The Wreck of the Hesperus
/ðə ˌrek əv ðə ˈhespərəs/
/ðə ˌrek əv ðə ˈhespərəs/
- a poem by the US poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. It was in his collection Ballads and Other Poems (1841), which also included The Village Blacksmith. It tells the story of a father and his small daughter who die when their ship hits rocks during a storm. The phrase like the wreck of the Hesperus may be used to mean 'very untidy' or 'in a ruined state'. The poem includes these lines:“'O father! I see a gleaming light.Oh, say, what may it be?’But the father answered never a word,A frozen corpse was he.”