The Ship-Builders
THE sky is ruddy in the east,The earth is gray below,And, spectral in the river-mist,The ship's white timbers show.Then let the sounds of measured strokeAnd grating saw begin;The broad-axe to the gnarled oak,The mallet to the pin!
Hark! roars the bellows, blast on blast,The sooty smithy jars,And fire-sparks, rising far and fast,Are fading with the stars.All day for us the smith shall standBeside that flashing forge;All day for us his heavy handThe groaning anvil scourge.
From far-off hills, the panting teamFor us is toiling near;For us the raftsmen down the streamTheir island barges steer.Rings out for us the axe-man's strokeIn forests old and still;For us the century-circled oakFalls crashing down his hill.
Up! up! in nobler toil than oursNo craftsmen bear a partWe make of Nature's giant powersThe slaves of human Art.Lay rib to rib and beam to beam,And drive the treenails free;Nor faithless joint nor yawning seamShall tempt the searching sea.
Where'er the keel of our good shipThe sea's rough field shall plough;Where'er her tossing spars shall dripWith salt-spray caught below;That ship must heed her master's beck,Her helm obey his hand,And seamen tread her reeling deckAs if they trod the land.
Her oaken ribs the vulture-beakOf Northern ice may peel;The sunken rock and coral peakMay grate along her keel;And know we well the painted shellWe give to wind and wave,Must float, the sailor's citadel,Or sink, the sailor's grave.
Ho! strike away the bars and blocks,And set the good ship free!Why lingers on these dusty rocksThe young bride of the sea?Look! how she moves adown the grooves,In graceful beauty now!How lowly on the breast she lovesSinks down her virgin prow.
God bless her! wheresoe'er the breezeHer snowy wing shall fan,Aside the frozen Hebrides,Or sultry Hindostan!Where'er, in mart or on the main,With peaceful flag unfurled,She helps to wind the silken chainOf commerce round the world!
Speed on the ship! But let her bearNo merchandise of sin,No groaning cargo of despairHer roomy hold within;No Lethean drug for Eastern lands,Nor poison-draught for ours;But honest fruits of toiling handsAnd Nature's sun and showers.
Be hers the Prairie's golden grain,The Desert's golden sand,The clustered fruits of sunny Spain,The spice of Morning-land!Her pathway on the open mainMay blessings follow free,And glad hearts welcome back againHer white sails from the sea
Words in this poem
- gnarled a.
- Knotty; full of knots or gnarls; twisted; crossgrained.
- smithy n.
- The workshop of a smith, esp. a blacksmith; a smithery; a stithy. [AS. smi, fr. smi; akin to D. smidse, smids, OHG. smitta, G. schmiede, Icel. smi. See Smith, n.]
- fading n.
- An Irish dance; also, the burden of a song.
- 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,]
- scourge n.
- A lash; a strap or cord; especially, a lash used to inflict pain or punishment; an instrument of punishment or discipline; a whip. [F. escourgée, fr. L. excoriata (sc. scutica) a stripped off (lash or whip), fr. excoriate to strip, to skin. See Excoriate.]
- crashing n.
- The noise of many things falling and breaking at once.
- drip v. i.
- To fall in drops; as, water drips from the eaves. [Akin to LG. drippen, Dan. dryppe, from a noun. See Drop.]
- oaken a.
- Made or consisting of oaks or of the wood of oaks. [AS. acen.]
- adown adv.
- From a higher to a lower situation; downward; down, to or on the ground. [OE. adun, adoun, adune. AS. of dune off the hill. See Down.]
- snowy a.
- White like snow.
- mart v. t.
- To buy or sell in, or as in, a mart.
- lethean a.
- Of or pertaining to Lethe; resembling in effect the water of Lethe. Milton. Barrow.
- sunny a.
- Of or pertaining to the sun; proceeding from, or resembling the sun; hence, shining; bright; brilliant; radiant.
- pathway n.
- A footpath; a beaten track; any path or course. Also used figuratively.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Ship-Builders is in the public domain. This text is taken from Anti-Slavery Poems and Songs of Labor and Reform, Complete Volume III of The Works of John Greenleaf Whittier, Project Gutenberg ebook #9580; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John Greenleaf Whittier, The Ship-Builders, in Anti-Slavery Poems and Songs of Labor and Reform (1865), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9580, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/whittier-anti-slavery/the-ship-builders.html, id L24943.
Form and metre
The Ship-Builders is 80 lines in 10 stanzas of 8 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABABCDCD, complete in 6 of its 10 stanzas. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%).
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
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-ABCBC east · belowA · mist · showA · strokeB · beginC · oakB · pinC
- 2 ABABC-C- blastA · jarsB · fastA · starsB · standC · forge · handC · scourge
- 3 ABABCDCD teamA · nearB · streamA · steerB · strokeC · stillD · oakC · hillD
- 4 ABABCDCD oursA · partB · powersA · artB · beamC · freeD · seamC · seaD
- 5 ABABCDCD shipA · ploughB · dripA · belowB · beckC · handD · deckC · landD
- 6 ABABCDCD beakA · peelB · peakA · keelB · shellC · waveD · citadelC · graveD
- 7 ABAB-C-C blocksA · freeB · rocksA · seaB · grooves · nowC · loves · prowC
- 8 ABABCDCD breezeA · fanB · hebridesA · hindostanB · mainC · unfurledD · chainC · worldD
- 9 ABABCDCD bearA · sinB · despairA · withinB · landsC · oursD · handsC · showersD
- 10 ABABACAC grainA · sandB · spainA · landB · mainA · freeC · againA · seaC
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| THE sky is ruddy in the east, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The earth is gray below, | 6 | ······ |
| And, spectral in the river-mist, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| The ship's white timbers show. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Then let the sounds of measured stroke | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And grating saw begin; | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| The broad-axe to the gnarled oak, | 7 | ······· |
| The mallet to the pin! | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Hark! roars the bellows, blast on blast, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The sooty smithy jars, | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| And fire-sparks, rising far and fast, | 8 | ·/·/˘··· |
| Are fading with the stars. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| All day for us the smith shall stand | 8 | ········ |
| Beside that flashing forge; | 6 | ˘/·/˘· |
| All day for us his heavy hand | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The groaning anvil scourge. | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| From far-off hills, the panting team | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| For us is toiling near; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| For us the raftsmen down the stream | 8 | ········ |
| Their island barges steer. | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| Rings out for us the axe-man's stroke | 8 | ········ |
| In forests old and still; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| For us the century-circled oak | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Falls crashing down his hill. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Up! up! in nobler toil than ours | 9 | ···/˘··/˘ |
| No craftsmen bear a part | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| We make of Nature's giant powers | 9 | ···/˘/˘/˘ |
| The slaves of human Art. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Lay rib to rib and beam to beam, | 8 | ········ |
| And drive the treenails free; | 6 | ······ |
| Nor faithless joint nor yawning seam | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Shall tempt the searching sea. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Where'er the keel of our good ship | 9 | ˘˘/···/·· |
| The sea's rough field shall plough; | 6 | ······ |
| Where'er her tossing spars shall drip | 9 | ˘˘/·/˘··· |
| With salt-spray caught below; | 6 | ······ |
| That ship must heed her master's beck, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Her helm obey his hand, | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| And seamen tread her reeling deck | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| As if they trod the land. | 6 | ······ |
| Her oaken ribs the vulture-beak | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Of Northern ice may peel; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| The sunken rock and coral peak | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| May grate along her keel; | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| And know we well the painted shell | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| We give to wind and wave, | 6 | ······ |
| Must float, the sailor's citadel, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Or sink, the sailor's grave. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Ho! strike away the bars and blocks, | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| And set the good ship free! | 6 | ······ |
| Why lingers on these dusty rocks | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| The young bride of the sea? | 6 | ······ |
| Look! how she moves adown the grooves, | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| In graceful beauty now! | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| How lowly on the breast she loves | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Sinks down her virgin prow. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| God bless her! wheresoe'er the breeze | 8 | ········ |
| Her snowy wing shall fan, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Aside the frozen Hebrides, | 8 | ˘/·/˘/˘˘ |
| Or sultry Hindostan! | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Where'er, in mart or on the main, | 9 | ˘˘/······ |
| With peaceful flag unfurled, | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| She helps to wind the silken chain | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Of commerce round the world! | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Speed on the ship! But let her bear | 8 | ········ |
| No merchandise of sin, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| No groaning cargo of despair | 8 | ·/˘/··˘/ |
| Her roomy hold within; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| No Lethean drug for Eastern lands, | 9 | ·˘/˘··/˘· |
| Nor poison-draught for ours; | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| But honest fruits of toiling hands | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And Nature's sun and showers. | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| Be hers the Prairie's golden grain, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| The Desert's golden sand, | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| The clustered fruits of sunny Spain, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| The spice of Morning-land! | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Her pathway on the open main | 8 | ·/···/˘· |
| May blessings follow free, | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| And glad hearts welcome back again | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Her white sails from the sea | 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.