Read the following poem and then answer
questions 1 through 4.
The Wreck of the Hesperus (paraphrased excerpt)
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
It was the schooner1 Hesperus,
That sailed the wintery sea;
And the skipper had taken his little daughter,
To bear him company.
5 The skipper he stood beside the helm2,
His pipe was in his mouth,
And he watched how the veering flaw3 did blow
The smoke now West, now South.
Then up and spake an old Sailor,
10 Had sailed the Spanish Main,
"I pray thee, put into yonder port,
for I fear a hurricane."
"Last night the moon had a golden ring,
And to-night no moon we see!"
15 The skipper, he blew whiff from his pipe,
And a scornful laugh laughed he.
Colder and louder blew the wind,
A gale from the Northeast,
The snow fell hissing in the brine4,
20 And the billows frothed like yeast.
Down came the storm, and smote amain
The vessel in its strength;
She shuddered and paused, like a frighted steed,
Then leaped her cable's length.
25 "Come hither! come hither! my little daughter,
And do not tremble so;
For I can weather the roughest gale
That ever wind did blow."
He wrapped her warm in his seaman's coat
30 Against the stinging blast;
He cut a rope from a broken spar,
And bound her to the mast.
"O father! I hear the church-bells ring,
O say, what may it be?"
35 "'Tis a fog-bell on a rock-bound coast!"—
And he steered for the open sea.
"O father! I hear the sound of guns,
O say, what may it be?"
"Some ship in distress, that cannot live
40 In such an angry sea!"
1. What does the poet mean by "And the billows
frothed like yeast"?