{
 "id": "henry-van-dyke-jr/gran-boule",
 "title": "“Gran’ Boule”",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": "A Seaman’s Tale of the Sea",
 "poet": "Henry van Dyke Jr.",
 "poet_slug": "henry-van-dyke-jr",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "The Poems of Henry Van Dyke",
 "book_slug": "poems",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": null,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1920,
  "venue": "The Poems of Henry Van Dyke (1920)",
  "note": "Taken from the 1920 collected edition. That is the printing this text comes from, not the poem's first appearance: the volume gathers work published from 1897 onward, and which earlier book or magazine printed this poem first has not been established here.",
  "uncertain": true,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/poemsofhenryvand00vandrich"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/henry-van-dyke-jr_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
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   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/16134",
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   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3525",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/9372",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/29314",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/43094",
   "https://archive.org/details/poemsofhenryvand00vandrich",
   "https://archive.org/details/buildersotherpoe00vandrich",
   "https://archive.org/details/toilingoffelixan00vandiala",
   "https://archive.org/details/musicotherpoems0000henr_c7v6",
   "https://archive.org/details/poemsnowfirstcol00vanduoft",
   "https://archive.org/details/songsoutofdoors0000vand",
   "https://archive.org/details/thyseaisgreatour00vandiala",
   "https://archive.org/details/chosenpoems0000vand"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 84,
  "n_stanzas": 21,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 74,
  "max_indent": 0
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "We men hat go down for a livin’ in ships to the sea⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We love it a different way from you poets that ’bide on the land.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We are fond of it, sure! But, you take it as comin’ from me,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There’s a fear and a hate in our love that a landsman can’t understand.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Oh, who could help likin’ the salty smell, and the blue",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the waves that are lazily breathin’ as if they dreamed in the sun?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She’s a Sleepin’ Beauty, the sea⁠—but you can’t tell what she’ll do;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the seamen never trust her⁠—they know too well what she’s done!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "She’s a wench like one that I saw in a singin’-play⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Carmen they called her⁠—Lord, what a life her lovers did lead!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She’d cuddle and kiss you, and sing you and dance you away;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And then⁠—she’d curse you, and break you, and throw you down like a weed.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "You may chance it awhile with the girls like that, if you please;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But you want a woman to trust when you settle down with a wife;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And a seaman’s thought of growin’ old at his ease",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is a snug little house on the land to shelter the rest of his life.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "So that was old Poisson’s dream⁠—did you know the Cap’?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A brown little Frenchman, clever, and brave, and quick as a fish⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Had a wife and kids on the other side of the map⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And a rose-covered cottage for them and him was his darlin’ wish.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“I ’ave sail,” says he, in his broken-up Frenchy talk,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Mos’ forty-two year; I ’ave go on all part of de worl’ dat ees wet.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I’m seeck of de boat and de water. I rader walk",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wid ma Josephine in one garden; an’ eef we get tire’, we set!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“You see dat bateau, Sainte Brigitte? I bring ’er dh’are",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From de Breton coas’, by gar, jus’ feefteen year bifore.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She ole w’en she come on Kebec, but Holloway Frères",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dey buy ’er, an’ hire me run ’er along dat dam’ Nort’ Shore.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Dose engine one leetl’ bit cranky⁠—too ole, you see⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She roll and peetch in de wave’. But I lak’ ’er pretty well;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "An’ dat sheep she lak’ ’er captaine, sure, dat’s me!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wit’ forty ton coal in de bunker, I tek’ dat sheep t’rou’ hell.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“But I don’ wan’ risk it no more; I had bonne chance:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I save already ten t’ousan’ dollar’, dat’s plenty I s’pose!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nex’ winter I buy dat house wid de garden on France",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "An’ I tell adieu to de sea, and I leev’ on de lan’ in ripose.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "All summer he talked of his house⁠—you could see the flowers",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Abloom, and the pear-trees trained on the garden-wall so trim,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the Captain awalkin’ and smokin’ away the hours⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He thought he had done with the sea, but the sea hadn’t done with him!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "It was late in the fall when he made the last regular run,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Clear down to the Esquimault Point and back with his rickety ship;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She hammered and pounded a lot, for the storms had begun;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But he drove her⁠—and went for his season’s pay at the end of the trip.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Now the Holloway Brothers are greedy and thin little men,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With their eyes set close together, and money’s their only God;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So they told the Cap’ he must run the “Bridget” again,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To fetch a cargo from Moisie, two thousand quintals of cod.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He said the season was over. They said: “Not yet.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You finish the whole of your job, old man, or you don’t draw a cent!”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "(They had the “Bridget” insured for all they could get.)",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the Captain objected, and cursed, and cried. But he went.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "They took on the cargo at Moisie, and folks beside⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Three traders, a priest, and a couple of nuns, and a girl",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For a school at Quebec⁠—when the Captain saw her he sighed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And said: “Ma littl’ Fifi got hair lak’ dat, all curl!”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The snow had fallen a foot, and the wind was high,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When the Bridget butted her way thro’ the billows on Moisie bar.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The darkness grew with the gale, not a star in the sky,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the Captain swore: “We mus’ make Sept Isles to-night, by gar!”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He couldn’t go back, for he didn’t dare to turn;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The sea would have thrown the ship like a mustang noosed with a rope;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For the monstrous waves were leapin’ high astern,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the shelter of Seven Island Bay was the only hope.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "There’s a bunch of broken hills half sunk in the mouth",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the bay, with their jagged peaks afoam; and the Captain thought",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He could pass to the north; but the sea kept shovin’ him south,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With her harlot hands, in the snow-blind murk, till she had him caught.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "She had waited forty years for a night like this⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Did he think he could leave her now, and live in a cottage, the fool?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She headed him straight for the island he couldn’t miss;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And heaved his boat in the dark⁠—and smashed it against Gran’ Boule.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "How the Captain and half of the people clambered ashore,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Through the surf and the snow in the gloom of that horrible night,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There’s no one ever will know. For two days more",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The death-white shroud of the tempest covered the island from sight.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "How they suffered, and struggled, and died, will never be told;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We discovered them all at last when we reached Gran’ Boule with a boat;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The drowned and the frozen were lyin’ stiff and cold,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the poor little girl with the curls was wrapped in the Captain’s coat.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Go write your song of the sea as the landsmen do,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And call her your “great sweet mother,” your “bride,” and all the rest;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She was made to be loved⁠—but remember, she won’t love you⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The men who trust her the least are the sailors who know her the best.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}