Sir Humphrey Gilbert

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 1807 (Portland) – 1882 (Cambridge)



Southward with fleet of ice
   Sailed the corsair Death;
   Wild and gast blew the blast,
   And the east-wind was his breath.
   His lordly ships of ice
   Glisten in the sun;
   On each side, like pennons wide,
   Flashing crystal streamlets run.
   His sails of white sea-mist
  Dripped with silver rain;
  But where he passed there were cast
  Leaden shadows o'er the main.

  Eastward from Campobello
  Sir Humphrey Gilbert sailed;
  Three days or more seaward he bore,
  Then, alas! the land-wind failed.

  Alas! the land-wind failed,
  And ice-cold grew the night;
  And nevermore, on sea or shore,
  Should Sir Humphrey see the light.

  He sat upon the deck,
  The Book was in his hand;
  "Do not fear! Heaven is as near,"
  He said, "by water as by land!"

  In the first watch of the night,
  Without a signal's sound,
  Out of the sea, mysteriously,
  The fleet of Death rose all around.

  The moon and the evening star
  Were hanging in the shrouds;
  Every mast, as it passed,
  Seemed to rake the passing clouds.

  They grappled with their prize,
  At midnight black and cold!
  As of a rock was the shock;
  Heavily the ground-swell rolled.

  Southward through day and dark,
  They drift in cold embrace,
  With mist and rain, o'er the open main;
  Yet there seems no change of place.

  Southward, forever southward,
  They drift through dark and day;
  And like a dream, in the Gulf-Stream
  Sinking, vanish all away.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:12 min read
124

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABCBADXDXECE FGHG GIHI XJXJ IKFK XLCL XMXM XNEN XOXO
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 1,396
Words 241
Stanzas 9
Stanza Lengths 12, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was an American poet and educator whose works include "Paul Revere's Ride", The Song of Hiawatha, and Evangeline. more…

All Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poems | Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Books

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