Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem was inspired by the Blizzard the 1839, which ruined the phibìc Shore because that 12 hours, beginning on January 6, 1839. Twenty ships and also forty resides were lost throughout the storm. The probable subject of the story is the schooner Favorite, i beg your pardon sank on a rock referred to as Norman’s Woe turn off the coastline of Gloucester, v all hand lost. After ~ the storm, the human body of a mrs tied to a mast was uncovered on the shore in between Gloucester and Magnolia. The really Hesperus was a schooner which to be seriously damaged if docked in Boston during the storm. Hesperus way in Gloucester is called after this poem.
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The wreck of the Hesperus by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
It to be the schooner Hesperus,That sailed the wintry sea;And the skipper had actually taken his small daughtèr,To bear the company.
Blue were she eyes together the fairy-flax,Her cheeks choose the dawn the day,And her bosom white together the hawthorn buds,That ope in the month of May.
The skipper the stood next to the helm,His pipe remained in his mouth,And he watched exactly how the veering flaw walk blowThe smoke now West, now South.
Then up and spake one old Sailòr,Had sailed to the Spanish Main,“I pray thee, put right into yonder port,For I fear a hurricane.
“Last night, the moon had a gold ring,And to-night no moon us see!”The skipper, he blew a whiff from his pipe,And a scornful laugh laugh he.
Colder and also louder go out the wind,A gale native the Northeast,The snow dropped hissing in the brine,And the billows frothed like yeast.
Down came the storm, and smote amainThe vessel in that strength;She shuddered and paused, choose a frighted steed,Then leaped she cable’s length.
“Come hither! come hither! my little daughtèr,And execute not tremble so;For I deserve to weather the roughest galeThat ever wind go blow.”
He sheathe her warm in his seaman’s coatAgainst the stinging blast;He reduced a rope from a broken spar,And bound her to the mast.
“O father! ns hear the church-bells ring,Oh say, what may it be?”“‘It is a fog-bell on a rock-bound coast!”And the steered for the open sea.
“O father! ns hear the sound of guns,
Oh say, what might it be?”“Some delivery in distress, that cannot liveIn together an angry sea!”
“O father! I watch a gleaming light,Oh say, what might it be?”But the father answered never a word,A frozen corpse was he.Lashed come the helm, all stiff and stark,
With his confront turned come the skies,The lantern gleamed through the gleaming snowOn his fixed and glassy eyes.
Then the maiden clasped her hands and also prayedThat savèd she could be;And she assumed of Christ, who stilled the waveOn the Lake the Galilee.
And quick through the midnight dark and also drear,Through the whistling sleet and snow,Like a sheeted ghost, the courage sweptTow’rds the reef the Norman’s Woe.
And ever the fitful gusts betweenA sound come from the land;It to be the sound the the trampling surfOn the rocks and the tough sea-sand.The breakers were right beneath her bows,
She drifted a dreary wreck,And a whooping billow swept the crewLike icicles from her deck.
She struck wherein the white and also fleecy wavesLooked soft as carded wool,But the devilish rocks, they gored she sideLike the horns of an upset bull.
Her rattling shrouds, all sheathed in ice,With the poles went by the board;Like a ship of glass, she stove and also sank,Ho! ho! the breakers roared!
At daybreak, top top the bleak sea-beach,A fisherman was standing aghast,To check out the form of a maiden fair,Lashed close come a drifting mast.
The salt sea to be frozen on she breast,The salt tears in she eyes;And he experienced her hair, favor the brown sea-weed,On the billows fall and also rise.
Such was the wreck of the Hesperus,In the midnight and the snow!Christ conserve us every from a fatality like this,On the reef of Norman’s Woe!
" data-medium-file="https://ipswich.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/hesperus_original.jpg?w=300" data-large-file="https://ipswich.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/hesperus_original.jpg?w=640" class="size-full wp-image-14949" src="https://ipswich.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/hesperus_original.jpg?w=890" alt="Norman"s Woe, between Magnolia and also Gloucester off of Hesperus Road" srcset="https://ipswich.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/hesperus_original.jpg 640w, https://ipswich.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/hesperus_original.jpg?w=150 150w, https://ipswich.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/hesperus_original.jpg?w=300 300w" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" />Norman’s Woe, between Magnolia and Gloucester turn off of Hesperus Road














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