1839 She struck where the white and fleecy waves But the cruel rocks, they gored her side Her rattling shrouds, all sheathed in ice, At daybreak, on the bleak sea-beach, To see the form of a maiden fair, The salt sea was frozen on her breast, The salt tears in her eyes; And he saw her hair, like the brown sea-weed, 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! 70 75 80 85 1841 The Skeleton in Armor1 "Speak! speak! thou fearful guest Comest to daunt me! Why dost thou haunt me?" Then, from those cavernous eyes Gleam in December; And, like the water's flow 1. This, like "The Wreck of the Hesperus," is an experiment in balladry. Its sources are older, representing the rough, two-beat measures of the verse of the Old English, Icelandic, .and Norse skalds, or poets (cf. 1. 19), which Longfellow had been studying, and used again in "The Saga of King Olaf." The story was Longfellow's response to the de 10 bated theories that an ancient stone tower in Newport, and an "armored" skeleton unearthed and destroyed at Fall River, were relics of prehistoric Scandinavian settlement. Written in 1840, the poem appeared in the Knickerbocker Magazine for January, 1841, before being collected in Ballads and Other Poems that year. Under December's snow, Came a dull voice of woe From the heart's chamber. "I was a Viking old! "Far in the Northern Land, And, with my skates fast-bound, "Oft to his frozen lair While from my path the hare Fled like a shadow; Oft through the forest dark Followed the were-wolf's bark, 35 30 25 20 155 Measured in cups of ale, "Once as I told in glee "I wooed the blue-eyed maid, Our vows were plighted. By the hawk frighted. When of old Hildebrand Mute did the minstrels stand. 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 Follow the sea-mew's flight, 4. A species of European sea gull. Why did they leave that night 95 Her nest unguarded? "Scarce had I put to sea, Bearing the maid with me, Among the Norsemen! When on the white sea-strand, Waving his armèd hand, Saw we old Hildebrand, With twenty horsemen. "Then launched they to the blast, "And as to catch the gale 'Death!' was the helmsman's hail, Mid-ships with iron keel "As with his wings aslant, With his prey laden,— Bore I the maiden. "Three weeks we westward bore, Cloud-like we saw the shore Stretching to leeward; 5. The northernmost cape of Jutland, 6. I.e., the Newport tower. Denmark. 100 105 110 115 120 125 130 1840 Which, to this very hour, "There lived we many years; She was a mother; Death closed her mild blue eyes, On such another! "Still grew my bosom then, The sunlight hateful! Oh, death was grateful! "Thus, seamed with many scars, My soul ascended! There from the flowing bowl 135 140 145 150 155 160 1841 |