Cornell Notes
“THE WRECK OF THE HESPERUS”
•schooner – ship with 2 or more masts
•mast – a spar that holds the sails and yards
• “wintry seas” = winter time
•Captain’s daughter is on board the ship
Stanza 2
•SIMILE: “bosom white AS the hawthorn buds” = IMPLIES the
daughter had very pale skin
-IMPLIES that she is upper class; does not manual labor
-blue eyes and morning blush on her cheek IMPLIES
innocence
Stanza 3
•veering flaw – wind changing direction
-wind usually blows in one direction
-if the captain is watching it change direction (west then
north), it
means a storm is coming
Stanza 4
•old sailor asks if they can take the ship into port
-he thinks there is a hurricane brewing
-he has sailed to the Spanish Main (the coastal region
bordering the
Caribbean Sea), so he has experience with hurricanes
Stanza 5
•”Last night the moon had a golden ring”
-a ring around the moon usually means rain or snow is
coming
•”a scornful laugh”
-scornful = distain
-distain = strong dislike for someone you don’t think
deserves respect
-IMPLIES the captain doesn’t respect the old sailor’s advice
Stanza 6
IMAGERY: “The snow fell HISSING (HEAR) in the brine, and
the billows FROTHED (SEE) like yeast”
-billows – a large dense cloud
Stanza 7
•smote amain – struck with hard force = storm arrived quickly
and hit hard
•IMAGERY: ”she shuddered and paused, SIMILE: LIKE a
frightened steed, then leaped her cable’s length”
-the ship shook then jump out of the water a full ship’s
length
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Stanza 1
1
By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Cornell Notes
•”Come hither, come hither”
-REPETITION: creates URGENCY! Come quickly!
Stanza 9 & 10
•tells daughter not to worry; he can make it through any
storm
-IMPLIES: believes he is stronger than a storm; God-like
power to
overcome anything nature throws his way
•wraps his daughter in his seaman’s coat and ties her to the
mast so she doesn’t fall overboard
-IMPLIES he is looking after his daughter’s well being
Stanza 11
•IMAGERY: “I HEAR the church-bells ring”
-bells = warning to people on shore of storm and to ships
at sea that
a rocky coast is nearby
-captain steers the ship out to sea; away from the rocky
coastline
Stanza 12 & 13
•IMAGERY: “I SEE a gleaming light”
-IMPLIES she can see the light from the lighthouse
-COULD IMPLY she is seeing the light of heaven as she is
dying
• IMAGERY: “the father ANSWERED NEVER A WORD
(IMPLIES SILENCE), a frozen corpse was he,”
• IMAGERY: “lashed to the helm, all stiff and stark…on his
fixed and glassy eyes,” = SEEING what death looks like
Stanza 14
•daughter prays
-hoping for a miracle
-ALLUSION: TO THE BIBLE - thinking of Christ’s miracle
when he stilled the water on Galilee
Stanza 15 & 16
•IMAGERY “through the MIDNIGHT” (SEE)
• ALLITERATION: “Dark and Drear”
-“Sleet and Snow”
•SIMILE: “LIKE a sheeted ghost”
• “vessel swept towards the reef at Norman’s Woe.”
-reef = rocks IMPLIES: ship is about to crash on the rocks
•IMAGERY “it was the sound (HEAR) of the trampling surf, on
the rocks and the hard sea-sand.”
Stanza 18
•SIMILE: “but the cruel rocks, they gored her side LIKE the
horns of an angry bull.”
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Stanza 8
2
-gives a good image of the strength of the storm
Cornell Notes
Stanza 19
•IMAGERY “her rattling shrouds (HEAR)”
•stove - broke
•SIMILE “LIKE a vessel of glass, she Stove and Sank
ALLITERATION”
•PERSONIFICATION: “Ho! ho! The breakers roared!
-the waves are talking
Stanza 20 & 21
• “FORM of a maiden fair” IMPLIES she is no longer a living
person
• “salt sea was frozen on her breast” IMPLIES she is slushing
around in the frozen sea
• “salt tears in her eyes” IMPLIES ???
• SIMILE “saw her hair, LIKE the brown sea-weed, on the
billows fall and rise” IMPLIES ???
Stanza 22
•ALLUSION TO THE BIBLE “Christ save us all from a death like
this”
BACKGROUND
Longfellow was inspired to write one this poem after a
http://ingeb.org/songs/itwasthe.html disastrous Altantic coast storm on December 17, 1839.
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Seventeen schooners were wrecked. Forty people died.
The Hersperus shattered on the reef at Norman's Woe
(Gloucester, Massachusetts). A body was washed
ashore lashed to a spar. Longfellow couldn’t get the
picture of the woman out of his head, so he sat down
and wrote this poem. Although the victim that was tied
to the mast was a 45 year old woman, he changed it to a
young girl.