Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "Best Loved Poems"... https://btomdyerstitanicsitecommunity.runboard.com/t934 Runboard| Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "Best Loved Poems"... en-us Thu, 28 Mar 2024 09:27:48 +0000 Thu, 28 Mar 2024 09:27:48 +0000 https://www.runboard.com/ rssfeeds_managingeditor@runboard.com (Runboard.com RSS feeds managing editor) rssfeeds_webmaster@runboard.com (Runboard.com RSS feeds webmaster) akBBS 60 Re: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "Best Loved Poems"...https://btomdyerstitanicsitecommunity.runboard.com/p165579,from=rss#post165579https://btomdyerstitanicsitecommunity.runboard.com/p165579,from=rss#post165579This is a first of two very long HWL poems. So w/out further ado... THE WRECK OF THE HESPERUS 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 od 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 verring flaw did blow The smoke now West, now South. Then up and spake an old Sailor, Had sailed to the Spanish Main, "I pray thee, put into yonder port, For I feat 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 the amain The vessel in its strenth; She shuddered and paused, like a frighted steed, Then leaped her cable's length. "Come hither! come hither! my daughter 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; 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 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 hands 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 thw whistling sleet and snow, Like a sheeted ghost, the vessel swept Tow'rds the reef of Norman's Woe. And ever the fitful gusts between A sound 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 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; 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 seaweed, 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! nondisclosed_email@example.com (MurdochsAid)Fri, 04 Sep 2009 17:08:00 +0000 Re: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "Best Loved Poems"...https://btomdyerstitanicsitecommunity.runboard.com/p165578,from=rss#post165578https://btomdyerstitanicsitecommunity.runboard.com/p165578,from=rss#post165578THE SECRET OF THE SEA AH! what pleasant visions haunt me As I gaze upon the sea! All the old romantic legends, All my dreams, come back to me. Sails of silk and ropes of sandal, Such as gleam in ancient lore; And the singing of the sailors, And the answer from the shore! Most of all, the Spanish ballad Haunts me oft, and tarries long, Of the noble Count Arnaldos And the sailor's mystic song. Like the long waves on a sea-beach, Where the san as silver shines, With a soft, monotonous cadence, Flow its unrhymed lyric lines;-- Telling how the Count Arnaldos, With his hawk upon his hand, Saw a fair and stately galley, Steering onward to the land;-- How he heard the ancient helmsman Chant a song so wild and clear, That the sailing sea-birds slowly Poised upon the mast to hear, Till his soul was full of longing, And he cried, with impulse strong,-- "Helmsman! for the love of heaven, Teach me, too, that wondrous song!" "Wouldst thou,"--so the helmsman answered, "Learn the secret of the sea? Only those who brave its dangers Comprehend its mystery!" In each sail that skims the horizon, In each landward-blowing breeze, I behold that stately galley, Hear those mournful melodies; Till my soul is full of longing For the secret of the sea, And the heart of the great ocean Sends a thrilling pulse through me. Doesn't the last stanza of this poem sound like an a la TITANIC-ish to you? nondisclosed_email@example.com (MurdochsAid)Fri, 04 Sep 2009 16:31:22 +0000 Re: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "Best Loved Poems"...https://btomdyerstitanicsitecommunity.runboard.com/p165577,from=rss#post165577https://btomdyerstitanicsitecommunity.runboard.com/p165577,from=rss#post165577There's more HWL such sea and ships poems to add under this thread. So in the meantime, I hope you enjoy the first two I just now posted. MAnondisclosed_email@example.com (MurdochsAid)Fri, 04 Sep 2009 14:15:54 +0000 Re: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "Best Loved Poems"...https://btomdyerstitanicsitecommunity.runboard.com/p165576,from=rss#post165576https://btomdyerstitanicsitecommunity.runboard.com/p165576,from=rss#post165576Here is the second one... THE BIRD AND THE SHIP The rivers rush into the sea, By castle and town thy go; The winds behind them merrily Their noisy trumpets blow. The clouds are passing far and high, We little birds in them play; And everything, that can sing and fly, Goes with us, and far away. I greet thee, bonny boat! Whither, or whense, With thy fluttering golden band?-- I greet thee, little bird! To the wide sea I haste from the narrow land. Full and swollen is every sail; I see no longer a hill, I have trusted all to the sounding gale, And it will not let me stand still. And wilt thou, little bird, go with us? Thou mayest stand on the mainmast tall, For full to sinking is my house With merry companions all.-- I need not and seek not company, Bonny boat, I can sing all alone; For the mainmast tall too heavy am I, Bonny boat, I have wings of my own. High over the sails, high over the mast, Who shall gainsay these joys? When thy merry companions are still, at last, Thou shalt hear the sound of my voice. Who neither may rest, nor listen may, God bless them everyone! I dart away, in the bright blue day, And the golden fields of the sun. Thus do I sing my weary song, Wherever the four winds blow; And this same song, my whole life long, Neither Poet nor Printer may know.nondisclosed_email@example.com (MurdochsAid)Fri, 04 Sep 2009 14:09:13 +0000 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "Best Loved Poems"...https://btomdyerstitanicsitecommunity.runboard.com/p165575,from=rss#post165575https://btomdyerstitanicsitecommunity.runboard.com/p165575,from=rss#post165575Here is the first of Mr. Longfellow's ship and sea poems that I would like to share with you: THE WAVE "Whither, thou turbid wave Whither, with so much haste, As if a thief wert thou?" "I am the Wave of Life, Stained with my margin's dust; From the struggle and the strife Of the narrow stream I fly To the Sea's immensity, To wash from me the slime Of the muddy banks of Time." nondisclosed_email@example.com (MurdochsAid)Fri, 04 Sep 2009 13:56:23 +0000