[00:00.00]The Wreck of the Hesperus [Henry Wadsworth Longfellow] - Kenneth Williams
[00:00.70]It was the schooner Hesperus
[00:02.31]That sailed the wintry sea
[00:04.03]And the skipper had taken his little daughter
[00:06.13]To bear him company
[00:07.88]Blue were her eyes as the fairy-flax
[00:10.74]Her cheeks like the dawn of day
[00:13.07]And her bosom white as the hawthorn buds
[00:15.80]That open in the month of May
[00:18.10]The skipper he stood beside the helm
[00:20.17]His pipe was in his mouth
[00:21.71]And watched how the veering flaw did blow
[00:24.33]The smoke now West now South
[00:26.85]Then up and spake an old Sailor
[00:29.09]Had sailed the Spanish Main
[00:30.95]I pray thee put into yonder port
[00:33.09]For I fear a hurricane
[00:34.69]Last night the moon had a golden ring
[00:37.00]And tonight no moon we see
[00:39.42]The skipper he blew a whiff from his pipe
[00:41.96]And a scornful laugh laughed he
[00:44.02]Colder and louder blew the wind
[00:46.55]A gale from the North-east
[00:48.64]The snow fell hissing in the brine
[00:50.79]And the billows frothed like yeast
[00:52.71]Down came the storm and smote amain
[00:55.67]The vessel in its strength
[00:57.33]She shuddered and paused like a frighted steed
[01:00.11]Then leaped her cable's length
[01:02.91]Come hither come hither my little daughter
[01:04.71]And do not tremble so
[01:06.51]For I can weather the roughest gale
[01:08.50]That ever wind did blow
[01:10.97]He wrapped her warm in his seaman's coat
[01:13.03]Against the stinging blast
[01:14.31]He cut a rope from a broken spar
[01:16.52]And bound her to the mast
[01:19.33]Of father I hear the church-bells ring
[01:22.29]Of say what may it be
[01:24.22]'Tis a fog-bell on a rock-bound coast
[01:27.49]And he steered for the open sea
[01:30.47]Of father I hear the sound of guns
[01:32.82]Of say what may it be
[01:34.69]Some ship in distress that cannot live
[01:36.85]In such an angry sea
[01:38.52]Of father I see a gleaming light
[01:41.09]Of say what may it be
[01:43.00]But the father answered never a word
[01:45.52]A frozen corpse was he
[01:48.59]Lashed to the helm all stiff and stark
[01:50.93]With his face turned to the skies
[01:52.60]The lantern gleamed through the gleaming snow
[01:54.90]On his fixed and glassy eyes
[01:57.20]Then the maiden clasped her hands and prayed
[01:59.41]That saved she might be
[02:01.36]And she thought of Christ who stilled the wave
[02:04.26]On the Lake of Galilee
[02:06.41]And fast through the midnight dark and drear
[02:08.69]Through the whistling sleet and snow
[02:10.31]Like a sheeted ghost the vessel swept
[02:12.20]Towards the reef of Norman's Woe
[02:15.47]And ever the fitful gusts between
[02:17.27]A sound came from the land
[02:19.47]It was the sound of the trampling surf
[02:21.52]On the rocks and the hard sea-sand
[02:24.37]The breakers were right beneath her bows
[02:26.67]She drifted a dreary wreck
[02:28.31]And a whooping billow swept the crew
[02:30.93]Like icicles from her deck
[02:33.54]She struck where the white and fleecy waves
[02:35.94]Looked soft as carded wool
[02:37.82]But the cruel rocks they gored her sides
[02:40.68]Like the horns of an angry bull
[02:43.01]Her rattling shrouds all sheathed in ice
[02:45.80]With the masts went by the board
[02:47.94]Like a vessel of glass she stove and sank
[02:50.84]Ho ho the breakers roared
[02:56.07]At daybreak on the bleak sea-beach
[02:58.22]A fisherman stood aghast
[03:00.88]To see the form of a maiden fair
[03:03.21]Lashed close to a drifting mast
[03:06.93]The salt sea was frozen on her breast
[03:09.28]The salt tears in her eyes
[03:11.43]And he saw her hair like the brown seaweed
[03:14.54]On the billows fall and rise
[03:18.52]Such was the wreck of the Hesperus
[03:20.59]In the midnight and the snow
[03:22.79]Christ save us all from a death like this
[03:26.75]On the reef of Norman's Woe