Against the stinging blast;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "He cut a rope from a broken spar,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And bound her to the mast.", "") ?>
PagePoem(140, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"O father! I hear the church-bells ring,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "O say, what may it be?\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"Tis a fog-bell on a rock-bound coast!\"—", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And he steered for the open sea.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"O father! I hear the sound of guns,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "O say, what may it be?\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"Some ship in distress, that cannot live", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "In such an angry sea!\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"O father! I see a gleaming light,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "O say, what may it be?\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "But the father answered never a word,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "A frozen corpse was he.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Lashed to the helm, all stiff and stark,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "With his face turned to the skies,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The lantern gleamed through the gleaming snow", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "On his fixed and glassy eyes.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Then the maiden clasped her hands and prayed", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "That savèd she might be;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And she thought of Christ, who stilled the wave", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "On the Lake of Galilee.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And fast through the midnight dark and drear,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Through the whistling sleet and snow,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Like a sheeted ghost the vessel swept", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Toward the reef of Norman's Woe.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And ever the fitful gusts between", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "A sound came from the land;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "It was the sound of the trampling surf", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "On the rocks and the hard sea-sand.", "") ?>
PagePoem(141, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The breakers were right beneath her bows,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "She drifted a dreary wreck,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And a whooping billow swept the crew", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Like icicles from her deck.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "She struck where the white and fleecy waves", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Looked soft as carded wool,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "But the cruel rocks they gored her side", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Like the horns of an angry bull.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Her rattling shrouds all sheathed in ice,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "With the masts went by the board;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Like a vessel of glass she stove and sank,—", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Ho! ho! the breakers roared!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "At daybreak on the bleak sea-beach", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "A fisherman stood aghast,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "To see the form of a maiden fair", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Lashed close to a drifting mast.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The salt sea was frozen on her breast,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "The salt tears in her eyes;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And he saw her hair, like the brown sea-weed,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "On the billows fall and rise.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Such was the wreck of the Hesperus,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "In the midnight and the snow!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Christ save us all from a death like this,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "On the reef of Norman's Woe!", "") ?>
PoemAttribution("100", SmallCapsText("Henry W. Longfellow.")) ?>
PoemEnd() ?>