"The Wreck of the Hesperus" Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

A Critical Edition of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s Poem,

“The Wreck of the Hesperus”

Edited by David Walker

Dr. Kevin O’Donnell

February 28, 2005

The Wreck of the Hesperus, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)

1 It was the schooner Hesperus,
2 That sailed the wintery sea;
3 And the skipper had taken his little daughter,
4 To bear him company.

5 Blue were her eyes as the fairy flax,
6 Her cheeks like the dawn of day,
7 And her bosom white as the hawthorn buds,
8 That ope in the month of May.

9 The Skipper he stood beside the helm,
10 His pipe was in his mouth,
11 And he watched how the veering flaw did blow
12 The smoke now West, now South.

13 Then up and spake an old Sailor,
14 Had sailed the Spanish Main,
15 "I pray thee, put into yonder port,
16 for I fear a hurricane.

17 "Last night the moon had a golden ring,
18 And to-night no moon we see!"
19 The skipper, he blew whiff from his pipe,
20 And a scornful laugh laughed he.

21 Colder and louder blew the wind,
22 A gale from the Northeast,
23 The snow fell hissing in the brine,
24 And the billows frothed like yeast.

25 Down came the storm, and smote amain
26 The vessel in its strength;
27 She shuddered and paused, like a frighted steed,
28 Then leaped her cable's length.

29 "Come hither! come hither! my little daughter,
30 And do not tremble so;
31 For I can weather the roughest gale
32 That ever wind did blow."

33 He wrapped her warm in his seaman's coat
34 Against the stinging blast;
35 He cut a rope from a broken spar,
36 And bound her to the mast.

37 "O father! I hear the church bells ring,
38 Oh, say, what may it be?"
39 "Tis a fog-bell on a rock bound coast!" --
40 And he steered for the open sea.

41 "O father! I hear the sound of guns;
42 Oh, say, what may it be?"
43 Some ship in distress, that cannot live
44 In such an angry sea!"

45 "O father! I see a gleaming light.
46 Oh say, what may it be?"
47 But the father answered never a word,
48 A frozen corpse was he.

49 Lashed to the helm, all stiff and stark,
50 With his face turned to the skies,
51 The lantern gleamed through the gleaming snow
52 On his fixed and glassy eyes.

53 Then the maiden clasped her hands and prayed
54 That saved she might be;
55 And she thought of Christ, who stilled the wave,
56 On the Lake of Galilee.

57 And fast through the midnight dark and drear,
58 Through the whistling sleet and snow,
59 Like a sheeted ghost, the vessel swept
60 Tow'rds the reef of Norman's Woe.

61 And ever the fitful gusts between
62 A sound came from the land;
63 It was the sound of the trampling surf,
64 On the rocks and hard sea-sand.

65 The breakers were right beneath her bows,
66 She drifted a dreary wreck,
67And a whooping billow swept the crew
68 Like icicles from her deck.

69 She struck where the white and fleecy waves
70 Looked soft as carded wool,
71 But the cruel rocks, they gored her side
72 Like the horns of an angry bull.

73 Her rattling shrouds, all sheathed in ice,
74 With the masts went by the board;
75 Like a vessel of glass, she stove and sank,
76 Ho! ho! the breakers roared!

77 At daybreak, on the bleak sea-beach,
78 A fisherman stood aghast,
79 To see the form of a maiden fair,
80 Lashed close to a drifting mast.

81 The salt sea was frozen on her breast,
82 The salt tears in her eyes;
83 And he saw her hair, like the brown sea-weed,
84 On the billows fall and rise.

85 Such was the wreck of the Hesperus,
86 In the midnight and the snow!
87 Christ save us all from a death like this,
88 On the reef of Norman's Woe!
(1839)

Explanatory Notes

3-4] The skipper had brought his daughter to keep him company on this doomed voyage (Wangenknecht 67)

13-14] Longfellow makes references to folk beliefs when he says “old sailor” who “had sailed the Spanish Main,. (Wangenknecht 67)

19-20] The skipper is disregarding the warnings, that brought on the destruction of the ship. (Wangenknecht 67)

77-80] The “little daughter” is idealized, the ending is stark. These lines state that a fisher man is startled to see the body of the “little daughter” that washed up on shore.

88] The inspiration for the poem came from the report of the actual wreck, that was not actually “On the reef of Norman’s Woe.” (Wangenknecht 67)

Publication History

Longfellow's poems were first published in magazines, anthologies, and gift-book editions. “The Wreck of the Hesperus” was first published on January 14, 1840, in “The New World,” and then republished in 1841 in “Ballads and Other Poems.”

Comments

Longfellow uses simple lines in this poem that give the reader a sense of realism. He is writing to reflect his ordinary life, and uses the scenery and atmosphere of the life in Cambridge.

Annotated Bibliography

Primary Text:

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth. “The Wreck of the Hesperus”. The Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow-Volume I. Houghton Mifflin & Co.: New York, 1886: 60-64.

* The text was copied from the online source, and then compared to for accuracy with the primary text The Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow-Volume I.

Secondary Text:

Wagenknecht, Edward. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow His Poetry and Prose.Ungar Publishing Company: New York,1986: 66-67.

*I found this book helpful because it provided an analysis of some of Longfellow’s poems.

Online Text:

“The Wreck of the Hesperus”. Blupete.com. 2004. Access Date: 20 February 2005. <http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Poetry/Wreck.htm>

* “The Wreck of the Hesperus” text was copied from the above website.