The Ballad - Sir Patrick Spens Poem Summary

The king sits in Dumferling toune,
Drinking the blude-reid wine:
O quhar will I get guid sailor,
To sail this schip of mine?
Up and spak an eldern knicht, 5
Sat at the king?s richt knee:
Sir Patrick Spens is the best sailor
That sails upon the sea.
The king has written a braid letter,
And signed it wi? his hand; 10
And sent it to Sir Patrick Spens,
Was walking on the sand.
The first line that Sir Patrick red,
A loud lauch lauchèd he:
The next line that Sir Patrick red, 15
The teir blinded his ee.
O quhar is this has don this deid,
This ill deid don to me;
To send me out this time o? the yeir,
To sail upon the sea? 20
Mak haste, mak haste, my mirry men all,
Our good schip sails the morn.
O say na sae, my master deir,
For I feir a deadlie storme.
Late late yestreen I saw the new moone 25
Wi? the auld moone in hir arme;
And I feir, I feir, my deir master,
That we will come to harme.
O our Scots nobles wer richt laith
To weet their cork-heild schoone; 30
But lang owre a? the play were played,
Their hats they swam aboone.
O lang, lang may the ladies stand
Wi? their fans into their hand,
Or e?er they see Sir Patrick Spens 35
Come sailing to the land.
O lang, lang, may the ladies stand
Wi? their gold kerns in their hair,
Waiting for their ain deir lords,
For they?ll see them na mair. 40
Have owre, have owre to Aberdour,
It?s fifty fadom deip:
And thair lies guid Sir Patrick Spens,
Wi? the Scots lords at his feit.

Poem Summary

Line 1

The ballad begins by introducing the main characters. Here, we meet the king, who is in Dumferling, Scotland. The king ?sits,? in that he ?reigns? and his throne is a ?seat? of his power. He also ?sits? in the sense of being stationary. He does not move, though his actions will make others move.

Line 2

The wine that the king drinks is ?blood red,? suggesting his power over life and death, as well as the ease with which he controls other people?s lives. He sends men to their deaths as casually as one might drink a glass of wine.

Lines 3-4

?Oh where will I get a good sailor, to sail this ship of mine?? the king asks. Soon, the king will choose Sir Patrick Spens. Although being selected by the king is an honor, it also means that Spens must undertake an impossible journey. As a sailor, Spens is a ?good,? skillful sailor and because he is brave, he is a good man as well; but this cannot save him from his fate. No matter how skillful a sailor he is, no human can withstand the fury of nature. And no matter how loyal and true he is, like all people, Spens must die.

Lines 5-6

An ?elder? knight speaks up. The fact that the knight is an elder suggests that he is respected, a senior advisor to the king. The knight also has power in court because he sits at the king?s side i.e., at his right knee. As we will see, because the knight speaks ?up,? Spens and his ship are sent down ?fifty fadom deip.?

Lines 7-8

The elder knight praises Sir Patrick Spens as the world?s best sailor. Notice the sibilance in lines 7 and 8; the repetition of ?s? sounds imitates the sound of waves crashing on the shore.

Lines 9-10

The king writes a broad letter of command, ordering Spens to sail the royal ship. It is signed with the king?s hand, the royal signature, and must be obeyed.

Lines 11-12

The letter is sent to Spens as he walks along the beach. Notice that the word ?who? seems to be omitted from line 12; it is not stated, but implied (The line might read ?who was walking on the sand?). This kind of omission is called an ellipsis. Just as the ?who? is absent from the line, so Spens will be absent from the earth when the letter sends him to his death.

Lines 13-14

Spens reads the first line of the letter and laughs. Perhaps it praises his skill as a sailor, or perhaps it identifies his assignment, the impossible journey, and Spens laughs because he thinks it is a joke. In a sense, it is a joke, played on him not by the king or the knight, but by fate.

Lines 15-16

Spens reads further and realizes that the king is serious about sending him on a dangerous voyage. His fate is sealed, but his tear-blinded eye is ironic. Irony is wit or mockery that usually means the opposite of what is said. Destiny or fate are traditionally represented as ?blind? ? think of Oedipus, Homer, and Milton, whose blindness is seen as a sign that they ?see? a higher truth. Like them, Spens can ?see? his fate, his inevitable death after the impossible voyage, though tears ?blind? him.

Lines 17-18

Spens asks who has done this ill deed to him and the reader begins to suspect the motives of the elder knight. Does he have some secret motive for sending Spens to certain death? We are not told, but wonder about the court, where things are not always what they seem, where illusion can be confused with reality. But the courtly world?s deception does not allow it to escape from life?s only certainty: death. Consider the inversion from ?done deed? to ?deed done? in lines 17 and 18. Just as Spens?s reaction while reading the letter went from laughter to tears, so the poem?s word order changes to show how his world has been turned upside down.

Lines 19-20

Spens knows that the weather at this time of year is treacherous.

Lines 21-22

Although the assignment is dangerous, the men must hurry. They follow Spens?s orders as he follows the king?s. Notice how the repetition of ?m? and ?s? in lines 21 and 22 emphasize the irony. While the men make ?haste,? they are anything but ?merry.? The sailors know they are sailing off to die, and while the ship may be ?good,? no ship can withstand the violence of natural elements.

Lines 23-28

In lines 23 through 28, a sailor speaks up, hoping his master will say it is not so, that they are not really going to sail. The sailor is apprehensive because he has seen the new moon in the old moon?s arms, that is, the dark shape of the new moon and only the hint of a crescent of the old moon. This is an evil omen that predicts bad weather, and the sailor fears, correctly, the ship and crew will come to harm. This is the poem?s most famous image and is used by Samuel Taylor Coleridge in his ?Rime of the Ancient Mariner.? In lines 27 and 28, note the repetition of ?ei,? ?e,? and ?r? sounds, which call to mind the ocean?s waves moving up and down, tossing a ship at sea.

Lines 29-30

The ship has now sailed, but the nobles are ?loath? to ?wet? their shoes. This is ironic, because soon not only their shoes, but their entire bodies will be wet, and they will be drowned. The reader compares the nobles, who fear wetting their shoes, with Spens, who knows they are all doomed to drown in the storm. The nobles? concerns are petty in comparison with Spens, who is a brave soldier fatalistically following orders. Though they are noble because of their family titles, Spens is noble because of his actions.

Lines 31-32

The shipwreck is a ?play,? like a trick of fate or an event in the sense of a sports figure who makes a play. Play also suggests a child?s game, for the sailors are like toys in the hands of nature. The fact that we see the nobles? hats and not the nobles themselves is synecdoche, the substitution of the part for the whole. The hats themselves can be seen as a sign of worldly vanity, and it is ironic that the hats swim, but the nobles themselves cannot; they drown.

Lines 33-36

The ladies stand waiting for Spens and their men to return. They stand, while the king sits, and by the poem?s end, the men lay. Their fans are a sign of vanity, but fans are also used to control the weather by making one more comfortable when it is too hot. At sea, however, the weather cannot be controlled, and the storm kills their men. Recall that the king signs the letter with his hand, which leads to the deaths of Spens and the nobles, that the ladies wait with fans in their hands for men who will never return. This repetition of ?hand? links cause and effect, the king, who caused the men to go to sea, and the effect, the men?s demise and their women?s sorrowful waiting.

Lines 37-38

Again, gold is a gold traditional symbol of worldliness, and while the gold combs will remain shiny, the women?s hair will turn grey with time. Their attention to gold is misplaced, for like their men, they too will pass away.

Line 39

The women wait for their ?own dear lords,? but their men belong no longer to them but to death.

Line 40

The women will never see their men again, though ironically, the reader sees them lying on the ocean floor. The women hope to see their men alive, but the reader sees the men?s dead bodies.

Lines 41-44

Half the way over to Aberdour, the ship is wrecked in the storm. Now the ?good? Spens, like the good ship, is fifty fathoms beneath the sea. The poem?s ending is ironic when we consider the ways the positions of the body have indicated social status (for example, remember the knight who sat at the king?s right knee). At the end, while the lords may outrank Spens socially (note that some versions of the poem have Spens not a ?Sir,? but merely a Captain), their cowardice and concern for worldly things ? their failure to comprehend their situation and act accordingly ? sets Spens above the lords in the end. Significantly, they lie at his feet, not he at theirs.

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