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by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807 - 1882)

It was the schooner Hesperus
Language: English 
It was the schooner Hesperus,
   That sailed the wintry sea;
And the skipper had taken his little daughter,
   To bear him company. 
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. 
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. 
"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 Northeast.
The snow fell hissing in the brine,
   And the billows frothed like yeast. 
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. 
"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. 
"O father! I hear the church-bells ring,
   O say, what may it be?"
"'T is 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!" 
"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. 
Then the maiden clasped her hands and prayed
   That saved she might be;
And she thought of Christ, who stilled the wave,
   On the Lake of Galilee. 
And fast through the midnight dark and drear,
   Through the whistling sleet and snow,
Like a sheeted ghost, the vessel swept
   Tow'rds 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. 
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 stove and sank,
   Ho! ho! the breakers roared! 
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! 

About the headline (FAQ)

Text Authorship:

  • by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807 - 1882), "The wreck of the Hesperus", appears in Ballads and Other Poems, first published 1842 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

  • by Thomas Anderton (1836 - 1903), "The wreck of the Hesperus", published 1882 [ chorus, soli, and piano ], cantata [sung text not yet checked]
  • by John J. Blockley, the Younger , "The wreck of the Hesperus" [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Wilard Burr, Jr. (1852 - 1915), "The wreck of the Hesperus", op. 22, published 1889 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Ferdinand Luis Dunkley (1869 - 1956), "The wreck of the Hesperus", published 1893 [ chorus and orchestra ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Arthur E. Fisher , "The wreck of the Hesperus", op. 61, published 1896 [ women's chorus ], cantata [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Arthur Foote (1853 - 1937), "The wreck of the Hesperus", op. 17, published 1888 [ soprano, tenor, bass, mixed chorus, and piano or orchestra ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by John Liptrot Hatton (1809 - 1886), "The wreck of the Hesperus" [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by John Pike Hullah (1812 - 1884), "The wreck of the Hesperus", published >>1872 [sung text not yet checked]
  • by James Hazen Hyde (1876 - 1959), "The wreck of the Hesperus" [ satb chorus and piano ], cantata [sung text not yet checked]
  • by C. H. Lewis , "The wreck of the Hesperus" [ SSA chorus and piano ], cantata [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Hamish MacCunn (1868 - 1916), "The wreck of the Hesperus", published 1905 [ SATB chorus and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Klaus Miehling (b. 1963), "The Wreck of the Hesperus", op. 164 (2009) [ mixed chorus and orchestra ], cantata [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Charles Henry Mills (1873 - 1937), "The wreck of the Hesperus", published 1917 [ SATB chorus and piano ], cantata [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Louis Napoleon Parker (1852 - 1944), "The wreck of the Hesperus", op. 1, published 1878? [ vocal trio for female voices with piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by John Francis Holcombe Read (b. 1821), "The Hesperus", published 1896 [ soprano, baritone, bass, chorus, and orchestra ], cantata [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Francis (Frank) Romer (1810 - 1889), "The frozen wreck", published 186-? [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Herbert Walter Wareing (1857 - 1918), "The wreck of the Hesperus", published 1895 [ soprano, tenor, bass, chorus, and orchestra ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Willoughby Hunter Weiss (1820 - 1867), "The wreck of the Hesperus", published 197-? [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by R. H. Wilson , "The wreck of the Hesperus" [ SATB chorus and piano ], choral ballad [sung text not yet checked]
  • by W. Wilson , "The wreck of the Hesperus" [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2008-06-28
Line count: 88
Word count: 581

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