The Ballad of Carmilhan I
At Stralsund, by the Baltic Sea,Within the sandy bar,At sunset of a summer's day,Ready for sea, at anchor layThe good ship Valdemar.
The sunbeams danced upon the waves,And played along her side;And through the cabin windows streamedIn ripples of golden light, that seemedThe ripple of the tide.
There sat the captain with his friends,Old skippers brown and hale,Who smoked and grumbled o'er their grog,And talked of iceberg and of fog,Of calm and storm and gale.
And one was spinning a sailor's yarnAbout Klaboterman,The Kobold of the sea; a sprightInvisible to mortal sight,Who o'er the rigging ran.
Sometimes he hammered in the hold,Sometimes upon the mast,Sometimes abeam, sometimes abaft,Or at the bows he sang and laughed,And made all tight and fast.
He helped the sailors at their work,And toiled with jovial din;He helped them hoist and reef the sails,He helped them stow the casks and bales,And heave the anchor in.
But woe unto the lazy louts,The idlers of the crew;Them to torment was his delight,And worry them by day and night,And pinch them black and blue.
And woe to him whose mortal eyesKlaboterman behold.It is a certain sign of death!--The cabin-boy here held his breath,He felt his blood run cold.
Words in this poem
- grog n.
- A mixture of spirit and water not sweetened; hence, any intoxicating liquor. Grog blossom, a redness on the nose or face of persons who drink ardent spirits to excess. [Collog.] [So named fronm "Old Grog" a nickmname given to Admiral Vernon, in allusion to his wearing a grogram cloak in foul weather. He is said to have been the first to ]
- iceberg n.
- A large mass of ice, generally floating in the ocean. [Prob. of Scand. origin; cf. Dan. iisbierg, Sw. isberg, properly, a mountain of ice. See Ice, and Berg.]
- kobold n.
- A kind of domestic spirit in German mythology, corresponding to the Scottish brownie and the English Robin Goodfellow. [G., perh. orig., house god, hose protector. See Cobalt]
- spright n.
- Spirit; mind; soul; state of mind; mood. [See Sprite.]
- abeam adv.
- On the beam, that is, on a line which forms a right angle with the ship's keel; opposite to the center of the ship's side. [Pref. a- + beam.]
- jovial a.
- Of or pertaining to the god, or the planet, Jupiter. [F., fr. L. Jovialis pertaining to Jove. The planet Jupiter was thought to make those born under it joyful or jovial. See Jove.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Ballad of Carmilhan I is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Complete Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Project Gutenberg ebook #1365; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Ballad of Carmilhan I, in The Complete Poetical Works (1839–1882), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1365, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/longfellow-poems/the-ballad-of-carmilhan-i.html, id L17681.
Form and metre
The Ballad of Carmilhan I is 40 lines in 8 stanzas of 5 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 90% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.6 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 15% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 -ABBA sea · barA · dayB · layB · valdemarA
- 2 -ABBA waves · sideA · streamedB · seemedB · tideA
- 3 -ABBA friends · haleA · grogB · fogB · galeA
- 4 --AA- yarn · klaboterman · sprightA · sightA · ran
- 5 -ABBA hold · mastA · abaftB · laughedB · fastA
- 6 -ABBA work · dinA · sailsB · balesB · inA
- 7 -ABBA louts · crewA · delightB · nightB · blueA
- 8 -ABBA eyes · beholdA · deathB · breathB · coldA
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| At Stralsund, by the Baltic Sea, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Within the sandy bar, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| At sunset of a summer's day, | 8 | ·/···/˘· |
| Ready for sea, at anchor lay | 8 | /˘···/˘· |
| The good ship Valdemar. | 6 | ···˘˘/ |
| The sunbeams danced upon the waves, | 9 | ·/··˘···· |
| And played along her side; | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| And through the cabin windows streamed | 9 | ···/˘/˘·˘ |
| In ripples of golden light, that seemed | 10 | ·/˘·/˘···˘ |
| The ripple of the tide. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| There sat the captain with his friends, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Old skippers brown and hale, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Who smoked and grumbled o'er their grog, | 10 | ··˘·/˘˘··· |
| And talked of iceberg and of fog, | 9 | ··˘·/˘··· |
| Of calm and storm and gale. | 6 | ······ |
| And one was spinning a sailor's yarn | 9 | ···/˘·/˘· |
| About Klaboterman, | 6 | ······ |
| The Kobold of the sea; a spright | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Invisible to mortal sight, | 8 | ˘/˘˘·/˘· |
| Who o'er the rigging ran. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Sometimes he hammered in the hold, | 9 | ˘/·/˘˘··· |
| Sometimes upon the mast, | 6 | ˘/···· |
| Sometimes abeam, sometimes abaft, | 8 | ˘/˘/˘/˘/ |
| Or at the bows he sang and laughed, | 9 | ········˘ |
| And made all tight and fast. | 6 | ······ |
| He helped the sailors at their work, | 9 | ··˘·/˘··· |
| And toiled with jovial din; | 7 | ···/˘˘· |
| He helped them hoist and reef the sails, | 9 | ··˘······ |
| He helped them stow the casks and bales, | 9 | ··˘······ |
| And heave the anchor in. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| But woe unto the lazy louts, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The idlers of the crew; | 7 | ·/˘˘··· |
| Them to torment was his delight, | 8 | ··˘/··˘/ |
| And worry them by day and night, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| And pinch them black and blue. | 6 | ······ |
| And woe to him whose mortal eyes | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Klaboterman behold. | 6 | ····˘/ |
| It is a certain sign of death!-- | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The cabin-boy here held his breath, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| He felt his blood run cold. | 6 | ······ |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.