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the wreck of the hesperus - john liptrot hatton lyrics

it was the schooner hesperus
that sailed the wintry sea;
and the skipper had taken his little daughter
to bear him company
blue were her eyes as the fairy*flax
her cheeks like the dawn of day
and her bosom white as the hawth*rn buds
that ope in the month of may
the skipper he stood beside the helm
his pipe was in his mouth
and he watched how the veering flaw did blow
the smoke now west, now south
thеn up and spake an old sailor
had sailed to the spanish main
“i pray thee, put into yondеr port
for i fear a hurricane
“last night, the moon had a golden ring
and to*night no moon we see!”
the skipper, he blew a whiff from his pipe
and a scornful laugh laughed he
colder and louder blew the wind
a gale from the northeast
the snow fell hissing in the brine
and the billows frothed like yeast
down came the storm, and smote amain
the vessel in its strength;
she shuddered and paused, like a frighted steed
then leaped her cable’s length
“come hither! come hither! my little daughter
and do not tremble so;
for i can weather the roughest gale
that ever wind did blow.”
he wrapped her warm in his seaman’s coat
against the stinging blast;
he cut a rope from a broken spar
and bound her to the mast
“o father! i hear the church*bells ring
o say, what may it be?”
“‘t is a fog*bell on a rock*bound coast!”**
and he steered for the open sea
“o father! i hear the sound of guns
o say, what may it be?”
“some ship in distress, that cannot live
in such an angry sea!”
“o father! i see a gleaming light
o say, what may it be?”
but the father answered never a word
a frozen corpse was he
lashed to the helm, all stiff and stark
with his face turned to the skies
the lantern gleamed through the gleaming snow
on his fixed and glassy eyes
then the maiden clasped her hands and prayed
that saved she might be;
and she thought of christ, who stilled the wave
on the lake of galilee
and fast through the midnight dark and drear
through the whistling sleet and snow
like a sheeted ghost, the vessel swept
tow’rds the reef of norman’s woe
and ever the fitful gusts between
a sound came from the land;
it was the sound of the trampling surf
on the rocks and the hard sea*sand
the breakers were right beneath her bows
she drifted a dreary wreck
and a whooping billow swept the crew
like icicles from her deck
she struck where the white and fleecy waves
looked soft as carded wool
but the cruel rocks, they gored her side
like the h*rns of an angry bull
her rattling shrouds, all sheathed in ice
with the masts went by the board;
like a vessel of glass, she stove and sank
ho! ho! the breakers roared!
at daybreak, on the bleak sea*beach
a fisherman stood aghast
to see the form of a maiden fair
lashed close to a drifting mast
the salt sea was frozen on her breast
the salt tears in her eyes;
and he saw her hair, like the brown sea*weed
on the billows fall and rise
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!

- john liptrot hatton lyrics

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