The Wreck of the Hesperus

T 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 sailòr Hadsailed 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 colder blew the wind, Agale from the northeast; The snow fell hissing in the brine, And the billows frothed like yeast. WRECK OF THE HESPERUS Down came the storm, and smote amain The vessel in its strength ; She shuddered and paused likeafrightenedsteed, Then leaped her cable's length. "Come hither ! come hither ! my little daughtèr, 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; Oh 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; Oh say, what may it be?" "Some ship in distress, that cannot live In such an angry sea! " "O father! I see agleaming light; Oh 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. WRECK OF THE HESPERUS Then the maiden clasped herhands and prayed That savèd she might be; And she thought of Christ, who stilled the waves 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 Towards the reef of Norman's Woe. And ever the fitful gusts between Asound 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 awhooping 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 adrifting mast. THE ANCIENT MARINER The salt sea was frozen on her breast, The salt tears in her eyes ; Andhe 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!