1a. Who does the skipper of the Hesperus take along to sea for company? What description is given of that person?
2a. What causes the skipper to laugh a "scornful laugh"? What does he say he can do?
3a. What two things does the other character hear? What does that person see?
4a. What does the fisherman see from the beach?
1b. How does the description of this character affect the outcome in this ballad?
2b. What do the skipper's actions tell you about the skipper's attitude and character?
3b. What is the significance of each of these three things?
4b. Would the fisherman have guessed what happened? Why, or why not?
5a. In what ways does Longfellow describe the different parts of this tragic accident?
5b. What do you think is the theme, or main idea, that Longfellow offers in this poem?
6a. Longfellow chose to tell the story of the wreck of the Hesperus in a ballad—a type of poetry—instead of using another form. How is (or isn't) the ballad form fitting for the subject of the shipwreck? How does it create a certain mood or atmosphere?
6b. Compare the mood of "The Wreck of the Hesperus" to that of "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald." In what ways are they different? How are they alike?
Narrative Poem and Ballad. What story does "The Wreck of the Hesperus" tell? Why do you think the author chose to write it?
Stanza. Besides the spaces between stanzas, what else makes each stanza stand apart from the others?
1. Write a list of interview questions you would like to have asked Henry Wadsworth Longfellow or the skipper of the Hesperus.
2. Imagine you were one of the searchers looking for the Edmund Fitzgerald in Lake Superior. Write an official report about your fruitless search.
3. Write a short ballad of four stanzas, in each of which the second and fourth lines rhyme.
Synonyms. A synonym is a word that has the same meaning as another word. For example, smile and grin are synonyms. Smite means "to hit or strike hard." Brainstorm a list of words that have meanings similar to smite.
Capitalization. Review the Language Arts Survey 3.85, "Proper Nouns and Adjectives." Then identify each letter that needs capitalization in the following sentences.
Example Mr. jefferson and grandfather went to the dooley café.
1. My sister named her boat young ambition.
2. I am happy that uncle pete is getting married on kay's yacht.
3. Jesse usually docks his boat in late may.
4. I think it was around memorial day that we got that big storm.
5. The hammonds just took in a russian exchange student who loves to swim.
6. Have you learned about the titanic?
7. John jacob astor, one of america's richest men, died in that shipwreck.
8. Benjamin guggenheim also died during this tragedy.
9. I wonder how many shipwrecks there have been in the atlantic ocean.
10. I was surprised to learn that there have been shipwrecks in lake superior.
