By The Seaside : The Building Of The Ship Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABACDDEEFGFGHIJC EEKLLMMKKANOOOPPQRRQ S TTUVVWUXWXYYABAB ZZA2XXB2B2A2C2D2E2E2 D2OOHB2HHB2E2E2E2A2F 2F2A2G2G2H2H2I2I2J2 HHK2K2K2 L2L2M2PPN2N2M2M2O2O2 H DDGGNNGPPPHG2G2HH K2K2I2I2P2P2E2E2Q2Q2 GGR2R2L2N2N2L2E2E2GG ANS2NS2T2T2I2J2U2U2V 2V2W2W2X2AAX2H2HHH2V 2Y2Y2Y2Y2Z2Z2P2P2 AAHHAGGH2H2A3A3A3A3B 3B3A3HHJ2J2 ABA K2K2C3C3K2K2VVD3D3V2 V2E3E3AA'Build me straight O worthy Master | A |
Stanch and strong a goodly vessel | B |
That shall laugh at all disaster | A |
And with wave and whirlwind wrestle ' | C |
The merchant's word | D |
Delighted the Master heard | D |
For his heart was in his work and the heart | E |
Giveth grace unto every Art | E |
A quiet smile played round his lips | F |
As the eddies and dimples of the tide | G |
Play round the bows of ships | F |
That steadily at anchor ride | G |
And with a voice that was full of glee | H |
He answered 'Erelong we will launch | I |
A vessel as goodly and strong and stanch | J |
As ever weathered a wintry sea ' | C |
- | |
And first with nicest skill and art | E |
Perfect and finished in every part | E |
A little model the Master wrought | K |
Which should be to the larger plan | L |
What the child is to the man | L |
Its counterpart in miniature | M |
That with a hand more swift and sure | M |
The greater labor might be brought | K |
To answer to his inward thought | K |
And as he labored his mind ran o'er | A |
The various ships that were built of yore | N |
And above them all and strangest of all | O |
Towered the Great Harry crank and tall | O |
Whose picture was hanging on the wall | O |
With bows and stern raised high in air | P |
And balconies hanging here and there | P |
And signal lanterns and flags afloat | Q |
And eight round towers like those that frown | R |
From some old castle looking down | R |
Upon the drawbridge and the moat | Q |
And he said with a smile 'Our ship I wis | S |
Shall be of another form than this ' | - |
It was of another form indeed | T |
Built for freight and yet for speed | T |
A beautiful and gallant craft | U |
Broad in the beam that the stress of the blast | V |
Pressing down upon sail and mast | V |
Might not the sharp bows overwhelm | W |
Broad in the beam but sloping aft | U |
With graceful curve and slow degrees | X |
That she might be docile to the helm | W |
And that the currents of parted seas | X |
Closing behind with mighty force | Y |
Might aid and not impede her course | Y |
In the ship yard stood the Master | A |
With the model of the vessel | B |
That should laugh at all disaster | A |
And with wave and whirlwind wrestle | B |
- | |
Covering many a rood of ground | Z |
Lay the timber piled around | Z |
Timber of chestnut and elm and oak | A2 |
And scattered here and there with these | X |
The knarred and crooked cedar knees | X |
Brought from regions far away | B2 |
From Pascagoula's sunny bay | B2 |
And the banks of the roaring Roanoke | A2 |
Ah what a wondrous thing it is | C2 |
To note how many wheels of toil | D2 |
One thought one word can set in motion | E2 |
There 's not a ship that sails the ocean | E2 |
But every climate every soil | D2 |
Must bring its tribute great or small | O |
And help to build the wooden wall | O |
The sun was rising o'er the sea | H |
And long the level shadows lay | B2 |
As if they too the beams would be | H |
Of some great airy argosy | H |
Framed and launched in a single day | B2 |
That silent architect the sun | E2 |
Had hewn and laid them every one | E2 |
Ere the work of man was yet begun | E2 |
Beside the Master when he spoke | A2 |
A youth against an anchor leaning | F2 |
Listened to catch his slightest meaning | F2 |
Only the long waves as they broke | A2 |
In ripples on the pebbly beach | G2 |
Interrupted the old man's speech | G2 |
Beautiful they were in sooth | H2 |
The old man and the fiery youth | H2 |
The old man in whose busy brain | I2 |
Many a ship that sailed the main | I2 |
Was modelled o'er and o'er again | J2 |
- | |
The fiery youth who was to be | H |
The heir of his dexterity | H |
The heir of his house and his daughter's hand | K2 |
When he had built and launched from land | K2 |
What the elder head had planned | K2 |
- | |
'Thus ' said he 'will we build this ship | L2 |
Lay square the blocks upon the slip | L2 |
And follow well this plan of mine | M2 |
Choose the timbers with greatest care | P |
Of all that is unsound beware | P |
For only what is sound and strong | N2 |
To this vessel shall belong | N2 |
Cedar of Maine and Georgia pine | M2 |
Here together shall combine | M2 |
A goodly frame and a goodly fame | O2 |
And the Union be her name | O2 |
For the day that gives her to the sea | H |
Shall give my daughter unto thee ' | - |
- | |
The Master's word | D |
Enraptured the young man heard | D |
And as he turned his face aside | G |
With a look of joy and a thrill of pride | G |
Standing before | N |
Her father's door | N |
He saw the form of his promised bride | G |
The sun shone on her golden hair | P |
And her cheek was glowing fresh and fair | P |
With the breath of morn and the soft sea air | P |
Like a beauteous barge was she | H |
Still at rest on the sandy beach | G2 |
Just beyond the billow's reach | G2 |
But he | H |
Was the restless seething stormy sea | H |
- | |
Ah how skilful grows the hand | K2 |
That obeyeth Love's command | K2 |
It is the heart and not the brain | I2 |
That to the highest doth attain | I2 |
And he who followeth Love's behest | P2 |
Far excelleth all the rest | P2 |
Thus with the rising of the sun | E2 |
Was the noble task begun | E2 |
And soon throughout the ship yard's bounds | Q2 |
Were heard the intermingled sounds | Q2 |
Of axes and of mallets plied | G |
With vigorous arms on every side | G |
Plied so deftly and so well | R2 |
That ere the shadows of evening fell | R2 |
The keel of oak for a noble ship | L2 |
Scarfed and bolted straight and strong | N2 |
Was lying ready and stretched along | N2 |
The blocks well placed upon the slip | L2 |
Happy thrice happy every one | E2 |
Who sees his labor well begun | E2 |
And not perplexed and multiplied | G |
By idly waiting for time and tide | G |
- | |
And when the hot long day was o'er | A |
The young man at the Master's door | N |
Sat with the maiden calm and still | S2 |
And within the porch a little more | N |
Removed beyond the evening chill | S2 |
The father sat and told them tales | T2 |
Of wrecks in the great September gales | T2 |
Of pirates coasting the Spanish Main | I2 |
And ships that never came back again | J2 |
The chance and change of a sailor's life | U2 |
Want and plenty rest and strife | U2 |
His roving fancy like the wind | V2 |
That nothing can stay and nothing can bind | V2 |
And the magic charm of foreign lands | W2 |
With shadows of palms and shining sands | W2 |
Where the tumbling surf | X2 |
O'er the coral reefs of Madagascar | A |
Washes the feet of the swarthy Lascar | A |
As he lies alone and asleep on the turf | X2 |
And the trembling maiden held her breath | H2 |
At the tales of that awful pitiless sea | H |
With all its terror and mystery | H |
The dim dark sea so like unto Death | H2 |
That divides and yet unites mankind | V2 |
And whenever the old man paused a gleam | Y2 |
From the bowl of his pipe would awhile illume | Y2 |
The silent group in the twilight gloom | Y2 |
And thoughtful faces as in a dream | Y2 |
And for a moment one might mark | Z2 |
What had been hidden by the dark | Z2 |
That the head of the maiden lay at rest | P2 |
Tenderly on the young man's breast | P2 |
- | |
Day by day the vessel grew | A |
With timbers fashioned strong and true | A |
Stemson and keelson and sternson knee | H |
Till framed with perfect symmetry | H |
A skeleton ship rose up to view | A |
And around the bows and along the side | G |
The heavy hammers and mallets plied | G |
Till after many a week at length | H2 |
Wonderful for form and strength | H2 |
Sublime in its enormous bulk | A3 |
Loomed aloft the shadowy hulk | A3 |
And around it columns of smoke upwreathing | A3 |
Rose from the boiling bubbling seething | A3 |
Caldron that glowed | B3 |
And overflowed | B3 |
With the black tar heated for the sheathing | A3 |
And amid the clamors | H |
Of clattering hammers | H |
He who listened heard now and then | J2 |
The song of the Master and his men | J2 |
- | |
'Build me straight O worthy Master | A |
Staunch and strong a goodly vessel | B |
That shall laugh at all disaster | A |
And with wave and whirlwind wrestle ' | - |
With oaken brace and copper band | K2 |
Lay the rudder on the sand | K2 |
That like a thought should have control | C3 |
Over the movement of the whole | C3 |
And near it the anchor whose giant hand | K2 |
Would reach down and grapple with the land | K2 |
And immovable and fast | V |
Hold the great ship against the bellowing blast | V |
And at the bows an image stood | D3 |
By a cunning artist carved in wood | D3 |
With robes of white that far behind | V2 |
Seemed to be fluttering in the wind | V2 |
It was not shaped in a classic mould | E3 |
Not like a Nymph or Goddess of old | E3 |
Or Naiad rising from the water | A |
But modelled from the Master's daughter | A |
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
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