Hervé Riel by Robert Browning
With the English pursuing a French squadron in 1692, its commander proposes burning the ships after local pilots declare the harbor approach impassable. Hervé Riel, a Breton sailor, guides every vessel safely to Solidor and requests only a holiday to visit his wife. The speaker offers his verse to commemorate the unremembered rescue.
By Robert Browning · Genre: Narrative Poetry, Maritime Literature, Historical Poetry · 1,834 words
First lines
I
On the sea and at the Hogue, sixteen hundred ninety-two, / Did the English fight the French, -- woe to France! / And, the thirty-first of May, helter-skelter through the blue, / Like a crowd of frightened porpoises a shoal of sharks pursue, / Came crowding ship on ship to Saint Malo on the Rance, / With the English fleet in view.
Genres
- Narrative Poetry — Eleven numbered stanzas recount the squadron's flight, Riel's intervention, the successful passage and his requested reward.
- Maritime Literature — The rescue depends on navigating large warships through a narrow passage among rocks and shoals at ebb tide.
- Historical Poetry — The opening dates the naval conflict to 1692, and the verse recounts a French squadron's escape from English pursuit.
Tags
naval warfare · coastal navigation · fleet rescue · Breton sailors · modest rewards · commemoration
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Hervé Riel is listed on Textopian as a poem by Robert Browning, dated Date unknown.
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- Work type: Poem
- Author: Robert Browning
- Date: Date unknown
- Language: English
- Genres: Narrative Poetry, Maritime Literature, Historical Poetry
- Length: 1,834 words
- Structure: 1 section, 22 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Easy (6th Grade)
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