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No stir in the air, no stir in the sea;
The ship was still as she could be;
Her sails from Heaven received no motion;
Her keel was steady in the ocean.
Without either sign or sound of their shock,
The waves flowed over the Inchcape Rock;
So little they rose, so little they fell,
They did not move the Inchcape Bell.
The holy Abbot of Aberbrothok
Had placed that bell on the Inchcape Rock;
On a buoy in the storm it floated and swung,
And over the waves its warning rung.
When the rock was hid by the surge’s swell,
The mariners heard the warning bell;
And then they knew the perilous rock
And blessed the Abbot of Aberbrothok.
The sun in heaven was shining gay;
All things were joyful on that day;
The sea-birds screamed as they wheeled around,
And there was joyance in their sound.
The buoy of the Inchcape Bell was seen,
A darker speck on the ocean green;
Sir Ralph the Rover walked his deck,
And he fixed his eye on the darker speck.
He felt the cheering power of spring;
It made him whistle, it made him sing;
His heart was mirthful to excess,
But the Rover’s mirth was wickedness.
His eye was on the Inchcape float;
Quoth he, “My men, put out the boat
And row me to the Inchcape Rock,
And I’ll plague the Abbot of Aberbrothok.”
The boat is lowered, the boatmen row,
And to the Inchcape Rock they go;
Sir Ralph bent over from the boat,
And he cut the bell from the Inchcape float.
Down sank the bell, with a gurgling sound;
The bubbles rose and burst around;
Quoth Sir Ralph, “The next who comes to the Rock
Won’t bless the Abbot of Aberbrothok!”
Sir Ralph the Rover sailed away;
He scoured the seas for many a day;
And now grown rich with plundered store,
He steers his course for Scotland’s shore.
So thick a haze o’erspreads the sky
They cannot see the sun on high;
The wind hath blown a gale all day;
At evening it hath died away.
On the deck the Rover takes his stand;
So dark it is they see no land.
Quoth Sir Ralph, “It will be lighter soon,
For there is dawn of the rising moon.”
“Canst hear,” said one, “the breakers roar?
For methinks we should be near the shore.”
“Now where we are I cannot tell,
But I wish I could hear the Inchcape Bell.”
They hear no sound; the swell is strong;
Though the wind hath fallen, they drift along
Till the vessel strikes with a shivering shock —
“O Christ! it is the Inchcape Rock!”
( Robert Southey )
Robert Southey (1774-1843) was an English poet. From 1813 until his death he was Poet Laureate of England.
Bell Rock, or Inchcape, is a reef of red sandstone near the Firth of Tay, on the east coast of Scotland. At the time of the spring tides part of the reef is uncovered to the height of four feet. Because so many vessels were wrecked upon these rocks the Abbot of Aberbrothok is said to have placed a bell there,“fixed upon a tree or timber, which rang continually, being moved by the sea.
keel : the part of a sailboat that keeps it balanced
perilous : very dangerous
breakers : large waves
A) Answer the following questions.
1)What picture do you see when you read the first stanza
2) The Abbot of Aberbrothok was a man who lived up to the ideal of service. How did he do this?
3) Why did Ralph the Rover destroy the bell?
4) What did liberty mean to Ralph?
5) What happened to Ralph the Rover?
B) Alliteration—This is when the beginnings of words have many of the same sounds—for example “merry mermaids make music.” Find as many examples of alliteration as you can.