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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13830 ***
+
+[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,
+  A. 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 beneath her bows,
+    She drifted a dreary wreck,
+  And a whooping billow swept the crew
+    Like icicles from her deck.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+  She struck where the white and fleecy waves
+    Looked soft as carded wool;
+  But the cruel rocks, they gored her side
+    Like the horns of an angry bull.
+
+  Her rattling shrouds, all sheathed in ice,
+    With the masts went by the board;
+  Like a vessel of glass, she strove and sank,
+    Ho! ho! the breakers roared.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+  At daybreak, on the bleak sea-beach,
+    A fisherman stood aghast,
+  To see the form of a maiden fair,
+    Lashed close to a drifting mast.
+
+  The salt sea was frozen on her breast,
+    The salt tears in her eyes;
+  And he saw her hair, like the brown sea-weed,
+    On the billows fall and rise.
+
+  Such was the wreck of the Hesperus,
+    In the midnight and the snow!
+  Christ save us all from a death like this,
+    On the reef of Norman's Woe!
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Wreck of the Hesperus
+by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13830 ***