The Bird and the Ship
"The rivers rush into the sea,By castle and town they go;The winds behind them merrilyTheir noisy trumpets blow.
"The clouds are passing far and high,We little birds in them play;And everything, that can sing and fly,Goes with us, and far away.
"I greet thee, bonny boat! Whither,or whence,With thy fluttering golden band?"--"I greet thee, little bird! To the wide seaI haste from the narrow land.
"Full and swollen is every sail;I see no longer a hill,I have trusted all to the sounding gale,And it will not let me stand still.
"And wilt thou, little bird, go with us?Thou mayest stand on the mainmast tall,For full to sinking is my houseWith merry companions all."--
"I need not and seek not company,Bonny boat, I can sing all alone;For the mainmast tall too heavy am I,Bonny boat, I have wings of my own.
"High over the sails, high over the mast,Who shall gainsay these joys?When thy merry companions are still, at last,Thou shalt hear the sound of my voice.
"Who neither may rest, nor listen may,God bless them every one!I dart away, in the bright blue day,And the golden fields of the sun.
"Thus do I sing my merry song,Wherever the four winds blow;And this same song, my whole life long,Neither Poet nor Printer may know.'
Words in this poem
- trumpets n.
- A plant (Sarracenia flava) with long, hollow leaves.
- bonny a.
- Handsome; beautiful; pretty; attractively lively and graceful. [OE. boni, prob. fr. F. bon, fem. bonne, good, fr. L. bonus good. See Bounty, and cf. Bonus, Boon.]
- whither adv.
- To what place; -- used interrogatively; as, whither goest thou [OE. whider. AS. hwider; akin to E. where, who; cf. Goth. hvadre whither. See Who, and cf. Hither, Thither.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- shalt
- 2d per. sing. of Shall.
- wherever adv.
- At or in whatever place; wheresoever.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Bird and the Ship 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 Bird and the Ship, in A Psalm of Life, and Other Poems (1839–1882), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1365, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/longfellow-poems/the-bird-and-the-ship.html, id L26174.
Form and metre
The Bird and the Ship is 37 lines in 9 stanzas. The commonest rhyme scheme is ABAB, in 4 of the 9 stanzas; the rest vary or could not be confirmed. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic tetrameter.
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 -A-A sea · goA · merrily · blowA
- 2 ABAB highA · playB · flyA · awayB
- 3 --A-A whither · whence · bandA · sea · landA
- 4 ABAB sailA · hillB · galeA · stillB
- 5 -A-A us · tallA · house · allA
- 6 -A-A company · aloneA · i · ownA
- 7 A-A- mastA · joys · lastA · voice
- 8 ABAB mayA · oneB · dayA · sunB
- 9 ABAB songA · blowB · longA · knowB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| "The rivers rush into the sea, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| By castle and town they go; | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| The winds behind them merrily | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| Their noisy trumpets blow. | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| "The clouds are passing far and high, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| We little birds in them play; | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| And everything, that can sing and fly, | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| Goes with us, and far away. | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| "I greet thee, bonny boat! Whither, | 8 | ···/˘·/˘ |
| or whence, | 2 | ·· |
| With thy fluttering golden band?"-- | 8 | ··/˘˘/˘· |
| "I greet thee, little bird! To the wide sea | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| I haste from the narrow land. | 7 | ····/˘· |
| "Full and swollen is every sail; | 8 | ··/˘·/˘· |
| I see no longer a hill, | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| I have trusted all to the sounding gale, | 10 | ··/˘···/˘· |
| And it will not let me stand still. | 8 | ········ |
| "And wilt thou, little bird, go with us? | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| Thou mayest stand on the mainmast tall, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| For full to sinking is my house | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| With merry companions all."-- | 7 | ·/˘˘/˘· |
| "I need not and seek not company, | 9 | ······/˘˘ |
| Bonny boat, I can sing all alone; | 9 | /˘·····˘/ |
| For the mainmast tall too heavy am I, | 10 | ··/˘··/˘·· |
| Bonny boat, I have wings of my own. | 9 | /˘······· |
| "High over the sails, high over the mast, | 8 | ········ |
| Who shall gainsay these joys? | 6 | ··/··· |
| When thy merry companions are still, at last, | 11 | ··/˘˘/˘···· |
| Thou shalt hear the sound of my voice. | 8 | ········ |
| "Who neither may rest, nor listen may, | 9 | ·/˘···/˘· |
| God bless them every one! | 7 | ···/˘˘· |
| I dart away, in the bright blue day, | 9 | ··˘/····· |
| And the golden fields of the sun. | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| "Thus do I sing my merry song, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Wherever the four winds blow; | 7 | ˘/˘···· |
| And this same song, my whole life long, | 8 | ········ |
| Neither Poet nor Printer may know.' | 9 | /˘/˘·/˘·· |
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.