III. THE BUILDING OF THE SHIP. [THE form of this poem was perhaps suggested by Schiller's Song of the Bell, which, tracing the history of a bell from the first finding of the metal to the hanging of the bell in the tower, so mingles the history of human life with it that the Bell becomes the symbol of humanity. Schiller's poem introduced a new artistic form which has since been copied more than once, but nowhere so successfully as in The Building of the Ship. The changes in the measure mark the quickening or retarding of the thought. The reader will be interested in watching these changes and observing the fitness with which the short lines express the quicker, more sudden, or hurried action, while the longer ones indicate lingering, moderate action or reflection. The Building of the Ship is the first in a series of poems collected under the general title, By the Seaside, and published in a volume entitled. The Seaside and the Fireside, Boston, 1850.] "BUILD me straight, O worthy Master! Staunch and strong, a goodly vessel, That shall laugh at all disaster, And with wave and whirlwind wrestle !" 5 The merchant's word Delighted the Master heard; For his heart was in his work, and the heart A quiet smile played round his lips, That steadily at anchor ride. And with a voice that was full of glee, He answered, "Ere long we will launch And first with nicest skill and art, Its counterpart in miniature; That with a hand more swift and sure Towered the Great Harry, crank and tall, 29. The Great Harry was a famous ship built for the English navy in the reign of King Henry VII. Henry found the small navy left by Edward IV. in a very weak condition and he undertook to reconstruct it. The most famous ship in Edward's navy was named Grace à Dieu, and Henry named his Harry Grace à Dieu, but she was more generally named as the Great Harry. On the accession of Henry VIII, her name was changed to the Regent, but when a few years afterward she was Durnt in an engagement with the French, the ship built in her place resumed the old name and became a second Great Harry 30 Whose picture was hanging on the wall, And eight round towers, like those that frown 35 From some old castle, looking down Upon the drawbridge and the moat. And he said with a smile, "Our ship, I wis, It was of another form, indeed; Broad in the beam, that the stress of the blast, In the ship-yard stood the Master, And with wave and whirlwind wrestle! It was this ship that the poet describes. She was a thousand tons burden, which was regarded as an immense size in those days, and her crew and armament were out of all proportion, as we should think now. She carried seven hundred men, and a hundred and twenty-two guns, but of these most were very small. Thirty-four were eighteen pounders, and were called culverins. There were also demi-culverins, or nine pounders, while the rest only carried one or two pounds and were variously named falcons, falconets, serpentines, sabinets. |