it was the schooner hesperus that sailed the wintry sea and the skipper had taken his littledaughter to bear him company blue were her eyes as the fairy flax her cheeks like the dawn of dayand her bosom white as the hawthorn buds that ope in the month of maythe skipper he stood beside the helm his pipe was in his mouthand he watched how the veering floor did blow the smoke now west now souththen up and spake an old sailorhad sailed the spanish main i pray thee put into yonder port for i fear a hurricanelast night the moon had a golden ring and tonight no moon we see the skipper he blewwhiff from his pipe and a scornful laugh laughed he colder and louder blew the winda gale from the northeast the snow fell hissing in the brine and the billows frothed like yeastdown came the storm, then came the storm!and smote amain the vessel in its strengthshe shuddered and paused like a frightened steed then leaped her cables' lengthcome hither, come hither, my little daughter and do not tremble so!!!for i can weather the roughest gale that ever wind did blowhe wrapped her warm in his seaman's coat against the stinging blastagainst the stinging blasthe cut a rope from a broken chain of ropes from his bow chainbroken spar and bound her to the mast oh father i hear the church bells ring oh say what may it betis a fog bell on a rock-bound coast and he steered for the open seaoh father i hear the sound of guns oh say what may it be some ship in distress that cannot livein such an angry sea oh father i see a gleaming light oh say what may it be but the fatheranswered never a word a frozen corpse was he lashed to the helm all stiff and stark with hisface turned to the skies the lantern gleamed through the gleaming snow on his fixed andglassy eyes then the maiden clasped her handand prayed that saved she might be and she thought of christ who stilled the wave on the lake of galileeand fast through the midnight dark and drear through the whistling sleet and snowlike a sheeted ghost the vessel swept towards the reef of norman's worldand ever the fitful gusts between a sound came from the land it was the sound of the tramplingsurfon the rocks and hard sea sand the breakers were right beneath her bowels she drifted a dreary rakeand a whooping billow swept the crew like icicles from her deckshe struck where the white and fleecy waves looked soft as carded wool but the cruel rocks they goredher side like the horns of an angry bull her rattling shrouds all sheathed in ice with themasts 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 boardlike a vessel of glass she stove and sank ho ho the breakers roaredat daybreak on the bleak sea beach a 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 eyesand he saw her hair like the brown sea weed of the seaweed on the billows fall and rise. Such was the wreck of the Hesperus, in the midnight and thesnow. Christ save us all from a death like this, on the reef of Norman's woe.you