Uploaded on June 26, 2011
It was the schooner Hesperus,
That sailed the wintry sea;
And skipper had taken his little daughter,
To bear him company. …
Down came the storm, and smote amain
The vessel in its strength;
She shuddered and paused, like a frightened steed,
Then leaped her cable’s length. …
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. …
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!
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Poetry for Young People: Henry Wordsworth Longfellow
6.26.2023: My poetry project got us out of the house on a fairly regular basis. The day I decided on this poem, I told Dennis we had to go to the ocean. So he, the kids, and I climbed into the minivan and headed to Searsport. It was a nice day.