The Wreck of the Hesperus

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow · 1842 · 2 perc olvasás · 88 sor

Röviden

The Wreck of the Hesperus by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is a narrative poem about a skipper and his daughter caught in a deadly winter storm. An old sailor urges the skipper to seek shelter, but he laughs at the warning. As snow hisses into the sea and waves rise, the skipper wraps his daughter in his coat and ties her to the mast. She hears bells and distress guns, then discovers that her father has frozen at the helm. She prays while the ship rushes toward Norman’s Woe, where rocks tear it apart. At dawn, a fisherman finds her body still tied to the drifting mast. The poem ends with a prayer that others may escape such a death.

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 budsThat 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 blowThe smoke now west, now south.

Then up and spake an old sailor,Had sailed 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 amainThe 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 galeThat ever wind did blow.”

He wrapped her warm in his seaman’s coatAgainst 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?”“’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 liveIn 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 snowOn his fixed and glassy eyes.

Then the maiden clasped her hands and prayedThat savèd she might be;And she thought of Christ, who stilled the waveOn the Lake of Galilee.

And fast through the midnight dark and drear,Through the whistling sleet and snow,Like a sheeted ghost the vessel sweptToward the reef of Norman’s Woe.

And ever the fitful gusts betweenA sound came from the land;It was the sound of the trampling surfOn 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 crewLike icicles from her deck.

She struck where the white and fleecy wavesLooked soft as carded wool,But the cruel rocks they gored her sideLike 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-beachA fisherman stood aghast,To see the form of a maiden fairLashed 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!

Mit jelent, sorról sorra?

1–20. sor: The opening introduces the ship, the skipper, and his young daughter. Comparisons to flowers and dawn emphasize her freshness and innocence against the wintry sea. The skipper watches shifting winds but dismisses an experienced sailor’s warning. His scornful laugh establishes the dangerous confidence that shapes what follows.

21–36. sor: The storm arrives with harsh sounds and violent movement. The ship is compared to a frightened horse, making its struggle feel alive. The skipper promises that he can survive any gale, yet his protective actions reveal the danger: he covers his daughter with his coat and secures her to the mast.

37–56. sor: The daughter’s repeated questions turn distant sounds and light into growing signs of peril. Her father explains the bell and guns, but his final silence reveals that he has frozen to death. The lantern exposes his lifeless face. Left without his protection, the daughter prays and remembers Christ’s power over waves.

57–76. sor: The ship moves toward Norman’s Woe like a ghost, with the surf announcing the nearby shore. Waves sweep away the crew, and rocks rip into the hull. Comparisons to soft wool, a charging bull, and fragile glass contrast deceptive appearances with destructive force. The roaring breakers seem to mock the ship’s collapse.

77–88. sor: Daybreak brings a fisherman who discovers the daughter’s body attached to the drifting mast. Frozen seawater, tears, and hair moving like seaweed make the loss painfully concrete. The closing lines name the wreck and its setting once more, then shift into a shared prayer for protection from such a death.

3 hónapig ingyen

200 000+ klasszikus. Minden formátumban, ingyenes kezdéssel.

e-könyvek és 15 perces összefoglalók, valamint bármely könyv önköltségi áron nyomtatva, nagybetűs kiadásban is.

Kezdd ingyenÉvente megújul · Bármikor lemondhatod

Három elgondolkodtató kérdés

How does the skipper’s response to the old sailor shape your understanding of his later efforts to protect his daughter?
What effects do the comparisons to animals, wool, glass, and a ghost create during the wreck?
How does the final prayer change the way you understand the daughter’s earlier prayer?

3 hónapig ingyen

200 000+ klasszikus. Minden formátumban, ingyenes kezdéssel.

e-könyvek és 15 perces összefoglalók, valamint bármely könyv önköltségi áron nyomtatva, nagybetűs kiadásban is.

Kezdd ingyenÉvente megújul · Bármikor lemondhatod

Következő versA Psalm of LifeLongfellow · 1 perc olvasás