Summary of Poetry "Sir Patrick Spens"
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Answer: Summary of Poetry "Sir Patrick Spens"
It is also typical of ballads that the historical events which might have led to the creation of the ballad are unclear. It is not known which king might be referred to in the poem or if there ever was an actual Sir Patrick Spens. Connecting details, such as why the king ordered Sir Patrick Spens to sea, where he was headed, or why the Scots lords were aboard the ship, are not given, but the stark tragedy is clear.
“Sir Patrick Spens,” like most traditional ballads, relates a sad and tragic story of danger and death. The Scottish king, in Dumferline, wants a sailor to sail his ship. An old knight says that Sir Patrick Spens is the best sailor; the king writes and signs a letter, which is delivered to him as he is walking along the seacoast. At first Sir Patrick laughs at the order, then a tear blinds his eye and he asks who has done this “ill deed” to send him to sea at this time of the year (presumably winter, when the sea is at its roughest).
Sir Patrick Spens tells his men that they will sail in the morning. One man expresses the fear that there will be a deadly storm and that they will “come to harm,” because he has seen an omen of danger, a circle rounding out the new moon. A group of Scots noblemen are aboard the ship when it sinks. The ladies on the shore will wait in vain for their return. They will never see Sir Patrick Spens or his passengers again. Instead, deep in the sea, halfway between somewhere and Aberdour, Scotland, there lies Sir Patrick Spens, with the Scots lords at his feet.
Forms and Devices
Last Updated on May 5, 2015, by eNotes Editorial. Word Count: 516
“Sir Patrick Spens” consists of quatrains (stanzas of four lines), with the second and fourth lines rhyming, a rhyme scheme commonly signified as abcb. The lines alternate between tetrameter (four metrical feet, or stressed syllables, per line) and trimeter (three feet per line). Such quatrains are called ballad stanzas. The basic meter is iambic, an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed (accented) syllable, the most commonly used poetic foot in English-language poetry. “Sir Patrick Spens” is virtually a model of the form of the traditional English ballad.
The regular meter, or beat, of the ballad is typical in that ballads were originally songs. The simplicity of the music to which they were sung not only influenced the distinctive verse form but also promoted a simplicity in the narrative itself. In addition, because they were oral, rather than written, over time stanzas were lost or forgotten, phrases altered, and details changed. Further changes were made as editors from the eighteenth through the twentieth century collated versions and selected phrases and lines they deemed most poetic or appropriate. Thus the narrative has an intense compression, a spareness that concentrates on the culmination of the action, on the heart of the tragedy.
The poem opens with an image: “The king sits . . ./ Drinking the blude-reid wine.” That blood-red wine is foreboding and immediately raises disturbing questions. Is the king capable of making sound judgments? Does he revel in asserting his authority? Does he understand the risk to all those he sends to sea? Imagery carries much of the drama of the story. After the king sends his letter, the fourth stanza shows Sir Patrick reading the orders. At first he laughs in disbelief, but he quickly understands its mortal import, and “a tear blinded his ee” (his eye). Nonetheless, he summons his crew. As so often occurs in ballads, some omen of death emphasizes the danger and psychologically increases the fear. An unnamed crew member laments that late the night before, “I saw the new moon/ Wi’ the auld moon in her arm,/ And I fear./ That we will come to harm.” The image of the crescent moon with the outline of the fully rounded moon was often believed to be an indication of severe storms to come, but in the poem there are no details of storms, winter seas, or a ship floundering and sinking. Juxtaposed with the image of the ominous moon, however, is an image of death by drowning. Here the poetic device is synecdoche, using a word that substitutes a part for the whole: The lords had worried about their cork-heeled shoes getting wet; now their hats float above the water.
The women will wait in vain for any of the lords or for Sir Patrick Spens, for they will “see thame na mair” (no more). The use of the age-old Scots dialect makes the entire poem, including the ending, seem more authentic; the words seem to come from the voice of the bard singer or a common person dolefully considering the inexorable workings of destiny. Deep under the water, “there lies guid Sir Patrick Spens.”
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