IV. Hawthorne.

'There is Hawthorne, with genius so shrinking and rare That you hardly at first see the strength that is there; A frame so robust, with a nature so sweet, So earnest, so graceful, so solid, so fleet, Is worth a descent from Olympus to meet; 'Tis as if a rough oak that for ages had stood, With his gnarled bony branches like ribs of the wood Should bloom, after cycles of struggle and scathe, With a single anemone trembly and rathe; His strength is so tender; his wildness so meek, That a suitable parallel sets one to seek— He's a John Bunyan Fouque, a Puritan Tieck; When nature was shaping him, clay was not granted For making so full-sized a man as she wanted, So, to fill out her model, a little she spared From some finer-grained stuff for a woman prepared. And she could not have hit a more excellent plan For making him fully and perfectly man. The success of her scheme gave her so much delight, That she tried it again, shortly after, in Dwight, Only, while she was kneading and shaping the clay, She sang to her work in her sweet childish way, And found, when she'd put the last touch to his soul, That the music had somehow got mixed with the whole.

V. Cooper.

"Here's Cooper, who's written six volumes to show He's as good as a lord: well, let's grant that he's so; If a person prefer that description of praise, Why, a coronet's certainly cheaper than bays; But he need take no pains to convince us he's not (As his enemies say) the American Scott. Choose any twelve men, and let C. read aloud That one of his novels of which he's most proud, And I'd lay any bet that, without ever quitting Their box, they'd be all, to a man, for acquitting. He has drawn you he's character, though, that is new, One wildflower he's plucked that is wet with the dew Of this fresh Western world, and, the thing not to mince, He has done naught but copy it ill ever since; His Indians, with proper respect be it said, Are just Natty Bumpo daubed over with red, And his very Long Toms are the same useful Nat, Rigged up in duck pants and a sou'-wester hat, (Though once in a Coffin, a good chance was found To have slipt the old fellow away underground.) All his other men-figures are clothes upon sticks The derniere chemise of a man in a fix, (As a captain besieged, when his garrison's small, bets up caps upon poles to be seen o'er the wall;) And the women he draws from one model don't vary, All sappy as maples and flat as a prairie. When a character's wanted, he goes to the task As a cooper would do in composing a cask; He picks out the staves, of their qualities heedful, Just hoops them together as tight as is needful, And, if the best fortune should crown the attempt, he Has made at the most something wooden and empty.

"Don't suppose I would underrate Cooper's abilities If I thought you'd do that, I should feel very ill at ease; The men who have given to one character life And objective existence, are not very rife, You may number them all, both prose-writers and singers, Without overrunning the bounds of your fingers, And Natty won't go to oblivion quicker Than Adams the parson or Primrose the vicar.

"There is one thing in Cooper I like, too, and that is That on manners he lectures his countrymen gratis, Not precisely so either, because, for a rarity, He is paid for his tickets in unpopularity. Now he may overcharge his American pictures, But you'll grant there's a good deal of truth in his strictures; And I honor the man who is willing to sink Half his present repute for the freedom to think, And, when he has thought, be his cause strong or weak, Will risk t'other half for the freedom to speak, Caring naught for what vengeance the mob has in store, Let that mob be the upper ten thousand or lower.

VI. Poe and Longfellow.

"There comes Poe, with his raven, like Barnaby Rudge, Three-fifths of him genius and two-fifths sheer fudge, Who talks like a book of iambs and pentameters, In a way to make people of common-sense damn metres, Who has written some things quite the best of their kind, But the heart somehow seems all squeezed out by the mind, Who—but hey-day! What's this? Messieurs Mathews and Poe, You mustn't fling mud-balls at Longfellow so, Does it make a man worse that his character's such As to make his friends love him (as you thin) too much? Why, there is not a bard at this moment alive More willing than he that his fellows should thrive, While you are abusing him thus, even now He would help either one of you out of a dough; You may say that he's smooth and all that till you're hoarse But remember that elegance also is force; After polishing granite as much as you will, The heart keeps its tough old persistency still; Deduct all you can that still keeps you at bay, Why, he'll live till men weary of Collins and Gray.

'Tis truth that I speak Had Theocritus written in English, not Greek, I believe that his exquisite sense would scarce change a line In that rare, tender, virgin-like pastoral Evangeline. That's not ancient nor modern, its place is apart Where time has no sway, in the realm of pure Art, 'Tis a shrine of retreat from Earth's hubbub and strife As quiet and chaste as the author's own life.

VII. Irving.

"What! Irving? thrice welcome, warm heart and fine brain, You bring back the happiest spirit from Spain, And the gravest sweet humor, that ever were there Since Cervantes met death in his gentle despair; Nay, don't be embarrassed, nor look so beseeching,— I shan't run directly against my own preaching, And, having just laughed at their Raphaels and Dantes, Go to setting you up beside matchless Cervantes; But allow me to speak what I honestly feel,— To a true poet-heart add the fun of Dick Steele, Throw in all of Addison, minus the chill, With the whole of that partnership's stock and good will, Mix well, and while stirring, hum o'er, as a spell, The fine old English Gentleman, simmer it well, Sweeten just to your own private liking, then strain That only the finest and clearest remain, Let it stand out of doors till a soul it receives From the warm lazy sun loitering down through green leaves, And you'll find a choice nature, not wholly deserving A name either English or Yankee,—just Irving.

VIII. Holmes.

"There's Holmes, who is matchless among you for wit; A Leyden-jar always full-charged, from which flit The electrical tingles of hit after hit; In long poems 'tis painful sometimes, and invites A thought of the way the new Telegraph writes, Which pricks down its little sharp sentences spitefully As if you got more than you'd title to rightfully, And you find yourself hoping its wild father Lightning Would flame in for a second and give you fright'ning. He has perfect sway of what I call a sham metre, But many admire it, the English pentameter, And Campbell, I think, wrote most commonly worse, With less nerve, swing, and fire in the same kind of verse, Nor e'er achieved aught in 't so worthy of praise As the tribute of Holmes to the grand Marseillaise. You went crazy last year over Bulwer's New Timon; Why, if B., to the day of his dying, should rhyme on, Heaping verses on verses and tames upon tomes, He could ne'er reach the best point and vigor of Holmes. His are just the fine hands, too, to weave you a lyric Full of fancy, fun, feeling, or spiced with satyric In a measure so kindly, you doubt if the toes That are trodden upon are your own or your foes'.

IX. Lowell.

"There is Lowell, who's striving Parnassus to climb With a whole bale of isms tied together with rhyme, He might get on alone, spite of brambles and boulders, But he can't with that bundle he has on his shoulders The top of the hill he will ne'er come nigh reaching Till he learns the distinction 'twixt singing and preaching; His lyre has some chords that would ring pretty well, But he'd rather by half make a drum of the shell And rattle away till he's old as Methusalem, At the head of a march to the last new Jerusalem.

X. Spirit of Ancient Poetry.

"My friends, in the happier days of the muse, We were luckily free from such things as reviews, Then naught came between with its fog to make clearer The heart of the poet to that of his hearer; Then the poet brought heaven to the people, and they Felt that they, too, were poets in hearing his lay; Then the poet was prophet, the past in his soul Pre-created the future, both parts of one whole; Then for him there was nothing too great or too small. For one natural deity sanctified all; Then the bard owned no clipper and meter of moods Save the spirit of silence that hovers and broods O'er the seas and the mountains, the rivers and woods He asked not earth's verdict, forgetting the clods, His soul soared and sang to an audience of gods. 'Twas for them that he measured the thought and the line, And shaped for their vision the perfect design, With as glorious a foresight, a balance as true, As swung out the worlds in the infinite blue; Then a glory and greatness invested man's heart The universal, which now stands estranged and apart, In the free individual moulded, was Art; Then the forms of the Artist seemed thrilled with desire For something as yet unattained, fuller, higher, As once with her lips, lifted hands, and eyes listening, And her whole upward soul in her countenance glistening, Eurydice stood—like a beacon unfired, Which, once touched with flame, will leap heav'nward inspired— And waited with answering kindle to mark The first gleam of Orpheus that pained the red Dark. Then painting, song, sculpture, did more than relieve the need that men feel to create and believe, And as, in all beauty, who listens with love Hears these words oft repeated—'beyond and above.' So these seemed to be but the visible sign Of the grasp of the soul after things more divine; They were ladders the Artist erected to climb O'er the narrow horizon of space and of time, And we see there the footsteps by which men had gained To the one rapturous glimpse of the never-attained, As shepherds could erst sometimes trace in the sod The last spurning print of a sky-cleaving god.



OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES



OLD IRONSIDES

Ay, tear her tattered ensign down! Long has it waved on high, And many an eye has danced to see That banner in the sky; Beneath it rung the battle shout, And burst the cannon's roar;— The meteor of the ocean air Shall sweep the clouds no more!

Her deck, once red with heroes' blood, Where knelt the vanquished foe, When winds were hurrying o'er the floods And waves were white below, No more shall feel the victor's tread, Or know the conquered knee;— The harpies of the shore shall pluck The eagle of the sea!

O better that her shattered hulk Should sink beneath the wave; Her thunders shook the mighty deep, And there should be her grave; Nail to the mast her holy flag, Set every threadbare sail, And give her to the god of storms, The lightning and the gale!



THE LAST LEAF

I saw him once before, As he passed by the door, And again The pavement stones resound, As he totters o'er the ground With his cane.

They say that in his prime, Ere the pruning-knife of Time Cut him down, Not a better man was found, By the Crier on his round Through the town.

But now he walks the streets, And he looks at all he meets Sad and wan, And he shakes his feeble head, That it seems as if he said, "They are gone."

The mossy marbles rest On the lips that he has prest In their bloom, And the names he loved to hear Have been carved for many a year On the tomb.

My grandmamma has said— Poor old lady, she is dead Long ago— That he had a Roman nose, And his cheek was like a rose In the snow.

But now his nose is thin, And it rests upon his chin Like a staff, And a crock is in his back, And a melancholy crack In his laugh.

I know it is a sin For me to sit and grin At him here; But the old three-cornered hat, And the breeches, and all that, Are so queer!

And if I should live to be The last leaf upon the tree In the spring, Let them smile, as I do now, At the old forsaken bough Where I cling.



MY AUNT

My aunt! my dear unmarried aunt! Long years have o'er her flown; Yet still she strains the aching clasp That binds her virgin zone; I know it hurts her,—though she looks As cheerful as she can; Her waist is ampler than her life, For life is but a span.

My aunt! my poor deluded aunt! Her hair is almost gray; Why will she train that winter curl In such a spring-like way? How can she lay her glasses down, And say she reads as well, When through a double convex lens, She just makes out to spell?

Her father—grandpapa! forgive This erring lip its smiles— Vowed she should make the finest girl Within a hundred miles; He sent her to a stylish school; 'Twas in her thirteenth June; And with her, as the rules required, "Two towels and a spoon."

They braced my aunt against a board, To make her straight and tall; They laced her up, they starved her down, To make her light and small; They pinched her feet, they singed her hair, They screwed it up with pins;— O never mortal suffered more In penance for her sins.

So, when my precious aunt was done, My grandsire brought her back; (By daylight, lest some rabid youth Might follow on the track;) "Ah!" said my grandsire, as he shook Some powder in his pan, "What could this lovely creature do Against a desperate man!"

Alas! nor chariot, nor barouche, Nor bandit cavalcade, Tore from the trembling father's arms His all-accomplished maid. For her how happy had it been! And Heaven had spared to me To see one sad, ungathered rose On my ancestral tree.



THE CHAMBERED NAUTILUS

This is the ship of pearl, which, poets feign, Sails the unshadowed main,— The venturous bark that flings On the sweet summer wind its purpled wings In gulfs enchanted, where the Siren sings, And coral reefs lie bare, Where the cold sea-maids rise to sun their streaming hair.

Its webs of living gauze no more unfurl; Wrecked is the ship of pearl! And every chambered cell, Where its dim dreaming life was wont to dwell, As the frail tenant shaped his growing shell, Before thee lies revealed,— Its irised ceiling rent, its sunless crypt unsealed!

Year after year beheld the silent toil That spread his lustrous coil; Mill, as the spiral grew, He left the past year's dwelling for the new, Stole with soft step its shining archway through, Built up its idle door, Stretched m his last-found home, and knew the old no more.

Thanks for the heavenly message brought by thee, Child of the wandering sea, Cast from her lap, forlorn! From thy dead lips a clearer note is born Than ever Triton blew from wreathed horn! While on mine ear it rings, Through the deep caves of thought I hear a voice that sings:—

Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul, As the swift seasons roll! Leave thy low-vaulted past! Let each new temple, nobler than the last, Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast, Till thou at length art free, Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea!



CONTENTMENT

"Man wants but little here below." Little I ask; my wants are few; I only wish a hut of stone, (A very plain, brown stone' will do,) That I may call my own; And close at hand is such a one, In yonder street that fronts the sun.

Plain food is quite enough for me; Three courses are as good as ten; If Nature can subsist on three, Thank Heaven for three. Amen! I always thought cold victual nice;— My choice would be vanilla-ice.

I care not much for gold or land; Give me a mortgage here and there, Some good bank-stock, some note of hand, Or trifling railroad share,— I only ask that Fortune send A little more than I shall spend.

Honors are silly toys, I know, And titles are but empty names; I would, perhaps, be Plenipo,— But only near St. James; I'm very sure I should not care To fill our Gubernator's chair.

Jewels are bawbles; 'tis a sin To care for such unfruitful things; One good-sized diamond in a pin,— Some, not so large, in rings,— A ruby, and a pearl, or so, Will do for me;—I laugh at show.

My dame should dress in cheap attire; (Good, heavy silks are never dear;) I own perhaps I might desire Some shawls of true Cashmere,— Some marrowy crapes of China silk, Like wrinkled skins on scalded milk.

I would not have the horse I drive So fast that folks must stop and stare; An easy gait—two, forty-five— Suits me; I do not care; Perhaps, for just a single spurt, Some seconds less would do no hurt.

Of pictures, I should like to own Titians and Raphaels three or four, I love so much their style and tone,— One Turner, and no more, (A landscape,—foreground golden dirt,— The sunshine painted with a 'squirt.)

Of books but few,—some fifty score For daily use, and bound for wear; The rest upon an upper floor;— Some little luxury there Of red morocco's gilded gleam, And vellum rich as country cream.

Busts, cameos, gems,—such things as these, Which others often show for pride, I value for their power to please, And selfish churls deride;— One Stradivarius, I confess, Two Meerschaums, I would fain possess.

Wealth's wasteful tricks I will not learn Nor ape the glittering upstart fool; Shall not carved tables serve my turn, But all must be of buhl? Give grasping pomp its double share,— I ask but one recumbent chair.

Thus humble let me live and die, Nor long for Midas' golden touch; If Heaven more generous gifts deny, I shall not miss them much,— Too grateful for the blessing lent Of simple tastes and mind content!



THE DEACON'S MASTERPIECE;

or

THE WONDERFUL "ONE-HOSS SHAY"

A LOGICAL STORY

Have you heard of the wonderful one-horse shay, That was built in such a logical way It ran a hundred years to a day, And then, of a sudden, it—ah but stay, I'll tell you what happened without delay, Scaring the parson into fits, Frightening people out of their wits, Have you ever heard of that, I say?

Seventeen hundred and fifty-five, Georgius Secundus was then alive, Snuffy old drone from the German hive. That was the year when Lisbon-town Saw the earth open and gulp her down And Braddock's army was done so brown, Left without a scalp to its crown. It was on the terrible Earthquake-day That the Deacon finished the one-hoss shay.

Now in building of chaises, I tell you what, There is always somewhere a weakest spot,— In hub, tire, felloe, in spring or thill, In panel, or crossbar, or floor, or sill, In screw, bolt, thoroughbrace,—lurking still, Find it somewhere you must and will,— Above or below, or within or without,— And that's the reason, beyond a doubt, That a chaise breaks down, but doesn't wear out.

But the Deacon swore (as Deacons do, With an "I dew vum," or an "I tell yeou,") He would build one shay to beat the taown 'n' the keounty 'n' all the kentry raoun'; It should be so built that it couldn' break daown, "Fur," said the Deacon, "It's mighty plain Thut the weakes' place mus' Stan' the strain; 'n' the way t' fix it, uz I maintain, Is only jest T' make that place uz strong uz the rest."

So the Deacon inquired of the village folk Where he could find the strongest oak, That couldn't be split nor bent nor broke, That was for spokes and floor and sills; He sent for lancewood to make the thins; The crossbars were ash, from the straightest trees. The panels of white-wood, that cuts like cheese, But lasts like iron for things like these; The hubs of logs from the "Settler's ellum,"—

Last of its timber,—they couldn't sell 'em, Never an axe had seen their chips, And the wedges flew from between their lips, Their blunt ends frizzled like celery-tips; Step and prop-iron, bolt and screw, Spring, tire, axle, and linchpin too, Steel of the finest, bright and blue; Thoroughbrace bison-skin, thick and wide; Boot, top, dasher, from tough old hide Found in the pit when the tanner died. That was the way he "put her through." "There!" said the Deacon, "naow she'll dew!"

Do! I tell you, I rather guess She was a wonder, and nothing less! Colts grew horses, beards turned gray, Deacon and deaconess dropped away, Children and grandchildren—where were they? But there stood the stout old one-hoss shay As fresh as on Lisbon-earthquake-day

EIGHTEEN HUNDRED;—it came and found The Deacon's masterpiece strong and sound. Eighteen hundred increased by ten;— "Hahnsum kerridge" they called it then. Eighteen hundred and twenty came;— Running as usual; much the same. Thirty and forty at last arrive, And then come fifty, and FIFTY-FIVE.

Little of all we value here Wakes on the morn of its hundredth year Without both feeling and looking queer. In fact, there's nothing that keeps its youth, So far as I know but a tree and truth. (This is a moral that runs at large; Take it.—You're welcome.—No extra charge.)

FIRST of NOVEMBER,—the Earthquake-day— There are traces of age in the one-hoss shay, A general flavor of mild decay, But nothing local, as one may say. There couldn't be,—for the Deacon's art Had made it so like in every part That there wasn't a chance for one to start. For the wheels were just as strong as the thins, And the floor was just as strong as the sills, And the panels just as strong as the floors And the whipple-tree neither less nor more, And the back-crossbar as strong as the fore, And spring and axle and hub encore. And yet, as a whole, it is past a doubt In another hour it will be worn out!

First of November, 'Fifty-five! This morning the parson takes a drive. Now, small boys, get out of the way! Here comes the wonderful one-hoss shay, Drawn by a rat-tailed, ewe-necked bay. "Huddup!" said the parson.—Off went they. The parson was working his Sunday's text,— Had got to fifthly, and stopped perplexed At what the—Moses—was coming next.

All at once the horse stood still, Close by the meet'n'-house on the hill. First a shiver, and then a thrill, Then something decidedly like a spill,— And the parson was sitting upon a rock, At half past nine by the meet'n'-house clock— Just the hour of the Earthquake shock!

What do you think the parson found, When he got up and stared around? The poor old chaise in a heap or mound, As if it had been to the mill and ground! You see, of course, if you're not a dunce, How it went to pieces all at once, All at once, and nothing first, Just as bubbles do when they burst.

End of the wonderful one-boss shay. Logic is logic. That's all I say.



THOMAS BUCHANAN READ



STORM ON ST. BERNARD

Oh, Heaven, it is a fearful thing Beneath the tempest's beating wing To struggle, like a stricken hare When swoops the monarch bird of air; To breast the loud winds' fitful spasms, To brave the cloud and shun the chasms, Tossed like a fretted shallop-sail Between the ocean and the gale.

Along the valley, loud and fleet, The rising tempest leapt and roared, And scaled the Alp, till from his seat The throned Eternity of Snow His frequent avalanches poured In thunder to the storm below.

And now, to crown their fears, a roar Like ocean battling with the shore, Or like that sound which night and day Breaks through Niagara's veil of spray, From some great height within the cloud,

To some unmeasured valley driven, Swept down, and with a voice so loud It seemed as it would shatter heaven! The bravest quailed; it swept so near, It made the ruddiest cheek to blanch, While look replied to look in fear, "The avalanche! The avalanche!" It forced the foremost to recoil, Before its sideward billows thrown,— Who cried, "O God! Here ends our toil! The path is overswept and gone!"

The night came down. The ghostly dark, Made ghostlier by its sheet of snow, Wailed round them its tempestuous wo, Like Death's announcing courier! "Hark There, heard you not the alp-hound's bark? And there again! and there! Ah, no, 'Tis but the blast that mocks us so!"

Then through the thick and blackening mist Death glared on them, and breathed so near, Some felt his breath grow almost warm, The while he whispered in their ear Of sleep that should out-dream the storm. Then lower drooped their lids,—when, "List! Now, heard you not the storm-bell ring? And there again, and twice and thrice! Ah, no, 'tis but the thundering Of tempests on a crag of ice!"

Death smiled on them, and it seemed good On such a mellow bed to lie The storm was like a lullaby, And drowsy pleasure soothed their blood. But still the sturdy, practised guide His unremitting labour plied; Now this one shook until he woke, And closer wrapt the other's cloak,— Still shouting with his utmost breath, To startle back the hand of Death, Brave words of cheer! "But, hark again,— Between the blasts the sound is plain; The storm, inhaling, lulls,—and hark! It is—it is! the alp-dog's bark And on the tempest's passing swell— The voice of cheer so long debarred— There swings the Convent's guiding-bell, The sacred bell of Saint Bernard!"



DRIFTING

My soul to-day Is far away, Sailing the Vesuvian Bay; My winged boat A bird afloat, Swings round the purple peaks remote:—

Round purple peaks It sails, and seeks Blue inlets and their crystal creeks, Where high rocks throw, Through deeps below, A duplicated golden glow.

Far, vague, and dim, The mountains swim; While an Vesuvius' misty brim, With outstretched hands, The gray smoke stands O'erlooking the volcanic lands.

Here Ischia smiles O'er liquid miles; And yonder, bluest of the isles, Calm Capri waits, Her sapphire gates Beguiling to her bright estates.

I heed not, if My rippling skiff Float swift or slow from cliff to cliff; With dreamful eyes My spirit lies Under the walls of Paradise.

Under the walls Where swells and falls The Bay's deep breast at intervals At peace I lie, Blown softly by, A cloud upon this liquid sky.

The day, so mild, Is Heaven's own child, With Earth and Ocean reconciled; The airs I feel Around me steal Are murmuring to the murmuring keel.

Over the rail My hand I trail Within the shadow of the sail, A joy intense, The cooling sense Glides down my drowsy indolence.

With dreamful eyes My spirit lies Where Summer sings and never dies, O'erveiled with vines She glows and shines Among her future oil and wines.

Her children, hid The cliffs amid, Are gambolling with the gambolling kid; Or down the walls, With tipsy calls, Laugh on the rocks like waterfalls.

The fisher's child, With tresses wild, Unto the smooth, bright sand beguiled, With glowing lips Sings as she skips, Or gazes at the far-off ships.

Yon deep bark goes Where traffic blows, From lands of sun to lands of snows; This happier one,— Its course is run From lands of snow to lands of sun.

O happy ship, To rise and dip, With the blue crystal at your lip! O happy crew, My heart with you Sails, and sails, and sings anew!

No more, no more The worldly shore Upbraids me with its loud uproar With dreamful eyes My spirit lies Under the walls of Paradise!



WALT WHITMAN



PIONEERS! O PIONEERS!

(Selection)

Come, my tan-faced children, Follow well in order, get your weapons ready; Have you your pistols? have you your sharp-edged axes? Pioneers! O pioneers!

For we cannot tarry here; We must march, my darlings, we must bear the brunt of danger, We the youthful sinewy races, all the rest on us depend, Pioneers! O pioneers

O you youths, Western youths, So impatient, full of action, full of manly pride and friendship, Plain I see you, Western youths, see you tramping with the foremost, Pioneers! O pioneers

Have the elder races halted? Do they droop and end their lesson, wearied over there beyond the seas? We take up the task eternal, and the burden and the lesson, Pioneers! O pioneers!

All the past we leave behind, We debouch upon a newer mightier world, varied world; Fresh and strong the world we seize, world of labor and the march, Pioneers! O pioneers

We detachments steady throwing, Down the edges, through the passes, up the mountains steep, Conquering, holding, daring, venturing as we go the unknown ways, Pioneers! O pioneers!

We primeval forests felling, We the rivers stemming, vexing and piercing deep the mines within, We the surface broad surveying, we the virgin soil upheaving, Pioneers! O pioneers!

Colorado men are we; From the peaks gigantic, from the great Sierras and the high plateaus, From the mine and from the gully, from the hunting trail, we come, Pioneers! O pioneers!

From Nebraska, from Arkansas, Central inland race are we, from Missouri, with the continental blood intervein'd; All the hands of comrades clasping, all the Southern, all the Northern, Pioneers! O pioneers!

O resistless restless race! O beloved race in all! O my-breast aches with tender love for all! O I mourn and yet exult, I am rapt with love for all, Pioneers! O pioneers!

Raise the mighty mother mistress, Waving high the delicate mistress, over all the starry mistress (bend your heads all), Raise the fang'd and warlike mistress, stern, impassive, weapon'd mistress, Pioneers! O pioneers!

See, my children, resolute children, By those swarms upon our rear we must never yield or falter, Ages back in ghostly millions frowning there behind us urging, Pioneers! O pioneers!

On and on the compact ranks, With accessions ever waiting, with the places of the dead quickly fill'd, Through the battle, through defeat, moving yet and never stopping, Pioneers! O pioneers!

Minstrels latent on the prairies (Shrouded bards of other lands, you may rest, you have done your work), Soon I hear you coming warbling, soon you rise and tramp amid us, Pioneers! 0 pioneers!

Not for delectations sweet, Not the cushion and the slipper, not the peaceful, and the studious, Not the riches safe and palling, not for us the tame enjoyment, Pioneers! O Pioneers!

Do the feasters gluttonous feast? Do the corpulent sleepers sleep? have they lock'd and bolted doors? Still be ours the diet hard, and the blanket on the ground, Pioneers! O pioneers!

Has the night descended? Was the road of late so toilsome? did we stop discouraged nodding on our way? Yet a passing hour I yield you in your tracks to pause oblivious, Pioneers! 0 pioneers

Till with sound of trumpet, Far, far off the daybreak call—hark! how loud and clear I hear it wind! Swift! to the head of the army!—swift! Spring to your places, Pioneers! O pioneers!



O CAPTAIN! MY CAPTAIN!

O Captain! My Captain! our fearful trip is done The ship has weather'd every rack; the prize we sought is won; The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting, While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring. But O heart! heart! heart! O the bleeding drops of red, Where on the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead.

O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells; Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills— For you bouquets and ribbon'd wreaths—for you the shores a-crowding For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning. Here, Captain! dear father! This arm beneath your head! It is some dream that on the deck You've fallen cold and dead.

My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still; My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will. The ship is anchor'd safe and sound, its voyage closed and done; From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won. Exult, O shores! and ring, O bells! But I with mournful tread Walk the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead.



NOTES

ANNE DUDLEY BRADSTREET

"One wishes she were more winning: yet there is no gainsaying that she was clever; wonderfully well instructed for those days; a keen and close observer; often dexterous in her verse—catching betimes upon epithets that are very picturesque: But—the Tenth Muse is too rash."

—DONALD G. MITCHELL.

Born in England, she married at sixteen and came to Boston, where she always considered herself an exile. In 1644 her husband moved deeper into the wilderness and there "the first professional poet of New England" wrote her poems and brought up a family of eight children. Her English publisher called her the "Tenth Muse, lately sprung up in America."

CONTEMPLATION

2. Phoebus: Apollo, the Greek sun god, hence in poetry the sun. 7. delectable giving pleasure. 13. Dight: adorned.



MICHAEL WIGGLESWORTH (1631-1705)

"He was, himself, in nearly all respects, the embodiment of what was great earnest, and sad, in Colonial New England.... In spite, however, of all offences, of all defects, there are in his poetry an irresistible sincerity, a reality, a vividness, reminding one of similar qualities in the prose of John Bunyan."

M. C. TYLER.

Born in England, he was brought to America at the age of seven. He graduated from Harvard College and then became a preacher. He later added the profession of medicine and practiced both professions.

THE DAY of DOOM

There seems to be no doubt that this poem was the most popular piece of literature, aside from the Bible, in the New England Puritan colonies. Children memorized it, and its considerable length made it sufficient for many Sunday afternoons. Notice the double attempt at rhyme; the first, third, fifth, and seventh lines rhyme within themselves; the second line rhymes with the fourth, the sixth with the eighth. The pronunciation in such lines as 35, 77, 79, 93, 99, 105, and 107 requires adaptation to rhyme, as does the grammar in line 81, for example.

3. carnal: belonging merely to this world as opposed to spiritual.

11-15. See Matthew 25: 1-13.

40. wonted steads: customary places



PHILIP FRENEAU (1752-1832)

"The greatest poet born in America before the Revolutionary War.... His best poems are a few short lyrics, remarkable for their simplicity, sincerity, and love of nature."

-REUBEN P. HALLECK.

Born in New York, he graduated from Princeton at the age of nineteen and became school teacher, sea captain, interpreter, editor, and poet. He lost his way in a severe storm and was found dead the next day.

TO A HONEY BEE

29-30. Pharaoh: King of Egypt in the time of Joseph, who perished in the Red Sea. See Exodus, Chapter xiv.

34. epitaph: an inscription in memory of the dead.

36. Charon: the Greek mythical boatman on the River Styx.

EUTAW SPRINGS

Eutaw Springs. Sept. 8th 1781, the Americans under General Greene fought a battle which was successful for the Americans, since Georgia and the Carolinas were freed from English invasion.

21. Greene: Nathanael Greene of Rhode Island was one of the men who became a leader early in the war and who in spite of opposition and failure stood by the American cause through all the hard days of the war.

25. Parthian: the soldiers of Parthia were celebrated as horse-archers. Their mail-clad horseman spread like a cloud round the hostile army and poured in a shower of darts. Then they evaded any closer conflict by a rapid flight, during which they still shot their arrows backwards upon the enemy. See Smith, Classical Dictionary.



FRANCIS HOPKINSON (1737-1791)

He was "a mathematician, a chemist, a physicist, a mechanician, an inventor, a musician and a composer of music, a man of literary knowledge and practice, a writer of airy and dainty songs, a clever artist with pencil and brush, and a humorist of unmistakable power."

—MOSES COLT TYLER.

Born in Philadelphia, he graduated from the College of Philadelphia and began the practice of law. He signed the Declaration of Independence and held various offices under the federal government. "The Battle of the Kegs" is his best-known production.

THE BATTLE of THE KEGS

59. Stomach: courage.



JOSEPH HOPKINSON (1770-1842)

"His legal essays and decisions were long accepted as authoritative; but he will be longest remembered for his national song, 'Hail Columbia,' written in 1798, which attained immediate popularity and did much to fortify wavering patriotism."

—NEW INTERNATIONAL ENCYCLOPEDIA

THE BALLAD of NATHAN HALE

For the story of Nathan Hale see any good history of the American Revolution. He is honored by the students of Yale as one of its noblest graduates, and the building in which he lived has been remodeled and marked with a memorial tablet, while a bronze statue stands before it. This is the last of Yale's old buildings and will now remain for many years.

31. minions: servile favorites.

48. presage: foretell.



TIMOTHY DWIGHT (1752-1817)

"He was in many ways the first of the great modern college presidents; if his was the day of small things, he nevertheless did so many of them and did them so well that he deserves admiration."

—WILLIAM P. TRENT.

Born in Northampton, Mass., he graduated from Yale and was then made a tutor there. He became an army chaplain in 1777, but his father's death made his return home necessary. He became a preacher later and finally president of Yale. His hymn, "Love to the Church," is the one thing we most want to keep of all his several volumes.



SAMUEL WOODWORTH (1785-1842)

"Our best patriotic ballads and popular lyrics are, of course, based upon sentiment, aptly expressed by the poet and instinctively felt by the reader. Hence just is the fame and true is the love bestowed upon the choicest songs of our 'single-poem poets': upon Samuel Woodworth's 'Old Oaken Bucket,' etc." —CHARLES F. RICHARDSON.

Born at Scituate, Mass., he had very little education. His father apprenticed him to a Boston printer while he was a young boy. He remained in the newspaper business all his life, and wrote numerous poems, and several operas which were produced.



WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT (1794-1878)

"A moralist, dealing chiefly with death and the more sombre phases of life, a lover and interpreter of nature, a champion of democracy and human freedom, in each of these capacities he was destined to do effective service for his countrymen, and this work was, as it were, cut out for him in his youth, when he was laboring in the fields, attending corn-huskings and cabin-raisings, or musing beside forest streams."

—W. P. TRENT.

Born in a mill-town village in western Massachusetts, he passed his boyhood on the farm. Unable to complete his college course, he practiced law until 1824, when he became editor of the New York Review. He continued all his life to be a man of letters.

The poems by Bryant are used by permission of D. Appleton and Company, authorized publishers of his works.

THANATOPSIS

34. patriarchs of the infant world: the leaders of the Hebrews before the days of history.

61. Barcan wilderness: waste of North Africa.

54. Why does Bryant suggest "the wings of the morning" to begin such a survey of the world? Would he choose the Oregon now?

28. ape: mimic.

This poem is very simple in its form and is typical of Bryant's nature poems. First, is his observation of the waterfowl's flight and his question about it. Secondly, the answer is given. Thirdly, the application is made to human nature. Do you find such a comparison of nature and human nature in any other poems by Bryant?

9. plashy: swampy.

15. illimitable: boundless.

GREEN RIVER

Green River, flows near Great Barrington where Bryant practised law.

33. simpler: a collector of herbs for medicinal use.

58. This reference to Bryant's profession is noteworthy. His ambition for a thorough literary training was abandoned on account of poverty. He then took up the study of law and practiced it in Great Barrington, Mass., for nine years. His dislike of this profession is here very plainly shown. He abandoned it entirely in 1824 and gave himself to literature. "I Broke the Spell That Held Me Long" also throws a light on his choice of a life work.

THE WEST WIND

With this may be compared with profit Shelley's "Ode to the West Wind" and Kingsley's "Ode to the Northeast Wind." State the contrast between the ideas of the west wind held by Shelley and by Bryant.

A FOREST HYMN

2. architrave: the beam resting on the top of the column and supporting the frieze.

5. From these details can you form a picture of this temple in its exterior and interior? Is it like a modern church?

darkling: dimly seen; a poetic word. Do you find any other adjectives in this poem which are poetic words?

23. Why is the poem divided here? Is the thought divided? Connected? Can you account in the same way for the divisions at lines 68 and 89?

34. vaults: arched ceilings.

44. instinct: alive, animated by.

66. emanation: that which proceeds from a source, as fragrance is an emanation from flowers.

89. This idea that death is the source of other life everywhere in nature is a favorite one with Bryant. It is the fundamental thought in his first poem, "Thanatopsis" (A View of Death), which may be read in connection with "The Forest Hymn."

96. Emerson discusses this question in "The Problem," See selections from Emerson.

THE DEATH OF THE FLOWERS

26. Bryant's favorite sister, Mrs. Sarah Bryant Shaw, died shortly after her marriage, of tuberculosis. This poem alludes to her and is in its early lines the saddest poem Bryant ever wrote. Notice the change of tone near the end.

29. unmeet: unsuitable.

THE GLADNESS OF NATURE

b. hang-bird: the American oriole, which hangs its nest from a branch.

8. wilding: the wild bee which belongs to no hive.

To THE FRINGED GENTIAN

No description of this flower can give an adequate idea of its beauty. The following account, from Reed's "Flower Guide, East of the Rockies," expresses the charm of the flower well: "Fringed Gentian because of its exquisite beauty and comparative rarity is one of the most highly prized of our wild flowers." "During September and October we may find these blossoms fully expanded, delicate, vase-shaped creations with four spreading deeply fringed lobes bearing no resemblance in shape or form to any other American species. The color is a violet-blue, the color that is most attractive to bumblebees, and it is to these insects that the flower is indebted for the setting of its seed.... The flowers are wide open only during sunshine, furling in their peculiar twisted manner on cloudy days and at night. In moist woods from Maine to Minnesota and southwards."

This guide gives a good colored picture of the flower as do Matthews' "Field Guide to American Wildflowers" and many other flower books.

8. ground-bird: the vesper sparrow, so called because of its habit of singing in the late evening. Its nest is made of grass and placed in a depression on the ground.

11. portend: indicate by a sign that some event, usually evil, is about to happen.

16. cerulean: deep, clear blue.

SONG of MARION'S MEN

4. Marion, Francis (1732-1795), in 1750 took command of the militia of South Carolina and carried on a vigorous partisan warfare against the English. Colonel Tarleton failed o find "the old swamp fox," as he named him, because the swamp paths of South Carolina were well known to him. See McCrady, "South Carolina in the Revolution," for full particulars of his life.

21. deem: expect.

30. up: over, as in the current expression, "the time is up."

41. barb: a horse of the breed introduced by the Moors From Barbary into Spain and noted for speed and endurance.

49. Santee: a river in South Carolina.

32. throes: agony.

44. Compare this final thought with the solution in "To a "Waterfowl."

THE CROWDED STREET

32. throes: agony

44. Compare this final thought with the solution in "To a Waterfowl."

THE SNOW-SHOWER

All the New England poets felt the charm of falling snow, and several have written on the theme. In connection with this poem read Emerson's "Snow-Storm" and Whittier's "The Frost Spirit." The best known of all is Whittier's "Snow-Bound "; the first hundred and fifty lines may well be read here.

9. living swarm: like a swarm of bees from the hidden chambers of the hive.

12. prone: straight down.

17. snow-stars: what are the shapes of snowflakes

20. Milky way: the white path which seems to lead acre. The sky at night and which is composed of millions of stars.

21. burlier: larger and stronger.

35. myriads: vast, indefinite number.

37. middle: as the cloud seems to be between us and the blue sky, so the snowflakes before they fell occupied a middle position.

ROBERT of LINCOLN

"Robert of Lincoln" is the happiest, merriest poem written by Bryant. It is characteristic of the man that it should deal with a nature topic. In what ways does he secure the merriment?

Analyze each stanza as to structure. Does the punctuation help to indicate the speaker?

Look up the Bobolink in the Bird Guide or some similar book. How much actual information did Bryant have about the bird? Compare the amount of bird-lore given here with that of Shelley's or Wordsworth's "To a Skylark." Which is more poetic? Which interests you more?

THE POET

5. deem: consider. Compare with the use in the "Song of Marion's Men," 1.21.

8. wreak: carry them out in your verse. The word usually has an angry idea associated with it. The suggestion may be here of the frenzy of a poet.

26. unaptly: not suitable to the occasion.

30. Only in a moment of great emotion (rapture) should the poet revise a poem which was penned when his heart was on fire with the idea of the poem.

38. limn: describe vividly.

54. By this test where would you place Bryant himself? Did he do what he here advises? In what poems do you see evidences of such a method? Compare your idea of him with Lowell's estimate in "A Fable for Critics," ll. 35-56.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

In connection with this poem the following stanza from "The Battle-Field" seems very appropriate:

"Truth, crushed to Earth, shill rise again; The eternal years of God are hers; But Error, wounded, writhes with pain, And dies among his worshippers."

The American people certainly felt that Truth was Brushed to Earth with Lincoln's death, but believed that it would triumph.



FRANCIS SCOTT KEY (1780-1843)

Born in Maryland, he graduated from St. John's College, Md., and practiced law in Frederick City, Md. He was district attorney for the District of Columbia during the War of 1812 and while imprisoned by the British on board the ship Minden, Sept. 13, 1814, he witnessed the British attack on Fort McHenry and wrote this national anthem.

THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER

30. Why is this mentioned as our motto?



JOSEPH RODMAN DRAKE (1795-1820)

The "Culprit Fay" is so much better than American poetry had previously been that one is at first disposed to speak of it enthusiastically. An obvious comparison puts it in true perspective. Drake's life happened nearly to coincide with that of Keats.... Amid the full fervor of European experience Keats produced immortal work; Drake, whose whole life was passed amid the national inexperience of New York, produced only pretty fancies."

—BARRETT WENDELL.

Born in New York, he practiced medicine there. He died of tuberculosis at the age of twenty-five, and left behind him manuscript verses which were later published by his daughter. "The Culprit Fay," from which selections are here given, is generally considered one of the best productions of early American literature.

THE AMERICAN FLAG

6. milky baldric: the white band supposed by the ancients to circle the earth and called the zodiac. He may here mean the Milky Way as part of this band.

46. careering: rushing swiftly.

47. bellied: rounded, filled out by the gale.

56. welkin: sky.

THE CULPRIT FAY

25. ising-stars: particles of mica.

30. minim: smallest. What objection may be made to this word?

37. Ouphe: elf or goblin.

45. behest: command.

78. shandy: resembling a shell or a scale.

94. oozy: muddy.

107. colen-bell: coined by Drake, probably the columbine.

114. nightshade: a flower also called henbane or belladonna. dern: drear.

119. thrids: threads, makes his way through.

160. prong: probably a prawn; used in this sense only in this one passage.

165. quarl: jelly fish.

178. wake-line: showing by a line of foam the course over which he has passed.

193. amain: at full speed.

210. banned: cursed as by a supernatural power.

216. henbane: see note on line 114.

223. fatal: destined to determine his fate.

245. sculler's notch: depression in which the oar rested.

255. wimpled: undulated.

257. athwart: across.

306. glossed: having gloss, or brightness.

329. This is only the first of the exploits of the Culprit Fay. The second quest is described by the monarch as follows

"If the spray-bead gem be won, The stain of thy wing is washed away, But another errand must be done Ere thy crime be lost for aye; Thy flame-wood lamp is quenched and dark, Thou must re-illume its spark. Mount thy steed and spur him high To the heaven's blue canopy; And when thou seest a shooting star, Follow it fast, and follow it far The last feint spark of its burning train Shall light the elfin lamp again."



FITZ-GREENE HALLECK (1790-1867)

"The poems of Halleck are written with great care and finish, and manifest the possession of a fine sense of harmony and of genial and elevated sentiments."

—ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA.

Born in Guilford, Conn., he was the closest friend of Drake, at whose death he wrote his best poem, which is given in this collection. "Marco Bozzaris" aroused great enthusiasm, which has now waned in favor of his simple lines, "On the Death of Joseph Rodman Drake."

MARCO BOZZAARIS

Marco Bozzaris (c. 1790-1823) was a prominent leader in the struggle for Greek liberty and won many victories from the Turks. During the night of August 20, 1823, the Greeks won a complete victory which was saddened by the loss of Bozzaris, who fell while leading his men to the final attack.

13. Suliote: a tribe of Turkish subjects of mixed Greek and Albanian blood, who steadily opposed Turkish rule and won for themselves a reputation for bravery. They fought for Grecian independence under Marco Bozzaris.

16-22. These lines refer to the military history of Greece. See Encyclopedia Britannica—article on Greece (Persian Wars subtitle) for account of the Persian invasion and battle of Plataea.

79. What land did Columbus see first? Where did he from? Why then is he called a Genoese?

107. pilgrim-circled: visited by pilgrims as are shrines.



JOHN HOWARD PAYNE (1791—1802)

Born in New York, he graduated from Union College and later went on the stage. He was appointed U.S. Consul to Tunis, where he died. He is now best remembered by "home Sweet Home" from one of his operas.



EDGAR ALLAN POE (1809-1849)

"Small as the quantity of his true verse is, it more sustains his peculiar genius in American eyes than does his prose; and this is because it is so unique. He stands absolutely alone as a poet, with none like him." —GEORGE E. WOODBURY

Born in Boston, he spent most of his literary years in New York. His parents, both actors, died when he was still a little child, and he was adopted by Mr. Allan, who educated him in Europe. He served as literary editor and hack writer for several journals and finally died in poverty.

TO HELEN

"To Helen" is said to have been written in 1823, when Poe was only fourteen years old. It refers to Mrs. Jane Stith Stanard, the mother of one of his school friends, whose death was a terrible blow to the sensitive lad. This loss was the cause of numerous poems of sorrow for death and permanently influenced his work.

2. Nicean: Nicaea, the modern Iznik in Turkey, was anciently a Greek province.

2. Nicean barks: the Greek ships that bore the wanderer, Ulysses, from Phaeacia to his home. Read "The Wanderings of Ulysses" in Gayley's Classic Myths, Chapter XXVII.

7. hyacinth: like Hyacinthus, the fabled favorite of Apollo; hence lovely, beautiful.

8. Naiad: a nymph presiding over fountains, lakes, brooks, and wells.

14. Psyche, a beautiful maiden beloved of Cupid, whose adventure with the lamp is told in all classical mythologies.

ISRAFEL

Israfel, according to the Koran, is the angel with the sweetest voice among God's creatures. He will blow the trump on the day of resurrection.

2. The idea that Israfel's lute was more than human is taken from Moore's "Lalla Rookh," although these very words do not occur there. The reference will be found in the last hundred lines of the poem.

12. levin: lightning.

26. Houri: one of the beautiful girls who, according to the Moslem faith, are to be companions of the faithful in paradise.

LENORE

13. Peccavimus: we have sinned.

20. Avaunt: Begone! Away!

26. Paean: song of joy or triumph.

THE COLISEUM

10. Eld: antiquity.

14. See Matthew 26: 36-56.

16. The Chaldxans were the world's greatest astrologers.

26-29. Poe here uses technical architectural terms with success.

plinth: the block upon which a column or a statue rests.

shafts: the main part of a column between the base and the capital.

entablatures: the part of a building borne by the columns.

frieze: an ornamented horizontal band in the entablature.

cornices: the horizontal molded top of the entablatures.

32. corrosive: worn away by degrees; used figuratively of time.

36. At Thebes there is a statue which is supposed to be Memnon, the mythical king of Ethiopia, and which at daybreak was said to emit the music of the lyre.

EULALIE.—A SONG

19. Astarte: the Phoenician goddess of love.

THE RAVEN

41. Pallas: Greek goddess of wisdom.

46-47. Night's Plutonian shore: Pluto ruled over the powers of the lower world and over the dead. Darkness and gloom are constantly associated with him; the cypress tree was sacred to him and black victims were sacrificed to him. Why does the coming of the raven suggest this realm to the poet?

50. relevancy: appropriateness.

80. Seraphim: one of the highest orders of angels

82. respite and nepenthe: period of peace and forgetting.

89. balm in Gilead. See Jeremiah 8: 22; 46: 11 and Genesis 37: 25.

93. Aideen, fanciful spelling of Eden.

106. This line has been often criticized on the ground that a lamp could not cause any shadow on the floor if the bird sat above the door. Poe answered this charge by saying: "My conception was that of the bracket candelabrum affixed against the wall, high up above the door and bust, as is often seen in English palaces, and even in some of the better houses of New York."

What effect does this poem have upon you? Work out the rhyme scheme in the first and second stanzas. Are they alike? Does this rhyme scheme help to produce the effect of the poem? Have you noticed a similar use of "more" in any other poem? Point out striking examples of repetition, of alliteration. Are there many figures of speech here?

TO HELEN

This Helen is Mrs. Whitman.

15. parterre: a flower garden whose beds are arranged in a pattern and separated by walks.

48. Dian: Roman goddess representing the moon.

60. elysian: supremely happy.

65. scintillant: sending forth flashes of light.

66. Venuses: morning stars.

THE BELLS

"The Bells" originally consisted of eighteen lines, and was gradually enlarged to its present form.

10. Runic: secret, mysterious.

11. Why does Poe use this peculiar word? Compare its use with that of "euphony," 1. 26, "jangling," 1. 62, "moLotone" 1. 8'3.

26. euphony: the quality of having a pleasant sound.

72. monody: a musical composition in which some one voice-part predominates.

88. Ghouls: imaginary evil beings of the East who rob graves.

ELDORADO

6. Eldorado: any region where wealth may be obtained is abundance; hence, figuratively, the source of any abundance, as here.

21. "Valley of the Shadow" suggests death and is a fitting close to Poe's poetic work.



HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW (1807-1882)

"His verse blooms like a flower, night and day; Bees cluster round his rhymes; and twitterings Of lark and swallow, in an endless May, Are mingling with the tender songs he sings. Nor shall he cease to sing—in every lay Of Nature's voice he sings—and will alway."

—JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY.

Born in Portland, Maine, he graduated from Bowdoin College in 1825 and went abroad to prepare himself to teach the modern languages. He taught until 1854, when he became a professional author. During the remaining years of his fife he lived quietly at Craigie House in Cambridge and there he died.

The poems by Longfellow are used by permission of, and by special arrangement with, Houghton Mifflin Company, authorized publishers of his works.

HYMN To THE NIGHT

"Night, thrice welcome." "Night, undesired by Troy, but to the Greeks Thrice welcome for its interposing gloom."

-COWPER, TRANS. OF ILIAD VIII, 488.

21. Orestes-like. Orestes, the son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, avenged the death of his father by killing his mother. The Furies chased him for many years through the world until at last he found pardon and peace. The story is told in several Greek plays, but perhaps best in AEschylus' "Libation Pourers" and "Furies"

A PSALM of LIFE

"I kept it," he said, "some time in manuscript, unwilling to show it to any one, it being a voice from my inmost heart."

7. "Dust thou art": quoted from Genesis 3:19, "Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."

10. Pope in Epistle IV of his "Essay on Man" says: "0 happiness! our being's end and aim." How does Longfellow differ with him?

THE SKELETON IN ARMOR

The Skeleton in Armor. "The following Ballad was suggested to me while riding on the seashore at Newport. A year or two previous a skeleton had been dug up at Fall River, clad in broken and corroded armor; and the idea occurred to me of connecting it with the Round Tower at Newport, generally known hitherto as the Old Windmill, though now claimed by the Danes as a work of their early ancestors."

19. Skald: a Scandinavian minstrel who composed and sang or recited verses in celebration of famous deeds, heroes, and events.

"And there, in many a stormy vale, The Scald had told his wondrous tale."

—SCOTT, Lay of the Last Minstrel, can. 6, St. 22.

20. Saga: myth or heroic story.

28. ger-falcon: large falcon, much used in northern Europe in falconry.

38. were-wolf: a person who had taken the form of a wolf and had become a cannibal. The superstition was that those who had voluntarily become wolves could become men again at will.

42. corsair: pirate. Originally "corsair" was applied to privateers off the Barbary Coast who preyed upon Christian shipping under the authority of their governments.

49. "wassail-bout": festivity at which healths are drunk.

53. Berserk. Berserker was a legendary Scandinavian hero who never wore a shirt of mail. In general, a warrior who could assume the form and ferocity of wild beasts, and whom fire and iron could not harm.

94. Sea-mew: a kind of European gull.

110. Skaw: a cape on the coast of Denmark.

159. Skoal!: Hail! a toast or friendly greeting used by the Norse especially in poetry.

THE WRECK of THE HESPERUS

On Dec. 17, 1839, Longfellow wrote in his journal: "News of shipwrecks horrible, on the coast. Forty bodies washed ashore near Gloucester, one lashed to a piece of the wreck. There is a reef called Norman's Woe, where many of these took place; among others the schooner Hesperus."

On Dec. 30 he added: "Sat till one o'clock by the fire, smoking, when suddenly it came into my head to write the Ballad of the schooner Hesperus, which I accordingly did. Then went o bed, but could not sleep. New thoughts were running in my mind, and I got up to add them to the ballad. It was three by the clock."... "I feel pleased with the ballad. it hardly cost mean effort. It did not come into my mind by lines but by stanzas."

In a letter to Mr. Charles Lanman on Nov. 24, 1871, Mr. Longfellow said: "I had quite forgotten about its first publication; but I find a letter from Park Benjamin, dated Jan. 7, 1840, beginning...as follows:—

"'Your ballad, The Wreck of the Hesperus, is grand. Enclosed are twenty- five dollars (the sum you mentioned) for it, paid by the proprietors of The New World, in which glorious paper it will resplendently coruscate on Saturday next.'"

11. flaw: a sudden puff of wind.

14. Spanish Main: a term applied to that portion of the Caribbean Sea near the northeast coast of South America, including the route followed by Spanish merchant ships traveling between Europe and America.

37-48. This little dialogue reminds us of the "Erlkonig," a ballad by Goethe.

66. See Luke 8: 22-25.

60. Norman's Woe: a reef in", W. Glouster harbor, Mass.

70. carded wool. The process of carding wool, cotton, flax, etc. removes by a wire-toothed brush foreign matter and dirt, and leaves it combed out and cleansed.

THE VILLAGE BLACKSMITH

7. Crisp, and black, and long. Mr. Longfellow says that before this poem was published, he read it to his barber. The man objected that crisp black hair was never long, and as a result the author delayed publication until be was convinced in his own mind that no other adjectives would give a truer picture of the blacksmith as he saw him.

39-42. Mr. Longfellow's friends agree that these lines depict his own industry and temperament better than any others can.

IT IS NOT ALWAYS MAY

No hay pajaros en los nidos de antano. Translated in lines 12 and 24.

8. freighted: heavily laden.

EXCELSIOR

Mr. Longfellow explained fully the allegory of this poem in a letter to Mr. Henry T. Tuckerman. He said: "This (his intention) was no more than to display, in a series of pictures, the life of a man of genius, resisting all temptations, laying aside all fears, heedless of all warnings, and pressing right on to accomplish his purpose. His motto is Excelsior, 'higher.' He passes through the Alpine village,—through the rough, cold paths of the world—where the peasants cannot understand him, and where his watchword is 'an unknown tongue.' He disregards the happiness of domestic peace, and sees the glaciers—his fate—before him. He disregards the warnings of the old man's wisdom.... He answers to all, 'Higher yet'! The monks of St. Bernard are the representatives of religious forms and ceremonies, and with their oft-repeated prayer mingles the sound of his voice, telling them there is something higher than forms and ceremonies. Filled with these aspirations he perishes without having reached the perfection he longed for; and the voice heard in the air is the promise of immortality and progress ever upward."

Compare with this Tennyson's "Merlin and The Gleam," in which he tells his own experience.

7. falchion: a sword with a broad and slightly curved blade, used in the Middle Ages; hence, poetically, any type of sword.

THE DAY IS DOUR

26. In this stanza and the two following Longfellow describes what his poems have come to mean to us and the place they hold in American life. Compare with Whittier's "Dedication" to "Songs of Labor," Il. 26-36.



WALTER VON DER VOGELWEIDE

Walter von der Vogelweide: the most celebrated of medieval German lyric poets, who lived about the year 1200. He belonged to the lower order of "nobility of service." He livedin Tyrol, then the home of famous minnesingers from whom he learned his art.

4. Walter von der Vogelweide is buried in the cloisters adjoining the Neumunster church in Wurtzburg, which dates from the eleventh century.

10. The debt of the poet to the birds has been dwelt upon in many poems, the best known of which are Shelley's "Skylark" and Wordsworth's "To the Cuckoo."

27. War of Wartburg. In 1207 there occurred in this German castle, the Wartburg, a contest of the minstrels of the time. Wagner has immortalized this contest in "Tannhauser," in which he describes the victory of Walter von der Vogelweide over all the other singers.

42. Gothic spire. See note on "The Builders" 11. 17-19.

THE BUILDERS

17-19. The perfection of detail in the structure and sculpture of Gothic cathedrals may be seen in the cathedrals of Chartres and Amiens. Numerous beautiful illustrations may be found in Marriage, "The Sculptures of Chartres Cathedral," and in Ruskin, "The Bible of Amiens."

SANTA FILOMENA

Santa Filomena stands for Miss Florence Nightingale, who did remarkable work among the soldiers wounded in the Crimean War (1854-56). This poem was published in 1857 while the story of her aid was fresh in the minds of the world.

42. The palm, the lily, and the spear: St. Filomena is represented in many Catholic churches and usually with these three emblems to signify her victory, purity, and martyrdom. Sometimes an anchor replaces the palm.

THE DISCOVERER OF THE NORTH CAPE

King Alfred's Orosius. Orosius, a Spaniard of the fifth century A.D., wrote at the request of the church a history of the world down to 414 A.D. King Alfred (849-901) translated this work and added at least one important story, that of the voyages of Ohthere and Wulfstan. The part of the story used by Longfellow may be found in Cook and Tinkers's Translations from Old English Prose, in Bosworth's, and in Sweet's editions.

2. Helgoland: an island in the North Sea, belonging to Prussia.

42. Hebrides: islands west of Scotland.

90. a nameless sea. They sailed along the coast of Lapland and into the White Sea.

96-100. Alfred reports simply, "He says he was one of a party of six who killed sixty of these in two days."

116. The original says: "He made this voyage, in addition to his purpose of seeing the country, chiefly for walruses, for they have very good bone in their teeth—they brought some of these teeth to the king—and their hides are very good for ship-ropes."

SANDALPHON

Sandalphon: one of the oldest angel figures in the Jewish system. In the second century a Jewish writing described him as follows: "He is an angel who stands on the earth;.. he is taller than his fellows by the length of a journey of 500 years; he binds crowns for his Creator." These crowns are symbols of praise, and with them he brings before the Deity the prayers of men. See the Jewish Encyclopaedia for further particulars.

1. Talmud: the work which embodies the Jewish law of church and state. It consists of texts, and many commentaries and illustrations.

12. Refers to Genesis 28: 10-21.

39. Rabbinical: pertaining to Jewish rabbis or teachers of law.

44. welkin: poetical term for the sky.

48. nebulous: indistinct.

THE LANDLORD'S TALE

The "Tales of a Wayside Inn" were series of stories told on three separate days by the travelers at the Inn at Sudbury, Mass. It is the same device used by writers since the days of Chaucer, but cleverly handled furnishes an interesting setting for a variety of tales. Some of Longfellow's best-known narratives are in these series, among them the following selections.

The story is self-explanatory. It is probably the best example of the simple poetic narrative of an historic event.

107-110. The reference is to one of the seven men who were killed at Lexington—possibly to Jonathan Harrington, Jr., who dragged himself to his own door-step before he died. Many books tell the story, but the following are the most interesting; Gettemy, Chas. F. True "Story of Paul Revere:" Colburn, F., The Battle of April 19, 1775.

THE SICILIAN'S TALE

This story of King Robert of Sicily is very old, as it is found among the short stories of the Gesta Romanorum written in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.

17. seditious: tending towards disorder and treason.

52. besprent: poetic for besprinkled.

66. seneschal: the official in the household of a prince of high noble who had the supervision of feasts and ceremonies.

106. Saturnian: the fabled reign of the god Saturn was the golden age of the world, characterized by simplicity, virtue, and happiness.

110. Enceladus, the giant. Longfellow's poem "Enceladus" emphasizes this reference. For the story of the giants and the punishment of Enceladus see any good Greek mythology.

THE THEOLOGIAN'S TALE

9. dial: the sun-dial was the clock of the time.

41. iteration: repetition.

49. dole: portion.

bl. almoner: official dispenser of alms.

100. See Matthew 25: 40.



JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER (1807-1892)

"Best loved and saintliest of our singing train, Earth's noblest tributes to thy name belong. A lifelong record closed without a stain, A blameless memory shrived in deathless song."

—OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES.

Born at East Haverhill, Mass., in surroundings which he faithfully describes in "Snow-Bound," he had little education. At the age of twenty-two he secured an editorial position in Boston and continued to write all his life. For some years he devoted all his literary ability to the cause of abolition, and not until the success of "Snow-Bound" in 1866 was he free from poverty.

The poems by Whittier are used by permission of, and by special arrangement with, Houghton Mifflin Company, authorized publishers of his works.

PROEM

Proem: preface or introduction.

3. Spenser, Edmund (1552-1599). His best-known work is the "Faerie Queen."

4. Arcadian Sidney: Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586); an English courtier, soldier, and author. He stands as a model of chivalry. He was mortally wounded at the battle of Zutphen. "Arcadia" was his greatest work; hence the epithet here.

23. plummet-line: a weight suspended by a line used to test the verticality of walls, etc. Here used as if in a sounding process.

30. Compare this opinion of his own work with Lowell's comments in "A Fable for Critics." How do they agree?

32. For Whittier's opinion of Milton see also "Raphael," I. 7 0, and " Burns," 1. 104.

33. Marvell, Andrew (1621-1678): an English statesman, poet, and satirist, friend of Milton.

THE FROST SPIRIT

Whittier has an intense love and appreciation of winter. With this poem may be read "Snow Bound," the last stanzas of "Flowers in Winter," and "Lumbermen." Many others may be added to this list. Do you find this same idea in other poets?

11. Hecla: a volcano in Iceland which has had 28 known eruptions—one as late as 1878. It rises 5100 feet above the sea and has a bare irregular-shaped cone. Its appearance is extremely wild and desolate.

SONGS OF LABOR. DEDICATION

8. The o'er-sunned bloom.... In this collection of poems are a few written in his youth, the more mature works of the "summer" of his life, and the later works of his old age. The figure here is carefully carried through and gives a clear, simplified picture of his literary life.

22. Whittier himself noted that he was indebted for this line to Emerson's "Rhodora"

26-3b. Compare Longfellow's "The Day is Done" for another idea of the influence of poetry.

36. Compare Genesis 3: 17-19.

43-45. Compare Luke 2: 51-52.

THE LUMBERMEN

33. Ambijejis: lake in central Maine.

35. Millnoket: a lake in central Maine.

39. Penobscot: one of the most beutiful of Maine rivers. It is about 300 miles long and flows through the central part of the state.

42. Katahdin: Mount Katahdin is 5385 feet in height and is usually snow-covered.

BARCLAY of URY

Barclay of Ury: David Barclay (1610-1686). Served under Gustavus Adolphus, was an officer in the Scotch army during Civil War. He bought the estate of Ury, near Aberdeen, in 1648. He was arrested after the Restoration and for a short time was confined to Edinburgh Castle, where he was converted to Quakerism by a fellow prisoner. His son, also a Quaker, heard of the imprisonment mentioned in this poem and attempted to rescue his father. During the years between this trouble in 1676 and his death in 1686, the persecution seems to have been directed largely against his son. (See Dictionary of National Biography for details.) Whinier naturally felt keenly on this subject, as he himself was a Quaker.

1. Aberdeen: capital of Aberdeenshire, and chief seaport in north of Scotland; fourth Scottish town in population, industry, and wealth. The buildings of Aberdeen College, founded in 1494, are the glory of Aberdeen.

7. churl: a rude, low-bred fellow.

10. carlin: a bluff, good-natured man.

35. Lutzen: a town in Saxony where the Swedes under Gustavus Adolphus defeated the Austrians, Nov. 16, 1632.

36. Gustavus Adolphus, "The Great" (1594-1632). He was one of the great Swedish kings, and was very prominent in the Thirty Years' War (1618- 1648).

56. Tilly: Johann Tserklaes, Count von Tilly, a German imperial commander in the Thirty Years' War.

57. Walloon: a people akin to the French, inhabiting Belgium and some districts of Prussia. They have great vivacity than the Flemish, and more endurance than the French.

66. Jewry: Judea.

76. reeve: a bailiff or overseer.

31. snooded. The unmarried women of Scotland formerly wore a band around their heads to distinguish them from married women.

99. Tolbooth: Scotch word for prison.

126. This idea is expanded in the poem "Seed-time and Harvest."

RAPHAEL

Raphael Sanzio (1483-1520), the great Italian painter. Trained first by his father, later by the great Perugino. His work was done mainly in Florence and Rome.

6. This picture is the portrait of Raphael when scarcely more than a boy.

17. Gothland's sage: Sweden's wise man, Emanuel Swedenborg.

36. Raphael painted many madonnas, but the word "drooped" limits this description. Several might be included under this: "The Small Holy Family," "The Virgin with the Rose," or, most probable of all to me, "The Madonna of the Chair."

37. the Desert John: John the Baptist.

40. "The Transfiguration" is not as well known as some of the madonnas, but shows in wonderful manner Raphael's ability to handle a large group of people, without detracting from the central figure. It is now in the Vatican Gallery, at Rome.

42. There are few great Old Testament stories which are not depicted by Raphael. Among them are The Passage Through Jordan, The Fall of Jericho, Joshua Staying the Sun, David and Goliath, The Judgment of Solomon, The Building of the Temple, Moses Bringing the Tables of the Law, the Golden Calf, and many others equally well known.

45. Fornarina. This well-known portrait is now in the Palazzo Barberini in Rome.

70. holy song on Milton's tuneful ear. Poetry and painting are here spoken of together as producing permanent effects, and from the figure he uses we may add music to the list. Compare Longfellow's "The Arrow and the Song." In the last stanza the field is still further broadened until his thought is that all we do lives after us.

SEED-TIME AND HARVEST

Whittier's intense interest in Freedom is here apparent. His earlier poems were largely on the slavery question in America. His best work was not done until he began to devote his poetic ability to a wider range of subjects.

26. See Longfellow, "A Psalm of Life," 11. 9-12 and note.

THE PROPHECY of SAMUEL SEWALL

12. Samuel Sewall is one of the most interesting characters in colonial American history. He was born in England in 1652, but came to America while still a child. He graduated from Harvard College in 1671 and finally became a justice of the peace. He was instrumental in the Salem witchcraft decision, but later bitterly repented. He made in 1697 a public confession of his share in the matter and begged that God would "not visit the sin... upon the Land."

28. Hales Reports. Sir Matthew Hale (1609-1676) was one of the most eminent judges of England. From 1671 to 1676 he occupied the position of Chief Justice of the King's Bench, the highest judicial position in England. Sewall was depending upon an authority of the day.

32. warlock's: a wizard, one who deals in incantations; synonymous with witch.

46. Theocracy: a state governed directly by the ministers of God.

58. hand-grenade: a hollow shell, filled with explosives, arranged to be thrown by hand among the enemy and to explode on impact.

73. Koordish robber. The Kurds were a nomadic people living in Kurdistan, Persia, and Caucasia. They were very savage and vindictive, specially towards Armenians. The Sheik was the leader of a clan or town and as such had great power.

81. Newbury, Mass. Judge Sewall's father was one of the founders of the town.

130-156. This prophecy is most effective in its use of local color for a spiritual purpose. Beginning with local conditions which might be changed, it broadens to include all nature which shall never grow old.

SKIPPER IRESON'S RIDE

Skipper Ireson's Ride. Whittier was told after this poem was published that it was not historically accurate, since the crew and not Skipper Ireson was to blame for the desertion of the wreck. He stated that he had founded his poem on a song sung to him when he was a boy.

3. Apuleius's Golden Ass. Apuleius was a Latin satirical writer whose greatest work was a romance or novel called "The Golden Ass." The hero is by chance changed into an ass,, and has all sorts of adventures until he is finally freed from the magic by eating roses in the hands of a priest of Isis.

3. one-eyed Calendar's horse of brass. See the Arabian Nights' Entertainments for the story of the one-eyed beggar.

6. Al-Borak: according to the Moslem creed the animal brought by Gabriel to carry Mohammed to the seventh heaven. It had the face of a man, the body of a horse, the wings of an eagle, and spoke with a human voice.

11. Marblehead, in Massachusetts.

30. Maenads: the nymphs who danced and sang in honor of Bacchus, the god of vegetation and the vine.

35. Chalettr Bay, in Newfoundland, a part of the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

THE DOUBLE-HEADED SNAKE of NEWBURY

6. Deucalion flood. The python was a monstrous serpent which arose from the mud left after the flood in which Deucalion survived. The python lived in a cave on Mount Parnassus and there Apollo slew him. Deucalion and his wife, Pyrrha were saved from the flood because Zeus respected their piety. They obeyed the oracle and threw stones behind them from which sprang men and women to repopulate the earth.

9. See "The Prophecy of Samuel Sewall" for another story of Newbury town.

22. stones of Cheops: an Egyptian king, about 2900 b.c.; built the great pyramid, which is called by his name.

59. Each town in colonial days set aside certain land for free pasture-land for the inhabitants.

80. double-ganger: a double or apparition of a person; here, a reptile moving in double form.

76. Cotton Mather (1663-1728). This precocious boy entered Harvard College at eleven and graduated at fifteen. At seventeen he preached his first sermon and all his life was a zealous divine. He was undoubtedly sincere in his judgments in the cases of witchcraft and was not thoughtlessly cruel. He was a great writer and politician and a public- minded citizen.

85. Wonder-Book of Cotton Mather is his story of early New England life called Magnalia Christi Americana.

MAUD MULLER

94. astral: a lamp with peculiar construction so that the shadow is not cast directly below it.

BURNS

Burns. In connection with this poem may well be read the following poems by Robert Burns (1759-1796): "The Twa Dogs," "A Man's a Man for A' That," "Cotter's Saturday Night" (Selections), "Ye Banks and Braes o' Bonnie Doon," "Highland Mary."

40. allegory: the expression of an idea indirectly by means of a story or narrative. Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress is probably the best-known allegory. What others can you name?

67. Craigie-burn and Devon were favorite Scotch streams.

71. Ayr: a river in Scotland. This whole region is full of associations with Burns. Near it he was born and there is the Auld Brig of Doon of Tam o' Shanter fame. Near the river is a Burns monument. Doon: a river of Scotland 30 miles long and running through wild and picturesque country. Burns has made it famous.

91-92. The unpleasant facts of Burns's life, due to weakness of character, should not be allowed to destroy our appreciation of what he accomplished when he was his better self.

99. Magdalen. See John 8:3-11 and many other instances in the Gospels.

103. The mournful Tuscan: Dante, who wrote "The Divine Comedy."

THE HERO

1. Bayard, Pierre Terrail (1473-1524): a French soldier who, on account of his heroism, piety, and magnanimity was called "le chevalier sans noun et sans reproche," the fearless and faultless knight. By his contemporaries he was more often called "le bon chevalier," the good knight.

6. Zutphen: an old town in Holland, which was often besieged, especially during the wars of freedom waged by the Dutch. The most celebtated fight under its walls was in September, 1586, when Sir Philip Sidney was mortally wounded.

12. See John 16: 21.

28. Sidney. See note on line 6 and Proem, note on line 4.

31. Cyllenian ranges: Mount Cyllene, in southern Greece, the fabled birthplace of Hermes.

36. Suliote. See Fitz-Greene Halleck, "Marco Bozzaris," note on line 13

42. The reference is to Samuel G. Howe, who fought as a young man for the independence of Greece.

46. Albanian: pertaining to Albania, a province of western Turkey.

78. Cadmus: mythological king of Phoenicia; was regarded as the introducer of the alphabet from Phoenicia into Greece.

86. Lancelot stands for most of us as the example of a brave knight whose life was ruined by a great weakness. Malory writes of him in "Mort d'Arthur," and Tennyson has made him well known to us.

THE ETERNAL GOODNESS

24. See John 19:23 and Matthew 9: 20-22.

36. After David had suffered, he wrote the greatest of the Psalms which are attributed to him. The idea of righteous judgement is to be found throughout them all, but seems especially strong in 9 and 147.

54. Compare Tennyson's Crossing the Bar.

THE PIPES AT LUCKNOW

9. Lowland: the south and east of Scotland; distinguished from the Highlands.

13. pibroch: a wild, irregular martial music played on Scotch bagpipes.

18. A small English garrison was in possession of the city of Lucknow at the time of the great Sepoy Mutiny in India,. They were besieged, and their rescue is described here.

32. Sir Henry Havelock commanded the relieving army.

36. Sepoy: a native East-Indian soldier, equipped like a European soldier.

51. Goomtee: a river of Hindustan.

77. Gaelic: belonging to Highland Scotch or other Celtic people.

COBBLER KEEZAR'S VISION

The element of superstition which enters into many of Whittier's poems is well illustrated here.

19. the Brocken: in the Harz Mountains in Germany.

35. swart: dark-colored.

49. See "Prophecy of Samuel Sewall," note on line 32.

52. Religion among the Pilgrim fathers was a harsh thing. What illustrations of its character did you find in the early part of this book

84. Doctor Dee: an English astrologer (1527-1608).

85. Agrippa, Heinrich Cornelius: German physician, theologian, and writer (1486-1535), who tried to turn less precious metals into gold.

89. Minnesinger. Hares Sachs (1494-1576), the famous cobbler singer, is probably referred to. For another famous minstrel see notes on Longfellow, "Walter von der Vogelweide."

139. Bingen, a city on the Rhine, has been made famous by the poem written in 1799 by Southey, "God's Judgment on a Wicked Bishop." Longfellow refers to this legend in "The Children's Hour."

140. Frankfort (on-the-Main), in Germany.

147. droughty: thirsty, wanting drink.

THE MAYFLOWERS

1. Sad Mayflower: the trailing arbutus.

14. Our years of wandering o'er. The Pilgrim fathers sought refuge in Holland, but found life there unsatisfactory, as they were not entirely free. They then set out for Virginia and almost by chance settled in New England.

RALPH WALDO EMERSON (1803-1882)

"He shaped an ideal for the commonest life, he proposed an object to the humblest seeker after truth. Look for beauty in the world around you, he said, and you shall see it everywhere. Look within, with pure eyes and simple trust, and you shall find the Deity mirrored in your own soul. Trust yourself because you trust the voice of God in your inmost consciousness."

—OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES.

Born in Boston, Mass., of a family with some literary attainments, he showed little promise of unusual ability during his years at Harvard. He became pastor of the Second Church in Boston for a time and later settled in Concord. He lectured extensively and wrote much, living a quiet, isolated life.

The poems by Emerson are used by permission of, and by special arrangement with, Houghton Mifflin Company, authorized publishers of his works.

GOOD-BYE

"Good-Bye" was written in 1823 when Emerson, a young boy, was teaching in Boston. It does not refer to his retirement to the country twelve years later, but seems a kind of prophecy.

27. lore: learning.

28. sophist: a professed teacher of wisdom.

EACH AND ALL

26. noisome offensive.

THE PROBLEM

18. canticles: hymns belonging to church service.

19. The dome of St. Peter's was the largest in the world at the time of its construction and was a great architectural achievement. Emerson feels that it, like every other work that is worth-while, was the result of a sincere heart.

20. groined: made the roofs inside the churches according to a complicated, intersecting pattern.

28. Notice the figure of speech here. Is it effective?

39-40. All the mighty buildings of the world were made first in the minds of the builder or architect, and then took form.

44. The Andes and Mt. Ararat are very ancient formations and belong to Nature at her beginning on the earth. These great buildings are so in keeping with Nature that she accepts them and forgets how modern they are.

51. Pentecost: Whitsunday, when the descent of the Holy Spirit is celebrated. Emerson says here that this spirit animates all beautiful music and sincere preaching, as it does we do at our noblest.

65. Chrysostom, Augustine, and the more modern Taylor are all great religious teachers of the world, and all urged men enter the service of the church. Augustine: Saint Augustine, the great African bishop (354- 430). He was influential mainly through his numerous writings, which are still read. His greatest work was his Confessions.

68. Taylor: Dr. Jeremy Taylor, English bishop and author (1613-1667). One writer assigns to him "the good humour of gentleman, the eloquence of an orator, the fancy of a poet, acuteness of a schoolman, the profoundness of a philosopher, the wisdom of a chancellor, the sagacity of a prophet, reason of an angel, and the piety of a saint." Why should a man so endowed be compared to Shakespeare?

THE HUMBLE-BEE

6. What characteristics of the bumblebee make animated torrid-zone applicable? Why doesn't he need to seek a milder climate in Porto Rico?

16. Epicurean: one addicted to pleasure of senses, specially eating and drinking. How does it apply to the bee?

THE SNOW-STORM

Emerson called this poem "a lecture on God's architecture, one of his beautiful works, a Day."

9. This picture is strikingly like Whittier's description of a similar day in "Snow-Bound."

13. bastions: sections of fortifications.

18. Parian wreaths were very white because the marble of Paros was pure.

21. Maugre: in spite of.

FABLE

This fable was written some years before its merits were recognized. Since then it has steadily grown in popularity.

BOSTON HYMN

16. fend: defend.

24. boreal: northern.

80. behemoth: very large beast.

THE TITMOUSE

76. impregnably: so that it can resist attack.

97. wold: Rood, forest.



JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL (1819-1891)

"As political reformer, as editor, as teacher, above all as an example of the type of scholarly gentleman that the new world was able to produce, he perhaps did more than any of his contemporaries to dignify American literature at home and to win for it respect abroad."

—W. B. CAIRNS.

Born at Cambridge, Mass., he early showed a love of literature and says that while he was a student at Harvard he read everything except the prescribed textbooks. He opened a law office in Boston, but spent his time largely in reading and writing poetry. He became professor of literature at Harvard in 1854 and later edited the Atlantic Monthly. Later he was minister to Spain and to England. In 1885 he returned to his work at Harvard, where he remained until his death in the very house in which he was born.

The poems by Lowell are used by permission of, and by special arrangement with, Houghton Mifflin Company, authorized publishers of his works.

HAKON's LAY

This poem is here given in its original form as published by Lowell in Graham's Magazine in January, 1855. It was afterwards expanded into the second canto of "The Voyage to Vinland."

With what other poems in this book may "Hakon's Lay" be compared?

3. Skald. See Longfellow, 'The Skeleton in Armor,' note on I. 19.

10. Hair and beard were both white, we are told. Who is suggested in this line as white?

17. eyried. An eagle builds its aerie or nest upon a crag or inaccessible height above ordinary birds. The simile here begun before the eagle is mentioned, and the minstrel's thoughts are spoken of as born in the aerie of his brain, high above his companions.

20. One of the finest pictures of the singing of a minstrel before his lord is found in Scott's "Waverly."

21. fletcher: arrow-maker.

31. The work of Fate cannot be done by a reed which is proverbially weak or by a stick which is cut cross-grained and hence will split easily. She does not take her arrow at random from all the poor and weak weapons which life offers, but she chooses carefully.

35. sapwood: the new wood next the bark, which is not yet hardened.

37. Much of the value of an arrow lies in its being properly feathered. So when Fate chooses, she removes all valueless feathers which will hinder success.

40. In these ways her aim Would be injured.

43. butt's: target's.

52. frothy: trivial.

64. Leif, the son of Eric, near the end of the tenth century went from Greenland to Norway and was converted to Christianity. About 1000 he sailed southward and landed at what is perhaps now Newfoundland, then went on to some part of the New England coast and there spent the winter.

61. The coming of Leif Ericson with his brave ship to Vinland was the first happening in the story of America.

61. rune: a character in the ancient alphabet.

FLOWERS

"Flowers" is another very early poem, but it was included by Lowell in his first volume, "A Year's Life," in 1841. Compare this idea of a poet's duty and opportunity with that of other American writers.

12. Look up Matthew 13: 3-9.

18. Condensed expression; for some of that seed shall surely fall in such ground that it shall bloom forever.

THE SHEPHERD OF KING ADMETUS

16. viceroy: ruler in place of the king.

44. Apollo, while he was still young, killed one of the Cyclops of Zeus and Zeus condemned him to serve a mortal Man as a shepherd. He served Admetus, as is here described, and secured many special favors for him from the gods.

COMMEMORATION ODE

3. The men who fought for the cause they loved expressed their love in the forming of a squadron instead of a poem, and wrote their praise of battle in fighting-lines instead of tetrameters.

17. guerdon: reward.

36. A creed without defenders is lifeless. When to belief in a cause is added action in its behalf, the creed lives.

60. This is as life would be without live creeds and results that will endure. Compare Whittier's "Raphael."

67. aftermath: a second crop.

79. Baal's: belonging to the local deities of the ancient Semitic race.

105. With this stanza may well be compared "The Present Crisis."

113. dote: have the intellect weakened by age.

146. Plutarch's men. Plutarch wrote the lives of the greatest men of Greece and Rome.

THE VISION of SIR LAUNFAL (PRELUDE)

7. auroral: morning.

12. Sinais. Read Exodus, Chapter 19. Why did Moses climb Mount Sinai? What would be the advantage to us if we knew when we climbed a Mount Sinai?

9-20. Wordsworth says:

"Heaven lies about us in our infancy! Shades of the prison-house begin to close Upon the growing boy," etc.

Lowell does not agree with him, and in these lines he declares that heaven is as near to the aged man as to the child, since the skies, the winds, the wood, and the sea have lessons for us always.

28. bubbles: things as useless and perishable as the child's soap-bubbles.

20-32. The great contrast! What does Lowell mean by Earth? Does he define it? Which does he love better?

79. Notice how details are accumulated to prove the hightide. Are his points definite?

91. sulphurous: so terrible as to suggest the lower world.

BIGLOW PAPERS

Lowell attempted a large task in the "Biglow Papers," and on the whole he succeeded well. He wished to discuss the current question in America under the guise of humorous Yankee attack. The first series appeared in 1848 and dealt with the problem of the Mexican War; the second series in 1866 and refers to the Civil War. From the two series are given here only three which are perhaps the best known. Mr. Hosea Biglow purports to be the writer. He is an uneducated Yankee boy who "com home (from Boston) considerabul riled." His father in No. 1, a letter, describes the process of composition as follows: "Arter I'd gone to bed I hearn Him a thrashin round like a shoot-tailed bull in flitime. The old woman ses she to me ses she, Zekle, sos she, our Hosie's gut the drollery or suthin anuther, ses she, don't you be skeered, ses I, he's oney a-makin poetery; ses I, he's ollers on hand at that ere busyness like Da & martin, and Shure enuf, cum mornin, Hosy he cum down stares full chizzle, hare on eend and cote tales flyin, and sot rite of to go reed his varses to Parson Wilbur."

WHAT MR. ROBINSON THINKS

1. Guvener B.: George Nixon Briggs of Massachusetts.

6. John P. Robinson was a lawyer (1. 59) of Lowell, Mass. Mr. Lowell had no intention of attacking the individual here; Mr. Robinson changed his party allegiance and the letter published over his signature called Lowell's attention to him.

lb. Gineral C.: General Caleb Gushing, who took a prominent part in the Mexican War, and was at this time the candidate for governor opposed to Governor Briggs.

16. pelf: money.

23. vally: value.

32. eppyletts: epaulets, the mark of an officer in the army or navy.

39. debit, per contry: makes him the debtor and on the other side credits us.

THE COURTIN'

17. crook-necks: gourds.

19. queen's-arm: musket.

33-34. He had taken at least twenty girls to the social events of the town.

68. sekle: sequel, result.

94. The Bay of Fundy has an exceptionally high tide which rises with great rapidity.

SUNTHIN' IN THE PASTORAL LINE

2. precerdents: legal decisions previously made which serve as models for later decisions.

4. this-worldify. The women in early New England dressed very simply and sternly, but the odor of musk would make them seem to belong to this world, which has beauty as well as severity.

7. clawfoot: a piece of furniture, here a chest, having clawfeet.

38. pithed with hardihood. New England people had hardihood at the center of their lives.

50. The bloodroot leaf is curled round the tiny write flower bud to protect it.

56. haggle: move slowly and with difficulty.

100. vendoo: vendue, public sale.

117. What American poets express a similar need of nearness to nature?

144. Lowell's own education was four-story: grammar school, high school, college, law school.

165. A good application of the old story of the man who killed the goose that laid the golden eggs.

157. Cap-sheaf: the top sheaf on a stack and hence the completion of any act.

165. Lowell, himself, seems to be talking in these last lines, and not young Hosea Biglow.

209. English Civil War (1642-1649), which ended in the establishment of the Commonwealth.

241. As Adam's fall "Brought death into the world, and all our woe," it was considered by all Puritans as an event of highest importance; most men agree that their wives' bonnets stand at the other end of the scale.

2&I. Crommle: Oliver Cromwell, under whom the English fought for a Commonwealth. See note on line 219.

270. After the short period of the Commonwealth, Charles II became ruler of England (1660-1685).

272. Millennium: a period when all government will be free from wickedness.

AN INDIAN-SUMMER REVERIE

5. Autumn personified as Hebe, the cupbearer of the Greek gods.

11. projected spirit. The poet's own spirit seems to take on material form in the landscape before him.

28. See the book of Ruth in the Old Testament for this exquisite story.

32. Magellan's Strait: passage discovered by Magellan when he sailed around the southern end of South America.

51. retrieves: remedies.

59. lapt: wrapped.

77. Explain this simile. Has color any part in it?

83. ensanguined: made blood-red by frost.

92. The Charles is so placid and blue that it resembles a line of the sky.

99. In connection with this description of the marshes. Lanier's "The Marshes of Glynn" may well be read, as it is the best description of marshes in American literature.

133. Compare Bryant's "Robert of Lincoln."

140. Compare this figure with Bryant's in "To a Waterfowl," 1. 2.

157. Compare with the Prelude to the Second Part of "The Vision of Sir Launfal."

163. The river Charles near its mouth is affected by the ocean tides.

178. Why is the river pictured as dumb and blind?

182. Compare Whittier's "Snow-Bound."

187. gyves: fetters.

190. Druid-like device. At Stonehenge (1. 192) in England is a confused mass of stones, some of which are in their original positions and which are supposed to have been placed by the Druids. It is possible that the sun was worshiped here, but everything about the Druids is conjecture.

201. A view near at hand is usually too detailed to be attractive. But in the twilight, near-by objects become softened, the distance fades into the horizon, and a soothing picture is formed.

209. The schools and colleges. Probably Harvard College is here included, as Lowell graduated there.

217. Compare this idea with that in the following lines from Wordsworth's "The Daffodils":

"I gazed—and gazed—but little thought What wealth the show to me had brought; For oft, when on my couch I lie In vacant or in pensive mood, They flash upon that inward eye Which is the bliss of solitude; And then my heart with pleasure fills, And dances with the daffodils."