Poem Wreck Of The Hesperus

The Wreck of the Hesperus

"The Wreck of the Hesperus" is a narrative poem past American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, first published in Ballads and Other Poems in 1842. It is a story that presents the tragic consequences of a bounding main captain'southward pride. On an ill-blighted voyage in winter, he brings his daughter aboard ship for visitor. The captain ignores the advice of one of his experienced men, who fears that a hurricane is approaching. When the storm arrives, the captain ties his girl to the mast to forbid her from being swept overboard. She calls out to her dying begetter equally she hears the surf beating on the shore, and then prays to Christ to calm the seas. The ship crashes onto the reef of Norman'south Woe and sinks; the side by side morning a horrified fisherman finds the daughter's body, nonetheless tied to the mast and drifting in the surf. The poem ends with a prayer that all exist spared such a fate "on the reef of Norman's Woe."

The poem was published in the New World, edited by Park Benjamin, which appeared on Jan x, 1840. Longfellow was paid $25 for it, equivalent to $654 in 2015.

Inspiration

Longfellow combined fact and fiction to create this poem. His inspiration was the great Blizzard of 1839, which ravaged the northeast coast of the United states of america for 12 hours starting January half-dozen, 1839, destroying xx ships with a loss of 40 lives. He probably drew specifically on the destruction of the Favorite, a send from Wiscasset, Maine, on the reef of Norman's Woe off the coast of Gloucester, Massachusetts. All hands were lost, 1 of which was a woman, who reportedly floated to shore expressionless but yet tied to the mast. Information technology is, notwithstanding, possible that this detail was taken from a dissimilar ship that foundered during the same storm. "The Wreck of the Hesperus" is based on two events: an actual shipwreck at Norman'south Woe, subsequently which a body similar the i in the poem was establish, and the real wreck of the Hesperus, which took identify most Boston. Despite that fact, the poem is and then well known that the loop road leading close to Norman's Woe from Route 127 is named Hesperus Ave.

In December 1839, Longfellow wrote in his diary about the writing of "The Wreck of the Hesperus":

…suddenly it came into my mind to write [information technology], which I accordingly did. So I went to bed, but could not slumber. New thoughts were running in my mind, and I got upward to add together them to the ballad. It was three by the clock. I then went to bed and fell asleep. I feel pleased with the ballad. It hardly price me an effort. It did not come into my mind by lines, but by stanzas.