The Wreck of the Hesperus

Project Gutenberg's The Wreck of the Hesperus, by Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

Title: The Wreck of the Hesperus
Author: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Release Date: October 22, 2004 [EBook #13830]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
0. START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WRECK
OF THE HESPERUS ***
Produced by David Garcia and the PG Online Distributed Proofreading
Team.
[Illustration]
THE WRECK OF THE HESPERUS
BY
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
ILLUSTRATED
New York
1889

INTRODUCTION.
"Norman's Woe" is the picturesque name of a rocky headland, reef, and

islet on the coast of Massachusetts, between Gloucester and Magnolia.
The special disaster in which the name originated had long been lost
from memory when the poet Longfellow chose the spot as a
background for his description of the "Wreck of the Hesperus," and
gave it an association that it will scarcely lose while the English
language endures. Nor does it matter to the legend lover that the
ill-fated schooner was not "gored" by the "cruel rocks" just at this point,
but nearer to the Gloucester coast.
The poet has done many things well; and he has done few things better
than this ballad in the quaint, old-time style, with its nervous energy
and sonorous rhythm, wherein one hears the trampling of waves and
crashing of timbers.
Indeed, it is so well done, by art concealing art, that much of its force
and beauty escape the careless reader; whereas, the thoughtful one finds
in it an ever-increasing charm. It is worth noting that love, the usual
ballad motif, is absent and is not missed. The almost human struggles
and sufferings of the vessel, and the contrast between the daring,
scornful skipper, and the gentle, devout maiden, in the midst of the
terrors of storm and wreck, furnish abundant emotion and imagery; in
truth, many of the lines are literally packed with color, movement, and
meaning.

ILLUSTRATIONS
BY
H. WINTHROP PIERCE,
EDMUND H. GARRETT,
J.D.
WOODWARD,
W.F. HALSALL,
W.L. TAYLOR,
0. BUHLER, H.P. BARNES, A.J. LEWIS.
DRAWN AND ENGRAVED UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF

GEORGE T. ANDREW.
THIS EDITION OF THE WRECK OF THE HESPERUS IS
PUBLISHED BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT WITH MESSRS.
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO., THE AUTHORIZED
PUBLISHERS OF MR. LONGFELLOW'S WORKS.
[Illustration: The Wreck of the Hesperus]
[Illustration]
It was the schooner Hesperus
That sailed the wintry sea;
And the
skipper had taken his little daughter
To bear him company.
[Illustration]
Blue were her eyes as the fairy-flax,
Her cheeks like the dawn of day,

And her bosom white as the hawthorn buds
That ope in the month
of May.
The skipper he stood beside the helm,
His pipe was in his mouth,

And he watched how the veering flaw did blow
The smoke now west,
now south.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
Then up and spake an old sailor,
Had sailed to the Spanish Main,
"I
pray thee, put into yonder port,
For I fear a hurricane.
[Illustration]
"Last night the moon had a golden ring,
And to-night no moon we
see!"
The skipper he blew a whiff from his pipe,
And a scornful
laugh laughed he.

Colder and louder blew the wind,
A gale from the north-east;
The
snow fell hissing in the brine,
And the billows frothed like yeast.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
Down came the storm, and smote amain
The vessel in its strength;

She shuddered and paused, like a frighted steed,
Then leaped her
cable's length.
[Illustration]
"Come hither! come hither, my little daughter,
And do not tremble so;

For I can weather the roughest gale,
That ever wind did blow."
He wrapped her warm in his seaman's coat,
Against the stinging blast;

He cut a rope from a broken spar,
And bound her to the mast.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
"O father! I hear the church-bells ring;
O say, what may it be?"--

"'Tis a fog-bell on a rock-bound coast!"--
And he steered for the open
sea.
"O father! I hear the sound of guns;
O say, what may it be?"--

"Some ship in distress, that cannot live
In such an angry sea!"
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
"O father! I see a gleaming light;
O say, what may it be?"
But the

father answered never a word,--
A frozen corpse was he.
Lashed to the helm, all stiff and stark.
With his face turned to the
skies.
The lantern gleamed through the gleaming snow
On his fixed
and glassy eyes.
[Illustration]
Then the maiden clasped her hands and prayed
That savéd she might
be;
And she thought of Christ, who stilled the wave,
On the Lake of
Galilee.
[Illustration]
And fast through the midnight dark and drear,
Through the whistling
sleet and snow,
Like a sheeted ghost, the vessel swept
Towards the
reef of Norman's Woe.
And ever the fitful gusts between,
A sound came from the land;
It
was the sound of the trampling surf,
On the rocks and the hard
sea-sand,
The breakers were right