The Dead Ship Of Harpswell Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCBDEFE GHIHJGKG LEMENOPO GQRQSGGG GTNTUGGG VWGXBYBY ZA2B2B2C2B2D2B2 GHE2HNJEJ F2QC2QGG2UG2 H2T GG G| What flecks the outer gray beyond | A |
| The sundown's golden trail | B |
| The white flash of a sea bird's wing | C |
| Or gleam of slanting sail | B |
| Let young eyes watch from Neck and Point | D |
| And sea worn elders pray | E |
| The ghost of what was once a ship | F |
| Is sailing up the bay | E |
| - | |
| From gray sea fog from icy drift | G |
| From peril and from pain | H |
| The home bound fisher greets thy lights | I |
| O hundred harbored Maine | H |
| But many a keel shall seaward turn | J |
| And many a sail outstand | G |
| When tall and white the Dead Ship looms | K |
| Against the dusk of land | G |
| - | |
| She rounds the headland's bristling pines | L |
| She threads the isle set bay | E |
| No spur of breeze can speed her on | M |
| Nor ebb of tide delay | E |
| Old men still walk the Isle of Orr | N |
| Who tell her date and name | O |
| Old shipwrights sit in Freeport yards | P |
| Who hewed her oaken frame | O |
| - | |
| What weary doom of baffled quest | G |
| Thou sad sea ghost is thine | Q |
| What makes thee in the haunts of home | R |
| A wonder and a sign | Q |
| No foot is on thy silent deck | S |
| Upon thy helm no hand | G |
| No ripple hath the soundless wind | G |
| That smites thee from the land | G |
| - | |
| For never comes the ship to port | G |
| Howe'er the breeze may be | T |
| Just when she nears the waiting shore | N |
| She drifts again to sea | T |
| No tack of sail nor turn of helm | U |
| Nor sheer of veering side | G |
| Stern fore she drives to sea and night | G |
| Against the wind and tide | G |
| - | |
| In vain o'er Harpswell Neck the star | V |
| Of evening guides her in | W |
| In vain for her the lamps are lit | G |
| Within thy tower Seguin | X |
| In vain the harbor boat shall hail | B |
| In vain the pilot call | Y |
| No hand shall reef her spectral sail | B |
| Or let her anchor fall | Y |
| - | |
| Shake brown old wives with dreary joy | Z |
| Your gray head hints of ill | A2 |
| And over sick beds whispering low | B2 |
| Your prophecies fulfil | B2 |
| Some home amid yon birchen trees | C2 |
| Shall drape its door with woe | B2 |
| And slowly where the Dead Ship sails | D2 |
| The burial boat shall row | B2 |
| - | |
| From Wolf Neck and from Flying Point | G |
| From island and from main | H |
| From sheltered cove and tided creek | E2 |
| Shall glide the funeral train | H |
| The dead boat with the bearers four | N |
| The mourners at her stern | J |
| And one shall go the silent way | E |
| Who shall no more return | J |
| - | |
| And men shall sigh and women weep | F2 |
| Whose dear ones pale and pine | Q |
| And sadly over sunset seas | C2 |
| Await the ghostly sign | Q |
| They know not that its sails are filled | G |
| By pity's tender breath | G2 |
| Nor see the Angel at the helm | U |
| Who steers the Ship of Death | G2 |
| - | |
| - | |
| - | |
| 'Chill as a down east breeze should be ' | - |
| The Book man said 'A ghostly touch | H2 |
| The legend has I'm glad to see | T |
| Your flying Yankee beat the Dutch ' | - |
| 'Well here is something of the sort | G |
| Which one midsummer day I caught | G |
| In Narragansett Bay for lack of fish ' | - |
| 'We wait ' the Traveller said | G |
| 'serve hot or cold your dish ' | - |
John Greenleaf Whittier
(1)
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