Three wives sat up in the lighthouse tower, And they trimmed the lamps as the sun went down; They looked at the squall and they looked at the shower, And the nightrack came rolling up ragged and brown; But men must work and women must weep, Though storms be sudden and waters deep, And the harbor bar be moaning. Three corpses lay out on the shining sands, In the morning gleam as the tide went down, And the women are weeping and wringing their hands For those who will never come home to the town; For men must work and women must weep, And the sooner it’s over the sooner to sleep, And good-bye to the bar and its moaning. NOTES AND QUESTIONS =Biography.= Charles Kingsley (1819-1875), clergyman, lecturer, poet, and novelist, was born in Dartmoor, England. During his earlier years he lived in the beautiful Fen Country, the scenery of which made a deep impression on him. He was a friend of Tennyson and a poet of real excellence. His ballads, “The Three Fishers” and “The Sands of Dee,” are widely read and admired, and his novel _Westward Ho!_ is a brilliant narrative of adventure. In “The Three Fishers” he shows that he has studied the fisher folk of his native country and sees with genuine sympathy their hard life and the courage that enables them to brave the perils of the sea. =Discussion.= 1. What does the poem tell you about the three fishers? 2. What does it suggest? 3. Where could a stanza be inserted to tell a part of the story that is only suggested? 4. Do you think this would improve the poem? 5. What signs were there of an approaching storm? 6. Why does the occupation of deep-sea fishers train them to understand signs indicating changes in the weather? 7. Why did these fishers go out to sea notwithstanding signs of a storm? 8. What other thought do you think was in their minds as “Each thought on the woman who loved him best”? 9. What idea of the deep-sea fishers does this poem give you? 10. What idea of the sea? 11. What other poems do you know that tell of life on the sea? 12. What idea of the sea does each give? =Phrases= harbor bar be moaning, 177, 7 nightrack came rolling, 177, 11 morning gleam, 177, 16 the sooner to sleep, 177, 20 LORD ULLIN’S DAUGHTER THOMAS CAMPBELL A chieftain to the Highlands bound Cries “Boatman, do not tarry! And I’ll give thee a silver pound To row us o’er the ferry!” “Now who be ye, would cross Lochgyle, This dark and stormy water?” “O I’m the chief of Ulva’s isle, And this, Lord Ullin’s daughter. “And fast before her father’s men Three days we’ve fled together, For should he find us in the glen, My blood would stain the heather. “His horsemen hard behind us ride— Should they our steps discover, Then who will cheer my bonny bride, When they have slain her lover?”