The Building Of The Ship Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABAB CCDDEFEFGHIGDDJKKLLJ JAMNNNOOPQQPRRSSTUUV TWVWXX ABABYYZWWA2A2ZB2C2D2 D2C2NN GA2GGA2D2D2D2ZE2E2ZF 2F2G2G2H2H2I2GGJ2J2J 2 K2K2L2OOM2M2L2L2N2N2 GG CCFFMMFOOOGF2F2GGJ2J 2H2H2O2O2 D2D2P2P2FFQ2Q2K2M2M2 K2D2D2FF AMR2MR2S2S2H2I2T2T2U 2U2V2V2W2AAW2G2GGG2U 2X2X2X2X2Y2Y2O2O2 AAGGAFFG2G2Z2Z2Z2Z2A 3A3Z2GGI2I2 ABAB J2J2B3B3J2J2UUC3C3U2 U2D3D3AAE3E3Z2Z2Z2E3 E3 E3E3GGE3 Z2H2H2Z2GGGGE3E3NAAH 2H2AAI2AGAE3E3GGE3E3 E3E3G G2E3G2E3E3E3E3E3 E3E3E3AE3E3E3AAE3E3G GE3E3Z2Z2GG E3E3GGZ2Z2 E3E3E3AD2Z2Z2AD2AZ2E 3E3Z2AAAE3E3GGAAGGG GGE3E3GGZ2Z2GGGGD2GD 2Z2Z2AAF2F2AA AE3E3E3E3AAGGF3F3E3E 3G E3E3GGGG AGGAK2AK2AT2T2GGGE3E 3GG E3E3GGE3F3F3G3E3E3G3 Z2Z2H3H3AAGGGGG

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	B
	-
The merchant's word	C
Delighted the Master heard	C
For his heart was in his work and the heart	D
Giveth grace unto every Art	D
A quiet smile played round his lips	E
As the eddies and dimples of the tide	F
Play round the bows of ships	E
That steadily at anchor ride	F
And with a voice that was full of glee	G
He answered Erelong we will launch	H
A vessel as goodly and strong and stanch	I
As ever weathered a wintry sea	G
And first with nicest skill and art	D
Perfect and finished in every part	D
A little model the Master wrought	J
Which should be to the larger plan	K
What the child is to the man	K
Its counterpart in miniature	L
That with a hand more swift and sure	L
The greater labor might be brought	J
To answer to his inward thought	J
And as he labored his mind ran o'er	A
The various ships that were built of yore	M
And above them all and strangest of all	N
Towered the Great Harry crank and tall	N
Whose picture was hanging on the wall	N
With bows and stern raised high in air	O
And balconies hanging here and there	O
And signal lanterns and flags afloat	P
And eight round towers like those that frown	Q
From some old castle looking down	Q
Upon the drawbridge and the moat	P
And he said with a smile Our ship I wis	R
Shall be of another form than this	R
It was of another form indeed	S
Built for freight and yet for speed	S
A beautiful and gallant craft	T
Broad in the beam that the stress of the blast	U
Pressing down upon sail and mast	U
Might not the sharp bows overwhelm	V
Broad in the beam but sloping aft	T
With graceful curve and slow degrees	W
That she might be docile to the helm	V
And that the currents of parted seas	W
Closing behind with mighty force	X
Might aid and not impede her course	X
	-
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	Y
Lay the timber piled around	Y
Timber of chestnut and elm and oak	Z
And scattered here and there with these	W
The knarred and crooked cedar knees	W
Brought from regions far away	A2
From Pascagoula's sunny bay	A2
And the banks of the roaring Roanoke	Z
Ah what a wondrous thing it is	B2
To note how many wheels of toil	C2
One thought one word can set in motion	D2
There 's not a ship that sails the ocean	D2
But every climate every soil	C2
Must bring its tribute great or small	N
And help to build the wooden wall	N
	-
The sun was rising o'er the sea	G
And long the level shadows lay	A2
As if they too the beams would be	G
Of some great airy argosy	G
Framed and launched in a single day	A2
That silent architect the sun	D2
Had hewn and laid them every one	D2
Ere the work of man was yet begun	D2
Beside the Master when he spoke	Z
A youth against an anchor leaning	E2
Listened to catch his slightest meaning	E2
Only the long waves as they broke	Z
In ripples on the pebbly beach	F2
Interrupted the old man's speech	F2
Beautiful they were in sooth	G2
The old man and the fiery youth	G2
The old man in whose busy brain	H2
Many a ship that sailed the main	H2
Was modelled o'er and o'er again	I2
The fiery youth who was to be	G
The heir of his dexterity	G
The heir of his house and his daughter's hand	J2
When he had built and launched from land	J2
What the elder head had planned	J2
	-
Thus said he will we build this ship	K2
Lay square the blocks upon the slip	K2
And follow well this plan of mine	L2
Choose the timbers with greatest care	O
Of all that is unsound beware	O
For only what is sound and strong	M2
To this vessel shall belong	M2
Cedar of Maine and Georgia pine	L2
Here together shall combine	L2
A goodly frame and a goodly fame	N2
And the Union be her name	N2
For the day that gives her to the sea	G
Shall give my daughter unto thee	G
	-
The Master's word	C
Enraptured the young man heard	C
And as he turned his face aside	F
With a look of joy and a thrill of pride	F
Standing before	M
Her father's door	M
He saw the form of his promised bride	F
The sun shone on her golden hair	O
And her cheek was glowing fresh and fair	O
With the breath of morn and the soft sea air	O
Like a beauteous barge was she	G
Still at rest on the sandy beach	F2
Just beyond the billow's reach	F2
But he	G
Was the restless seething stormy sea	G
Ah how skilful grows the hand	J2
That obeyeth Love's command	J2
It is the heart and not the brain	H2
That to the highest doth attain	H2
And he who followeth Love's behest	O2
Far excelleth all the rest	O2
	-
Thus with the rising of the sun	D2
Was the noble task begun	D2
And soon throughout the ship yard's bounds	P2
Were heard the intermingled sounds	P2
Of axes and of mallets plied	F
With vigorous arms on every side	F
Plied so deftly and so well	Q2
That ere the shadows of evening fell	Q2
The keel of oak for a noble ship	K2
Scarfed and bolted straight and strong	M2
Was lying ready and stretched along	M2
The blocks well placed upon the slip	K2
Happy thrice happy every one	D2
Who sees his labor well begun	D2
And not perplexed and multiplied	F
By idly waiting for time and tide	F
	-
And when the hot long day was o'er	A
The young man at the Master's door	M
Sat with the maiden calm and still	R2
And within the porch a little more	M
Removed beyond the evening chill	R2
The father sat and told them tales	S2
Of wrecks in the great September gales	S2
Of pirates coasting the Spanish Main	H2
And ships that never came back again	I2
The chance and change of a sailor's life	T2
Want and plenty rest and strife	T2
His roving fancy like the wind	U2
That nothing can stay and nothing can bind	U2
And the magic charm of foreign lands	V2
With shadows of palms and shining sands	V2
Where the tumbling surf	W2
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	W2
And the trembling maiden held her breath	G2
At the tales of that awful pitiless sea	G
With all its terror and mystery	G
The dim dark sea so like unto Death	G2
That divides and yet unites mankind	U2
And whenever the old man paused a gleam	X2
From the bowl of his pipe would awhile illume	X2
The silent group in the twilight gloom	X2
And thoughtful faces as in a dream	X2
And for a moment one might mark	Y2
What had been hidden by the dark	Y2
That the head of the maiden lay at rest	O2
Tenderly on the young man's breast	O2
	-
Day by day the vessel grew	A
With timbers fashioned strong and true	A
Stemson and keelson and sternson knee	G
Till framed with perfect symmetry	G
A skeleton ship rose up to view	A
And around the bows and along the side	F
The heavy hammers and mallets plied	F
Till after many a week at length	G2
Wonderful for form and strength	G2
Sublime in its enormous bulk	Z2
Loomed aloft the shadowy hulk	Z2
And around it columns of smoke upwreathing	Z2
Rose from the boiling bubbling seething	Z2
Caldron that glowed	A3
And overflowed	A3
With the black tar heated for the sheathing	Z2
And amid the clamors	G
Of clattering hammers	G
He who listened heard now and then	I2
The song of the Master and his men	I2
	-
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	B
	-
With oaken brace and copper band	J2
Lay the rudder on the sand	J2
That like a thought should have control	B3
Over the movement of the whole	B3
And near it the anchor whose giant hand	J2
Would reach down and grapple with the land	J2
And immovable and fast	U
Hold the great ship against the bellowing blast	U
And at the bows an image stood	C3
By a cunning artist carved in wood	C3
With robes of white that far behind	U2
Seemed to be fluttering in the wind	U2
It was not shaped in a classic mould	D3
Not like a Nymph or Goddess of old	D3
Or Naiad rising from the water	A
But modelled from the Master's daughter	A
On many a dreary and misty night	E3
'T will be seen by the rays of the signal light	E3
Speeding along through the rain and the dark	Z2
Like a ghost in its snow white sark	Z2
The pilot of some phantom bark	Z2
Guiding the vessel in its flight	E3
By a path none other knows aright	E3
	-
Behold at last	E3
Each tall and tapering mast	E3
Is swung into its place	G
Shrouds and stays	G
Holding it firm and fast	E3
	-
Long ago	Z2
In the deer haunted forests of Maine	H2
When upon mountain and plain	H2
Lay the snow	Z2
They fell those lordly pines	G
Those grand majestic pines	G
'Mid shouts and cheers	G
The jaded steers	G
Panting beneath the goad	E3
Dragged down the weary winding road	E3
Those captive kings so straight and tall	N
To be shorn of their streaming hair	A
And naked and bare	A
To feel the stress and the strain	H2
Of the wind and the reeling main	H2
Whose roar	A
Would remind them forevermore	A
Of their native forests they should not see again	I2
And everywhere	A
The slender graceful spars	G
Poise aloft in the air	A
And at the mast head	E3
White blue and red	E3
A flag unrolls the stripes and stars	G
Ah when the wanderer lonely friendless	G
In foreign harbors shall behold	E3
That flag unrolled	E3
'T will be as a friendly hand	E3
Stretched out from his native land	E3
Filling his heart with memories sweet and endless	G
	-
All is finished and at length	G2
Has come the bridal day	E3
Of beauty and of strength	G2
To day the vessel shall be launched	E3
With fleecy clouds the sky is blanched	E3
And o'er the bay	E3
Slowly in all his splendors dight	E3
The great sun rises to behold the sight	E3
	-
The ocean old	E3
Centuries old	E3
Strong as youth and as uncontrolled	E3
Paces restless to and fro	A
Up and down the sands of gold	E3
His beating heart is not at rest	E3
And far and wide	E3
With ceaseless flow	A
His beard of snow	A
Heaves with the heaving of his breast	E3
He waits impatient for his bride	E3
There she stands	G
With her foot upon the sands	G
Decked with flags and streamers gay	E3
In honor of her marriage day	E3
Her snow white signals fluttering blending	Z2
Round her like a veil descending	Z2
Ready to be	G
The bride of the gray old sea	G
	-
On the deck another bride	E3
Is standing by her lover's side	E3
Shadows from the flags and shrouds	G
Like the shadows cast by clouds	G
Broken by many a sunny fleck	Z2
Fall around them on the deck	Z2
	-
The prayer is said	E3
The service read	E3
The joyous bridegroom bows his head	E3
And in tears the good old Master	A
Shakes the brown hand of his son	D2
Kisses his daughter's glowing cheek	Z2
In silence for he cannot speak	Z2
And ever faster	A
Down his own the tears begin to run	D2
The worthy pastor	A
The shepherd of that wandering flock	Z2
That has the ocean for its wold	E3
That has the vessel for its fold	E3
Leaping ever from rock to rock	Z2
Spake with accents mild and clear	A
Words of warning words of cheer	A
But tedious to the bridegroom's ear	A
He knew the chart	E3
Of the sailor's heart	E3
All its pleasures and its griefs	G
All its shallows and rocky reefs	G
All those secret currents that flow	A
With such resistless undertow	A
And lift and drift with terrible force	G
The will from its moorings and its course	G
Therefore he spake and thus said he	G
	-
Like unto ships far off at sea	G
Outward or homeward bound are we	G
Before behind and all around	E3
Floats and swings the horizon's bound	E3
Seems at its distant rim to rise	G
And climb the crystal wall of the skies	G
And then again to turn and sink	Z2
As if we could slide from its outer brink	Z2
Ah it is not the sea	G
It is not the sea that sinks and shelves	G
But ourselves	G
That rock and rise	G
With endless and uneasy motion	D2
Now touching the very skies	G
Now sinking into the depths of ocean	D2
Ah if our souls but poise and swing	Z2
Like the compass in its brazen ring	Z2
Ever level and ever true	A
To the toil and the task we have to do	A
We shall sail securely and safely reach	F2
The Fortunate Isles on whose shining beach	F2
The sights we see and the sounds we hear	A
Will be those of joy and not of fear	A
	-
Then the Master	A
With a gesture of command	E3
Waved his hand	E3
And at the word	E3
Loud and sudden there was heard	E3
All around them and below	A
The sound of hammers blow on blow	A
Knocking away the shores and spurs	G
And see she stirs	G
She starts she moves she seems to feel	F3
The thrill of life along her keel	F3
And spurning with her foot the ground	E3
With one exulting joyous bound	E3
She leaps into the ocean's arms	G
	-
And lo from the assembled crowd	E3
There rose a shout prolonged and loud	E3
That to the ocean seemed to say	G
Take her O bridegroom old and gray	G
Take her to thy protecting arms	G
With all her youth and all her charms	G
	-
How beautiful she is How fair	A
She lies within those arms that press	G
Her form with many a soft caress	G
Of tenderness and watchful care	A
Sail forth into the sea O ship	K2
Through wind and wave right onward steer	A
The moistened eye the trembling lip	K2
Are not the signs of doubt or fear	A
Sail forth into the sea of life	T2
O gentle loving trusting wife	T2
And safe from all adversity	G
Upon the bosom of that sea	G
Thy comings and thy goings be	G
For gentleness and love and trust	E3
Prevail o'er angry wave and gust	E3
And in the wreck of noble lives	G
Something immortal still survives	G
	-
Thou too sail on O Ship of State	E3
Sail on O Union strong and great	E3
Humanity with all its fears	G
With all the hopes of future years	G
Is hanging breathless on thy fate	E3
We know what Master laid thy keel	F3
What Workmen wrought thy ribs of steel	F3
Who made each mast and sail and rope	G3
What anvils rang what hammers beat	E3
In what a forge and what a heat	E3
Were shaped the anchors of thy hope	G3
Fear not each sudden sound and shock	Z2
'T is of the wave and not the rock	Z2
'T is but the flapping of the sail	H3
And not a rent made by the gale	H3
In spite of rock and tempest's roar	A
In spite of false lights on the shore	A
Sail on nor fear to breast the sea	G
Our hearts our hopes are all with thee	G
Our hearts our hopes our prayers our tears	G
Our faith triumphant o'er our fears	G
Are all with thee are all with thee	G

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

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