By The Seaside : The Building Of The Ship Poem Rhyme Scheme

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Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

By The Seaside : The Building Of The Ship Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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'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