The fact that we don’t know who wrote “Sir Patrick Spens” only adds to the impression that it’s a mysterious and dramatic fragment of a lost world, a vision conjured up from the shadows of the past and borne to us on the winds of a stormy sea.
The poem takes readers back to the 13th century, when legend says the maritime misfortune of Sir Patrick Spens took place. The version (or versions—there are some variations) that we have of the ballad was recorded in the 18th century, though some form of it may have existed as far back as the 16th century.
