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 floor did blow the 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 tonight no moon we see the skipper he blew
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, then came the storm!
and smote amain the vessel in its strength
she shuddered and paused like a frightened steed then leaped her cables' 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
against the stinging blast
he cut a rope from a broken chain of ropes from his bow chain



broken spar and bound her to the mast oh 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
oh 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 oh father i see a gleaming 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 then the maiden clasped her hand
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 towards the reef of norman's world
and ever the fitful gusts between a sound came from the land it was the sound of the trampling
surf
on the rocks and hard sea sand the breakers were right beneath her bowels she drifted a dreary rake
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 and the waves were so soft that they could not be heard 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 of the 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.
you