<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=409386" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>By The Seaside : The Building Of The Ship</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">'Build me straight, O worthy Master! <br>Stanch and strong, a goodly vessel, <br>That shall laugh at all disaster, <br>And with wave and whirlwind wrestle!' <br>The merchant's word <br>Delighted the Master heard; <br>For his heart was in his work, and the heart <br>Giveth grace unto every Art. <br>A quiet smile played round his lips, <br>As the eddies and dimples of the tide <br>Play round the bows of ships, <br>That steadily at anchor ride. <br>And with a voice that was full of glee, <br>He answered, 'Erelong we will launch <br>A vessel as goodly, and strong, and stanch, <br>As ever weathered a wintry sea!' </div><div style="margin:10px 0">And first with nicest skill and art, <br>Perfect and finished in every part, <br>A little model the Master wrought, <br>Which should be to the larger plan <br>What the child is to the man, <br>Its counterpart in miniature; <br>That with a hand more swift and sure <br>The greater labor might be brought <br>To answer to his inward thought. <br>And as he labored, his mind ran o'er <br>The various ships that were built of yore, <br>And above them all, and strangest of all <br>Towered the Great Harry, crank and tall, <br>Whose picture was hanging on the wall, <br>With bows and stern raised high in air, <br>And balconies hanging here and there, <br>And signal lanterns and flags afloat, <br>And eight round towers, like those that frown <br>From some old castle, looking down <br>Upon the drawbridge and the moat. <br>And he said with a smile, 'Our ship, I wis, <br>Shall be of another form than this!' <br>It was of another form, indeed; <br>Built for freight, and yet for speed, <br>A beautiful and gallant craft; <br>Broad in the beam, that the stress of the blast, <br>Pressing down upon sail and mast, <br>Might not the sharp bows overwhelm; <br>Broad in the beam, but sloping aft <br>With graceful curve and slow degrees, <br>That she might be docile to the helm, <br>And that the currents of parted seas, <br>Closing behind, with mighty force, <br>Might aid and not impede her course. <br>In the ship-yard stood the Master, <br>With the model of the vessel, <br>That should laugh at all disaster, <br>And with wave and whirlwind wrestle! </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Covering many a rood of ground, <br>Lay the timber piled around; <br>Timber of chestnut, and elm, and oak, <br>And scattered here and there, with these, <br>The knarred and crooked cedar knees; <br>Brought from regions far away, <br>From Pascagoula's sunny bay, <br>And the banks of the roaring Roanoke! <br>Ah! what a wondrous thing it is <br>To note how many wheels of toil <br>One thought, one word, can set in motion! <br>There 's not a ship that sails the ocean, <br>But every climate, every soil, <br>Must bring its tribute, great or small, <br>And help to build the wooden wall!<br>The sun was rising o'er the sea, <br>And long the level shadows lay, <br>As if they, too, the beams would be <br>Of some great, airy argosy, <br>Framed and launched in a single day. <br>That silent architect, the sun, <br>Had hewn and laid them every one, <br>Ere the work of man was yet begun. <br>Beside the Master, when he spoke, <br>A youth, against an anchor leaning, <br>Listened, to catch his slightest meaning. <br>Only the long waves, as they broke <br>In ripples on the pebbly beach, <br>Interrupted the old man's speech. <br>Beautiful they were, in sooth, <br>The old man and the fiery youth! <br>The old man, in whose busy brain <br>Many a ship that sailed the main <br>Was modelled o'er and o'er again;<br>- <br>The fiery youth, who was to be <br>The heir of his dexterity, <br>The heir of his house, and his daughter's hand, <br>When he had built and launched from land <br>What the elder head had planned. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">'Thus,' said he, 'will we build this ship! <br>Lay square the blocks upon the slip, <br>And follow well this plan of mine. <br>Choose the timbers with greatest care; <br>Of all that is unsound beware; <br>For only what is sound and strong <br>To this vessel shall belong. <br>Cedar of Maine and Georgia pine <br>Here together shall combine. <br>A goodly frame, and a goodly fame, <br>And the Union be her name! <br>For the day that gives her to the sea <br>Shall give my daughter unto thee!'</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The Master's word <br>Enraptured the young man heard; <br>And as he turned his face aside, <br>With a look of joy and a thrill of pride <br>Standing before <br>Her father's door, <br>He saw the form of his promised bride. <br>The sun shone on her golden hair, <br>And her cheek was glowing fresh and fair, <br>With the breath of morn and the soft sea air. <br>Like a beauteous barge was she, <br>Still at rest on the sandy beach, <br>Just beyond the billow's reach; <br>But he <br>Was the restless, seething, stormy sea!</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Ah, how skilful grows the hand <br>That obeyeth Love's command! <br>It is the heart, and not the brain, <br>That to the highest doth attain, <br>And he who followeth Love's behest <br>Far excelleth all the rest!<br>Thus with the rising of the sun <br>Was the noble task begun, <br>And soon throughout the ship-yard's bounds <br>Were heard the intermingled sounds <br>Of axes and of mallets, plied <br>With vigorous arms on every side; <br>Plied so deftly and so well, <br>That, ere the shadows of evening fell, <br>The keel of oak for a noble ship, <br>Scarfed and bolted, straight and strong, <br>Was lying ready, and stretched along <br>The blocks, well placed upon the slip. <br>Happy, thrice happy, every one <br>Who sees his labor well begun, <br>And not perplexed and multiplied, <br>By idly waiting for time and tide!</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And when the hot, long day was o'er, <br>The young man at the Master's door <br>Sat with the maiden calm and still, <br>And within the porch, a little more <br>Removed beyond the evening chill, <br>The father sat, and told them tales <br>Of wrecks in the great September gales, <br>Of pirates coasting the Spanish Main, <br>And ships that never came back again, <br>The chance and change of a sailor's life, <br>Want and plenty, rest and strife, <br>His roving fancy, like the wind, <br>That nothing can stay and nothing can bind, <br>And the magic charm of foreign lands, <br>With shadows of palms, and shining sands, <br>Where the tumbling surf, <br>O'er the coral reefs of Madagascar, <br>Washes the feet of the swarthy Lascar, <br>As he lies alone and asleep on the turf. <br>And the trembling maiden held her breath <br>At the tales of that awful, pitiless sea, <br>With all its terror and mystery, <br>The dim, dark sea, so like unto Death, <br>That divides and yet unites mankind! <br>And whenever the old man paused, a gleam <br>From the bowl of his pipe would awhile illume <br>The silent group in the twilight gloom, <br>And thoughtful faces, as in a dream; <br>And for a moment one might mark <br>What had been hidden by the dark, <br>That the head of the maiden lay at rest, <br>Tenderly, on the young man's breast!</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Day by day the vessel grew, <br>With timbers fashioned strong and true, <br>Stemson and keelson and sternson-knee, <br>Till, framed with perfect symmetry, <br>A skeleton ship rose up to view! <br>And around the bows and along the side <br>The heavy hammers and mallets plied, <br>Till after many a week, at length, <br>Wonderful for form and strength, <br>Sublime in its enormous bulk, <br>Loomed aloft the shadowy hulk! <br>And around it columns of smoke, upwreathing, <br>Rose from the boiling, bubbling, seething <br>Caldron, that glowed, <br>And overflowed <br>With the black tar, heated for the sheathing. <br>And amid the clamors <br>Of clattering hammers, <br>He who listened heard now and then <br>The song of the Master and his men:--</div><div style="margin:10px 0">'Build me straight, O worthy Master, <br>Staunch and strong, a goodly vessel, <br>That shall laugh at all disaster, <br>And with wave and whirlwind wrestle!'<br>With oaken brace and copper band, <br>Lay the rudder on the sand, <br>That, like a thought, should have control <br>Over the movement of the whole; <br>And near it the anchor, whose giant hand <br>Would reach down and grapple with the land, <br>And immovable and fast <br>Hold the great ship against the bellowing blast! <br>And at the bows an image stood, <br>By a cunning artist carved in wood, <br>With robes of white, that far behind <br>Seemed to be fluttering in the wind. <br>It was not shaped in a classic mould, <br>Not like a Nymph or Goddess of old, <br>Or Naiad rising from the water, <br>But modelled from the Master's daughter! <br>On many a dreary and misty night, <br>'T will be seen by the rays of the signal light, <br>Speeding along through the rain and the dark, <br>Like a ghost in its snow-white sark, <br>The pilot of some phantom bark, <br>Guiding the vessel, in its flight, <br>By a path none other knows aright! <br>Behold, at last, <br>Each tall and tapering mast <br>Is swung into its place;<br>Shrouds and stays <br>Holding it firm and fast! <br>Long ago, <br>In the deer-haunted forests of Maine, <br>When upon mountain and plain <br>Lay the snow, <br>They fell, - those lordly pines! <br>Those grand, majestic pines! <br>'Mid shouts and cheers <br>The jaded steers, <br>Panting beneath the goad, <br>Dragged down the weary, winding road <br>Those captive kings so straight and tall, <br>To be shorn of their streaming hair, <br>And naked and bare, <br>To feel the stress and the strain <br>Of the wind and the reeling main, <br>Whose roar <br>Would remind them forevermore <br>Of their native forests they should not see again. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">And everywhere <br>The slender, graceful spars <br>Poise aloft in the air, <br>And at the mast-head, <br>White, blue, and red, <br>A flag unrolls the stripes and stars. <br>Ah! when the wanderer, lonely, friendless, <br>In foreign harbors shall behold <br>That flag unrolled, <br>'T will be as a friendly hand <br>Stretched out from his native land, <br>Filling his heart with memories sweet and endless! <br>All is finished! and at length <br>Has come the bridal day <br>Of beauty and of strength. <br>To-day the vessel shall be launched! <br>With fleecy clouds the sky is blanched, <br>And o'er the bay, <br>Slowly, in all his splendors dight, <br>The great sun rises to behold the sight. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">The ocean old, <br>Centuries old, <br>Strong as youth, and as uncontrolled, <br>Paces restless to and fro, <br>Up and down the sands of gold. <br>His beating heart is not at rest; <br>And far and wide, <br>With ceaseless flow, <br>His beard of snow <br>Heaves with the heaving of his breast. <br>He waits impatient for his bride. <br>There she stands, <br>With her foot upon the sands, <br>Decked with flags and streamers gay, <br>In honor of her marriage day, <br>Her snow-white signals fluttering, blending, <br>Round her like a veil descending, <br>Ready to be <br>The bride of the gray old sea. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">On the deck another bride <br>Is standing by her lover's side. <br>Shadows from the flags and shrouds, <br>Like the shadows cast by clouds, <br>Broken by many a sunny fleck, <br>Fall around them on the deck. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">The prayer is said, <br>The service read, <br>The joyous bridegroom bows his head; <br>And in tears the good old Master <br>Shakes the brown hand of his son, <br>Kisses his daughter's glowing cheek <br>In silence, for he cannot speak, <br>And ever faster <br>Down his own the tears begin to run. <br>The worthy pastor - <br>The shepherd of that wandering flock, <br>That has the ocean for its wold, <br>That has the vessel for its fold, <br>Leaping ever from rock to rock - <br>Spake, with accents mild and clear, <br>Words of warning, words of cheer, <br>But tedious to the bridegroom's ear. <br>He knew the chart <br>Of the sailor's heart, <br>All its pleasures and its griefs, <br>All its shallows and rocky reefs, <br>All those secret currents, that flow <br>With such resistless undertow, <br>And lift and drift, with terrible force, <br>The will from its moorings and its course. <br>Therefore he spake, and thus said he: - <br>'Like unto ships far off at sea, <br>Outward or homeward bound, are we. <br>Before, behind, and all around, <br>Floats and swings the horizon's bound, <br>Seems at its distant rim to rise<br>And climb the crystal wall of the skies, <br>And then again to turn and sink, <br>As if we could slide from its outer brink. <br>Ah! it is not the sea, <br>It is not the sea that sinks and shelves, <br>But ourselves <br>That rock and rise <br>With endless and uneasy motion, <br>Now touching the very skies, <br>Now sinking into the depths of ocean. <br>Ah! if our souls but poise and swing <br>Like the compass in its brazen ring, <br>Ever level and ever true <br>To the toil and the task we have to do, <br>We shall sail securely, and safely reach <br>The Fortunate Isles, on whose shining beach <br>The sights we see, and the sounds we hear, <br>Will be those of joy and not of fear!' </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then the Master, <br>With a gesture of command, <br>Waved his hand; <br>And at the word, <br>Loud and sudden there was heard, <br>All around them and below, <br>The sound of hammers, blow on blow, <br>Knocking away the shores and spurs. <br>And see! she stirs! <br>She starts, - she moves, - she seems to feel <br>The thrill of life along her keel, <br>And, spurning with her foot the ground, <br>With one exulting, joyous bound, <br>She leaps into the ocean's arms! <br>And lo! from the assembled crowd <br>There rose a shout, prolonged and loud, <br>That to the ocean seemed to say, <br>'Take her, O bridegroom, old and gray, <br>Take her to thy protecting arms, <br>With all her youth and all her charms!' </div><div style="margin:10px 0">How beautiful she is! How fair <br>She lies within those arms, that press <br>Her form with many a soft caress <br>Of tenderness and watchful care! <br>Sail forth into the sea, O ship! <br>Through wind and wave, right onward steer! <br>The moistened eye, the trembling lip, <br>Are not the signs of doubt or fear. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Sail forth into the sea of life, <br>O gentle, loving, trusting wife, <br>And safe from all adversity <br>Upon the bosom of that sea <br>Thy comings and thy goings be! <br>For gentleness and love and trust <br>Prevail o'er angry wave and gust; <br>And in the wreck of noble lives <br>Something immortal still survives!</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of State! <br>Sail on, O Union, strong and great! <br>Humanity with all its fears, <br>With all the hopes of future years, <br>Is hanging breathless on thy fate! <br>We know what Master laid thy keel, <br>What Workmen wrought thy ribs of steel, <br>Who made each mast, and sail, and rope, <br>What anvils rang, what hammers beat, <br>In what a forge and what a heat <br>Were shaped the anchors of thy hope! <br>Fear not each sudden sound and shock, <br>'T is of the wave and not the rock; <br>'T is but the flapping of the sail, <br>And not a rent made by the gale! <br>In spite of rock and tempest's roar, <br>In spite of false lights on the shore, <br>Sail on, nor fear to breast the sea! <br>Our hearts, our hopes, are all with thee, <br>Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears, <br>Our faith triumphant o'er our fears, <br>Are all with thee, - are all with thee!</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Henry+Wadsworth+Longfellow">Henry Wadsworth Longfellow</a><div class=q> <img src="https://www.citatepedia.ro/g/32share.png" style="float:left" alt="Share"> <script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=409386" data-title="By The Seaside : The Building Of The Ship de Henry Wadsworth Longfellow" data-description="'Build me straight, O worthy Master! Stanch and strong, a goodly vessel, That shall laugh at all disaster, And with wave and whirlwind wrestle!' The merchant's word Delighted the Master heard; For his heart was in his work, and the heart Gi..."></div> </div> </div>

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