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FAMOUS POEMS 
 EXPLAI NED 
 
 HELPS TO 
 READING WITH THE UNDERSTANDING 
 
 WITH BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES OF THE AUTHORS REPRESENTED 
 
 BY 
 
 WAITMAN BARBE, Litt. D. 
 
 ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE, 
 WEST VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 
 
 RICHARD G. BOONE, PH. D. 
 
 FORMERLY SUPERINTENDENT CINCINNATI PUBLIC SCHOOLS. AND PRESIDENT 
 MICHIGAN NORMAL COLLEGE 
 
 HINDS, NOBLE & ELDREDGE 
 PUBLISHERS 
 
 31-33-35 WEST FIFTEENTH STREET, NEW YORK CITY 
 
 ^^ 
 

 Copyright, 1909, by Hinds, Noble & Eldredge 
 
 LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
 Two CoDies Received 
 
 MAh 3f 1809 
 
 y^ Copyrifc^t Entry 
 CLASS rt XXc, No. 
 
PEEFACE 
 
 This book is intended as a hand-book for teachers 
 and as a help for students. Its purpose is to aid in the 
 comprehension and understanding, and therefore in the 
 appreciation, of literature through the poems here 
 presented. 
 
 With two or three exceptions, these poems are taken 
 from various standard School Eeaders, and most of 
 them are recognized as being among the great short 
 poems of English and American literature. Not all of 
 them, however, are found in any one set of Readers; 
 and it is hoped that the book may be found suitable 
 for use as a supplementary Eeader with any of the 
 standard series. 
 
 Literature classes in the common schools, high 
 schools, and other secondary schools, are generally 
 expected to give attention to many of these poems. 
 Moreover, there is a large and increasing number of 
 private students of literature all over the country whom 
 the author has had in mind. He would like to be of 
 some help to them. 
 
 In reading with the understanding two things are 
 essential — a clear and full knowledge of the meaning 
 of the piece read, and the vivid and definite use of the 
 
 3 
 
4 PEEFACE 
 
 imagination on the part of the reader. This book aims 
 to supply in some measure the means to the first 
 requisite. 
 
 The arrangement is, in the main, the pedagogical 
 one — the easier selections at the beginning, and the 
 more difficult ones towards the end of the book. 
 
 Following the body of the book will be found bio- 
 graphical notes, in alphabetical order, of the authors 
 represented, together with brief lists of their works 
 most worthy to be read or studied. 
 
 My grateful acknowledgments are hereby made to my 
 colleagues, Professors Eobert Allen Armstrong and 
 John Harrington Cox, of the Department of English, 
 and Dr. James Morton Callahan, of the Department 
 of History, for valuable assistance; and to Dr. Charles 
 William Kent, Professor of English Literature in the 
 University of Virginia, for looking over the manuscript. 
 
 W. B. 
 West Virginia Universitt, 
 December 1, 1908. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 TITLE AUTHOE PAGE 
 
 Introduction BicJiard Gause Boone 7 
 
 The Charge of the Light Brigade Alfred Tennyson 11 
 
 Hohenlinden Thomas .Campbell 15 
 
 The Gift of Empty Hands Sarah M. B. Piatt 18 
 
 Bannockburn Bo'bert Burns 21 
 
 The Star-Spangled Banner Francis Scott Key 23 
 
 To a Waterfowl William Cullen Bryant 27 
 
 The Sandpiper Celia Thaxter 31 
 
 The Eeaper and the Flowers Henry W. Longfellow 34 
 
 Down to Sleep Helen Hunt Jackson 36 
 
 The Bluebell Julia A. Eastman 38 
 
 Make Way for Liberty James Montgomery 41 
 
 The Eising in 1776 Thomas Buchanan Bead 46 
 
 The Singing Lesson Jean Ingelow 51 
 
 Faithless Nelly Gray Thomas Hood 55 
 
 Burial of Sir John Moore Charles Wolfe 58 
 
 The Burial of Moses Cecil Frances Alexander 61 
 
 The American Flag Joseph Eodman Dralce 65 
 
 Old Ironsides Oliver Wendell Holmes 68 
 
 The Battle of Blenheim Bobert Southey 70 
 
 Columbus Joaquin Miller 76 
 
 Chicago : October 10, 1871 Bret Harte 80 
 
 The Wreck of the Hesperus Henry W. Longfellow 81 
 
 King Solomon and the Ants. . . .John Greenleaf Whittier 87 
 
 TTie Destruction of Sennacherib .... George Gordon Byron 91 
 
 Eobin Hood John Keats 96 
 
 The Night before Waterloo George Gordon Byron 100 
 
 5 
 
 / 
 
6 CONTENTS. 
 
 TITLE AUTHOR PAGE 
 
 The Chambered Nautilus Oliver Wendell Holmes 105 
 
 Wolsey's Farewell to Cromwell William Shakespeare 108 
 
 The Eainy Day Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 113 
 
 In an Age of Fops and Toys Ealph Waldo Emerson 115 
 
 O Captain ! My Captain ! Walt Whitman 116 
 
 Aladdin James Eussell Lowell 119 
 
 The Old Clock on the Stairs Henry W. Longfellow 122 
 
 The Four Winds Charles Henry Luders 126 
 
 The Birds of Killingworth Henry W. Longfellow 128 
 
 The Light of Other Da^s Thomas Moore 141 
 
 The Isle of Long Ago Benjamin Franlclin Taylor 143 
 
 Eecessional Budyard Kipling 146 
 
 The Ladder of St. Augustine Henry W. Longfellow 149 
 
 Ichabod John Greenleaf Whittier 153 
 
 The Bugle Song Alfred Tennyson 156 
 
 Where Lies the Land? Arthur Hugh Clough 158 
 
 The Ehodora Ealph Waldo Emerson 159 
 
 The Finding of the Lyre James Eussell Lowell 161 
 
 The Sands o ' Dee Charles Kingsley 163 
 
 Abou ben Adhem Leigh Hunt 165 
 
 Gillespie Henry Newbolt 167 
 
 Excelsior Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 170 
 
 The Isles of Greece George Gordon Byron 174 
 
 On First Looking into Chapman's Homer, . . .John Keats 180 
 
 Break, Break, Break Alfred Tennyson 182 
 
 Tubal Cain Charles MacTcay 184 
 
 The Eaven Edgar Allan Foe 188 
 
 Armageddon Edwin Arnold 198 
 
 Each and All Ealph Waldo Emerson 203 
 
 Fate Bret Harte 206 
 
 Fortune Alfred Tennyson 208 
 
 Ulalume Edgar Allan Foe 209 
 
 Prospice Eobert Browning 216 
 
 Crossing the Bar , Alfred Tennyson 218 
 
INTEODUCTION 
 
 By '^earning to read," as usually understood, is 
 meant coming to know words and their surface mean- 
 ings, and how to take the obvious import of simple 
 sentences. But one may have passed into the higher 
 classes, so called, and into the secondary school even, 
 or beyond, and yet be unable to "read" with an under- 
 standing or with an enriching content. To read means 
 more than to interpret isolated words, or sentences, or 
 even groups of sentences. It means the ability to take 
 meaning from the printed page — but articulate mean- 
 ing, the meaning of the whole through thinking together 
 the meanings of the parts. If the parts are not inter- 
 preted, or are misinterpreted, the interpretation of the 
 whole suffers. Longfellow^s Rainy Day has a meaning 
 as a whole, distinct from but arising from the ideas 
 and pictures of the several stanzas and lines composing 
 it. The first stanza of that poem furnishes a fairly 
 complete picture, as does the second; but the meaning 
 of neither is the meaning of the poem. In the third 
 are summed up or converged the threads of suggestion 
 in the other two. But even this would be incomplete, 
 ineffective, without its setting in the materials of the 
 iirst and second. To read the Rainy Day implies get- 
 
 7 
 
8 INTEODUCTION 
 
 ting this articulate meaning; finding, beholding the 
 composite picture, seeing and enjoying each part in 
 terms of the whole. Moreover, both the understanding 
 and the appreciation of the whole is enhanced by the 
 content of meaning and beauty one is able to find in 
 the parts ; the clearness with which the picture elements 
 and ideas take their places in the finished product; 
 the quality and amount of experience one is able to 
 converge upon the assembled words. 
 
 To "read,"' therefore, implies, further, somewhat of 
 the dramatic sense, an educated faculty for marshalling 
 details and significant elements, and picturesque situa- 
 tions, and their maneuvering to a common end of 
 meaning. And the integrity of the whole is imperiled 
 by any defect in the understanding of the parts making 
 up the whole. One may take the meanings of all the 
 words and every line in Rainy Day, and yet fail of 
 the picture of the whole; but this is inevitably wanting 
 without those meanings. Their threads make up the 
 warp of the completed fabric. The woof, or filling, 
 must be furnished out of the riches of one's own expe- 
 rience and understanding. To "read," then, means the 
 construction of mental pictures that shall be true to 
 the materials used. 
 
 All this implies, further, an element of joy in both 
 getting and enriching the content of the text; a sense 
 of pleasure in the creative and interpreting act ; finding 
 pleasure in the picture given or made, being able to 
 domesticate it among one's own experiences. This is 
 
INTEODUCTION 9 
 
 the final test of all literature for each reader. It must 
 make its appeal as something to be embraced, and 
 fondled, and lived. It must touch the heart. But if 
 it be made up of unfamiliar experiences, or alien ideas, 
 transcendent ideals, or vague conceptions, the picture 
 suffers. Only the understanding heart reads aright — 
 the appreciative heart, the dramatic creative sense, 
 reenforced by a rich experience, the discriminating 
 mind that furnishes material for a discriminating 
 appreciation. 
 
 Literature, as one of the Fine Arts, is the product, 
 the cumulative product, of the race's effort to give 
 expression to its highest ideals concerning human 
 spirit, and the achievements of the soul. All growth in 
 the literature sense means, whatever else is implied, 
 the power and disposition to appropriate type images 
 and ideals as permanent facts in one's experience; 
 ideas and ideals in terms of which the conduct of life 
 is expressed. 
 
 This little book is an intelligent and purposeful 
 attempt to open the way for an easy access of some 
 real ideals to the heart of the pupil. Specimens of 
 what is believed to possess high literary merit only have 
 been selected; specimens, too, of beautiful imagery and 
 noble ideals; selections easily accessible to teachers, and 
 all of them suited to public school use. 
 
 It would obviously be unwise to attempt an inventory 
 of the race's ideals which such literature seeks to express ; 
 but some typical ones may be suggested as binding 
 
10 INTEODUCTION 
 
 together the great literatures of which the selections in 
 this book are examples. 
 
 Eunning through most of them is the conception of 
 the ideal individual; sometimes the ideal family rela- 
 tion; the ideal civic relation; the ideal economic 
 relation; and the ideal moral, cultural, and social 
 relations. But, always and everywhere, real literature 
 gives expression to one or another of such enduring 
 ideals, in attractive form and with appealing force. 
 It is a store of these that gives richness to mental 
 life; and it is one function of purposeful education to 
 put the child into intelligent, loving possession of them. 
 
 EiCHAED G. Boone. 
 
FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 THE CHAEGE OF THE LIGHT BEIGADE 
 
 The famous charge of the English Light Brigade, 
 immortalized in Tennyson's poem, took place at the 
 battle of Balaklava, during the Crimean War, October 
 25, 1854. Balaklava is not far from Sebastopol on the 
 borders of the Black Sea. The story is a thrilling one 
 of bravery and of obedience to orders. The full strength 
 of the Eussian army, covered from attack by thirty 
 guns, lay at a distance of a mile and a half from the 
 armies of the allies (English, French, and Turks). 
 Mackenzie's The 19th Century gives these particulars: 
 
 'Tip to this time our Light Cavalry Brigade had 
 not been engaged. Lord Lucan, their commander, now 
 received by the hand of Captain Nolan a written order 
 to advance nearer to the enemy. On reading this order 
 Lord Lucan asked its bearer how far they were to 
 advance. He received a reply which he construed, with 
 fatal inaccuracy, to signify that it was his duty to 
 charge the enemy. The Light Brigade made itself 
 ready to attack the Eussian army. Every man knew 
 that some terrible mistake was sending the brigade to 
 destruction, but no man shrunk from his duty of 
 obedience. They rode straight down the valley towards 
 
 11 
 
12 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 the wondering Eussians and in full view of the chiefs 
 of their own army, powerless now to restrain them. 
 As the excitement of battle gained power over men and 
 horses the pace increased. The shot of the Enssian 
 guns tore through their ranks, but did not abate the 
 speed of their advance, the fierceness of their attack. 
 They galloped their horses between the Eussian guns, 
 cutting down the gunners as they passed. They rode 
 down and scattered several squadrons of cavalry. And 
 then they paused, and turned back, and galloped 
 toward the shelter of British lines. The Eussians 
 reopened upon them with grape and canister. Their 
 return was beset by an overwhelming force of Eussian 
 cavalry; but they cut their way through and reached 
 the position they had left scarcely half an hour before. 
 Six hundred and seventy men went forth to that 
 memorable ride, but only one hundred and ninety-eight 
 came back." 
 
 Murdock's TJie Reconstruction of Europe says that 
 the brigade would have been utterly destroyed, wiped 
 out of existence, but for the brilliant and timely charge 
 of a French company which attracted the attention of 
 the Eussians away from the English, leaving the valley 
 comparatively clear for a few minutes for the retreat 
 of the remnant of the Light Brigade. 
 
 Compare with this the story of Arnold von Winkelried, 
 page 41; and the story of Thermopylae, in any history of 
 Greece. 
 
THE CHAEGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE 13 
 
 THE CHAEGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE 
 1 
 
 Half a league, half a league, 
 Half a league onward, 
 
 All in the valley of Death 
 Eode the six hundred. 
 
 "Forward, the Light Brigade! 
 
 Charge for the guns !" he said : 
 
 Into the valley of Death 
 Eode the six hundred. 
 
 "Forward, the Light Brigade ?' 
 Was there a man dismayed? 
 Not tho' the soldier knew 
 
 Some one had blundered : 
 Theirs not to make reply, 
 Theirs not to reason why. 
 Theirs but to do and die : 
 Into the valley of Death 
 
 Eode the six hundred. 
 
 3 
 
 Cannon to right of them, 
 Cannon to left of them. 
 Cannon in front of them 
 VolleyM and thunder'd; 
 
14 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 Stonn'd at with shot and shell, 
 Boldly they rode and well, 
 Into the jaws of Death, 
 Into the mouth of Hell 
 Eode the six hundred. 
 
 4 
 Elash'd all their sabres bare. 
 Flashed as they turned in air 
 Sabring the gunners there. 
 Charging an army, while 
 
 All the world wonder'd ; 
 Plunged in the battery-smoke 
 Eight thro' the line they broke ; 
 Cossack and Eussian 
 EeeFd from the sabre-stroke 
 
 Shattered and sunder'd. 
 Then they rode back, but not, 
 
 'Not the six hundred. 
 
 5 
 
 Cannon to right of them. 
 Cannon to left of them, 
 Cannon behind them 
 
 Volley'd and thund'red; 
 Stormed at with shot and shell, 
 "WHiile horse and hero fell. 
 They that had fought so well 
 Came through the jaws of Death, 
 
HOHENLINDEN 15 
 
 Back from the month of Hell, 
 All that was left of them, 
 Left of six hundred. 
 
 6 
 When can their glory fade? 
 the wild charge they made ! 
 
 All the world wondered. 
 Honor the charge they made ! 
 Honor the Light Brigade, 
 Noble six hundred ! 
 
 — Lord Tennyson. 
 
 HOHENLINDEN 
 
 Hohenlinden means tall lindens. It is the name of 
 a great dense and dark forest in Upper Bavaria. In 
 an open space in the very midst of this great forest 
 stands the village of Hohenlinden, nineteen miles east 
 of Munich. The battle of Hohenlinden occurred 
 December 3, 1800, during one of Napoleon's campaigns, 
 between the French under Moreau and the Austrians 
 under Archduke John. It was fought in a blinding 
 snowstorm. The Austrians lost twenty thousand men 
 and the French five thousand. 
 
 Few, few shall part where many meet! 
 The snow shall be their winding-sheet. 
 
 This is one of the best war poems in the language. 
 It was in the late Charles A. Dana's famous list of 
 
16 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 "ten best poems." The poem should be read first as a 
 whole, then studied line by line, and finally read again 
 somewhat rapidly as a whole. It is a combination of 
 stirring pictures artistically blended with thrilling 
 effect — if the reader has the imagination to re-create 
 the hills of stained snow, the waving banners, and all 
 the dreadful revelry that Munich and Linden saw on 
 that awful night. 
 
 HOHEN-LINDEN" 
 1 
 
 On Linden, when the sun was low, 
 All bloodless lay the untrodden snow, 
 And dark as winter was the flow 
 Of Iser, rolling rapidly. 
 
 2 
 But Linden saw another sight, 
 "When the drum beat at dead of night, 
 Commanding fires of death to light 
 The darkness of her scenery. 
 
 3 
 
 By torch and trumpet fast arrayed, 
 Each horseman drew his battle-blade. 
 And furious every charger neighed. 
 To join the dreadful revelry. 
 
HOHENLINDEN 17 
 
 4 
 Then shook the hills with thunder riven, 
 Then rushed the steed to battle driven, 
 And louder than the bolts of heaven 
 Far flashed the red artillery. 
 
 5 
 
 But redder yet that light shall glow 
 On Linden's hills of stained snow, 
 And bloodier yet the torrent flow 
 Of Iser, rolling rapidly. 
 
 6 
 
 'T is morn, but scarce yon level sun 
 Can pierce the war-clouds, rolling dun. 
 Where furious Frank and fiery Hun 
 Shout in their sulphurous canopy. 
 
 The combat deepens. On, ye brave. 
 Who rush to glory, or the grave ! 
 Wave, Munich ! all thy banners wave. 
 And charge with all thy chivalry ! 
 
 8 
 Few, few shall part where many meet ! 
 The snow shall be their winding-sheet; 
 And every turf beneath their feet 
 Shall be a soldier's sepulcher. 
 
 — Thomas Campbell. 
 
18 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 Linden is an abbreviated form of the name of the forest 
 where the battle was fought. It is situated between the river 
 Iser and the river Inn — 
 
 "... dark as winter was the flow of Iser, rolling rap- 
 idly." 
 
 FranTc — the French; Kun — the Austrians; -fires of death — 
 flashes of artillery. 
 
 Bloodier yet the torrent flow — The waters of the Iser are 
 said to have been literally red with blood. 
 
 Sulphurous canopy — smoke of the guns. 
 
 War-clouds, rolling dun — smoke of battle. 
 
 Chivalry here has its primary meaning of cavalry, from 
 cheval, a horse. 
 
 THE GIFT OF EMPTY HANDS 
 
 Once upon a time two young princes were condemned 
 to death by a certain king. They pleaded for their 
 lives, and each promised the king that if his life were 
 spared he would bring rich and wonderful gifts to the 
 king. The king consented and the two princes started 
 out to seek for the gifts. 
 
 One of them had remarkably good luck; everything 
 he sought he secured without the slightest effort or 
 trouble. A rare bird lit on his arm, the most beautiful 
 rose in the world fell on his breast, costly gems lay at 
 his feet. 
 
 The other strove manfully to keep his promise, but 
 in spite of all of his efforts he secured nothing. His 
 hands were torn and his feet were bruised in his effort 
 
THE GIFT OF EMPTY HANDS 19 
 
 to keep his promise to the king, but fate was against 
 him. 
 
 The two princes went back to the king at the time 
 agreed upon, the one with his choice gifts, in obtaining 
 which he had made no effort whatever, the other with 
 empty but bleeding hands. 
 
 The king accepted the sincere but futile efforts of 
 the one rather than the easily obtained gifts of the other. 
 
 THE GIFT OF EMPTY HANDS 
 1 
 
 They were two princes doomed to death; 
 Each loved his beauty and his breath: 
 ''Leave us our life and we will bring 
 Fair gifts unto our lord, the king." 
 
 2 
 
 They went together. In the dew 
 A charmed bird before them flew. 
 Through sun and thorn one followed it; 
 Upon the other's arm it lit. 
 
 3 
 
 A rose, whose faintest flush was worth 
 All buds that ever blew on earth. 
 One climbed the rocks to reach; ah, well. 
 Into the other's breast it fell. 
 
 4 
 Weird jewels, such as fairies wear, 
 "When moons go out, to light their hair, 
 
20 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 One tried to touch on ghostly ground ; 
 Gems of quick fire the other found. 
 
 5 
 
 One with the dragon fought to gain 
 The enchanted fruit, and fought in vain; 
 The other breathed the garden's air 
 And gathered precious apples there. 
 
 6 
 
 Backward to the imperial gate 
 
 One took his fortune, one his fate : 
 
 One showed sweet gifts from sweetest lands. 
 
 The other, torn and empty hands. 
 
 7 
 At bird, and rose, and gem, and fruit. 
 The king was sad, the king was mute; 
 At last he slowly said: "My son, 
 True treasure is not lightly won. 
 
 8 
 
 'TTour brother's hands, wherein you see 
 Only these scars, show more to me 
 Than if a kingdom's price I found 
 In place of each forgotten wound." 
 
 —Sarah M. B. Piatt. 
 
 True treasure is not lightly won — This is the true and 
 beautiful lesson of The Gift of Empty Hands. It is the 
 lesson that the Master taught over and over — not what we do, 
 but what we try to do. Or, as Browning says in Saul : " 'T is 
 not what man does which exalts him, but what man would do." 
 
BANNOCKBUEN 21 
 
 BANNOCKBUEN 
 
 The battle of Bannockburn was fought in 1314, near 
 Stirling castle, in the Lowlands of Scotland, by the 
 English forces under King Edward II. and the Scots 
 in command of Robert Bruce. It resulted in a decisive 
 victory for the Scots, and later in the recognition of 
 Scotland as a kingdom independent of England. The 
 struggle for Scottish independence had been going on 
 for a long time ; and notwithstanding the fact that one 
 king of Scotland had been deposed and banished, and 
 the crown and other emblems of royalty taken away to 
 London, the Scottish people were not conquered. 
 Under various leaders, particularly William Wallace, 
 who came to be the great national hero, they carried 
 on the struggle. Wallace was captured, taken to Lon- 
 don, tried for treason, and executed, 1305. The legends 
 of this bold and chivalrous outlaw are the treasures of 
 Scottish story, poetry, and song. The next year after 
 the execution of Wallace, Robert Bruce declared him- 
 self king of Scotland, and, calling all classes of Scots- 
 men around him for a last great struggle, won the 
 splendid victory of Bannockburn. 
 
 This is the historical setting of Burns's famous poem, 
 the best war-ode, Carlyle thought, "that was ever 
 written by any pen." 
 
 The lines are supposed to be spoken by Bruce to 
 his heralds on the morning of the battle. Of course 
 
22 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 this address is purely imaginary, but it is just such an 
 address as the Scots who had with Wallace bled would 
 receive with unspeakable enthusiasm. 
 
 Of the manner of the composition of the poem 
 Carlyle says : "It was composed on horseback, in riding 
 in the middle of tempests over the wildest Galloway 
 moor, in company with a Mr. Syme. . . . Doubtless 
 this stern hymn was singing itself, as he formed it, 
 through the soul of Burns; but to the external ear it 
 should be sung with the throat of the whirlwind." 
 
 BANNOCKBURN 
 1 
 
 Scots, wha hae wi' Wallace bled ; 
 Scots, wham Bruce has often led ; 
 Welcome to your gory bed. 
 Or to victorie. 
 
 2 
 Now's the day, and now's the hour ; 
 See the front o' battle lour; 
 See approach proud Edward's pow'r — 
 Chains and slaverie ! 
 
 Wha will be a traitor-knave ? 
 Wha can fill a coward's grave ? 
 Wha sae base as be a slave ? 
 Let him turn and flee ! 
 
THE STAE-SPANGLED BANNER 23 
 
 4 
 
 Wha for Scotland's king and law 
 Freedom's sword will strongly draw, 
 Free-man stand, or free-man fa'? 
 Let him follow me ! 
 
 5 
 
 By oppression's woes and pains ! 
 By your sons in servile chains ! 
 We will drain our dearest veins, 
 But they shall be free ! 
 
 6 
 
 Lay the proud usurpers low! 
 Tyrants fall in every foe! 
 Liberty's in every blow ! 
 Let us do, or die ! 
 
 — Eobert Burns. 
 
 Jane Porter's stirring novel, Scottish Chiefs, published 1810, 
 has for its heroes Eobert Bruce and William Wallace. 
 
 THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER 
 
 The flag that floated over Fort McHenry, the original 
 star-spangled tanner, now belongs to Mr. Eben Apple- 
 ton, of New York. Recently it was lent to the Smith- 
 sonian Institution at Washington. It is an immense 
 banner, twenty-eight by thirty feet, and shows the 
 effects of battle and age. 
 
34 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 More interest attaches to this stirring poem than 
 ever before, since the United States army has recognized 
 it as our national anthem. General Orders No. 201 of 
 the War Department, published December 15, 1906, 
 contains the following regulation : 
 
 Whenever The Star- Spangled Banner is played by the band 
 on a formal occasion at a military station, or at any place 
 where persons belonging to the military service are present in 
 their oflScial capacity, all officers and enlisted men present 
 stand at attention, and if not in ranks render the prescribed 
 salute, the position of the salute being retained until the last 
 note of The Star-Spangled Banner. The same respect is 
 observed toward the national air of any other country when it 
 is played as a compliment to official representatives of such 
 country. Whenever The Star-Spangled Banner is played as 
 contemplated by this paragraph the air is played through 
 once without the repetition of any part, except such repetition 
 as is called for by the musical score. 
 
 The effect of this order is not confined to military 
 circles, but it is the custom in many parts of the country 
 for the audience to rise and for gentlemen to remove 
 their hats whenever The Star-Spangled Banner is 
 played. It is now very generally accepted as the 
 American national air. 
 
 The poem was written by Francis Scott Key on 
 Wednesday morning, September 14, 1814, when the 
 British forces were attacking Baltimore (War of 1812). 
 The flag referred to was flying over Fort McHenry. 
 Key was temporarily a prisoner on the British flagship 
 Surprise (later transferred to a cartel or ship for the 
 
THE STAE-SPANGLED BANNER 25 
 
 exchange of prisoners), where he had gone to secure the 
 release of his friend, Dr. Beanes, a prominent physician 
 of Upper Marlborough, Maryland. Fort McHenry was 
 bombarded all day Tuesday and Wednesday, and at the 
 same time a land attack was being made on Baltimore. 
 The land attack failed and the British decided that 
 retreat was inevitable unless the fort were taken. At 
 one o'clock Wednesday night a tremendous fire, at close 
 range, was opened on Fort McHenry; five hundred 
 bombs fell within the ramparts and many more burst 
 over them. The firing was at such close quarters that 
 dense smoke enveloped both fort and ships from mid- 
 night till morning. John C. Carpenter, in the Century 
 Magazine, July, 1894, says: "The long hours were 
 unbearable. Key had seen the fate of Washington 
 and anticipated the fate of Baltimore. At seven the 
 suspense was unrelaxed. The firing from the fleet 
 ceased. The large ships loomed indistinct and silent 
 in the mist. To the west lay the silent fort, the white 
 vapor heavy upon it. With eager eye Key watched the 
 distant shore, till in a rift over the fort he dimly dis- 
 cerned the flag still proudly defiant. In that supreme 
 moment was written The Star-Spangled Banner." 
 
 The song was printed in broadsheet form in the 
 office of the Baltimore American, the tjrpe being set by 
 a boy of twelve, all the other printers having gone to 
 the defense of the city. It was sung in all the camps 
 around the city, and soon spread over the country. The 
 tune is a vagrant air, familiar in many countries. 
 
26 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 THE STAK-SPANGLED BANNER 
 1 
 
 say, can you see, by the dawn's early light, 
 
 What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last 
 gleaming — 
 Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the per- 
 ilous fight. 
 O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly 
 streaming! 
 And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air, 
 Gave proof through the night that our flag was still 
 
 there ; 
 say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave 
 O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave ? 
 
 2 
 On that shore dimly seen through the mist of the deep. 
 
 Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes, 
 What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep, 
 
 As it fitfully blows, now conceals, now discloses ? 
 Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam, 
 In full glory reflected now shines on the stream; 
 'T is the star-spangled banner ; long may it wave. 
 O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave ! 
 
 * :i: 4; 4: « « * 
 
 4 
 thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand 
 
 Between their loved homes and the war's desolation! 
 
TO A WATEE-rOWL 27 
 
 Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n-rescued 
 land 
 Praise the power that hath made and preserved us a 
 nation. 
 Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just, 
 And this be our motto, — "In God is our trust" : 
 And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave 
 O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave. 
 
 — Francis Scott Key. 
 
 Eead Drake's The American Flag in this volume and Eyan's 
 The Conquered Banner. 
 
 TO A WATEE-FOWL 
 
 On December 15, 1815, William Cullen Bryant 
 walked from his home at Cummington, Mass., to Plain- 
 field, Mass., to begin the practice of the law. He was 
 21 years of age — the age when every thoughtful young 
 man's mind is an interrogation point, the age when he 
 is asking a thousand questions which cannot be 
 answered. Bryant had spent two years at Williams 
 College and had planned to continue his studies at Yale, 
 but was not financially able to do so. He wanted to be 
 a poet, and had already written Thanatopsis (with the 
 exception of the last paragraph, which was not written 
 until he was twenty-eight), but he knew that he could 
 not make a living out of poetry; he wanted to be an 
 
28 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 editor, but there were few editorial openings those days ; 
 and so, with many misgivings, he decided to try his 
 hand at the law. Evening came on as he walked across 
 the Massachusetts hills that December day, pursuing 
 his solitary way, "lone wandering," "feeling forlorn and 
 desolate'^ as he says in a published letter, and in the 
 sky above him he beheld a wild duck that had become 
 separated from the southward-winging flock and seemed 
 to be wandering in its course. Doubtless the young 
 poet said to himself, "I am like that wild duck ; I, too, 
 am wandering." That night he wrote Lines to a Water- 
 fowl. The wild duck was an interpreter of the present 
 meaning of life to him. From that day — ^when as a 
 poor boy he was questioning what life had in store for 
 him until he became recognized as the first citizen of 
 New York, the founder of American poetry, and as 
 Lincoln said, worth a trip across the continent to shake 
 hands with — the lesson of trust expressed in the last 
 stanza was his guiding motto. For sixty-three years — 
 till his death in 1878— he held firmly to the faith of 
 this poem of his youth. 
 
 TO A WATER-FOWL 
 
 1 
 
 Whither, midst falling dew, 
 While glow the heavens with the last steps of day, 
 Far, through their rosy depths, dost thou pursue 
 
 Thy solitary way? 
 
TO A WATEE-FOWL 2d 
 
 2 
 
 Vainly the fowler's eye 
 Might mark thy distant flight to do thee wrong. 
 As, darkly painted on the crimson sky, 
 
 Thy figure floats along. 
 
 3 
 
 Seek'st thou the plashy brink 
 Of weedy lake, or marge of river wide. 
 Or where the rocking billows rise and sink 
 
 On the chafed ocean side? 
 
 4 
 There is a Power whose care 
 Teaches thy way along that pathless coast, — 
 The desert and illimitable air, — 
 ' Lone wandering, but not lost. 
 
 5 
 
 All day thy wings have fanned. 
 At that far height, the cold, thin atmosphere. 
 Yet stoop not, weary, to the welcome land, 
 
 Though the dark night is near. 
 
 6 
 
 And soon that toil shall end. 
 Soon shalt thou find a summer home, and rest 
 And scream among thy fellows; reeds shall bend. 
 
 Soon, o'er thy sheltering nest. 
 
30 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 7 
 Thou'rt gone, the abyss of heaven 
 Hath swallowed up thy form; yet, on my heart 
 Deeply hath sunk the lesson thou hast given, 
 And shall not soon depart: 
 
 8 
 
 He who, from zone to zone. 
 Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight. 
 In the long way that I must tread alone. 
 
 Will lead my steps aright. 
 
 — William Cullen Bryant. 
 
 Last steps of day — evening. 
 
 Tlie second stanza simply means that the bird is too high 
 for a hunter to shoot. 
 
 Flashy — watery; marge — margin. 
 
 Notice the , striking contrast in the pictures presented in 
 stanzas five and six. In the former the bird is wandering in 
 a cold northern night; in the latter she is on her sheltered 
 nest in the warm south. 
 
 Explain the migration of birds. Have you ever seen flocks 
 of wild fowls? 
 
 The essence of the poem is found in the closing stanza. The 
 emotion out of which the poem grew and which it in turn 
 arouses is, of course, trust. "Poetry is the suggestion by the 
 imagination of noble grounds for noble emotions." This poem 
 illustrates the definition very well. 
 
 Bead Whittier's The Eternal Goodness. 
 
THE SANDPIPER 31 
 
 THE SANDPIPER 
 
 This beautiful little poem is not easily comprehended 
 by one who has little or no knowledge of the seashore. 
 The author of it lived nearly all of her life on one of 
 the Isles of Shoals off the coast of New Hampshire. 
 In reading it the inland student must use his imagina- 
 tion and picture clearly in his mind the scene described. 
 He must create for himself, from pictures and descrip- 
 tions, the scene which he has never beheld. 
 
 Imagine a little girl on the sandy ocean beach gather- 
 ing the dry drift-wood for fuel, as a storm comes on. 
 Eunning up and down the beach is a slender, long- 
 legged bird similar to those that flit along some of our 
 inland streams. The lighthouses are wrapt in the 
 mists of the storm, and the ships have taken in their 
 sails and are hurrying away to the harbor or to the deep 
 open sea. It is a vivid picture, drawn with a few 
 simple lines, of a rising storm on the seashore. 
 
 THE SANDPIPER 
 
 1 
 
 Across the narrow beach we flit, 
 
 One little sandpiper and I ; 
 And fast I gather, bit by bit. 
 
 The scattered driftwood, bleached and dry. 
 
32 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 The wild waves reach their hands for it, 
 The wild wind raves, the tide runs high, 
 
 As up and down the beach we flit. 
 One little sandpiper and I. 
 
 2 
 Above our heads the sullen clouds 
 
 Scud black and swift across the sky; 
 Like silent ghosts in misty shrouds 
 
 Stand out the white lighthouses high. 
 Almost as far as the eye can reach 
 
 I see the close-reefed vessels fly. 
 As fast we flit along the beach. 
 
 One little sandpiper and I. 
 
 3 
 
 I watch him as he skims along 
 
 Uttering his sweet and mournful cry; 
 He starts not at my fitful song, 
 
 Or flash of fluttering drapery. 
 He has no thought of any vn:'ong; 
 
 He scans me with a fearless eye. 
 Stanch friends are we, well-tried and strong, 
 
 The little sandpiper and I. 
 
 4 
 Comrade, where wilt thou be to-night. 
 
 When the loosed storm breaks furiously? 
 My driftwood flre will burn so bright ! 
 
 To what warm shelter canst thou fly? 
 
THE SANDPIPER 33 
 
 I do not fear for thee, though wroth 
 The tempest rushes through the sky; 
 
 For are we not God's children both, 
 Thou, little sandpiper, and I? 
 
 — Celia Thaxter. 
 
 Those who have seen only coal or gas used as fuel will need 
 to have the drift-wood, as fuel, explained to them. 
 
 The wild waves reach their hands for it. What does this 
 sentence mean? 
 
 The tide runs high. Here is an opportunity to study, most 
 effectively, the tides, and so combine reading and geography. 
 
 Just before a storm the sandpiper runs up and down the 
 beach in the manner described in the poem. This is one of 
 the signs of the coming storm. 
 
 Before the second stanza is read, be sure that you have a 
 clear mental picture of the sullen clouds as they scud hlacTc 
 and swift across the sTcy. Have you ever watched a storm 
 come up? Describe it. Explain sullen as used here, and scud. 
 
 The third and fourth lines in stanza two make a striking 
 picture. Miss Thaxter's father was for many years a light- 
 house keeper on the Isles of Shoals. Show or draw a picture 
 of a lighthouse and explain what lighthouses are for. 
 
 The third stanza indicates that the girl and the bird have 
 been together so often and so much on the beach that they 
 have come to know each other and to be friends. 
 
 Comrade. Why does she call the bird comrade? Are not 
 the birds our little brothers of the field and the air? One who 
 has ever loved a bird will give the word comrade a new mean- 
 ing when he reads it here if it is explained to him. 
 
 The closing stanza is beautiful, both in the picture it pre- 
 sents and in the moral it teaches — the same moral that Bryant 
 teaches in Lines to a Water-fowl. 
 
34 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 THE EEAPER AND THE FLOWEES 
 
 This poem, like most of Longfellow's, is easy to 
 understand. Bearded grain refers to old people — 
 shocks of corn fully ripe; and the -flowers that grow 
 between are the children. "They shall bloom in the 
 fields of light/' for "of such is the kingdom of heaven.'^ 
 
 THE REAPER AND THE FLOWERS 
 1 
 
 There is a Reaper whose name is Death, 
 
 And, with his sickle keen, 
 He reaps the bearded grain at a breath, 
 
 And the flowers that grow between. 
 
 2 
 
 "Shall I have naught that is fair ?" saith he ; 
 
 "Have naught but the bearded grain? 
 Though the breath of those flowers is sweet to me, 
 
 I will give them all back again." 
 
 3 
 
 He gazed at the flowers with tearful eyes, 
 
 He kissed their drooping leaves; 
 It was for the Lord of Paradise 
 
 He bound them in his sheaves. 
 
THE EEAPER AND THE FLOWEES 35 
 
 4 
 
 "My Lord has need of these flowerlets gay/^ 
 
 The Keaper said, and smiled; 
 "Dear tokens of the earth are they 
 
 Where once he was a child. 
 
 "They shall all bloom in the fields of light, 
 
 Transplanted by my care, 
 And saints, upon their garments white, 
 
 These sacred blossoms wear/' 
 
 6 
 
 And the mother gave in tears and pain 
 The flowers she most did love; 
 
 She knew she should find them all again 
 In the fields of light above. 
 
 7 
 
 0, not in cruelty, not in wrath, 
 
 The Eeaper came that day, 
 'T was an angel visited the green earth. 
 
 And took the flowers away. 
 
 — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. 
 
36 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 DOWN TO SLEEP 
 
 This delightful little poem, read to a company of boys 
 and girls roaming in the November woods, some clear, 
 bright afternoon, will give a new meaning to the 
 autumn-time, and a happy appreciation of the woods 
 by the children. Select some pretty spot, have the 
 children all sit down and try to be as still as the 
 woods — then read to them in your most appreciative 
 manner the first stanza of this poem. They will see 
 that the woods are bare, they will feel the hushed silence 
 of the forest, they will appreciate the warmth of the 
 afternoon sun, and they will understand that all things 
 are lying down to sleep for the winter. Before reading 
 the second stanza, call their attention to the fresh, 
 fragrant air of the woods. It is always the purest air 
 in the world. Have the children feel with their hands 
 the soft rich soil, into which the leaves are falling. 
 Have them listen to the winds, the falling leaves, the 
 cawing crows, or other forest sounds that are sure to 
 break upon the November stillness of the woods. Then 
 read, as before, the second stanza. Before reading the 
 third stanza, have the children move about in the leafiest 
 places, and scratch down among the leaves to the soil, 
 to find the covered ferns, the acorns, the nuts and the 
 seeds of maple, ash or elm. Let them dig in the loose, 
 loamy soil, where the bulbs and tubers of violets, blood- 
 root, and hepaticas lie hidden under the "coverlids." 
 
DOWN TO SLEEP 37 
 
 Seat the children again and read stanza three. Ask 
 the children how they feel when they lie down to sleep. 
 Are they glad or sad? Ask them how it makes them 
 feel to think of all the plants lying down to sleep for 
 the winter. The children might then be told that when 
 we have lived our lives, we too, like the plants, must 
 "lie down to sleep.'' Then read the fourth stanza, and 
 finally read the entire poem through, so that its impres- 
 sion as a whole may rest upon and abide with you and 
 the children like a benediction from the woods. 
 
 DOWN TO SLEEP 
 
 1 
 
 November woods are bare and still, 
 November days are clear and bright; 
 Each noon burns up the morning's chill. 
 The morning's snow is gone by night; 
 Each day my steps grow slow, grow light, 
 As through the woods I reverent creep. 
 Watching all things lie "down to sleep." 
 
 2 
 I never knew before what beds, 
 Fragrant to smell and soft to touch, 
 The forest sifts and shapes and spreads; 
 I never knew before how much 
 Of human sound there is in such 
 Low tones as through the forest sweep 
 When all wild things lie "down to sleep." 
 
 By permission of Little, Brown & Co. 
 
38 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 3 
 
 Each day I find new coverlids 
 Tucked in, and more sweet eyes shut tight; 
 Sometimes the viewless mother bids 
 Her ferns kneel down full in my sight ; 
 I hear their chorus of "Good-night !'' 
 And half I smile and half I weep, 
 Listening while they lie "down to sleep." 
 
 4 
 
 November woods are bare and still, 
 November days are bright and good; 
 Life's noon burns up life's morning chill, 
 Life's night rests feet which long have stood; 
 Some warm, soft bed in field or wood 
 The mother will not fail to keep. 
 Where we can "lay us down to sleep." 
 
 — Helen Hunt Jackson. 
 
 THE BLUEBELL 
 
 The Bluebell tells a truth but not a fact; for there 
 are many great truths which are not facts. Even some 
 fairy stories contain great truths. 
 
 The little white flower, from constantly watching the 
 sky and the star and longing for them, by and by became 
 the color of the sky, with a tiny spot of gold in its 
 
THE BLUEBELL 39 
 
 heart like the star. This was the origin of the color 
 of the Bluebell. 
 
 There is no better established fact in nature and in 
 life than this, that what one admires, longs for, strives 
 for, aspires to, he comes to resemble more and more; 
 he "takes their image by and by." 
 
 THE BLUEBELL 
 1 
 
 There is a story I have heard — 
 A poet learned it of a bird. 
 And kept its music every word — 
 
 2 
 A story of a dim ravine, 
 O^er which the towering treetops lean. 
 With one blue rift of sky between; 
 
 3 
 
 And there, two thousand years ago, 
 A little flower as white as snow 
 Swayed in the silence to and fro. 
 
 4 
 
 Day after day with longing eye. 
 The floweret watched the narrow sky, 
 And fleecy clouds that floated by. 
 
40 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 5 
 
 And through the darkness, night by night, 
 One gleaming star would climb the height, 
 And cheer the lonely floweref s sight. 
 
 6 
 
 Thus, watching the blue heavens afar. 
 And the rising of its favorite star, 
 A slow change came — but not to mar; 
 
 7 
 For softly o'er its petals white 
 There crept a blueness, like the light 
 Of skies upon a summer night; 
 
 8 
 
 And in its chalice, I am told. 
 The bonny bell was formed to hold 
 A tiny star that gleamed like gold. 
 
 9 
 Now, little people sweet and true, 
 I find a lesson here for you 
 Writ in the floweret's bell of blue : 
 
 10 
 The patient child whose watchful eye 
 Strives after all things pure and high 
 Shall take their image by and by. 
 
 — Julia A. Eastman. 
 
MAKE WAY FOR LIBERTY 41 
 
 [Note for the teacher: Get the pupils to draw a picture of 
 the scene described, no matter how crude their drawing may 
 be. By attempting in this way to express their impressions 
 of the scene they will get a better understanding of it. The 
 dim ravine with towering treetops leaning over it, the streak 
 of blue sky above with its one gleaming star of gold, and the 
 little white flower at the bottom of the ravine constantly 
 looking up to the sky and the star should be definitely imaged 
 in their minds, otherwise they cannot really read the poem, 
 no matter how glibly they may say the words.] 
 
 Hawthorne's story of The Great Stone Face should be read In 
 connection with The Bluel)ell. 
 
 MAKE WAY FOE LIBEETY 
 
 The legend upon which, this poem is founded is as 
 follows, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica: 
 
 "The incident with which Arnold von Winkelried's 
 name is connected is, after the feat of Tell, the best 
 known and most popular in the early history of the 
 Swiss Federation. We are told how, at a certain 
 moment in the great battle of Sempach (July 9, 1386) 
 when the Swiss had failed to break the serried ranks 
 of the Austrian knights, a man of Unterwalden, Arnold 
 von Winkelried by name, came to the rescue. Com- 
 mending his wife and children to the care of his 
 comrades, he rushed towards the Austrians, gathered a 
 number of their spears together against his breast, and 
 fell pierced through and through, having opened a way 
 
42 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 into the hostile ranks for his fellow eountrjrmen, though 
 at the price of his own life. 
 
 "The story has some solid ground to rest upon, and 
 Winkelried^s act might well have been performed, 
 though as yet the amount of genuine and early evidence 
 in support of it is very far from being sufficient." 
 
 The American Cyclopedia gives it as a historical fact. 
 
 The Austrians were very heavily armored in this 
 battle, so that they resembled a ^Tiuman wood," or a 
 stone wall, each soldier being a "conscious stone," and 
 they stood so close together that each seemed grown 
 fast to "kindred thousands" of other armored knights 
 (stanza two). 
 
 The Swiss were fighting to free their country from 
 the oppression of the Austrians, and the incident retold 
 in the poem is one of the most splendid and heroic in 
 all the annals of patriotism. 
 
 MAKE WAY FOR LIBERTY 
 1 
 
 "Make way for Liberty !" he cried ; 
 Made way for Liberty, and died! 
 
 2 
 In arms the Austrian phalanx stood, 
 A living wall, a human wood ! 
 A wall, where every conscious stone 
 Seemed to its kindred thousands grown; 
 
MAKE WAY FOE LIBEETY 43 
 
 A rampart all assaults to bear, 
 
 Till time to dust their frames should wear ; 
 
 A wood like that enchanted grove, 
 
 In which, with fiends, Einaldo strove. 
 
 Where every silent tree possessed 
 
 A spirit prisoned in its breast. 
 
 Which the first stroke of coming strife 
 
 Would startle into hideous life: 
 
 So dense, so still, the Austrians stood, 
 
 A living wall, a human wood ! 
 
 3 
 
 Impregnable their front appears. 
 All horrent with projected spears. 
 Whose polished points before them shine, 
 From flank to flank, one brilliant line. 
 Bright as the breakers' splendors run 
 Along the billows to the sun. 
 
 4 
 Opposed to these, a hovering band, 
 Contended for their native land; 
 Peasants, whose new-found strength had broke 
 From manly necks the ignoble yoke. 
 And forged their fetters into swords. 
 On equal terms to fight their lords; 
 And what insurgent rage had gained. 
 In many a mortal fray maintained: 
 Marshaled once more at Freedom's call. 
 
44 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 They came to conquer or to fall, 
 Where he who conquered, he who fell, 
 Was deemed a dead, or living, Tell ! 
 
 5 
 
 And now the work of life and death 
 
 Hung on the passing of a breath; 
 
 The fire of conflict burned within; 
 
 The battle trembled to begin; 
 
 Yet, while the Austrians held their ground, 
 
 Point for attack was nowhere found; 
 
 Where'er the impatient Switzers gazed. 
 
 The unbroken line of lances blazed; 
 
 That line 't were suicide to meet. 
 
 And perish at their tyrants' feet; 
 
 How could they rest within their graves. 
 
 And leave their homes the homes of slaves? 
 
 Would they not feel their children tread 
 
 With clanking chains above their head? 
 
 6 
 
 It must not be: this day, this hour. 
 Annihilates the oppressor's power; 
 All Switzerland is in the field. 
 She will not fiy, she can not yield; 
 She must not fall; her better fate 
 Here gives her an immortal date. 
 Few were the numbers she could boast. 
 
MAKE WAY FOE LIBEETY 45 
 
 But every freeman was a host, 
 And felt as though himself were he 
 On whose sole arm hung victory. 
 
 7 
 It did depend on one, indeed: 
 Behold him ! Arnold Winkelried ! 
 There sounds not to the trump of fame 
 The echo of a nobler name. 
 Unmarked he stood amid the throng, 
 In rumination deep and long, 
 Till you might see, with sudden grace. 
 The very thought come o'er his face; 
 And by the motion of his form. 
 Anticipate the bursting storm; 
 And by the uplifting of his brow, 
 Tell where the bolt would strike, and how. 
 But 't was no sooner thought than done ; 
 The field was in a moment won. 
 
 8 
 "Make way for Liberty!'' he cried: 
 Then ran, with arms extended wide. 
 As if his dearest friend to clasp; 
 Ten spears he swept within his grasp: 
 "Make way for Liberty !" he cried, 
 Their keen points met from side to side; 
 He bowed amongst them like a tree. 
 And thus made way for Liberty. 
 
46 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 9 
 
 Swift to the breach his comrades fly ; 
 
 "Make way for Liberty !'' they cry, 
 
 And through the Austrian phalanx dart, 
 
 As rushed the spears through Arnold's heart; 
 
 While instantaneous as his fall, 
 
 Eout, ruin, panic, scattered all. 
 
 An earthquake could not overthrow 
 
 A city with a surer blow. 
 
 10 
 
 Thus Switzerland again was free. 
 Thus Death made way for Liberty! 
 
 — James Montgomery. 
 
 Compare Tennyson's Charge of the Light Brigade (page 11), 
 
 and tlie story of Thermopylae. 
 
 THE EISIl^G IN 1776 
 
 The Rising is based upon the following incident: 
 The pastor of the Lutheran church at Woodstock, in 
 the Valley of Virginia, at the beginning of the American 
 Eevolution was John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg, who 
 had settled there in 1772. On the Sunday following 
 the receipt of the news of the battle of Lexington and 
 
THE EISING IN 1776 47 
 
 Concord he went into his pulpit wearing the full 
 uniform of a colonel, but completely covered by his 
 clerical gown. The sermon was a stirring one, in which 
 he said there was a time to preach and a time to fight, 
 and that the time to fight had come. Then he threw 
 off his gown, read his commission as colonel, ordered 
 the buglers and the drummers, whom he had stationed 
 outside of the church, to sound the call to arms, and 
 asked his congregation how many of them would volun- 
 teer. Many of them did so, and joined his regiment, 
 the Eighth Virginia, afterward noted for its courage 
 and good discipline. This regiment, led by the fight- 
 ing preacher, participated in many important battles. 
 •Muhlenberg was made brigadier general, and major 
 general at the close of the war. After the war he 
 returned to his native state of Pennsylvania, served 
 three terms in Congress, was elected to the United 
 States Senate, was supervisor of revenues for the state, 
 and held other offices. 
 
 The first four stanzas of the poem tell of the effect 
 of the news from Lexington and Concord upon the 
 people in the Valley of Virginia, and the rest of the 
 poem is a free account of the occurrence mentioned 
 above. Which Berkeley is referred to in verse nine 
 is not clear, for Governor Berkeley, who might have 
 uttered just such a sentiment, had been dead for a long 
 time. Doubtless that incident is an embellishment 
 introduced by the poet. 
 
48 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 THE RISING IN 1776 
 1 
 
 Out of the North the wild news came, 
 Far flashing on its wings of flame, 
 Swift as the boreal light which flies 
 At midnight through the startled skies. 
 
 And there was tumult in the air, 
 
 The fife's shrill note, the drum's loud beat, 
 And through the wide land everywhere 
 
 The answering tread of hurrying feet; 
 While the first oath of Freedom's gun 
 Came on the blast from Lexington; 
 And Concord roused, no longer tame, 
 Forgot her old baptismal name. 
 Made bare her patriot arm of power. 
 And swelled the discord of the hour. 
 
 3 
 
 Within its shade of elm and oak 
 
 The church of Berkeley Manor stood; 
 There Sunday found the rural folk, 
 
 And some esteemed of gentle blood. 
 
 In vain their feet with loitering tread 
 Passed 'mid the graves where rank is naught; 
 All could not read the lesson taught 
 
 In that republic of the dead. 
 
THE EISING IN 1776 49 
 
 4 
 
 How sweet the hour of Sabbath talk, 
 The vale with peace and sunshine full 
 
 iWhere all the happy people walk, 
 
 Decked in their homespun flax and wool ! 
 
 5 
 The pastor rose : the prayer was strong ; 
 The psalm was warrior David^s song; 
 The text, a few short words of might, — 
 "The Lord of hosts shall arm the right V 
 
 6 
 
 He spoke of wrongs too long endured. 
 Of sacred rights to be secured; 
 Then from his patriot tongue of flame 
 The startling words for Freedom came. 
 The stirring sentences he spake 
 Compelled the heart to glow or quake. 
 And, rising on his theme's broad wing, 
 
 And grasping in his nervous hand 
 
 The imaginary battle-brand, 
 In face of death he dared to fling 
 Defiance to a tyrant king. 
 
 7 
 Even as he spoke, his frame, renewed 
 In eloquence of attitude, 
 
50 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 Eose, as it seemed, a shoulder higher; 
 Then swept his kindling glance of fire 
 From startled pew to breathless choir; 
 When suddenly his mantle wide 
 His hands impatient flung aside, 
 And, lo ! he met their wondering eyes 
 Complete in all a warrior's guise. 
 
 8 
 
 A moment there was awful pause, — 
 When Berkeley cried, "Cease, traitor, cease! 
 God's temple is the house of peace !" 
 
 The other shouted, "Nay, not so. 
 When God is with our righteous cause; 
 His holiest places then are ours. 
 His temples are our forts and towers 
 
 That frown upon the tjTant foe; 
 In this, the dawn of Freedom's day. 
 There is a time to fight and pray!'^ 
 
 And now before the open door — 
 
 The warrior priest had ordered so — 
 The enlisting trumpet's sudden roar 
 Rang through the chapel, o'er and o'er 
 
 Its long reverberating blow 
 So loud and clear, it seemed the ear 
 Of dusty death must wake and hear. 
 And there the startling drum and fife 
 
THE SINGING LESSON 51 
 
 Fired the living with fiercer life; 
 While overhead, with wild increase. 
 Forgetting its ancient toll of peace, 
 
 The great bell swung as ne'er before: 
 It seemed as it would never cease; 
 And every word its ardor flung 
 From off its jubilant iron tongue 
 
 Was "War ! War ! WAE V 
 
 10 
 
 '^Who dares'' — ^this was the patriot's cry. 
 As striding from the desk he came — 
 "Come out with me, in Freedom's name. 
 
 For her to live, for her to die ?" 
 
 A hundred hands flung up reply, 
 
 A hundred voices answered ''IT 
 
 —Thomas Buchanan Eead. 
 
 Poured , . . the lead into the molds of death — molded 
 bullets. 
 
 Eepul)lic of the dead — the cemetery, where high and low at 
 last are equal. 
 
 Concord means harmony, peace (stanza two). 
 
 Warrior David's song may possibly refer to Psalm SO, 
 
 THE SINGINa LESSON 
 
 So perfect a songster as the nightingale once made a 
 mistake and sang a false note. Sensitive soul that she 
 was, she grieved over the mistake and thought she would 
 
52 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 never sing any more. She knew that the other birds 
 were criticizing her and sneering at her. A kind- 
 hearted dove told her that she was foolish to take the 
 matter so seriously: "Only think of all you have done, 
 only think of all you can do." Encouraged by these 
 kind words the nightingale forgot her critics, fixed her 
 eyes on the skies, and sang such a song that the birds 
 stopped in their passage to listen and the people stood 
 still below to hear the wonderful psalm. 
 
 Transfer this fable from the bird kingdom to the 
 human kingdom and the significance is clear. Even the 
 best is likely to make a mistake. It may be a small 
 thing compared with all the rest that that life stands 
 for. But there will be plenty of sneers and criticisms — 
 often from jealous persons, as the lark and the thrush 
 were jealous of the nightingale. 
 
 The kind words of a friend may make one take cour- 
 age once more. And if he fixes his aim on the higher 
 things and pays no attention to his critics, jealous or 
 otherwise, his later work will be even better than his 
 former. 
 
 THE SINGING LESSON 
 1 
 
 A nightingale made a mistake ; 
 
 She sang a few notes out of tune: 
 Her heart was ready to break, 
 
 And she hid away from the moon. 
 
THE SINGING LESSON 53 
 
 She wrung her claws, poor thing, 
 But was far too proud to weep; 
 
 She tucked her head under her wing, 
 And pretended to be asleep. 
 
 2 
 A lark, arm in arm with a thrush. 
 
 Came sauntering up to the place; 
 The nightingale felt herself blush. 
 
 Though feathers hid her face; 
 She knew they had heard her song. 
 
 She felt them snicker and sneer ; 
 She thought that life was too long, 
 
 And wished she could skip a year. 
 
 3 
 
 "0 nightingale!" cooed a dove; 
 
 "0 nightingale! what's the use? 
 You bird of beauty and love, 
 
 Why behave like a goose? 
 Don't sulk away from our sight. 
 
 Like a common, contemptible fowl ; 
 You bird of joy and delight, 
 
 Why behave like an owl ? 
 
 "Only think of all you have done ; 
 Only think of all you can do ; 
 
54 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 A false note is really fun 
 
 From such a bird as you ! 
 Lift up your proud little crest, 
 
 Open your musical beak ; 
 Other birds have to do their best, 
 
 You need only to speak V 
 
 5 
 
 The nightingale shyly took 
 
 Her head from under her wing. 
 And, giving the dove a look, 
 
 Straightway began to sing. 
 There was never a bird could pass ; 
 
 The night was divinely calm; 
 And the people stood on the grass 
 
 To hear that wonderful psalm. 
 
 6 
 
 The nightingale did not care. 
 
 She sang only to the skies; 
 Her song ascended there. 
 
 And there she fixed her eyes. 
 The people that stood below 
 
 She knew but little about; 
 And this tale has a moral, I know. 
 
 If you'll try and find it out. 
 
 — ^Jean Ingelow. 
 
FAITHLESS NELLY GEAY 55 
 
 FAITHLESS NELLY GEAY 
 
 This is a poem of puns. A pun is the lowest order 
 of wit, but some of these are exceedingly clever. Every 
 stanza has a play on the double meaning of words or 
 phrases, and these double meanings should be sought 
 out. For example, the last word in the tenth stanza 
 might be spelled either "NelF' or "Knell," for the 
 author intends it to have both of these meanings. In 
 the twelfth stanza, the last word means both the 
 infantry and the rope with which the soldier is about 
 to hang himself. The reader should study out all of 
 these double meanings or puns — there are more than 
 a dozen of them — for the poem is simply an exercise in 
 turning words to eccentric uses. A list of these verbal 
 in the piece. "Forty-second Foot," in stanza two, means 
 the Forty-second Company of Infantry. 
 
 FAITHLESS NELLY GRAY 
 1 
 
 Ben Battle was a soldier bold. 
 
 And used to war^s alarms; 
 But a cannon ball took off his legs. 
 
 So he laid down his arms ! 
 
56 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 2 
 
 Now, as they bore him off the field. 
 Said he, "Let others shoot, 
 
 Por here I leave my second leg, 
 And the Forty-second Foot !'' 
 
 3 
 
 The army surgeons made him limbs ; 
 
 Said he, "They're only pegs; 
 But there 's as wooden members quite. 
 
 As represent my legs!" 
 
 4 
 !N'ow Ben, he loved a pretty maid. 
 
 Her name was Nelly Gray; 
 So he went to pay her his devours, 
 
 .When he'd devoured his pay. 
 
 5 
 
 But when he called on Nelly Gray, 
 She made him quite a scoff; 
 
 And when she saw his wooden legs, 
 Began to take them off ! 
 
 "0 Nelly Gray! Nelly Gray! 
 
 Is this your love so warm ? 
 The love that loves a scarlet coat 
 
 Should be more uniform!" 
 
FAITHLESS NELLY GEAY 5^ 
 
 7 
 Said she, **I loved a soldier once, 
 
 For he was blithe and brave; 
 But I will never have a man 
 
 With both legs in the grave ! 
 
 8 
 "Before you had these timber toes. 
 
 Your love I did allow, 
 But then, you know, you stand upon 
 
 Another footing now!" 
 
 "0 false and fickle Nelly Gray ! 
 
 I know why you refuse : 
 Though IVe no feet — some other man 
 
 Is standing in my shoes ! 
 
 10 
 "I wish I ne'er had seen your face; 
 
 But, now, a long farewell ! 
 For you will be my death ; — alas ! 
 
 You will not be my Nell !" 
 
 11 
 
 Now when he went from Nelly Gray, 
 
 His heart so heavy got. 
 And life was such a burden grown. 
 
 It made him take a knot ! 
 
58 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 12 
 
 So round his melancholy neck 
 
 A rope he did entwine, 
 And for the second time in life 
 
 Enlisted in the Line ! 
 
 13 
 
 One end he 'tied around a beam, 
 
 And then removed his pegs, 
 And, as his legs were off, of course 
 
 He soon was off his legs. 
 
 14 
 
 And there he hung till he was dead 
 
 As any nail in town; 
 For, though distress had cut him up. 
 
 It could not cut him down ! 
 
 — Thomas Hood. 
 
 BUEIAL OF SIE JOHN MOOEE 
 
 Sir John Moore, commanding the British forces in 
 Spain in the war with Napoleon, was killed at the battle 
 of Corunna, Spain, January 16, 1809. The battle 
 occurred at the end of a long and hard retreat, and 
 although the English had the advantage, they embarked 
 at Corunna after the battle and returned to England. 
 
BUEIAL OF SIE JOHN MOOEE 59 
 
 The French forces were under Marshal Soult. Alison's 
 History of Europe says that Moore "was wrapped by 
 his attendants in his military cloak and laid in a grave 
 hastily formed on the ramparts of Corunna, where a 
 monument was soon after erected over his uncoffined 
 remains by the generosity of the French Marshal Ney. 
 Not a word was spoken as the melancholy interment 
 by torchlight took place; silently they laid him in his 
 grave, while the distant cannon of the battlefield fired 
 the funeral honors to his memory. 
 
 "This tomb, originally erected by the French, since 
 enlarged by the British, bears a simple but touching 
 inscription, written of the hero over whose remains it 
 is placed. Few spots in Europe will ever be more the 
 object of general interest. His very misfortunes were 
 the means which procured him immortal fame — ^his 
 disastrous retreat, bloody death, and finally his tomb 
 on a foreign strand, far from home and friends. There 
 is scarcely a Spaniard but has heard of his tomb and 
 speaks of it with a strange kind of awe." 
 
 Many fantastic legends have grown up among the 
 Spanish people about the tomb and about the manner 
 of the death of the great soldier. 
 
 The inscription on the tomb is as follows : 
 
 JOHN MOORE 
 
 LEADER OF THE ENGLISH ARMIES 
 
 SLAIN IN BATTLE, 1809. 
 
60 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 But it is safe to say that the exquisite little poem, 
 The Burial of Sir John Moore, by Eev. Charles Wolfe, 
 has done more to perpetuate the name and fame of 
 Moore than all other things combined. 
 
 BURIAL OF SIE JOHiT MOGEE 
 1 
 
 Not a drum was heard, nor a funeral note. 
 As his corse to the rampart we hurried; 
 
 Not a soldier discharged his farewell shot 
 O'er the grave where our hero we buried. 
 
 2 
 We buried him darkly, at dead of night. 
 
 The sods with our bayonets turning; 
 By the struggling moonbeams' misty light, 
 
 And the lantern dimly burning. 
 
 3 
 No useless coffin enclosed his breast, 
 
 Nor in sheet nor in shroud we wound him ; 
 But he lay, like a warrior taking his rest. 
 
 With his martial cloak around him. 
 
 4 
 
 Few and short were the prayers we said. 
 
 And we spoke not a word of sorrow ; 
 But we steadfastly gazed on the face of the dead, 
 
 And we bitterly thought of the morrow. 
 
THE BUEIAL OF MOSES 61 
 
 5 
 
 We thouglit, as we hollowed his narrow bed. 
 
 And smoothed down his lonely pillow, 
 That the foe and the stranger would tread o'er his head. 
 
 And we far away on the billow ! 
 
 6 
 
 Lightly they'll talk of the spirit that's gone, 
 
 And o'er his cold ashes upbraid him; 
 But little he '11 reck, if they let him sleep on. 
 
 In the grave where a Briton has laid him ! 
 
 7 
 But half of our heavy task was done. 
 
 When the clock tolled the hour for retiring; 
 And we heard the distant and random gun 
 
 That the foe was sullenly firing. 
 
 8 
 
 Slowly and sadly we laid him down. 
 
 From the field of his fame fresh and gory! 
 
 We carved not a line, we raised not a stone. 
 But we left him alone in his glory. 
 
 —Charles Wolfe. 
 
 THE BUEIAL OF MOSES 
 
 The Burial of Moses is based upon the following 
 beautiful verses from the thirty-fourth chapter of 
 Deuteronomy: 
 
Q2 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 1. And Moses went up from the plains of Moab unto 
 the mountain of Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, that is over 
 against Jericho. And the Lord shewed him all the land of 
 Gilead, unto Dan, 
 
 2. And all Naphtali, and the land of Ephraim, and 
 Manasseh, and all the land of Judah, unto the utmost sea, 
 
 3. And the south, and the plain of the valley of Jericho, 
 the city of palm trees, unto Zoar. 
 
 4. And the Lord said unto him, This is the land which 
 I sware unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, say- 
 ing, I will give it unto thy seed: I have caused thee to 
 see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither, 
 
 5. So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the 
 land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord. 
 
 6. And he buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, 
 over against Beth-peor : but no man knoweth of his 
 sepulchre unto this day. 
 
 7. And Moses was a hundred and twenty years old 
 when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force 
 abated. 
 
 8. And the children of Israel wept for Moses in the 
 plains of Moab thirty days: so the days of weeping and 
 mourning for Moses were ended. 
 
 THE BURIAL OF MOSES 
 1 
 
 By Nebo's lonely mountain, 
 There lies a lonely grave; 
 
 In a vale in the land of Moab, 
 On this side Jordan's wave. 
 
THE BURIAL OF MOSES 63 
 
 And no man knows that sepulchre, 
 
 And no man saw it e'er, 
 For the angels of God upturned the sod, 
 
 And laid the dead man there. 
 
 2 
 That was the grandest funeral 
 
 That ever passed on earth ; 
 But no man heard the trampling, 
 
 Or saw the train go forth, — 
 Noiselessly as the daylight 
 
 Comes back when night is done, 
 And the crimson streaks on ocean's cheek 
 
 Grow into the great sun, — 
 
 3 
 
 Noiselessly as the springtime 
 
 Her crown of verdure weaves. 
 And all the trees on all the hills 
 
 Open their thousand leaves; 
 So without sound of music. 
 
 Or voice of them that wept. 
 Silently down from the mountain's crown 
 
 The great procession swept. 
 
 4 
 Perchance the bald old eagle, 
 
 On gray Beth-poor's height, 
 Out of his lonely eyrie, 
 
 Looked on the wondrous sight; 
 
64 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 Perchance the lion stalking 
 
 Still shuns that hallowed spot, 
 For beast and bird have seen and heard 
 
 That which man knoweth not. 
 
 5 
 
 But when the warrior dieth. 
 
 His comrades in the war, 
 With arms reversed and muffled drum, 
 
 Follow his funeral car; 
 They show the banners taken, 
 
 They tell his battles won, 
 And after him lead his masterless steed, 
 
 While peals the minute gun. 
 
 6 
 
 Amid the noblest of the land 
 
 We lay the sage to rest, 
 And give the bard an honored place 
 
 With costly marble drest. 
 In the great minster transept 
 
 Where lights like glories fall, 
 And the organ rings, and the sweet choir sings, 
 
 Along the emblazoned wall. 
 
 Hii dti di: ^ ^ * * 
 
 7 
 
 In that strange grave without a name. 
 Whence his uncoffined clay 
 
THE AMEEICAN FLAG 65 
 
 Shall break again, wondrous thought ! 
 
 Before the Judgment Day, 
 And stand, with glory wrapt around. 
 
 On the hills he never trod. 
 And speak of the strife that won our life, 
 
 With the Incarnate Son of God. 
 
 8 
 
 lonely grave in Moab's land ! 
 
 dark Beth-peor's hill ! 
 Speak to these curious hearts of ours. 
 
 And teach them to be still. 
 God hath his mysteries of grace. 
 
 Ways that we cannot tell; 
 He hides them deep, like the hidden sleep 
 
 Of Him He loved so well. 
 
 — Cecil Frances Alexander. 
 
 THE AMERICAN FLAG 
 
 Drake's familiar poem is a little sophomorical, but it 
 is worthy of the place it holds in the school Readers. 
 
 The people of mountainous countries have always 
 been supposed to be more zealous for their freedom than 
 dwellers in the low countries, and this is why the author 
 puts Freedom on the mountain top (first line). He 
 fancies that the colors in the flag all came from the 
 sky — the blue from the azure robe (the sky), the white 
 
QQ FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 from the Milky Way, the red from the streakings of 
 the sunrise, and the stars from the stars of the heavens. 
 
 THE AMEEICAN FLAG 
 
 When Freedom, from her mountain height 
 
 Unfurled her standard to the air. 
 She tore the azure robe of night, 
 
 And set the stars of glory there! 
 She mingled with its gorgeous dyes 
 The milky baldric of the skies, 
 And striped its pure celestial white 
 With streakings of the morning light; 
 Then, from his mansion in the sun. 
 She called her eagle-bearer down. 
 And gave into his mighty hand 
 The S3mibol of her chosen land. 
 
 ^ ^ ^ H: 4: 
 
 Flag of the brave! thy folds shall fly. 
 The sign of hope and triumph, high. 
 When speaks the signal trumpet tone. 
 And the long line comes gleaming on; 
 Ere yet the lifeblood, warm and wet. 
 Has dimmed the glistening bayonet. 
 Each soldier's eye shall brightly turn 
 To where thy sky-born glories burn. 
 And, as his springing steps advance, 
 Catch war and vengeance from the glance. 
 And when the cannon-mouthings loud 
 
THE AMEEICAN FLAG 67 
 
 Heave in wild wreaths the battle shroud, 
 And gory sabres rise and fall 
 Like shoots of flame on midnight's pall. 
 Then shall thy meteor glances glow. 
 
 And cowering foes shall shrink beneath 
 Each gallant arm that strikes below 
 
 That lovely messenger of death. 
 
 Mag of the free heart's hope and home. 
 
 By angel hands to valor given. 
 Thy stars have lit the welkin dome. 
 
 And all thy hues were born in heaven."^ 
 Forever float that standard sheet ! 
 
 Where breathes the foe but falls before us, 
 .With Freedom's soil beneath our feet. 
 
 And Freedom's banner streaming o'er us? 
 
 — Joseph Rodman Drake. 
 
 MilTcy haldric refers to the Milky Way in the sky, hdldric 
 meaning a band or sash. 
 
 In the tenth line, eagle is represented as the flag bearer. 
 The flag is frequently represented as being clutched in the 
 talons of the American eagle — his mighty hand here meaning 
 the eagle's claws. 
 
 From his mansion in the sun has reference to the fact that 
 the eagle builds his nest at the highest points. 
 
 Battle shroud — the smoke of battle. 
 
 Meteor glances — flashings from the flag (not a very good 
 figure, by the way). 
 
 By angel hands to valor given refers to the poetic origin 
 of the colors of the flag in heaven as stated in the first eight 
 
68 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 lines, and as repeated in the following two lines. The poem 
 closes with a declaration, in question form, that there is no foe 
 anywhere who must not fall before us as we stand with 
 Freedom's soil beneath our feet and the stars and stripes 
 floating over us. 
 
 OLD lEONSIDES 
 
 Old Ironsides was the frigate Constitution. She was 
 launched at Boston in 1797, took part in the bombard- 
 ment of Tripoli in 1804, and made a great record in 
 the War of 1812, capturing many vessels. One of 
 her most notable engagements was with the British 
 Guerriere off the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Her good 
 fortune was remarkable throughout her service. "She 
 never was dismasted, never got ashore, and scarcely ever 
 suffered any of the usual accidents of the sea.^^ Conse- 
 quently she became a great favorite in the popular 
 mind. 
 
 One day, not long after Holmes's graduation from 
 Harvard, he read in a newspaper that the Secretary 
 of the Navy had issued orders for the breaking up of 
 the Constitution, then lying at Charlestown harbor, 
 near Boston. Immediately he wrote his stirring protest 
 in the lines of Old Ironsides. Throughout the country 
 the press copied the poem, it met a quick response in 
 the hearts of the people, the Secretary of the Navy 
 revoked his order, and the gallant ship was saved. 
 
OLD lEONSIDES 69 
 
 In 1906 the Secretary of the Navy suggested that Old 
 Ironsides be used as a practice target for the guns of 
 the navy, but the newspapers in all parts of the country 
 raised such a loud and such a general protest that the 
 suggestion was never carried into effect and the proud 
 old ship today lies in the Boston navy-yard "housed 
 
 OLD IRONSIDES 
 
 1 • 
 
 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 ! 
 
 2 
 Her deck, once red with heroes' blood. 
 
 Where knelt the vanquished foe, 
 When winds were hurrying o'er the flood. 
 
 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! 
 
70 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 3 
 
 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 ! 
 
 — Oliver Wendell Holmes. 
 
 Notice the striking figures of speech in The meteor of the 
 ocean air, The harpies of the shore, and The eagle of the sea. 
 Harpies here means plunderers. 
 
 The last four lines present a particularly fine picture, which 
 the reader should re-create in his imagination. 
 
 THE BATTLE OF BLENHEIM 
 
 Southey here gives us a fine piece of sarcasm. It is 
 in fact a most severe criticism of war, although pre- 
 tending to praise its glories. Many thousand men fell 
 at the battle of Blenheim — ^but it was a "great victory V 
 Nobody knows just why they killed each other — ^but it 
 was a "famous victory !^^ "Women and children were 
 slain — ^but it was a "famous victory V Many thousand 
 bodies lay rotting in the sun — ^but it was a "famous 
 victory !^^ Nobody knows what good came of it — but 
 it was a "famous victory!" The battle of Blenheim 
 
THE BATTLE OF BLENHEIM 71 
 
 was a "very wicked thing," as most battles have been, 
 but it was a "famous victory !" The sarcasm through- 
 out the poem is cutting and terrible. 
 
 The speakers in the poem are an old farmer named 
 Kaspar, whose home is near Blenheim in Bavaria, and 
 his two little grandchildren, one of whom brings in a 
 human skull which he has found on the battlefield, and 
 wants to know what it is. This skull serves as the text 
 for the dialogue that follows — a dialogue on the horrors 
 and wickedness of war as represented in the "famous 
 victory" of Blenheim. 
 
 The battle of Blenheim was indeed the most famous 
 victory of England's most famous general, the Duke of 
 Marlborough, "who never fought a battle that he did 
 not win, and never besieged a place that he did not 
 take." The battle was fought August 13, 1704, during 
 the "War of the Spanish Succession," which lasted ten 
 years and was caused by the jealousy of European 
 monarchs. The common people knew little or nothing 
 about the cause of it, and doubtless cared little or 
 nothing. England, Germany, Holland, Prussia and 
 other powers formed the "Grand Alliance" to keep 
 France and Spain from being united under one 
 monarch. The war that followed was ^literally uni- 
 versal," as Schwill says, "and raged at one and the same 
 time at all the exposed points of the French-Spanish 
 possessions, that is, in the Spanish Netherlands, along 
 the upper Ehine, in Italy, in Spain itself, on the sea, 
 and in the colonies of North America." During the 
 
72 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 progress of the war the emperor of Germany died and 
 was succeeded by his brother, Charles VI. Kow this 
 same Charles was the prince whom the Grand Alliance 
 was trying to put on the throne of Spain. To have 
 Germany and Spain under one monarch would be as 
 bad as to have France and Spain under one monarch — 
 so England and Holland thought, and this new jealousy 
 made the Grand Alliance go to pieces. The peace of 
 Utrecht, 1713, followed, by which the Spanish domin- 
 ions were divided. Everybody managed to get a share 
 of the booty, England's share being the Erench posses- 
 sions in North America, namely, Newfoundland, Nova 
 Scotia, the Hudson Bay territory; together with the 
 Spanish rock of Gibraltar, which gave her the command 
 of the Mediterranean sea. 
 
 To this day it has not been settled who was really 
 entitled to the crown of Spain — but the battle of 
 Blenheim was a "famous victory !" ^ 
 
 THE BATTLE OF BLENHEIM 
 1 
 
 It was a summer evening, 
 
 Old Kaspar's work was done. 
 And he, before his cottage door. 
 
 Was sitting in the sun; 
 And by him sported on the green 
 His little grandchild Wilhelmine. 
 
THE BATTLE OF BLENHEIM 73 
 
 2 
 She saw her brother Peterkin 
 
 Eoll something large and round, 
 Which he beside the rivulet, 
 
 In playing there, had found; 
 He came to ask what he had found 
 That was so large, and smooth, and round. 
 
 3 
 
 Old Kaspar took it from the boy. 
 
 Who stood expectant by; 
 And then the old man shook his head. 
 
 And, with a natural sigh, 
 " 'T is some poor fellow's skull," said he, 
 '^Who fell in the great victory. 
 
 "I find them in the garden. 
 For there's many hereabout; 
 
 And often when I go to plow. 
 The plowshare turns them out; 
 
 For many thousand men," said he, 
 
 "Were slain in that great victory." 
 
 5 
 
 "Now tell us what 't was all about," 
 Young Peterkin he cries; 
 
74 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 While little Wilhelmine looks up 
 
 With wonder-waiting eyes; 
 "Now tell US all about the war, 
 And what they killed each other for/' 
 
 6 
 
 "It was the Enghsh/' Kaspar cried, 
 ^'Who put the French to rout, 
 
 But what they killed each other for, 
 I could not well make out; 
 
 But everybody said,^' quoth he, 
 
 "That 'twas a famous victory. 
 
 "My father lived at Blenheim then, 
 
 Yon little stream, hard by ; 
 They burnt his dwelling to the ground, 
 
 And he was forced to fly ; 
 So, with his wife and child he fled, 
 Nor had he where to rest his head. 
 
 8 
 
 '^ith fire and sword the country round 
 
 Was wasted far and wide, 
 And many a childing mother there, 
 
 And new-born baby died; 
 
THE BATTLE OF BLENHEIM 75 
 
 But things like that, you know, must be 
 At every famous victory. 
 
 9 
 
 ^'They say it was a shocking sight 
 
 After the field was won; 
 Por many thousand bodies here 
 
 Lay rotting in the sun; 
 But things like that, you know, must be 
 After a famous victory. 
 
 10 
 
 "Great praise the Duke of Marlbro' won. 
 
 And our good Prince Eugene;'^ 
 "Why ^twas a very wicked thing 1'^ 
 
 Said little Wilhelmine. 
 "Nay, nay, my little girl,'^ quoth he, 
 "It was a famous victory. 
 
 11 
 
 "And everybody praised the Duke 
 
 Who this great fight did win." 
 "But what good came of it at last?" | 
 
 Quoth little Peterkin. 
 "Why, that I cannot tell," said he, 
 "But ^twas a famous victory." 
 
 — Kobert Southey. 
 
76 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 COLUMBUS 
 
 To read this inspiring poem with the understanding 
 one must think of the dangers of the voyage — of how 
 the sailors thought the sea was filled with awful 
 monsters, of how they threatened to throw Columbus 
 overboard if he did not take them back home, and of 
 the matchless courage of Columbus. These things are 
 best revealed in the journal or diary kept by Columbus. 
 In it he speaks of himself in the third person, as the 
 Admiral, and he begins every day's journal with the 
 simple statement that that day he sailed westward. 
 Then follows an account of the terrors of the trip; but 
 the next day's journal starts off calmly with the state- 
 ment that that day he sailed westward. No mutiny of 
 the sailors and no horror of the seas could keep him 
 from sailing westward, for that was his course. Joaquin 
 Miller has caught the spirit of the heroic event and put 
 it into stirring rhyme. Here are four brief extracts 
 from the Columbus journal: 
 
 Thursday, Sept. 13, 1492. 
 That day and night, steering their course, which was west, 
 they made 33 leagues. . . . The currents were against 
 them. On -this day at the commencement of the night, the 
 needles turned a half point to north-west, and in the morning 
 they turned somewhat more north-west. 
 , [Elsewhere he notes that this variation had never 
 been observed by anyone up to that time, and that 
 it caused much consternation among the sailors.] 
 
COLUMBUS 77 
 
 Saturday, Sept. 15, 1492. 
 That day and night they made 27 leagues and rather more 
 on their west course; and in the early part of the night there 
 fell from heaven into the sea a marvelous flame of fire, at a 
 distance of about 4 or 5 leagues from them. 
 
 Wednesday, Oct. 10, 1492. 
 
 He sailed west-southwest. . . . Here the crew could stand 
 it no longer. They complained of the long voyage, but the 
 Admiral encouraged them as best he could, giving them hopes 
 of the profits they might have. And he added that it was 
 useless to murmur, because he had come in quest of the Indies, 
 and was going to continue until he found them, with God's 
 help. 
 
 Thursday, October 11, 1492. 
 
 He sailed to the west-southwest, but a high sea, higher than 
 hitherto. . . . The Admiral at ten o'clock at night, stand- 
 ing on the castle of the poop, saw a light, but so indistinct 
 that he did not dare to affirm that it was land; yet he called 
 the attention of Pedro Gutierrez, a king's butler, to it and 
 told him that it seemed to be a light, and told him to look; he 
 did so and saw it. . . . After the Admiral said this it was 
 seen once or twice, and it was like a small wax candle that 
 was being hoisted and raised. . . . The Admiral, however, 
 was quite convinced of the proximity of land. . . . Two 
 hours after midnight the land appeared two leagues off. 
 
 COLUMBUS 
 
 1 
 
 Behind him lay the gray Azores, 
 
 Behind the Gates of Hercules; 
 Before him not the ghost of shores, 
 
 Before him only shoreless seas. 
 
78 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 The good mate said : "Now must we pray, 
 For lo ! the very stars are gone. 
 
 Brave Adm'r'l, speak, what shall I say?" 
 "Why, say : ^Sail on ! sail on ! and on !' " 
 
 2 
 "My men grow mutinous day by day; 
 
 My men grow ghastly wan and weak." 
 The stout mate thought of home ; a spray 
 
 Of salt wave washed his swarthy cheek. 
 ^^What shall I say, brave Adm'r'l, say. 
 
 If we sight naught but seas at dawn?'^ 
 "Why, you shall say at break of day : 
 
 'Sail on ! sail on ! sail on ! and on !' " 
 
 They sailed and sailed, as winds might blow. 
 
 Until at last the blanched mate said : 
 "Why, now not even God would know 
 
 Should I and all my men fall dead. 
 These very winds forget their way, 
 
 For God from these dread seas is gone. 
 Now speak, brave Adm'r'l, speak and say." — 
 
 He said: "Sail on! sail on! and on!" 
 
 4 
 
 They sailed. They sailed. Then spake the mate 
 "This mad sea shows his teeth to-night. 
 
 He curls his lip, he lies in wait. 
 With lifted teeth, as if to bite ! • 
 
COLUMBUS 79 
 
 Brave AdmVl, say but one good word : 
 What shall we do when hope is gone T^ 
 
 The words leapt like a leaping sword : 
 "Sail on ! sail on ! sail on ! and on !" 
 
 5 
 
 Then, pale and worn, he kept his deck, 
 
 And peered through darkness. Ah, that night 
 Of all dark nights ! And then a speck — 
 
 Alight! Alight! Alight! Alight! 
 It grew, a starlit flag unfurled ! 
 
 It grew to be Timers burst of dawn. 
 He gained a world ; he gave that world 
 
 Its grandest lesson : "On ! sail on !" 
 
 — Joaquin Miller. 
 
 In stanza four, notice the description of a fierce storm at 
 sea. Columbus says in his journal for October 11 that they 
 had a high sea that day, "higher than hitherto." 
 
 Ke Tcept his deck and peered through darkness — Columbus 
 watched all night and was the first to see a light. If possible, 
 his feelings should be imagined in reading of this momentous 
 event in the world's history. 
 
 A starlit flag unfurled — A part of the land discovered by 
 him became the United States with its stars and stripes. 
 
 Time's hurst of dawn — a new era in the world's history. 
 
 The poem should be read by the members of the history 
 classes in their study of the period of discovery. One who 
 does not endeavor to bring into play a vivid imagination can- 
 not read it with full understanding and pleasure. 
 
80 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 CHICAGO: OCTOBER 10, 1871 
 
 The reference is, of course, to the Chicago fire, in 
 which nearly one hundred thousand people were ren- 
 dered homeless, more than three square miles were 
 burned over, and property worth more than two hun- 
 dred million dollars was destroyed. Chicago had grown 
 up so rapidly that it is compared to Aladdin's palace, 
 which was created in a night, as told in the Arabian 
 Nights. The cry of Macedonia to Paul, in the Bible, 
 was "come over and help us/' All the civilized world 
 responded generously to Chicago's cry for help. "The 
 silver cup hid in the proffered meal" has reference to 
 Joseph's putting his silver cup in his brother Benjamin's 
 sack of corn. Genesis J/.Jf.; 1-2, reads : 
 
 1. And he commanded the steward of his house, say- 
 ing, Fill the men's sacks with food, as much as they can 
 carry, and put every man's money in his sack's mouth: 
 
 2. And put my cup, the silver cup, in the sack's mouth 
 of the youngest, and his corn money. And he did accord- 
 ing to the word that Joseph had spoken. 
 
 CHICAGO: OCTOBER 10, 1871 
 
 1 
 
 Blackened and bleeding, helpless, panting prone. 
 On the charred fragments of her shattered throne 
 Lies she who stood but yesterday alone. 
 
THE WEECK OF THE HESPERUS 81 
 
 2 
 Queen of the West ! by some enchanter taught 
 To lift the glory of Aladdin's court, 
 Then lose the spell that all that wonder wrought. 
 
 3 
 
 Like her own prairies by some chance seed sown, 
 Like her own prairies in one brief day grown. 
 Like her own prairies in one fierce night mown. 
 
 4 
 She lifts her voice, and in her pleading call 
 We hear her cry of Macedon to Paul, 
 The cry for help that makes her kin to all. 
 
 5 
 
 But haply with wan fingers may she feel 
 The silver cup hid in the proffered meal. 
 The gifts her kinship and our love reveal. 
 
 — Bret Harte. 
 In one fierce night mown — has reference to prairie fires. 
 
 THE WEECK OF THE HESPEEUS 
 
 The Wreck of the Hesperus is an imitation of the old 
 English ballads in both spirit and form. Following 
 the custom of the old ballad writers, Longfellow, in 
 
82 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 order to make the meter right, makes the accent fall 
 upon the last syllable of "daughter'^ in the first verse, 
 "sailor'^ in the fourth verse, and "daughter" in the 
 eighth. 
 
 Norman's Woe is the name of a dangerous reef off 
 the coast of Gloucester, Mass. In December, 1839, an 
 issue of the Boston Advertiser published an account of 
 a vessel. The Hesperus, wrecked off this reef, with a 
 woman's form lashed to the mast. About a fortnight 
 later, after a violent storm, Longfellow rose in the 
 middle of the night and wrote the poem in less than 
 an hour. The detail of the ballad is, of course, his 
 own invention. 
 
 THE WRECK OP THE HESPERUS 
 1 
 
 It was the schooner Hesperus, 
 
 That sailed the wintry sea; 
 And the skipper had taken his little daughter, 
 
 To bear him company. 
 
 2 
 Blue were her eyes as the fairy-flax, 
 
 Her cheeks like the dawn of day, 
 And her bosom white as the hawthorn buds. 
 
 That ope in the month of May. 
 
THE WEECK OF THE HESPEEUS 83 
 
 3 
 
 The skipper he stood beside the helm. 
 
 His pipe was in his mouth, 
 And he watched how the veering flaw did blow 
 
 The smoke now West, now South. 
 
 4 
 Then up and spake an old sailor, 
 
 Had sailed to the Spanish Main, 
 "I pray thee, put into yonder port, 
 
 For I fear a hurricane. 
 
 5 
 
 *'Last night, the moon had a golden ring. 
 
 And to-night no moon we see !" 
 The skipper, he blew a whijff from his pipe. 
 
 And a scornful laugh laughed he. 
 
 6 
 
 Colder and louder blew the wind, 
 
 A gale from the Northeast, 
 The snow fell hissing in the brine. 
 
 And the billows frothed like yeast. 
 
 7 
 Down came the storm, and smote amain 
 
 The vessel in its strength ; 
 She shuddered and paused, like a frighted steed. 
 
 Then leaped her cable's length. 
 
84 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 8 
 
 "Come hither ! come hither ! my little daughter, 
 
 And do not tremble so ; 
 For I can weather the roughest gale 
 
 That ever wind did blow/^ 
 
 He wrapped her warm in his seaman's coat 
 
 Against the stinging blast; 
 He cut a rope from a broken spar. 
 
 And bound her to the mast. 
 
 10 
 
 "0 father ! I hear the church bells ring, 
 
 say, what may it be?" 
 " 'T is a fog bell on a rock-bound coast I" — 
 
 And he steered for the open sea. 
 
 11 
 
 "0 father ! I hear the sound of guns, 
 
 say, what may it be?" 
 "Some ship in distress, that cannot live 
 In such an angry sea !" 
 
 12 
 
 "0 father ! I see the gleaming light, 
 
 say, what may it be?" 
 But the father answered never a word, 
 
 A frozen corpse was he. 
 
THE WEECK OF THE HESPERUS 85 
 
 13 
 
 Lashed to the helm, all stiff and stark. 
 
 With his face turned to the skies, 
 The lantern gleamed through the gleaming snow 
 
 On his j&xed and glassy eyes. 
 
 14 
 Then the maiden clasped her hands and prayed 
 
 That saved she might be; 
 And she thought of Christ, who stilled the wave, 
 
 On the Lake of Galilee. 
 
 15 
 
 And fast through the midnight dark and drear, 
 Through the whistling sleet and snow. 
 
 Like a sheeted ghost, the vessel swept 
 Towards the reef of Norman's Woe. 
 
 16 
 And ever the fitful gusts between 
 
 A sound came from the land; 
 It was the sound of the trampling surf 
 
 On the rocks and the hard sea-sand. 
 
 17 
 
 The breakers were right beneath her bows. 
 
 She drifted a dreary wreck. 
 And a whooping billow swept the crew 
 
 Like icicles from her deck. 
 
86 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 18 
 
 She struck where the white and fleecy waves 
 
 Looked soft as carded wool, 
 But the cruel rocks, they gored her side 
 
 Like the horns of an angry bull. 
 
 19 
 
 Her rattling shrouds, all sheathed in ice, 
 With the masts went by the board ; 
 
 Like a vessel of glass, she strove and sank, 
 Ho! ho! the breakers roared! 
 
 20 
 
 At daybreak, on the bleak sea-beach, 
 
 A fisherman stood aghast. 
 To see the form of a maiden fair, 
 
 Lashed close to a drifting mast. 
 
 21 
 The salt sea was frozen on her breast. 
 
 The salt tears in her eyes; 
 And he saw her hair, like the brown seaweed. 
 
 On the billows fall and rise. 
 
 22 
 
 Such was the wreck of the Hesperus, 
 
 In the midnight and the snow ! 
 Christ, save us all from a death like this. 
 
 On the reef of Norman's Woe ! 
 
 — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. 
 
KING SOLOMON AND THE ANTS 87 
 
 Spanish main — the name formerly given to the southern por- 
 tion of the Caribbean sea. 
 
 HJcipper — the master, or captain, of a vessel. 
 
 Flaw — a sudden gust of wind. 
 
 Bound her to the mast — to keep the storm from throwing 
 her into the sea. 
 
 What she took to be the church bells, the sound of guns, and 
 the gleaming light, were danger or distress signals. 
 
 With the captain frozen to death at his post of duty, where 
 he had tied himself to keep from going overboard, there was 
 nothing to keep the ship from being driven by the storm against 
 the rocks. 
 
 Stanza seven is particularly fine: 
 
 Down came the storm and smote amain 
 
 The vessel in its strength; 
 She shuddered and paused, like a frighted steed, 
 
 Then leaped her cable's length. 
 
 So also is stanza eighteen: 
 
 She struck where the white and fleecy waves 
 
 Looked soft as carded wool, 
 But the cruel rocks they gored her side 
 
 Like the horns of an angry bull. 
 
 KING SOLOMON AND THE ANTS 
 
 This poem is an allegory founded upon a legend. 
 Legends almost innumerable grew up about the great 
 character of Solomon. These legends are preserved in 
 the Koran, the Talmud, and other oriental books. 
 Many of the most interesting of them are about his 
 conversations with birds, insects, and animals. Solo- 
 mon was supposed to know their languages. The 
 
88 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 legend upon which Whittier based his poem of Solo- 
 mon and the Ants is doubtless the following, which is 
 found in the Koran : 
 
 And Solomon inherited from David the gift of prophecy and 
 knowledge; and he said, "O men, I have been taught the lan- 
 guage of birds, and have had bestowed on me of everything 
 wherewith prophets and kings are gifted." And his armies of 
 jinn (demons) and men and birds were gathered together unto 
 Solomon, and they were led on in order, until, when they came 
 unto the valley of ants, which was at Et-Taif in Syria, the 
 queen of the ants, having seen the troops of Solomon, said, "O 
 ants, enter your habitations, lest Solomon and his troops crush 
 you violently, while they perceive not." And Solomon smiled, 
 afterwards laughing at her saying, which he heard from the 
 distance of three miles, the wind conveying it to him; so he 
 withheld his forces when he came in sight of their valley, until 
 the ants had entered their dwellings. And his troops were on 
 horses and on foot in this expedition. 
 
 So much for the legend. The meaning of the 
 allegory is this: The ants represent the multitudes of 
 common people — the masses ; the king and queen repre- 
 sent the rich and powerful. The ants (the common 
 people) think that the rich and powerful crush them 
 to death without even pajdng any attention. The 
 queen, representing a certain type of rich and powerful 
 people still to be found in every country, says that these 
 ants (common people) ought to be thankful to be 
 trampled upon by so great a king — ^it is a great honor 
 to them if they only knew it ! But Solomon, represent- 
 ing true greatness, tells her that the wise and strong 
 shoidd seek the welfare of the weak. And his train 
 
KING SOLOMON AND THE ANTS 89 
 
 followed his example (such a leader is always followed) 
 and spared the life, liberty, and homes of the poor folk. 
 It is a beautiful legend and a profitable allegory. 
 
 KING SOLOMON AND THE ANTS 
 1 
 
 Out from Jerusalem 
 
 The king rode with his great 
 
 War chiefs and lords of state, 
 And Sheba's queen with them. 
 
 2 
 Proud in the Syrian sun. 
 
 In gold and purple sheen, 
 
 The dusky Ethiop queen 
 Smiled on King Solomon. 
 
 3 
 Wisest of men, he knew 
 
 The languages of all 
 
 The creatures great or small 
 That trod the earth or flew. 
 
 4 
 
 Across an ant-hill led 
 
 The king's path, and he heard 
 Its small folk, and their word 
 
 He thus interpreted: 
 
 By permission of Houghton Mifflin Company. 
 
90 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 5 
 
 ^^Here comes the king men greet 
 As wise and good and just, 
 To crush us in the dust 
 
 Fnder his heedless feet." 
 
 6 
 
 The great king bowed his head, 
 And saw the wide surprise 
 Of the Queen of Sheba's eyes 
 
 As he told her what they said. 
 
 7 
 
 *'0h. King," she whispered sweet, 
 ^^00 happy fate have they 
 Who perish in thy way. 
 
 Beneath thy gracious feet! 
 
 8 
 
 "Thou of the God-lent crown. 
 Shall these vile creatures dare 
 Murmur against thee where 
 
 The knees of kings kneel down?" 
 
 9 
 
 "Nay," Solomon replied, 
 
 "The wise and strong should seek 
 The welfare of the weak"; 
 
 And turned his horse aside. 
 
THE DESTEUCTION OF SENNACHEEIB 91 
 
 10 
 His train, with quick alarm, 
 
 Curved with their leader round 
 
 The ant-hilFs peopled mound, 
 And left it free from harm. 
 
 11 
 
 The jeweled head bent low; 
 
 "0 king !" she said, ^Tienceforth 
 
 The secret of thy worth 
 'And wisdom well I know. 
 
 12 
 
 *'Happy must be the state 
 
 Whose ruler heedeth more 
 
 The murmurs of the poor 
 Than flatteries of the great." 
 
 — ^John Greenleaf Whittier. 
 
 THE DESTEUCTION OF SENNACHERIB 
 
 Perhaps no other poem of Lord Byron's is so popular 
 with young readers as this splendid oriental picture of 
 the siege of Jerusalem and the destruction of the hosts 
 of the Assyrian king. Sennacherib was in some respects 
 the most interesting of Assyrian monarchs and a typical 
 representative of oriental haughtiness, violence, and 
 power. He was king of Assyria for twenty-four years 
 
92 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 —from B. C. 705 to 681. At the time of the event 
 described in the poem, Hezekiah was king of Judah, 
 and had as his temporary ally the king of Egypt. Sen- 
 nacherib, after defeating the Egyptian force before 
 Ekron, took the city, put to death the priests and chief 
 men, hnng up their bodies on stakes all around the city, 
 and turned his attention to Jerusalem. In one of the 
 royal inscriptions in Mneveh, discovered among the 
 ruins of the palace, the great king Sennacherib gives 
 this account of his expedition against Hezekiah : 
 
 I took forty-six of his strong fenced cities; and of the 
 smaller towns which were scattered about, and plundered a 
 countless number. And from these places I captured and car- 
 ried off as spoils 200,150 people, old and young, male and 
 female, together with horses and mares, asses and camels, oxen 
 and sheep, a countless multitude. And Hezekiah himself I 
 shut up in Jerusalem, his capital city, like a bird in a cage, 
 building towers around the city to hem him in, and raising 
 banks of earth against the gates, so as to prevent his escape. 
 
 He then tells how Hezekiah, after giving up the 
 treasures of the temple and the palace, came to the 
 conclusion that further resistance would be in vain, 
 and offered to surrender. 
 
 Here Sennacherib's account ends, but we know from 
 the Scriptures and from Egyptian history that there 
 is more to be told. Sennacherib demanded uncondi- 
 tional surrender of Jerusalem, and sent three officers 
 to make the demand. While they were negotiating and 
 boasting outside the city walls, Hezekiah received a 
 message from God, through Isaiah, according to the 
 
THE DESTEUCTION OF SENNACHEEIB 93 
 
 Biblical account, that he would "put his hook in Sen- 
 nacherib's nose and his bridle in his lips and turn 
 him back by the way by which he came. . . . He 
 shall not come into the city nor shoot an arrow there." 
 The campaign now took a new turn. What happened 
 that night, probably due to a plague resulting from 
 utter neglect of sanitation, is told in Second Kings in 
 these words : 
 
 35. And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the 
 Lord went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an 
 hundred, fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose 
 early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses. 
 
 36. So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and 
 returned, and dwelt at Nineveh. 
 
 There is no more dramatic record in ancient history 
 than this. Details of it may be found in Eawlinson's 
 Ancient Monarchies, Volume II., and in Second Kings 
 18:13-37, and Isaiah 36 and 37. 
 
 A foot-note in Eawlinson says : 
 
 I cannot accept the view that the Assyrian army was 
 destroyed by the simoon, owing to the foreign forces of 
 Sennacherib being little acquainted with the means of avoiding 
 this unusual enemy. The simoon would not have destroyed one 
 army and left the other unhurt. The narrative implies a secret, 
 sudden taking away of life during sleep, by divine interposi- 
 tion. 
 
 These historical facts will assist the understanding, 
 but the imagination must be used to call up the scenes 
 so vividly portrayed in the poem. Every line should 
 
94 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 be carefully studied. Notice the contrast, as set forth 
 in the second stanza, between the state of the Assyrian 
 army before and after the pestilence swept over it. 
 
 THE DESTRUCTION- OF SENNACHERIB 
 1 
 
 The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold, 
 And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold; 
 And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea, 
 When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee. 
 
 2 
 
 Like the leaves of the forest when summer is green, 
 That host with their banners at sunset were seen; 
 Like the leaves of the forest when Autumn hath blown. 
 That host on the morrow lay withered and strown. 
 
 3 
 
 For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast. 
 And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed; 
 And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill. 
 And their hearts but once heaved, and forever grew still ! 
 
 4 
 And there lay the steed with his nostrils all wide, 
 But through it there rolled not the breath of his pride ; 
 And the foam of his gasping lay white on the turf. 
 And cold as the spray of the rock-beating surf. 
 
DESTEUCTION OF SENNACHEEIB 95 
 
 5 
 
 And there lay the rider distorted and pale, 
 With the dew on his brow and the rust on his mail ; 
 And the tents were all silent, the banners alone, 
 The lances unlifted, the trumpets unblown. 
 
 6 
 
 And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail, 
 And their idols are broke in the temple of Baal ; 
 And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword, 
 Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord. 
 
 — George Gordon B3rron. 
 
 The Angel of Death — the pestilence. 
 Ashur — anotlier name for Assyria. 
 Baal — one of the chief gods of Assyria.* 
 The Gentile — King Sennacherib. 
 Glance of the Lord — the pestilence. 
 
 * The story of how the idols were broken in the house of Baal 
 Is told in a most interesting way in Second Kings 10:18-29: 
 
 And Jehu gathered all the people together, and said unto them, 
 Ahab served Baal a little ; l)ut Jehu shall serve him much. 
 
 Now therefore call unto me all the prophets of Baal, all his 
 servants, and all his priests ; let none be wanting : for I have a 
 great sacrifice to do to Baal ; whosoever shall be wanting, he shall 
 not live. But Jehu did it in subtilty, to the intent that he might 
 destroy the worshippers of Baal. 
 
 And Jehu said, Proclaim a solemn assembly for Baal. And they 
 proclaimed it. 
 
 And Jehu sent through all Israel : and all the worshippers of 
 Baal came, so that there was not a man left that came not. And 
 they came into the house of Baal ; and the house of Baal was full 
 from one end to another. 
 
96 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 And he said unto him that was over the vestry, Bring forth 
 vestments for all the worshippers of Baal. And he brought them 
 forth vestments. 
 
 And Jehu went, and Jehonadab the son of Rechab, into the house 
 of Baal, and said unto the worshippers of Baal, Search, and look 
 that there be here with you none of the servants of the Lord, 
 but the worshippers of Baal only. 
 
 And when they went in to offer sacrifices and burnt oflferings, 
 Jehu appointed four-score men without, and said, // any of the 
 men whom I have brought into your hands escape, he that letteth 
 him go, his life shall he for the life of him. 
 
 And it came to pass, as soon as he had made an end of offering 
 the burnt offering, that Jehu said to the guard and to the captains, 
 Go in, and slay them ; let none come forth. And they smote them 
 with the edge of the sword ; and the guard and the captains cast 
 them out, and went to the city of the house of Baal. 
 
 And they brought forth the images out of the house of Baal, and 
 burned them. 
 
 And they brake down the image of Baal, and brake down the 
 house of Baal, and made it a draught house unto this day. 
 
 Thus Jehu destroyed Baal out of Israel. 
 
 EOBIN HOOD 
 
 Eobin Hood, the English outlaw, is said to have li\ed 
 in the twelfth century. According to popular account, 
 he and his followers inhabited Sherwood Forest in 
 Nottinghamshire, and also the woodlands of Bamsdale 
 in the adjoining West Eiding. He supported himself 
 by levying tolls on the wealthy, especially on ecclesias- 
 tics, and by hunting the deer. The principal members 
 of his band were his lieutenant Little John, his chaplain 
 Friar Tuck, William Deadlock, George-a-Greene, Muck, 
 the miller's son, Allan-a-Dale, and Maid Marian. His 
 skill with the longbow and quarterstafi was celebrated 
 
EOBIN HOOD 97 
 
 in tradition. What basis of fact there is for the story 
 of Eobin Hood is doubtful, and there are various 
 theories as to his historical identity. 
 
 The poem is a graceful description of the old free 
 and happy days in Sherwood Forest, when men did not 
 have to worry about rents and leases. 
 
 ROBIN HOOD 
 
 No! those days are gone away 
 And their hours are old and gray. 
 And their minutes buried all 
 Under the downtrodden pall 
 Of the leaves of many years ; 
 Many times have Winter's shears, 
 Frozen North, and chilling East, 
 Sounded tempests to the feast 
 Of the forest's whispering fleeces 
 Since men knew no rents nor leases. 
 
 2 
 No ! the bugle sounds no more, 
 And the twanging bow no more; 
 Silent is the ivory shrill. 
 Past the heath and up the hill ; 
 There is no mid-forest laugh. 
 Whose lone echo gives the half 
 To some wight amazed to hear 
 Jesting, deep in forest drear. 
 
98 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 3 
 
 On the fairest time of June 
 You may go, with, sun or moon. 
 Or the seven stars to light you. 
 Or the polar ray to right you; 
 But you never may behold 
 Little John, or Eobin bold — 
 Never one, of all the clan 
 Thrumming on an empty can 
 Some old hunting ditty, while 
 He doth his green way beguile 
 To fair hostess Merriment 
 Down beside the pasture Trent ; 
 For he left the merry tale. 
 Messenger for spicy ale. 
 
 4 
 Gone the merry morris din; 
 Gone the song of Gamelyn; 
 Gone the tough-belted outlaw 
 Idling in the "greene shawe" — 
 All are gone away and past; 
 And if Eobin should be cast 
 Sudden from his tufted grave. 
 And if Marian should have 
 Once again her forest days, 
 She would weep, and he would craze ; 
 He would swear, for all his oaks. 
 Fallen beneath the dockyard strokes, 
 
EOBIN HOOD 99 
 
 Have rotted on the briny seas ; 
 She would weep that her wild bees 
 Sang not to her — Strange ! that honey 
 Can't be got without hard money ! 
 
 5 
 
 So it is ! you let us sing 
 Honor to the old bow string ! 
 Honor to the bugle-horn ! 
 Honor to the woods unshorn ! 
 Honor to the Lincoln green ! 
 Honor to the archer keen ! 
 Honor to tight Little John, 
 And the horse he rode upon ! 
 Honor to bold Eobin Hood, 
 Sleeping in the underwood ! 
 Honor to Maid Marian 
 And to all the Sherwood clan ! 
 Though their days have hurried by. 
 Let us two a burden try ! 
 
 — John Keats. 
 
 Greene shawe — a green grove. 
 
 Lincoln green — a color of cloth formerly made in England. 
 
 Whispering -fleeces — leaves of the forest. 
 
 Ivory shrill — a, whistle or fife. 
 
 Wight — man. 
 
 Pasture Trent — a field hj the Trent river. 
 
 Morris — a kind of dance. 
 
 Gamelyn — one of the foresters who became "king of the 
 
100 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 Burden — a refrain. 
 
 In Shakespeare's As You Like It occurs this little forest 
 song: 
 
 Under the greenwood tree 
 Who loves to lie with me, 
 And turn his merry note 
 Unto the sweet bird's throat, 
 Come hither, come hither, come hither ; 
 Here shall he see 
 No enemy. 
 But winter and rough weather. 
 
 Eobin Hood figures prominently in Scott's novel, 
 Ivanhoe, and in many a song and tale. 
 
 THE NIGHT BEFOEE WATEELOO 
 
 From "ChUde Harold's Pilgrimage'' 
 
 In Vanity Fair, chapter 29, Thackeray says : 
 "There never was, since the days of Darius, such a 
 brilliant train of camp-followers as hung round the 
 train of the Duke of Wellington's army in the Low 
 Countries, in 1815, and led it dancing and feasting, as 
 it were, up to the very brink of battle. A certain ball 
 which a noble duchess gave at Brussels on the 15th 
 of June in the above-named year is historical. All 
 Brussels had been in a state of excitement about it, 
 and I have heard from ladies who were in that town at 
 the period, that the talk and interest of persons of their 
 own sex regarding the ball was much greater even than 
 in respect of the enemy in their front." 
 
WATEELOO 101 
 
 The ball was given by the Duchess of Eichmond, in 
 honor of the officers of the English and allied armies. 
 In her Personal Recollections Lady de Eos^ a daughter 
 of the Duchess of Eichmond, says: 
 
 "When the Duke of Wellington arrived, rather late, 
 at the ball, I was dancing, but at once went up to him 
 to ask about the rumors (of battle). He said very 
 gravely, 'Yes. They are true; we are off to-morrow.^ 
 This terrible news was circulated directly, and while 
 some of the officers hurried away, others remained at 
 the ball, and actually had not time to change their 
 clothes, but fought in evening costume. 
 
 "I went with my oldest brother ... to his 
 house, which stood in our garden, to help him pack 
 up, after which we returned to the ball-room, where 
 we found some energetic and heartless ladies still danc- 
 ing. ... It was a dreadful evening, taking leave 
 of friends and acquaintances, many never to be seen 
 again. . . . The Duke of Brunswick, as he took 
 leave of me in the ante-room adjoining the ball-room, 
 made me a civil speech as to the Brunswickers being 
 sure to distinguish themselves. ... I remember 
 being quite provoked at Lord Hay ... for his 
 delight at the idea of going into action; and the first 
 news we had on the 16th was that he and the Duke of 
 Brunswick were killed. ... At the ball supper 
 I sat next to the Duke of Wellington. In the course 
 of the evening the Duke asked my father for a map 
 
102 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 of the country. He put his finger on Waterloo, saying 
 the battle would be fought there/' 
 
 The battle which occurred the next day is known as 
 the battle of Quatre Bras ; forty-eight hours later came 
 the great battle of Waterloo, when Napoleon was 
 defeated by the allied forces of Europe under the 
 Duke of Wellington. 
 
 WATERLOO 
 
 There was a sound of revelry by night, 
 
 And Belgium's capital had gathered then 
 Her beauty and her chivalry, and bright 
 
 The lamps shone o'er fair women and brave men; 
 
 A thousand hearts beat happily; and when 
 Music arose with its voluptuous swell, 
 
 Soft eyes looked love to eyes which spake again. 
 And all went merry as a marriage-bell : 
 But hush ! hark ! a deep sound strikes like a rising knell ! 
 
 Did ye not hear it? No; 'twas but the wind. 
 Or the car rattling o'er the stony street. 
 
 On with the dance ! let joy be unconfined ! 
 
 No sleep till morn, when Youth and Pleasure meet 
 To chase the glowing Hours with flying feet! 
 
 But hark ! — that heavy sound breaks in once more, 
 As if the clouds its echo would repeat ; 
 
WATEELOO 103 
 
 And nearer, clearer, deadlier, than before! 
 
 Arm! arm! it is — it is — the cannon's opening roar! 
 
 3 
 
 Within a windowed niche of that high hall 
 
 Sate Brunswick's fated chieftain; he did hear 
 That sound the first amidst the. festival, 
 
 And caught its tone with Death's prophetic ear; 
 
 And when they smiled because he deemed it near, 
 His heart more truly knew that peal too well " 
 
 Which stretched his father on a bloody bier. 
 And roused the vengeance blood alone could quell ; 
 He rushed into the field, and, foremost fighting, fell. 
 
 4 
 Ah ! then and there was hurrying to and fro. 
 
 And gathering tears, and tremblings of distress, • 
 And cheeks all pale which but an hour ago 
 
 Blushed at the praise of their own loveliness. 
 
 And there were sudden partings, such as press 
 The life from out young hearts, and choking sighs 
 
 Which ne'er might be repeated; who would guess 
 If ever more should meet those mutual eyes, 
 Since upon night so sweet such awful morn could rise ! 
 
 And there was mounting in hot haste ; the steed, 
 The mustering squadron, and the clattering car 
 
104 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 Went pouring forward with impetuous speed, 
 And swiftly forming in the ranks of war ; 
 And the deep thunder peal on peal afar ; 
 
 And near, the beat of the alarming drum 
 Eoused up the soldier ere the morning star ; 
 
 "While thronged the citizens with terror dumb, 
 
 Or whispering with white lips, "The foe ! They come ! 
 They come V 
 
 * * * 4: * ♦ * 
 
 6 
 
 Last noon beheld them full of lusty life. 
 
 Last eve in beauty^s circle proudly gay ; 
 The midnight brought the signal sound of strife. 
 
 The morn, the marshalling in arms; the day. 
 
 Battle's magnificently stern array! 
 The thunderclouds close o^er it, which when rent 
 
 The earth is covered thick with other clay, 
 Which her own clay shall cover, heaped and pent, 
 Eider and horse, friend, foe, in one red burial blent! 
 
 — George Gordon Byron. 
 
 Car — a two-wheeled vehicle. 
 
 Brunswick's fated chieftain — The Duke of Brunswick was 
 killed in the battle next day. His Father, Duke Ferdinand, 
 had been killed by the French at Jena in 1806. (Stanza 
 three.) 
 
 Clay — soldiers, men; referring to the Biblical statement 
 that "God formed man of the dust of the ground." 
 
THE CHAMBEEED NAUTILUS 105 
 
 THE CHAMBEEED NAUTILUS 
 
 The chambered nautilus is a small shellfish found in 
 the South Pacific and Indian oceans and the Mediter- 
 ranean Sea, especially about Sicily. A large and perfect 
 shell will weigh six or seven ounces. The exterior crust 
 of the shell is whitish, with fawn-colored streaks and 
 bands, and the interior has a beautiful pearly lustre. 
 The shell is coiled in a flat spiral, much like the shell 
 of a snail, and the interior is divided by partitions into 
 numerous chambers, each succeeding chamber being 
 larger than the last. The animal lives in a very small 
 chamber at first, and every time it moves into another it 
 builds a partition between, until a certain stage is 
 reached in the growth of the animal, when no new 
 chambers are formed. 
 
 Eunning through the center of the shell and connect- 
 ing the chambers one with another, the first with the 
 last, is a small cord. Even so the cord of memory 
 connects us with the house of our childhood, no matter 
 how small and humble it may have been, and no mat- 
 ter how great the difference or the distance between it 
 and one's present home. 
 
 With this simple information. Dr. Holmes's familiar 
 and beautiful poem is easily understood. It will be 
 much better, of course, if the reader have a nautilus 
 shell so that he may see its "chambered cells," its 
 "sunless crypts," its "irised ceiling," its "idle doors." 
 
106 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 It is well to conceive of the author with a broken 
 nautilus shell lying before him as he wrote the verses 
 about it. 
 
 THE CHAMBERED NAUTILUS 
 1 
 
 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. 
 
 2 
 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 ! 
 
 3 
 
 Year after year beheld the silent toil 
 
 That spread his lustrous coil; 
 
 Still, as the spiral grew. 
 He left the past year's dwelling for the new. 
 
THE CHAMBEEED NAUTILUS 107 
 
 Stole with soft steps its shining archway through, 
 
 Built up its idle door, 
 Stretched in his last-found home, and knew the old no 
 more. 
 
 4 
 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 : — 
 
 5 
 Build thee more stately mansions, 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 ! 
 
 — Oliver Wendell Holmes. 
 
 The ship of pearl is, of course, the shell itself. 
 
 Unshadowed main — ocean. 
 
 Furpled wings are gauze-like projections which the animal 
 •was popularly supposed to have the power of throwing out in 
 the manner of sails. 
 
108 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 Sirens, in mythology, were birds with faces of women, found 
 on the shores of the Mediterranean, who by their sweet voices 
 enticed to the shores those who were sailing by, and then 
 killed them. 
 
 Wrecked is the ship of pearl — the broken shell. 
 
 Crypt — cell or chamber where the animal lived. 
 
 Dead lips — the empty shell. 
 
 Triton — the trumpeter of Neptune, the chief god of the 
 sea. 
 
 Dome more vast— a loftier and more spacious chamber. 
 
 The chief emotion aroused by the poem is aspiration; and 
 this is its chief meaning. The final stanza expresses it in a 
 beautiful and effective way. 
 
 WOLSEY'S FAEEWELL TO CEOMWELL 
 From "King Henry VIII" Act Hi, Scene 2. 
 
 The supposed address of Cardinal Wolsey to Thomas 
 Cromwell, his successor in the king's favor, is better 
 understood when one knows the facts of Wolsey's career. 
 He was born in Suffolk, England, 1471, educated at 
 Oxford, and became chaplain to Henry YIII. By his 
 devoted and brilliant service he soon rose to high favor 
 at court. Henry VIII. made him Archbishop of York 
 in 1514, Lord Chancellor of England in 1515, and 
 gave him almost unlimited power. The Pope created 
 him a cardinal, and he acted as if he were really one 
 of the sovereigns of Europe. His ambition was to 
 become Pope, and twice he almost succeeded. His rise 
 
WOLSEY'S FAEEWELL TO CKOMWELL 109 
 
 and influence lay in his willingness to serve the king 
 at all times. 
 
 Cavendish, who acted as his servant and wrote his 
 life, tells lis that he lived in splendid style. In his 
 household, waiting upon him, holding various offices, 
 were many lords and gentlemen, and under them in- 
 numerable servants, clerks of the kitchen, yeoman of 
 the scullery, yeoman of his chariot and his stirrup, cup- 
 bearers, carvers, and grooms. The head cook "went 
 daily in velvet or in satin, with a chain of gold." He 
 had doctors, chaplains, choristers innumerable, the list 
 filling two or three pages of Cavendishes book. "When 
 he went out in the morning his cardinal's hat was 
 borne by some gentleman of worship right solemnly," 
 also two great crosses. Then the gentlemen ushers 
 going before him, bareheaded, cried aloud, "On before 
 my lord and master, on before and make way for my 
 lord the cardinal." Thus he went down through the 
 hall, the sergeant-at-arms before him carrying a great 
 mace of silver, and two gentlemen carrying two great 
 pillars of silver. And when he came to the hall-door, 
 there stood his mule caparisoned in crimson velvet, 
 with saddle of same, with gilt stirrups. When he was 
 mounted there were in attendance upon him two cross- 
 bearers and pillar-bearers, each upon a great horse, each 
 in fine scarlet. Then he marched forward with a train 
 of gentlemen, and gentlemen with four footmen, each 
 bearing a gilt pole-axe in his hand. "And thus passed 
 he forth until he came to Westminster hall door." His 
 
110 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 houses, or palaces, were fit for a king ; one at Hampton 
 Court, the other at Whitehall. They were filled with 
 magnificent furniture, costly furnishings, beds of silk, 
 arras, gold and silver plate, and tapestry in profusion. 
 This gives us an idea of his splendor. Notwithstanding 
 all this display, it is said he judged every estate accord- 
 ing to its merits and deserts, sparing neither high nor 
 low. Nor did he forget his old home, nor the univer- 
 sity, nor the good education that had helped him to 
 rise; with true generosity he founded a college at 
 Oxford called Cardinal College, afterward renamed 
 Christ Church College. 
 
 Had Wolsey ever seen that part of the Catholic 
 service when, as the fire consumes sumptuous apparel, 
 the choristers sing, ''sic transit gloria mundi" (so 
 passes away the glory of the world) ? The time was 
 drawing near when his glory would pass away. 
 
 The king turned against him because he was not able 
 to bring about a divorce from Queen Catherine. The 
 king wished to marry Anne Bolejra. At last Anne 
 Boleyn demanded and obtained from the king Wolse/s 
 dismissal in disgrace. 
 
 Cavendish says that he gave up to the king all of his 
 riches, gold and silver plate, velvet, cloth of silver, cloth 
 of gold, satin damask, tapestry and tufted taffeta. Then 
 a sad parting took place between him and his servants 
 as he broke up his great household, when he said fare- 
 well to his many servants, to whom he had been so kind 
 
WOLSEY'S FAEEWELL TO CROMWELL m 
 
 and generous. Cavendish says, "Beholding this goodly 
 number of his servants, he could not speak to them until 
 the tears ran down his cheeks, which few tears seen by 
 his servants caused the fountains of water to gush out 
 of their faithful eyes in such sort as would cause a 
 cruel heart to lament/' 
 
 Soon after this he was sent to his archbishopric of 
 York, and the king selected as his own advisers Sir 
 Thomas More and Thomas Cromwell. 
 
 Soon Wolsey was charged with high treason and 
 summoned to London. His proud heart was broken, 
 and when he reached Leicester Abbey he was so ill he 
 could hardly sit upon his mule, and he died a few days 
 later. As he lay dying and looked back over his strange 
 life, through all his ambition and industry, his power 
 and his splendor, he said, "If I had served my God as 
 diligently as I have served my king, he would not have 
 given me over in my gray hairs.'' 
 
 This historical sketch will help to an understanding 
 of such passages as these : 
 
 "Wolsey, that once trod the ways of glory." 
 
 "Mark but my fall, and that that ruined me. 
 Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition." 
 
 "O Cromwell, Cromwell, 
 Had I but served my God with half the zeal 
 I served my king. He would not in mine age 
 Have left me naked to mine enemies." 
 
112 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 It is an interesting fact that Cromwell did not profit 
 by Wolsey^s experience. After rising from the state of 
 a blacksmith's son to be Lord Chancellor of England, 
 and almost as powerful as Wolsey had been, he at last 
 came under King Henry's displeasure, and was executed, 
 1540, without the privilege of defending himself. He 
 himself had introduced the law that persons accused of 
 high treason against the king should not be heard in 
 their own behalf. By a remarkable retribution he was 
 the first to suffer under that law. 
 
 WOLSEY's farewell to CROMWELL 
 
 Cromwell, I did not think to shed a tear 
 In all my miseries ; but thou hast forced me. 
 Out of thy honest truth, to play the woman. 
 Let's dry our eyes ; and thus far hear me, Cromwell ; 
 And,— when I am forgotten, as I shall be, 
 And sleep in dull cold marble, where no mention 
 Of me more must be heard of, — say, I taught thee ; 
 Say Wolsey — that once trod the ways of glory. 
 And sounded all the depths and shoals of honor — 
 Found thee a way, out of his wreck, to rise in, 
 A sure and safe one, though thy master missed it. 
 Mark but my fall, and that that ruined me : 
 Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition; 
 By that sin fell the angels ; how can man, then. 
 The image of his Maker, hope to win by 't? 
 
THE EAINY DAY 113 
 
 Love thyself last; cherish those hearts that hate 
 
 thee; 
 Corruption wins not more than honesty. 
 Still in thy right hand carry gentle peace, 
 To silence envious tongues. Be just, and fear not. 
 Let all the ends thou aim'st at be thy country's. 
 Thy God's, and truth's; then if thou fall'st, 
 
 Cromwell, 
 Thou fall'st a blessed martyr. Serve the king; 
 And, — Prithee, lead me in : 
 There take an inventory of all I have. 
 To the last penny ; 'tis the king's : my robe. 
 And my integrity to heaven, is all 
 I dare now call mine own. Cromwell, Cromwell, 
 Had I but served my God with half the zeal 
 I served my king. He would not in mine age 
 Have left me naked to mine enemies. 
 
 — William Shakespeare. 
 
 THE EAINY DAY 
 
 TJie Rainy Day is a little poem perfect in form and 
 true in its interpretation of life. Notice in the first 
 stanza the picture of a vine clinging to an old gray 
 stone wall ; it is the fall of the year, the wind is blowing 
 through the cold rain, and the leaves are falling from 
 the vine. If the reader is familiar with any such scene 
 as this he should be led to tell about it before passing 
 
114 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 on to the reading of the next stanza. He cannot under- 
 stand the rest of the poem unless he knows or can 
 imagine what an old vine-covered wall is like in the fall 
 of the 3^ear when the leaves turn yellow and brown, 
 and the wind and rains scatter them over the ground. 
 
 In the second stanza the facts of nature pictured 
 in the first stanza are applied to life. Thoughts 
 are the vines, the past years are the old gray wall, 
 and the hopes of youth are the dead leaves that fall 
 thick in the blast. The wind and the rain are the 
 sorrows and the griefs of life. 
 
 Notice that stanza one interprets stanza two, line for 
 line; for example, compare the third line of the first 
 stanza with the third line of the second, and the fourth 
 line of the first with the fourth line of the second. 
 
 THE RAINY DAY 
 1 
 
 The day is cold, and dark, and dreary; 
 It rains, and the wind is never weary ; 
 The vine still clings to the moldering wall. 
 But at every gust the dead leaves fall, 
 And the day is dark and dreary. 
 
 2 
 My life is cold, and dark, and dreary ; 
 It rains, and the wind is never weary ; 
 My thoughts still cling to the moldering Past, 
 But the hopes of youth fall thick in the blast. 
 And the days are dark and dreary. 
 
IN AN AGE OF FOPS AND TOYS US 
 
 3 
 
 Be still, sad heart ! and cease repining ; 
 Behind the clouds is the sun still shining; 
 Thy fate is the common fate of all, 
 Into each life some rain must fall. 
 Some days must be dark and dreary. 
 
 —Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. 
 
 The readefs attention is called to Dr. Boone's discussion of 
 this poem in the Introduction to this hooJc. 
 
 IN AN AGE OF FOPS AND TOYS 
 
 This is a part of a poem on slavery, called Voluntaries. 
 "To hazard all in Freedom's fight^' has, therefore, a 
 definite application and meaning. History shows that 
 a great multitude of ^^heroic boys," both North and 
 South, heard Duty whisper low, Thou must, and 
 answered with their lives, I can. 
 
 IN AN AGE OF FOPS AND TOYS 
 
 In an age of fops and toys, 
 
 Wanting wisdom, void of right. 
 Who shall nerve heroic boys 
 
 To hazard all in Freedom's fight, — 
 Break sharply off their jolly games. 
 
 Forsake their comrades gay 
 
 By permission of Houghton Mifflin Company. 
 
116 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 And quit proiid homes and youthful dames 
 
 For famine, toil and fray? 
 Yet on the nimble air benign 
 
 Speed nimbler messages. 
 That waft the breath of grace divine 
 
 To hearts in sloth and ease. 
 So nigh is grandeur to our dust, 
 
 So near is God to man. 
 When Duty whispers low, Tliou must. 
 
 The youth replies, I can. 
 
 — Ealph Waldo Emerson. 
 
 CAPTAIN"! MY CAPTAIN! 
 
 This remarkably fine poem will mean almost nothing 
 to the young reader unless some explanation is given. 
 Its author was a volunteer nurse in the army hospitals 
 at Washington during the Civil War. He knew and 
 loved Lincoln, the great president, and this poem is a 
 tribute to him. It is filled with two emotions — the 
 feeling of patriotic joy over the results of the war, and 
 the feeling of personal grief for the death of Lincoln. 
 
 In this poem he conceives of the nation as a ship. 
 This ship has been on a fearful trip — the Civil War. 
 He conceives of Lincoln as the captain of the ship. The 
 fearful trip has been successful, and the shores are 
 crowded with rejoicing throngs to welcome it home, 
 but just as the port is reached the captain (Lincoln) 
 
CAPTAIN! MY CAPTAIN! 117 
 
 falls dead on the deck. Of course this refers to his 
 assassination at the close of the war. 
 
 In the last stanza he calls Lincoln "father" because 
 of his love for him. For the same reason he calls him 
 "My captain." 
 
 Thousands who knew the great president and hun- 
 dreds of thousands who did not know him have, with 
 Whitman, "walked the deck (where) my Captain lies, 
 fallen cold and dead." 
 
 This is a good poem for the class to read immedi- 
 ately after they have studied about the Civil War and 
 the death of Lincoln. 
 
 They must use their imagination and try to see the 
 awful picture as Whitman draws it, and perhaps they 
 may be able to experience some of the patriotic emo- 
 tions of its author. 
 
 captain! my captain! 
 
 1 
 
 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 heart I heart ! heart ! 
 
 the bleeding drops of red. 
 Where on the deck my Captain lies, 
 Fallen cold and dead. 
 
118 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLATXED 
 
 2 
 
 Captain I my Captain ! rise up and hear the bells ; 
 Else up — for you the flag is flung — for you the bugle 
 
 trills; ^ 
 For Tou 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. 
 
 3 
 
 !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 anchored safe and sound, its voyage closed 
 
 and done. 
 From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object 
 won; 
 
 Exult, shores, and ring, bells I 
 
 But I, with mournful tread, 
 TTalk the deck my Captain lies. 
 Fallen cold and dead. 
 
 — "Walt VThitmam 
 
 The prise we sought — the preservation of the Uniori. 
 Weathered every racJ: — weathered everr storm. 
 
ALADDIN 119 
 
 Follow eyes the steady Iceel — still anxious for her safe ar- 
 rival in port. 
 
 The first four lines of the second stanza present a splendid 
 picture of national rejoicing. 
 
 The closing lines of Longfellow's Building of the Ship 
 should be read in this connection: 
 
 Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of State! 
 Sail on, O Union, strong and great ! 
 Humanity, with all its fears, 
 With all the hopes of future years, 
 Is hanging breathless on thy fate ! 
 We know what Master laid thy keel, 
 What Workmen wrought thy ribs of steel. 
 Who made each mast, and sail, and rope, 
 What anvils rang, what hammers beat. 
 In what a forge and what a heat 
 Were shaped the anchors of thy hope! 
 
 Fear not each sudden sound and shock. 
 
 'T is of the wave, and not the rock ; 
 
 'T is but the flapping of the sail, 
 
 And not a rent made by the gale ! 
 
 In spite of rock and tempest's roar, 
 
 In spite of false lights on the shore, 
 
 Sail on, nor fear to breast the sea ! 
 
 Our hearts, our hopes, are all with thee: 
 
 Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears, 
 
 Our faith triumphant o'er our fears. 
 
 Are all with thee, — are all with thee! 
 
 ALADDIN 
 
 The Arabian Nights, sometimes called The Thousand 
 and One Nights, is one of the most widely read collec- 
 tions of tales ever written. The statement has been 
 
120 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 made that it has been read more widely than almost 
 any other production of the human mind. They are 
 wild and fanciful oriental stories, first collected and 
 written down about the end of the fifteenth century, 
 but nobody knows who was the author. They are 
 supposed to have originated in Egypt. 
 
 One of the characters in the Arabian Nights is Alad- 
 din, a poor boy, who becomes possessed of a wonderful 
 lamp. When he rubs this lamp, genii appear around 
 him and offer to do his bidding, to get for him what- 
 ever he may like. One object to which he takes a fancy 
 is the sultanas daughter, and even this prize is won for 
 him by the slaves of his wonderful lamp. The sultan 
 lets him know that if he will send the sultan forty 
 baskets of diamonds carried by forty black slaves, and 
 each black slave led by a v/hite slave, he may have his 
 daughter to be his wife. Aladdin rubs his lamp, the 
 genii appear, he tells them his desire, and, behold, the 
 thing is done. Aladdin builds a marvelous palace, and 
 the lamp is hung up somewhere in a corner, nobody but 
 Aladdin being aware of its value. By and by the old 
 wizard, from whom Aladdin had obtained the lamp 
 by accident, comes along, disguised as a peddler, and 
 offers to trade some new silver lamps for the old lamp. 
 The servants in the palace trade the old lamp for the 
 new silver ones. 
 
 This is but a small part of the story of Aladdin's 
 lamp, but it may serve to explain this poem. 
 
ALADDIN 121 
 
 ALADDIN" 
 1 
 
 When I was a beggarly boy, 
 
 And lived in a cellar damp, 
 I had not a friend nor a toy. 
 
 But I had Aladdin's lamp ; 
 When I could not sleep for the cold, 
 
 I had fire enough in my brain, 
 And builded, with roofs of gold, 
 
 My beautiful castles in Spain. 
 
 Since then I have toiled day and night, 
 
 I have money and power, good store. 
 But I'd give all my lamps of silver bright 
 
 For the one that is mine no more ; 
 Take, Fortune, whatever you choose ; 
 
 You gave, and may snatch again ; 
 I have nothing 't would pain me to lose, 
 
 For I own no more castles in Spain ! 
 
 — James Eussell Lowell. 
 
 Aladdin's lamp — the imagination, by which we fancy we 
 have the good and the beautiful things of the world, no mat- 
 ter how poor we may be. 
 
 Castles in Spain — castles in the air, or existing only in our 
 imaginations, but which may be very real to us and very won- 
 derful and very beautiful. The youth who builds "castles in 
 Spain" is dreaming his dreams and seeing his visions; and 
 without them no great thing is accomplished. 
 
122 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 I had not a friend nor a toy — There are thousands of chil- 
 dren, even today, who never have any toys. This is one of the 
 saddest fates of childhood. 
 
 I had -fire enough in my irain — the fire of imagination and 
 fancy. 
 
 Good store — plenty. 
 
 But Td give all my lamps of silver bright — This has refer- 
 ence to the trading by the old wizard in the tale, of his new 
 silver lamps for Aladdin's lamp. 
 
 The second stanza means that youth has passed away and 
 success has been attained, but the visions and pictures and 
 dreams of boyhood are no more. He has lost Aladdin's lamp. 
 
 Fortune, in the last stanza, is the old wizard from whom 
 Aladdin got the lamp and who took it from him again. 
 
 Bead The Arabian Nights. 
 
 THE OLD CLOCK OlST THE STAIES 
 
 An introductory note to this poem in Houghton, 
 Mifflin & Company's admirable eleven-volume edition of 
 Longfellow's works states that the house referred to 
 is now known as the Plunkett mansion, in Pittsfield, 
 Massachusetts, the homestead of Mrs. Longfellow's 
 maternal grandfather, whither Longfellow went after 
 his marriage in the summer of 1843. 
 
 The same authority explains the origin of the poem 
 and the significance of the refrain : 
 
 Forever — never ! 
 Never — forever ! 
 
THE OLD CLOCK ON THE STAIES 123 
 
 Under date of November 12, 1845, Longfellow wrote 
 in his diary: 
 
 "Began a poem on a clock, with the words Torever, 
 never,' as the burden, suggested by the words of Bridaine, 
 the old French missionary, who said of eternity : ^It is 
 a clock whose pendulum says and repeats without ceas- 
 ing only these two words in the silence of the tombs, 
 Forever, never ! Never, forever ! And during these ter- 
 rible revolutions a miserable soul cries out. What time 
 is it? And another unhappy one answers him, 
 Eternity/ '' 
 
 The meaning is made clear in the last stanza of the 
 poem, which says : 
 
 Never here, forever there, 
 
 Where all parting, pain, and care, 
 
 And death, and time shall disappear, — 
 
 Forever there, but never here ! 
 
 THE OLD CLOCK ON THE STAIRS 
 
 Somewhat back from the village street 
 Stands the old-fashioned country-seat. 
 Across its antique portico 
 Tall poplar trees their shadows throw; 
 And from its station in the hall 
 An ancient timepiece says to all, — 
 "Forever — never ! 
 Never — forever !" 
 
124 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 2 
 Half-way up the stairs it stands, 
 And points and beckons with its hands 
 From its case of massive oak, 
 Like a monk, who, under his cloak. 
 Crosses himself, and sighs, alas ! 
 With sorrowful voice to all who pass, — 
 "Forever — ^never ! 
 Never — forever V 
 
 3 
 
 By day its voice is low and light ; 
 But in the silent dead of night, 
 Distinct as a passing footstep's fall. 
 It echoes along the vacant hall, 
 Along the ceiling, along the floor. 
 And seems to say, at each chamber-door, — 
 "Forever — never ! 
 !N'ever — forever !" 
 
 4 
 Through days of sorrow and of mirth. 
 Through days of death and days of birth. 
 Through every swift vicissitude 
 Of changeful time, unchanged it has stood, 
 And as if, like God, it all things saw. 
 It calmly repeats those words of awe, — 
 "Forever — never ! 
 Never — forever !" 
 
THE OLD CLOCK ON THE STAIES 125 
 
 5 
 
 In that mansion used to be 
 Free-hearted Hospitality ; 
 His great fires np the chimney roared ; 
 The stranger feasted at his board; 
 But, like the skeleton at the feast, 
 That warning timepiece never ceased, — 
 "Forever — never ! 
 Never — forever !" 
 
 6 
 
 There groups of merry children played, 
 There youths and maidens dreaming strayed; 
 precious hours ! golden prime, 
 And affluence of love and time ! 
 Even as a miser counts his gold. 
 Those hours the ancient timepiece told, — 
 "Forever — never ! 
 Never — forever V 
 
 7 
 From that chamber, clothed in white. 
 The bride came forth on her wedding night ; 
 There, in that silent room below, 
 The dead lay in his shroud of snow; 
 And in the hush that followed the prayer. 
 Was heard the old clock on the stair, — 
 "Forever — never ! 
 Never — forever !" 
 
126 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 8 
 
 All are scattered now and fled. 
 Some are married, some are dead; 
 And when I ask, with throbs of pain, 
 "Ah ! when shall they all meet again ?" 
 As in the days long since gone by. 
 The ancient timepiece makes reply, — 
 "Forever — never ! 
 Never — forever !" 
 
 Never here, forever there, 
 Where all parting, pain, and care, 
 And death, and time shall disappear, — 
 Forever there, but never here ! 
 The horologe of Eternity 
 Sayeth this incessantly, — 
 "Forever — never ! 
 Never — forever !" 
 — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. 
 
 THE FOUE WINDS 
 
 The Four Winds has no hidden meaning, but to read 
 it with the understanding is difficult. It contains 
 twenty-six distinct mental images — the first stanza has 
 
THE FOUR WINDS 127 
 
 six, the second seven, the third six and the last seven. 
 To see them all clearly as one reads the lines is not 
 easy to do, but it must be done if the poem is to give 
 the reader its full value. The meaning of the poem is 
 revealed in the last line. It is a good piece with which 
 to test one's imaginative power — and the imagination 
 is the chief agent in good reading, whether silent or oral. 
 
 THE FOUR WINDS 
 
 Wind of the North, 
 Wind of the Norland snows. 
 
 Wind of the winnowed skies and sharp, clear stars- 
 Blow cold and keen across the naked hills, 
 And crisp the lowland pools with crystal films, 
 And blur the casement squares with glittering ice, 
 But go not near my love. 
 
 Wind of the West, 
 
 Wind of the few, far clouds, 
 
 Wind of the gold and crimson sunset lands — 
 
 Blow fresh and pure across the peaks and plains. 
 
 And broaden the blue spaces of the heavens, 
 
 And sway the grasses and the mountain pines, 
 
 But let my dear one rest. 
 
 Prom 2%e Dead Nymph and Other Poems 
 Copyright, 1891, By Charles Scribner's Sons 
 
128 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 3 
 
 Wind of the East, 
 Wind of the sunrise seas, 
 
 Wind of the clinging mists and gray, harsh rains- 
 Blow moist and chill across the wastes of brine, 
 And shut the sun out, and the moon and stars, 
 And lash the boughs against the dripping eaves, 
 Yet keep thou from my love. 
 But thou, sweet Wind! 
 
 4 
 
 Wind of the South, 
 
 Wind from the bowers of jasmine and of rose — 
 
 Over magnolia blooms and lilied lakes 
 
 And flowering forests come with dewy wings. 
 
 And stir the petals at her feet, and kiss 
 
 The low mound where she lies. 
 
 — Charles Henry Liiders. 
 
 THE BIRDS OF KILLINGWORTH 
 
 Killingworth is a village in Connecticut. An old 
 resident of the place is quoted (in the Houghton, Mif- 
 jQin & Company edition of Longfellow^s works) as saying 
 that the men of Killingworth 
 
 "did yearly, in the spring, choose two leaders and then 
 the two sides were formed [to see who could kill the 
 
THE BIBDS OF KILLINGWOKTH 129 
 
 most birds]. Their special game was the hawk, the owl, 
 the crow, and the blackbird, and any other bird supposed 
 to be mischievous to the corn. Some years each side 
 •would bring them in by the bushel. This was followed 
 up for only a few years, for the birds began to grow 
 scarce." 
 
 Longfellow's poem is doubtless based upon this incident. 
 
 THE BIRDS OF KILLINGWORTH 
 1 
 
 It was the season when through all the land 
 The merle and mavis build, and building sing 
 
 Those lovely lyrics, written by His hand, 
 Whom Saxon Caedmon calls the Blithe-heart King ; 
 
 When on the boughs the purple buds expand, 
 The banners of the vanguard of the Spring, 
 
 And rivulets, rejoicing, rush and leap, 
 
 And wave their fluttering signals from the steep. 
 
 2 
 
 The robin and the bluebird, piping loud, 
 
 Filled all the blossoming orchards with their glee; 
 
 The sparrows chirped as if they still were proud 
 Their race in Holy Writ should mentioned be ; 
 
 And hungry crows assembled in a crowd, 
 Clamored their piteous prayer incessantly, 
 
 Knowing who hears the ravens cry, and said: 
 
 "Give us, Lord, this day, our daily bread V 
 
130 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 3 
 
 Across the Sound the birds of passage sailed, 
 
 Speaking some unknown language strange and sweet 
 
 Of tropic isle remote, and passing hailed 
 
 The village with the cheers of all their fleet; 
 
 Or quarrelling together, laughed and railed 
 Like foreign sailors, landed in the street 
 
 Of seaport town, and with outlandish noise 
 
 Of oaths and gibberish frightening girls and boys. 
 
 4 
 Thus came the jocund Spring in Killingworth, 
 
 In fabulous days, some hundred years ago; 
 And thrifty farmers, as they tilled the earth. 
 
 Heard with alarm the cawing of the crow, 
 That mingled with the universal mirth, 
 
 Cassandra-like, prognosticating woe; 
 They shook their heads, and doomed with dreadful 
 
 words 
 To swift destruction the whole race of birds. 
 
 5 
 
 And a town-meeting was convened straightway 
 
 To set a price upon the guilty heads 
 Of these marauders, who, in lieu of pay. 
 
 Levied blackmail upon the garden beds 
 And cornfields, and beheld without dismay 
 
 The awful scarecrow, with his fluttering shreds. 
 The skeleton that waited at their feast. 
 Whereby their sinful pleasure was increased. 
 
THE BIEDS OF KILLINGWOETH 131 
 
 Then from his house, a temple painted white, 
 With fluted columns, and a roof of red, 
 
 The Squire came forth, august and splendid sight! 
 Slowly descending, with majestic tread, 
 
 Three flights of steps, nor looking left nor right, 
 Down the long street he walked, as one who said, 
 
 "A town that boasts inhabitants like me 
 
 Can have no lack of good society !" 
 
 7 
 The Parson, too, appeared, a man austere. 
 
 The instinct of whose nature was to kill ; 
 The wrath of God he preached from year to year, 
 
 And read, with fervor, Edwards on the Will; 
 His favorite pastime was to slay the deer 
 
 In Summer on some Adirondack hill; 
 E^en now, while walking down the rural lane, 
 He lopped the wayside lilies with his cane. 
 
 8 
 From the Academy, whose belfry crowned 
 
 The Hill of Science with its vane of brass. 
 Came the Preceptor, gazing idly round, 
 
 Now at the clouds, and now at the green grass, 
 And all absorbed in reveries profound 
 
 Of fair Almira in the upper class, 
 Who was, as in a sonnet he had said, 
 As pure as water and as good as bread. 
 
132 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 9 
 
 And next the Deacon issued from his door. 
 In his voluminous neck-cloth, white as snow ; 
 
 A suit of sable bombazine he wore ; 
 
 His form was ponderous, and his step was slow ; 
 
 There never was so wise a man before; 
 
 He seemed the incarnate *^ell, I told you so !" 
 
 And to perpetuate his great renown 
 
 There was a street named after him in town. 
 
 10 
 
 These came together in the new town-hall, 
 With sundry farmers from the region round. 
 
 The Squire presided, dignified and tall, 
 His air impressive and his reasoning sound ; 
 
 111 fared it with the birds, both great and small ; 
 Hardly a friend in all that crowd they found, 
 
 But enemies enough, who every one 
 
 Charged them with all the crimes beneath the sun. 
 
 11 
 
 When they had ended, from his place apart, 
 Eose the Preceptor, to redress the wrong. 
 
 And, trembling like a steed before the start. 
 
 Looked round bewildered on the expectant throng; 
 
 Then thought of fair Almira, and took heart 
 To speak out what was in him, clear and strong, 
 
 Alike regardless of their smile or frown, 
 
 And quite determined not to be laughed down. 
 
THE BIRDS OF KILLINGWORTH 133 
 
 12 
 
 "Plato, anticipating the Eeviewers, 
 
 From his Eepublic banished without pity 
 
 The Poets; in this little town of yours. 
 
 You put to death, by means of a Committee, 
 
 The ballad-singers and the troubadours, 
 The street-musicians of the heavenly city, 
 
 The birds, who make sweet music for us all 
 
 In our dark hours, as David did for Saul. 
 
 13 
 
 "The thrush that carols at the dawn of day 
 From the green steeples of the piny wood ; 
 
 The oriole in the elm; the noisy jay, 
 Jargoning like a foreigner at his food; 
 
 The bluebird balanced on some topmost spray. 
 Flooding with melody the neighborhood ; 
 
 Linnet and meadow-lark, and all the throng 
 
 That dwell in nests, and have the gift of song, — 
 
 14 
 "You slay them all ! and wherefore ? for the gain 
 
 Of a scant handful more or less of wheat. 
 Or rye, or barley, or some other grain. 
 
 Scratched up at random by industrious feet, 
 Searching for worm or weevil after rain, 
 
 Or a few cherries, that are not so sweet 
 As are the songs these uninvited guests 
 Sing at their feasts with comfortable breasts. 
 
134 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 15 
 
 "Do you ne'er think what wondrous beings these ? 
 
 Do you ne'er think who made them, and who taught 
 The dialect they speak, where melodies 
 
 Alone are the interpreters of thought? 
 Whose household words are songs in many keys, 
 
 Sweeter than instrument of man e'er caught ! 
 Whose habitations in the tree-tops even 
 Are half-way houses on the road to heaven ! 
 
 16 
 
 "Think, every morning when the sun peeps through 
 The dim, leaf-latticed windows of the grove. 
 
 How jubilant the happy birds renew 
 Their old, melodious madrigals of love ! 
 
 And when you think of this, remember, too, 
 'T is always morning somewhere, and above 
 
 The awakening continents, from shore to shore, 
 
 Somewhere the birds are singing evermore. 
 
 17 
 
 "Think of your woods and orchards without birds I 
 Of empty nests that cling to boughs and beams. 
 
 As in an idiot's brain remembered words 
 Hang empty 'mid the cobwebs of his dreams ! 
 
 Will bleat of flocks or bellowing of herds 
 Make up for the lost music, when your teams 
 
 Drag home the stingy harvest, and no more 
 
 The feathered gleaners follow to your door? 
 
THE BIRDS OF KILLINGWORTH 135 
 
 18 
 "What ! would you rather see the incessant stir 
 
 Of insects in the windrows of the hay. 
 And hear the locust and the grasshopper 
 
 Their melancholy hurdy-gurdies play? 
 Is this more pleasant to you than the whir 
 
 Of meadow-lark, and its sweet roundelay. 
 Or twitter of little field-fares, as you take 
 Your nooning in the shade of bush and brake? 
 
 19 
 "You call them thieves and pillagers ; but know. 
 
 They are the winged wardens of your farms. 
 Who from the cornfields drive the insidious foe. 
 
 And from your harvests keep a hundred harms; 
 Even the blackest of them all, the crow, 
 
 Senders good service as your man-at-arms. 
 Crushing the beetle in his coat of mail. 
 And crying havoc on the slug and snail. 
 
 20 
 "How can I teach your children gentleness. 
 
 And mercy to the weak, and reverence 
 For Life, which, in its weakness or excess, 
 
 Is still a gleam of God's omnipotence. 
 Or Death, which, seeming darkness, is no less 
 
 The selfsame light, although averted hence. 
 When by your laws, your actions, and your speech. 
 You contradict the very things I teach?" 
 
136 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 21 
 With this he closed ; and through the audience went 
 
 A murmur, like the rustle of dead leaves ; 
 The farmers laughed and nodded, and some bent 
 
 Their yellow heads together like their sheaves ; 
 Men have no faith in fine-spun sentiment 
 
 Who put their trust in bullocks and in beeves. 
 The birds were doomed; and, as the record shows, 
 A bounty offered for the heads of crows. 
 
 23 
 There was another audience out of reach, 
 
 Who had no voice nor vote in making laws, 
 But in the papers read his little speech, 
 
 And crowned his modest temples with applause ; 
 They made him conscious, each one more than each. 
 
 He still was victor, vanquished in their cause. 
 Sweetest of all, the applause he won from thee, 
 fair Almira at the Academy ! 
 
 23 
 
 And so the dreadful massacre began ; 
 
 O'er fields and orchards, and o'er woodland crests, 
 The ceaseless fusillade of terror ran. 
 
 Dead fell the birds, with blood-stains on their breasts, 
 Or wounded crept away from sight of man. 
 
 While the young died of famine in their nests ; 
 A slaughter to be told in groans, not words. 
 The very St. Bartholomew of Birds ! 
 
THE BIRDS OF KILLINGWOETH 137 
 
 24 
 The Summer came, and all the birds were dead ; 
 
 The days were like hot coals ; the very ground 
 Was burned to ashes ; in the orchards fed 
 
 Myriads of caterpillars, and around 
 The cultivated fields and garden beds 
 
 Hosts of devouring insects crawled, and found 
 No foe to check their march, till they had made 
 The land a desert without leaf or shade. 
 
 25 
 
 Devoured by worms, like Herod, was the town, 
 
 Because, like Herod, it had ruthlessly 
 Slaughtered the Innocents. From the trees spun down 
 
 The canker-worms upon the passers-by. 
 Upon each woman^s bonnet, shawl, and gown. 
 
 Who shook them off with just a little cry ; 
 They were the terror of each favorite walk. 
 The endless theme of all the village talk. 
 
 26 
 
 The farmers grew impatient, but a few 
 
 Confessed their error, and would not complain. 
 
 For, after all, the best thing one can do. 
 When it is raining, is to let it rain. 
 
 Then they repealed the law, although they knew 
 It would not call the dead to life again; 
 
 As school-boys, finding their mistake too late, 
 
 Draw a wet sponge across the accusing slate. 
 
138 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 27 
 That year in Killingworth the Autumn came 
 
 Without the light of his majestic look, 
 The wonder of the falling tongues of flame, 
 
 The illumined pages of his Doomsday book. 
 A few last leaves blushed crimson with their shame 
 
 And drowned themselves despairing in the brook, 
 While the wild wind went moaning everywhere, 
 Lamenting the dead children of the air. 
 
 28 
 But the next Spring a stranger sight was seen, 
 
 A sight that never yet by bard was sung, 
 As great a wonder as it would have been 
 
 If some dumb animal had found a tongue ! 
 A wagon, overarched with evergreen. 
 
 Upon whose boughs were wicker cages hung. 
 All full of singing birds, came down the street. 
 Filling the air with music wild and sweet. 
 
 29 
 
 From all the country round these birds were brought. 
 By order of the town, with anxious quest. 
 
 And, loosened from their wicker prisons, sought 
 In woods and fields the places they loved best, 
 
 Singing loud canticles, which many thought 
 Were satires to the authorities addressed. 
 
 While others, listening in green lanes, averred 
 
 Such lovely music never had been heard. 
 
THE BIRDS OF KILLINGWOETH 139 
 
 30 
 But blither still and louder carolled they 
 
 Upon the morrow, for they seemed to know 
 It was fair Almira's wedding-day, 
 
 And everywhere, around, above, below, 
 When the Preceptor bore his bride away. 
 
 Their songs burst forth in joyous overflow. 
 And a new heaven bent over a new earth 
 Amid the sunny farms of Killingworth. 
 
 — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. 
 
 Stanza one — Blithe-heart King — the joyous Creator. 
 
 Stanza two — "Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? 
 and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your 
 Fathero But the very hairs of your head are numbered. Fear 
 ye not therefore; ye are of more value than many sparrows. '^ 
 —St. Matthew, 10:29-31. 
 
 Stanza two — "Who provideth for the raven his food? When 
 his young ones cry unto God, they wander for lack of meat." 
 — Jol) 38:41. "He giveth to the beast his food and to the 
 young ravens which cry." — Psalms 147:9. 
 
 Cassandra, in Greek mythology, was always prophesying 
 woe, but Apollo had ordered that no credit should ever be at- 
 tached to her predictions. 
 
 At Egyptian feasts, according to Plutarch, a servant brought 
 in a skeleton towards the close and cried aloud to the guests: 
 "Look on this! Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow you 
 die." 
 
 The squire, the parson, the schoolmaster, and the deacon 
 were the leading men of any community in early New England 
 
140 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 days. They are described here quite true to nature. Edwards 
 on the Will was Jonathan Edwards' famous book on Freedom 
 of the Will. He was a powerful exponent of Calvinistic the- 
 ology. 
 
 Stanza twelve — Plato, the greatest of the Athenian philos- 
 ophers, wrote a scheme of an ideal republic. Various classes 
 were to be excluded, among them the poets. The Beviewers 
 refers to the critics in the English and Scotch magazines in 
 the early part of the 19th century whose reviews of new 
 poetry were severe and merciless. The Troubadours were a 
 school of lyric poets who flourished in France and Italy, in 
 the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries. Many of them sang or 
 chanted their poems in the streets. 
 
 In our darJc hours, as David did for Saul — "And it came to 
 pass, when the evil spirit from God was upon Saul, that David 
 took an harp, and played with the hand; so Saul was refreshed, 
 and was well, and the e^il spirit departed from him." — 
 First Samuel 16:23. See also Browning's poem, Saul. 
 
 Stanza twenty-two — The other audience was composed of 
 the women and girls, who were not permitted to attend the 
 town meeting. 
 
 Stanza twenty-three — The massacre of St. Bartholomew's 
 Day was the massacre of the Huguenots in France in 1572. 
 The number of victims in Paris was from 3,000 to 10,000, and 
 in all France, between 20,000 and 30,000. 
 
 Stanza twenty-five — LiTce Herod — "Then Herod . . . sent 
 forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and 
 in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under." — 
 St. Matthew, 2:16. 
 
 Stanza twenty-seven — The Doomsday Book was the ancient 
 record of the lands and property in England, made by order 
 of William the Conqueror, about 1086, to determine the tax- 
 able property in the country, and the corresponding services 
 due to the crown. Also spelled Domesday (see yage 168). 
 
THE LIGHT OF OTHER DAYS 141 
 
 The Preceptor's speech for the preservation of the birds 
 is the most important part of the poem, and special attention 
 should be given to it in the study of the piece. Longfellow 
 seems to intimate that the Preceptor's tender feeling for 
 Almira at the Academy had something to do with his attitude 
 towards the birds. 
 
 Whenever any kind of bird is mentioned throughout the 
 poem, notice the accurate description of it; for example, "the 
 noisy jay, jargoning like a foreigner at his food." Pick out 
 these descriptions; are you familiar with the birds named? 
 Merle and mavis are English names for the blackbird and the 
 song-thrush. 
 
 THE LIGHT OF OTHEE DAYS 
 
 No child is able to read The Light of Other Days 
 with full understanding. He does not have the expe- 
 rience necessary to interpret it. Only those who have 
 passed far beyond "the smiles, the tears of boyhood's 
 years, the words of love then spoken,'^ and can recall 
 from personal experience "the eyes that shone, now 
 dimmed and gone,'' will be able to "feel like one who 
 treads alone some banquet hall deserted." May that 
 experience be delayed for all of them for many and 
 many a year! Nevertheless, the poem is a gem of 
 pathetic beauty, and the youth who is familiar with it 
 is sure to find a personal interpretation of it in the 
 future years when memory brings the light of other 
 days around him. It is a good thing to store away in 
 the mind for future use. 
 
142 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 THE LIGHT OF OTHER DAYS 
 
 Oft in the stilly night 
 
 Ere slumber^s chain has bound me. 
 Fond Memory brings the light 
 Of other days around me : 
 The smiles, the tears 
 Of boyhood's years, 
 The words of love then spoken; 
 The eyes that shone, 
 Now dimmed and gone. 
 The cheerful hearts now broken ! 
 Thus in the stilly night 
 
 Ere slumber's chain has bound me. 
 Sad Memory brings the light 
 Of other days around me. 
 
 2 
 When I remember all 
 
 The friends so linked together 
 I've seen around me fall 
 
 Like leaves in wintry weather, 
 I feel like one 
 Who treads alone 
 Some banquet hall deserted. 
 Whose lights are fled. 
 Whose garlands dead. 
 And all but he departed. 
 
THE LIGHT OF OTHER DAYS 143 
 
 Thus in the stilly night 
 
 Ere slumber's chain has bound me, 
 Sad Memory brings the light 
 
 Of other days around me. 
 
 — Thomas Moore. 
 
 THE ISLE OF LONG AGO 
 
 Children are just starting down the river of Time 
 and as yet they have no isle of Long Ago, that willow- 
 covered spot where most men and women have left so 
 many sacred treasures — ^things that are now only "heaps 
 of dust, but we love them so !" Children ought not to 
 know from experience that this river of Time "runs 
 through the realm of tears"; and of course they know 
 nothing of "the broken vows and the pieces of rings, 
 and the garments she used to wear." Yet the poem is 
 rich in imagination and melody; and, as in the case of 
 TJie Light of Other Days (page 141), it will be turned 
 to again and again in after years, and they will hear, 
 "through the turbulent roar, sweet voices they heard in 
 the days gone before." 
 
 In teaching this poem and The Light of Other Days 
 the teacher should explain these things to the children 
 so that they will know that the experience of life will 
 give them, soon enough, the ability to interpret and to 
 understand. 
 
144 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 THE ISLE OF LONG AGO 
 1 
 
 Oh, a wonderful stream is the river of Time, 
 
 As it runs through the realm of tears, 
 With a faultless rhythm and a musical rhyme. 
 And a boundless sweep and a surge sublime. 
 As it blends with the ocean of Years. 
 
 How the winters are drifting, like flakes of snow. 
 
 And the summers, like buds between; 
 And the year in the sheaf — so they come and they go, 
 On the river's breast, with its ebb and flow, 
 
 As it glides in the shadow and sheen. 
 
 There's a magical isle up the river of Time, 
 
 Where the softest of airs are playing; 
 There's a cloudless sky and a tropical clime. 
 And a song as sweet as a vesper chime. 
 And the Junes with the roses are staying. 
 
 4 
 
 And the name of that isle is the Long Ago, 
 And we bury our treasures there; 
 
THE ISLE OF LONG AGO 145 
 
 There are brows of beauty and bosoms of snow — 
 There are heaps of dust — but we love them so ! — 
 There are trinkets and tresses of hair ; 
 
 5 
 
 There are fragments of song that nobody sings, 
 
 And a part of an infant's prayer, 
 There's a lute unswept, and a harp without strings; 
 There are broken vows and pieces of rings. 
 
 And the garments that she used to wear. 
 
 There are hands that are waved, when the fairy shore 
 
 By the mirage is lifted in air ; 
 And we sometimes hear, through the turbulent roar, 
 Sweet voices we heard in the days gone before. 
 
 When the wind down the river is fair. 
 
 Oh, remembered for aye be the blessed Isle, 
 
 All the day of our life till night — 
 When the evening comes with its beautiful smile. 
 And our eyes are closing to slumber awhile, 
 
 May that "Greenwood" of Soul be in sight ! 
 
 — Benjamin Franklin Taylor. 
 
 Greenwood — a cemetery in Brooklyn, N. Y. 
 Greenwood of the Soul — means the soul's resting-place, or 
 heaven. 
 
146 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 EECESSIONAL 
 
 The Recessional is a protest and a prayer. It was 
 first published in the London Times of July 17, 1897, 
 and the occasion which brought it forth was the diamond 
 jubilee commemorative of Queen Victoria's coronation. 
 The celebration was most magnificent in splendor and 
 extravagant in expense; no Eoman conqueror ever wit- 
 nessed such pageantry. Rejoicing in the worldly pride 
 and power of Britain on sea and land was the chief 
 characteristic of the event, and for the time being any 
 higher power seemed to be forgotten. At the close of 
 the celebration Mr. Eudyard Kipling published the 
 Recessional, and it had wonderful effect in sobering the 
 nation and bringing the more thoughtful persons to a 
 true conception of national and personal responsibility. 
 It was read from a multitude of pulpits, and soon 
 everybody was repeating it. No other poem of our time 
 has had such immediate or such deep influence. It is 
 doubtless the greatest hymn of this generation. 
 
 The title is fitting. The recessional hymn is the 
 hymn sung after the service as the singers return in 
 procession to the robing room ; and Mr. Kipling's poem 
 was written to be read after the celebration. 
 
 RECESSIONAL 
 1 
 
 God of our fathers, known of old — 
 Lord of our far-flung battle-line, 
 
EECESSIONAL 147 
 
 Beneath whose awful hand we hold 
 Dominion over palm and pine — 
 Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, 
 Let we forget — lest we forget ! 
 
 2 
 
 The tumult and the shouting dies — 
 The captains and the kings depart. 
 
 Still stands Thine ancient Sacrifice, 
 An humble and a contrite heart — 
 
 Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, 
 
 Lest we forget — lest we forget I 
 
 3 
 
 Far-called, our navies melt away — 
 On dune and headland sinks the fire ; 
 
 Lo ! all our pomp of yesterday 
 Is one with Nineveh and Tyre ! 
 
 Judge of the Nations, spare us yet. 
 
 Lest we forget — lest we forget ! 
 
 4 
 If drunk with sight of power, we loose 
 
 Wild tongues that have not Thee in awe — 
 Such boasting as the Gentiles use, 
 
 Or lesser breeds, without the law — 
 Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet. 
 Lest we forget — lest we forget ! 
 
148 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 5 
 
 For heathen heart that puts its trust 
 In reeking tube, and iron shard — 
 
 All valiant dust, that builds on dust, 
 And guarding calls not Thee to guard — 
 
 For frantic boast and foolish word, 
 
 Thy mercy on Thy people, Lord ! 
 
 — ^Eudyard Kipling. 
 
 Far-flung dattle-Une — calls to mind Webster's reference to 
 England's army "whose morning drum-beat, following the sun 
 and keeping company with the hours, encircles the globe with 
 one unbroken strain of the martial airs of England." 
 
 Falm and pine — palm typifies the south and pine the north. 
 
 The captains and the Icings depart — return to their homes 
 after taking part in the jubilee. 
 
 Thine ancient Sacrifice, etc. — A familiar Biblical reference. 
 — Psalm 51:17 says, "The sacrifices of God are a broken 
 spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not 
 despise. ^ ' 
 
 Far-called, our navies melt away — They had been gathered 
 together for the jubilee and now they depart for their various 
 stations. 
 
 On dune and headland sinlcs the fire — One feature of the 
 celebration was a multitude of bonfires on the hilltops over the 
 country, which could be seen from one to another. Now that 
 the jubilee is ending these fires are permitted to die out. 
 
 Lo, all our pomp of yesterday is one with Nineveh and 
 Tyre — gone like them, and it was much like them in spirit, 
 too. Notice the happy use of the word pomp. 
 
 Loose wild tongues — boasting tongues. 
 
THE LADDER OF ST. AUGUSTINE 149 
 
 Gentiles and lesser breeds without the law — peoples with- 
 out Christian civilization. 
 
 Eeeking tube — cannon. 
 
 Iron shard — broken pieces of bomb shells. 
 
 Valiant dust that builds on dust — courageous men who rely 
 wholly upon their own powers and forget God. 
 
 And so we see that the poem is a protest against the spirit 
 of the English nation as shown in the Queen's jubilee, and 
 a prayer to the Judge of Nations for mercy. 
 
 THE LADDEE OF ST. AUGUSTINE 
 
 St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, was the most eminent 
 of the Latin Fathers of the Church. He was born 
 November 13, 354, in Numidia (the eastern half of 
 modern Algeria), and died 430. He lived at Carthage, 
 Eome, Milan, and Hippo. During his youth and early 
 manhood he was guilty of many excesses, vices, and 
 follies. Years later, in one of his sermons he used the 
 expression, ^'De vitiis nostris scalam nobis facimus, si 
 vitia ipsa calcamus" (of our vices we make for our- 
 selves a ladder, if we trample them under foot). None 
 knew better than St. Augustine the truth of this from 
 his own experiences. Longfellow takes the thought and 
 elaborates it into a familiar poem. He gives a catalogue 
 of vices, each one of which may be made to serve as a 
 round in the ladder ; but to become such it must be put 
 under foot. Pupils should make a list of these "rounds 
 of the ladder'' and discuss them in class. 
 
150 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 Any good picture of the Egyptian pyramids will 
 show how true the description is in stanza eight. 
 
 THE LADDER OF ST. AUGUSTINE 
 1 
 
 Saint Augustine ! well hast thou said, 
 
 That of our vices we can frame 
 A ladder, if we will but tread 
 
 Beneath our feet each deed of shame! 
 
 2 
 
 All common things, each day's events 
 That with the hour begin and end; 
 
 Our pleasures and our discontents, 
 Are rounds by which we may ascend. 
 
 The low desire, the base design, 
 That makes another's virtues less; 
 
 The revel of the giddy wine, 
 And all occasions of excess ; 
 
 The longing for ignoble things, 
 
 The strife for triumph more than truth. 
 The hardening of the heart, that brings 
 
 Irreverence for the dreams of youth ; 
 
THE LADDER OF ST. AUGUSTINE 151 
 
 5 
 
 All thoughts of ill — all evil deeds 
 
 That have their root in thoughts of ill ; 
 
 "Whatever hinders or impedes 
 The action of the nobler will; — 
 
 6 * 
 All these must first be trampled down 
 
 Beneath our feet, if we would gain 
 In the bright field of fair renown 
 
 The right of eminent domain ! 
 
 7 
 We have not wings, we cannot soar. 
 
 But we have feet to scale and climb 
 By slow degrees — by more and more — 
 
 The cloudy summits of our time. 
 
 The mighty pyramids of stone 
 
 That wedge-like cleave the desert airs. 
 
 When nearer seen and better known. 
 Are but gigantic flights of stairs. 
 
 9 
 
 The distant mountains that uprear 
 Their frowning foreheads to the skies, 
 
 Are crossed by pathways that appear 
 As we to higher levels rise. 
 
15^ FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 10 
 
 The heights hy great men reached and kept, 
 Were not attained by sudden flight; 
 
 But they, while their companions slept, 
 Were toiling upward in the night. 
 
 . 11 
 
 Standing on what too long we bore 
 With shoulders bent and downcast eyes. 
 
 We may discern, unseen before, 
 A path to higher destinies. 
 
 12 
 
 !N"or deem the irrevocable past 
 
 As wholly wasted, wholly vain, 
 If, rising on its wrecks, at last 
 
 To something nobler we attain. 
 
 — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. 
 
 The right of eminent domain (stanza six) — the right of 
 supreme control for the good of ourselves and others. Tech- 
 nically it means the right of a government or a state over 
 all the property within the state to appropriate any part there- 
 of to a necessary public use, reasonable compensation being 
 made. 
 
 The thought which Longfellow uses in this poem is similar 
 to that used by Tennyson in the first stanza of In Memoriam: 
 
 I held it truth, with him who sings 
 To one clear harp in divers tones. 
 That men may rise on stepping-stones 
 
 Of their dead selves to higher things. 
 
ICHABOD 153 
 
 And J. G. Holland has two verses in a similar vein in his 
 poem Gradatim: 
 
 Heaven is not reached at a single bound ; 
 But we build the ladder by which we rise 
 From the lowly earth to the vaulted skies, 
 And we mount to the summit round by round. 
 
 We rise by things that are under our feet ; 
 
 By what we have mastered of good and gain ; 
 
 By the pride deposed and the passion slain, 
 And the vanquished ills that we hourly meet. 
 
 ICHABOD 
 
 The Biblical name Ichabod ("lehabod, the glory is 
 departed'^) is here applied by Whittier to Daniel Web- 
 ster. Whittier was the foremost of the anti-slavery 
 poets, and Webster was regarded as the great defender 
 of the Union against the doctrine of states' rights. But 
 when Webster made his speech in 1850 in defense of 
 a fugitive slave law, his friends at the North regarded 
 it as a bid for southern support in his candidacy for 
 the presidential nomination, and as little short of 
 treason to the Union cause. Immediately after this 
 speech of Webster's, Whittier wrote the poem Ichabod, 
 expressing his own feelings and the feelings of the North 
 towards Webster's changed attitude. Thirty years later 
 Whittier wrote The Lost Occasion, in which he made 
 amends for whatever injustice Icliahod might have done 
 to the character of the great orator and statesman. 
 
 Ichabod is one of the strongest of Whittier's poems, 
 and the finest lines in it are, perhaps, 
 
 . . . his dim, dishonored brow, 
 
154 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 and the last two lines of the eighth stanza, 
 
 When faith is lost, -when honor dies, 
 The man is dead I 
 
 The last two lines of the poem have reference to the 
 incident narrated in Genesis 9, verses 20-23: 
 
 And Noah began to le a husbandman, and he planted a 
 vineyard : 
 
 And he drank of the wine, and was drunken ; and he was 
 uncovered within his tent. 
 
 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his 
 father, and told his two brethren without. 
 
 And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon 
 both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the 
 nakedness of their father ; and their faces icere backward, and 
 they saw not their father's nakedness. 
 
 Eead Whittier's The Lost Occasion. 
 
 ICHABOD 
 1 
 
 So fallen ! so lost ! the light withdrawn 
 
 "WTiich once he wore ! 
 The glory from his gray hairs gone 
 
 Forevermore ! 
 
 2 
 
 Eevile him not, the Tempter hath 
 
 A snare for all ; 
 And pitying 4ears, not scorn and wrath, 
 
 Befit his f aU ! 
 
ICHABOD 155 
 
 3 
 
 0, dumb be passion's stormy rage. 
 
 When he who might 
 Have lighted up and led his age 
 
 Ealls back in night! 
 
 4 
 Scorn! would the angels laugh, to mark 
 
 A bright soul driven, 
 Fiend-goaded, down the endless dark, 
 
 From hope and heaven! 
 
 5 
 Let not the land once proud of him 
 
 Insult him now, 
 Nor brand with deeper shame his dim. 
 
 Dishonored brow. 
 
 6 
 But let its humble sons, instead. 
 
 From sea to lake, 
 A long lament, as for the dead, 
 
 In sadness make. 
 
 7 
 Of all we loved and honored, naught 
 
 Save power remains ; 
 A fallen angel's pride of thought. 
 
 Still strong in chains. 
 
156 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 8 
 All else is gone; from those great eyes 
 
 The soul has fled; 
 When faith is lost, when honor dies, 
 
 The man is dead ! 
 
 9 
 
 Then pay the reverence of old days 
 
 To his dead fame; 
 Walk backward, with averted gaze. 
 
 And hide the shame ! 
 
 — John Greenleaf Whittier. 
 
 THE BUGLE SONG 
 
 From The Princess. 
 
 The poem was inspired by the echoes on the lake at 
 Killarney, during Tennyson's visit there in 1847. 
 
 All persons who have lived among the hills or the 
 mountains have had delightful experiences with echoes, 
 and a discussion of these experiences would be a good 
 introduction to the study of this poem. Wonderful 
 stories are told of the number of times an echo has 
 repeated itself. Of the memories of childhood these are 
 often among the most treasured. 
 
 Somewhere among these stoic rocks, 
 
 Or hidden in this cloistered dell, 
 Shut in by Time's unyielding locks, 
 
 Lost echoes of my boyhood dwell. 
 
THE BUGLE SONG 157 
 
 But the mountain echo is unlike our personal echoes 
 or influence. The physical echo becomes fainter and 
 fainter, and finally ceases entirely, but our influence 
 goes on forever. And so the meaning, the significance, 
 of the poem is expressed in the lines in the third stanza : 
 
 Our echoes roll from soul to soul, 
 And grow forever and forever. 
 
 Substitute the word influence for the word echoes in 
 the first of these two lines, and the meaning of the 
 poem is revealed. But too much emphasis should not be 
 placed upon the "moral'^ of this beautiful little lyric. 
 The pleasure given by the first two stanzas is worth as 
 much, perhaps, as the lesson in the third. 
 
 THE BUGLE SONG 
 1 
 
 The splendor falls on castle walls 
 
 And snowy summits old in story ; 
 The long light shakes across the lakes. 
 
 And the wild cataract leaps in glory. 
 Blow, bugle, blow ! set the wild echoes flying. 
 Blow, bugle! answer, echoes! dying, dying, dying. 
 
 2 
 
 hark ! hear, how thin and clear. 
 
 And thinner, clearer, farther going ! 
 sweet and far, from cliff and scar. 
 
 The horns of Elf-land faintly blowing! 
 
158 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 Blow ! let us hear the purple glens replying. 
 Blow, bugle! answer, echoes! dying, dying, dying. 
 
 3 
 
 love, they die in yon rich sky, 
 
 They faint on hill, or field, or river. 
 Our echoes roll from soul to soul. 
 
 And grow forever and forever. 
 Blow, bugle, blow ! set the wild echoes flying. 
 And answer, echoes, answer! dying, dying, dying. 
 
 — Alfred Tennyson. 
 Scar — a steep, rocky eminence. 
 
 WHEEE LIES THE LAND? 
 
 The voyage of life is a favorite theme in poetry, and 
 it is vividly pictured here. Life is pleasant when one 
 has friends and the sun shines and the way is smooth 
 (stanza two). The brave-hearted even get pleasure out 
 of life's storms and struggles (stanza three). But 
 whence we came and where we go are alike unknown. 
 It is a poem of doubt, but not of despair. 
 
 WHERE LIES THE LAND ? 
 1 
 
 Where lies the land to which the ship would go ? 
 Far, far ahead, is all her seamen know. 
 And where the land she travels from ? Away, 
 Far, far behind, is all that they can say. 
 
THE KHODORA 159 
 
 2 
 
 On sunny noons upon the deck's smooth face, 
 Linked arm in arm, how pleasant here to pace ; 
 Or, o'er the stern reclining, watch below 
 The foaming wake far widening as we go. 
 
 3 
 
 On stormy nights, when wild northwesters rave, 
 How proud a thing to fight with wind and wave ! 
 The dripping sailor on the reeling mast 
 Exults to bear, and scorns to wish it past. 
 
 4 
 Where lies the land to which the ship would go ? 
 Far, far ahead, is all her seamen know. 
 And where the land she travels from ? Away, 
 Far, far behind, is all that they can say. 
 
 — Arthur Hugh Clough. 
 
 THE EHODORA 
 
 The thought in this beautiful and perfect little poem 
 is similar to the thought in Tennyson's Flower in the 
 Crannied Wall: 
 
 Flower in the crannied wall, 
 
 I pluck you out of the crannies, 
 I hold you here, root and all, in my hand, 
 Little flower, — but if I could understand 
 "What you are, root and all, and all in all, 
 I should know what God and man is. 
 
160 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 They present the idea of the unity of all things. 
 Emerson makes Nature say, in The Sphinx, "Who 
 telleth one of my meanings is master of all I am." 
 This is the central theme of The Rhodora. 
 
 Longfellow, speaking of Emerson, says: 
 
 It was his faith, perhaps is mine, 
 That life in all its forms is one. 
 
 A secondary thought is stated in the line, "Beauty is 
 its own excuse for being.^' This is a thoroughly sound 
 and thoroughly useful principle, but one which the 
 world has not fully accepted, at least in practice. 
 
 THE EHODOEA 
 
 In May, when sea-winds pierced our solitudes, 
 I found the fresh Ehodora in the woods. 
 Spreading its leafless blooms in a damp nook. 
 To please the desert and the sluggish brook. 
 The purple petals, fallen in the pool. 
 Made the black water with their beauty gay ; 
 Here might the redbird come his plumes to cool, 
 And court the flower that cheapens his array. 
 Ehodora ! if the sages ask thee why 
 This charm is wasted on the earth and sky. 
 Tell them, dear, that if eyes were made for seeing. 
 Then beauty is its own excuse for being. 
 
THE FINDING OF THE LYEE 161 
 
 Why thou wert there, rival of the rose ! 
 
 I never thought to ask, I never knew : 
 But, in my simple ignorance, suppose 
 
 The selfsame Power that brought me there brought 
 you. — Ealph Waldo Emerson. 
 
 The Bhodora belongs to the Ehododendron family and is a 
 native of cold and wet wooded places from Pennsylvania north. 
 It has delicate rosy flowers which appear before the leaves. 
 
 THE FINDING OF THE LYEE 
 
 This is an allegory and tells in simple rhyme an old 
 and familiar truth — the world is full of music and 
 beauty and opportunity, all about us every day. But 
 most of us fail to see or hear or understand. The man 
 of genius, whether poet, musician, inventor, or philoso- 
 pher, is the one who discovers them, interprets them, 
 and puts them to use. 
 
 THE FINDING OF THE LYRE 
 1 
 
 There lay upon the ocean's shore 
 
 What once a tortoise served to cover; 
 A year and more, with rush and roar. 
 
 The surf had rolled it over. 
 Had played with it, and flung it by. 
 
 As wind and weather might decide it, 
 Then tossed it high where sand-drifts dry 
 
 Cheap burial might provide it. 
 
162 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 2 
 It rested there, to bleaeli or tan ; 
 
 The rains had soaked, the suns had burned it ; 
 With many a ban the fisherman 
 
 Had stumbled o'er and spurned it ; 
 And there the fisher girl would stay. 
 
 Conjecturing with her brother 
 How in their play the poor estray 
 
 Might serve some use or other. 
 
 3 
 
 So there it lay, through wet and dry, 
 
 As empty as the last new sonnet. 
 Till by and by came Mercury, 
 
 And having mused upon it, 
 ^^Why, here,'' cried he, "the thing of things 
 
 In shape, material, and dimensions ! 
 Give it but strings, and, lo, it sings, 
 
 A wonderful invention!" 
 
 4 
 So said, so done ; the chords he strained. 
 
 And as his fingers o'er them hovered, 
 The shell disdained, a soul had gained. 
 
 The lyre had been discovered. 
 empty world that round us lies. 
 
 Dead shell, of soul and thought forsaken. 
 Brought we but eyes like Mercury's, 
 
 In thee what songs should waken ! 
 
 — James Russell Lowell. 
 
THE SANDS O' DEE 163 
 
 Mercury — ^in classic mythology, was the supposed inventor 
 of the lyre, and of weights and measures. He was also the 
 messenger of the gods. 
 
 As empty as the last new sonnet — referring to the poor 
 quality of current poetry. 
 
 THE SANDS 0^ DEE 
 
 The meaning of genuine poetry can never be fully 
 expressed in prose. Poetry appeals to the emotions, and 
 part of the appeal is made through the rhythm, the 
 "music,'^ of the lines. The haunting melody of Poe's 
 Annabel Lee, for example, creates an emotion of 
 pleasure quite apart from the meaning of the verses. 
 
 The three qualities of Charles Kingsley's little poem 
 The Sands o' Bee are imagination, melody, and mys- 
 tery. A young girl goes to call the cattle home from the 
 marshes of the Eiver Dee where it flows into the Irish 
 Sea ; in the blinding mist and the wet western wind 
 she loses her way, the tide comes creeping up and car- 
 ries her out among the fishermen's nets. By her golden 
 hair she is recognized, for no salmon ever shone so fair. 
 The tragedy so appeals to the fishermen that their 
 natural superstition leads them to imagine that they 
 still sometimes hear her voice across the sands o' Dee 
 going as of old to call the cattle home. Thus a legend, 
 such as is the basis of the story in the poem, arises. 
 
 These things are treated with so much imagination 
 and melody, and the mysterious element is so closely 
 
164 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 and artistically woven in with the rest of the poem, 
 that the total effect is wholly different from that which 
 any mere prose statement could create. Imagination, 
 melody, mystery — ^by the use of these three elements 
 Kingsley has taken a familiar tragedy of the sea and 
 converted it into a haunting poem which one can never 
 forget. But in reading a poem like this one either 
 feels its meaning or he doesn't; and no interpreter can 
 be of any great assistance to him. 
 
 THE SANDS O' DEE 
 
 1 
 
 '^0 Mary, go and call the cattle home, 
 And call the cattle home. 
 And call the cattle home. 
 Across the sands o' Dee.'' 
 The western wind was wild and dark wi' foam. 
 And all alone went she. 
 
 2 
 
 The western tide crept up along the sand, 
 And o'er and o'er the sand, 
 And round and round the sand. 
 As far as eye could see ; 
 The rolling mist came down and hid the land ; 
 And never home came she. 
 
ABOU BEN ADEEM 165 
 
 3 
 "0, is it weed, or fish, or floating hair — 
 A tress o' golden hair, 
 0' drowned maiden's hair. 
 Above the nets at sea?" 
 Was never salmon yet that shone so fair 
 Among the stakes on Dee. 
 
 4 
 
 They rowed her in across the rolling foam, 
 The cruel, crawling foam. 
 The cruel, hungry foam, 
 To her grave beside the sea. 
 But still the boatmen hear her call the cattle home, 
 Across the sands o' Dee. 
 
 — Charles Kingsley. 
 
 ABOU BEN ADHEM 
 
 This poem, in imitation of an oriental fable, may be 
 or it may not be good theology, but it expresses the 
 modern idea of altruism which is the basis of all social 
 service. "For he that loveth not his brother whom he 
 hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not 
 seen?" It has taken the world a long time to learn 
 that "the second commandment is like unto the first." 
 Perhaps Leigh Hunt's simple poem, known and quoted 
 everywhere, has helped a little to turn the minds of 
 
166 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 men toward the needs of their fellowmen. Doubtless 
 these eighteen lines have built more than one hospital 
 and sent more than one angel of mercy to the children 
 of the slums. "And the King shall answer and say unto 
 them, Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done 
 it unto one of the least of these, my brethren, ye have 
 done it unto me.'^ 
 
 ABOU BEN- ADHEM 
 1 
 
 Abou Ben Adhem (may his tribe increase !) 
 Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace, 
 And saw within the moonlight in his room. 
 Making it rich and like a lily in bloom. 
 An angel writing in a book of gold. 
 
 2 
 
 Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold; 
 And to the presence in the room he said, 
 "What writest thou?" The vision raised its head, 
 And, with a look made of all sweet accord, 
 Answered, "The names of those who love the Lord." 
 
 3 
 
 "And is mine one ?" said Abou. "Nay, not so," 
 Eeplied the angel. Abou spoke more low, - 
 But cheerly still; and said, "I pray thee, then. 
 Write me as one that loves his fellow-men." 
 
GILLESPIE. 167 
 
 The angel wrote, and vanished. The next night 
 
 It came again, with a great wakening light, 
 
 And showed the names whom love of God had blessed; 
 
 And, lo ! Ben Adhem's name led all the rest. 
 
 — Leigh Hunt. 
 
 GILLESPIE 
 
 Vellore is a town in British India situated in the 
 district of North Arcot on the right bank of the Eiver 
 Palar. 
 
 After the fall of Seringapatam (1799) Vellore became 
 the residence of the sons of Tippoo Sahib, the dethroned 
 Sultan of Mysore. Owing to the intrigues of these 
 sons of Tippoo Sahib, a revolt of the sepoys was begun 
 on the 10th of July, 1806. 
 
 The insurgents were quickly subdued by Colonel 
 Gillespie, the gallant commander of the British forces 
 stationed at Vellore, which was the military canton- 
 ment of the North Arcot district of the Madras presi- 
 dency. About eight hundred sepoys were put to the 
 sword. 
 
 Mr. Newbolt's poem is not only dramatic but it is 
 thoroughly and unusually alive with so-called local 
 coloring. It is one of the best things of its kind in any 
 tongue. 
 
168 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED. 
 
 GILLESPIE 
 1 
 
 Elding at dawn, riding alone, 
 
 Gillespie left the town behind; 
 Before he turned by the westward road 
 
 A horseman crossed him, staggering blind. 
 
 2 
 "The deviPs abroad in false Vellore — 
 
 The devil that stabs by night,^^ he said: 
 "Women and children, rank and file. 
 
 Dying and dead, dying and dead/^ 
 
 3 
 
 Without a word, without a groan. 
 Sudden and swift Gillespie turned; 
 
 The blood roared in his ears like fire. 
 Like fire the road beneath him burned. 
 
 4 
 
 He thimdered back to Arcot gate. 
 He thundered up through Arcot town; 
 
 Before he thought a second thought 
 In the barrack yard he lighted down. 
 
 5 
 
 "Trumpeter, sound for the Light Dragoons! 
 
 Sound to saddle and spur V' he said. 
 "He that is ready may ride with me. 
 And he that can may ride ahead.'^ 
 
GILLESPIE. 169 
 
 Tierce and fain, fierce and fain, 
 
 Behind him went the troopers grim; 
 
 They rode as ride the Light Dragoons, 
 But never a man could ride with him. 
 
 7 
 Their rowels ripped their horses' sides. 
 
 Their hearts were red with a deeper goad. 
 But ever alone before them all 
 
 Gillespie rode, Gillespie rode. 
 
 8 
 Alone he came to false Vellore; 
 
 The walls were lined, the gates were barred; 
 Alone he walked where the bullets bit, 
 And called above to the sergeant's guard; 
 9 
 "Sergeant, sergeant, over the gate. 
 
 Where are your oflScers, all?" he said. 
 Heavily came the sergeant's voice, 
 "There are two living and forty dead." 
 10 
 "A rope, a rope!" Gillespie cried, 
 
 They bound their belts to serve his need. 
 There was not a rebel behind the wall 
 But laid his barrel and drew his bead. 
 11 
 There was not a rebel among them all 
 
 But pulled his trigger and cursed his aim, 
 
170 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED, 
 
 For lightly swung and rightly swung, 
 Over the gate Gillespie came. 
 
 12 
 
 He dressed the line, he led the charge; 
 
 They swept the wall like a stream in spate. 
 And roaring over the roar they heard 
 
 The galloper guns that burst the gate. 
 
 13 
 
 Fierce and fain, fierce and fain. 
 
 The troopers rode the reeking flight; 
 
 The very stones remember still 
 
 The end of them that stab by night. 
 
 14 
 They've kept the tale a hundred years. 
 
 They'll keep the tale a hundred more; 
 Eiding at dawn, riding alone, 
 Gillespie came to false Yellore. 
 
 — Henry Newbolt. 
 
 EXCELSIOR 
 
 Longfellow, in a letter to Mr. Tuckerman, wrote the 
 following interpretation of the poem : 
 
 "I have had the pleasure of receiving your note in 
 regard to the poem ^Excelsior,' and very willingly give 
 
EXCELSIOR 171 
 
 yon my intention in writing it. This 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 accom- 
 plish his purpose. His motto is Excelsior, Tiigher.' He 
 passes through the Alpine village — ^through the rough, 
 cold paths of the world — where the peasants cannot un- 
 derstand 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 disre- 
 gards the warnings of the old man's wisdom and the 
 fascinations of woman's love. He answers to all, 
 ^higher yet.' The monks of Saint Bernard are the repre- 
 sentatives 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 in the air is the promise of immortality 
 and progress ever upward." 
 
 EXCELSIOR 
 
 1 
 
 The shades of night were falling fast, 
 As through an Alpine village passed 
 A youth, who bore 'mid snow and ice, 
 A banner with the strange device, 
 "Excelsior !" 
 
172 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 2 
 
 His brow was sad ; his eye beneath 
 Flashed like a falchion from its sheath; 
 And like a silver clarion rung 
 The accents of that unknown tongue, 
 "Excelsior!^' 
 
 3 
 
 In happy homes he saw the light 
 Of household fires gleam warm and bright ; 
 Above, the spectral glaciers shone, 
 And from his lips escaped a groan, 
 "Excelsior !" 
 
 4 
 'Try not to pass," the old man said ; 
 "Dark lowers the tempest overhead. 
 The roaring torrent is deep and wide !" 
 And loud that clarion voice replied, 
 "Excelsior !" 
 
 5 
 
 "0 stay," the maiden said, "and rest 
 Thy weary head upon this breast !" 
 A tear stood in his bright blue eye. 
 But still he answered with a sigh, 
 "Excelsior !" 
 
EXCELSIOR 173 
 
 6 
 
 ^^Beware the pine tree's withered branch! 
 Beware the awful avalanche !'' 
 This was the peasant's last good-night. 
 A voice replied, far up the height, 
 "Excelsior!" 
 
 7 
 At break of day, as heavenward 
 The pious monks of Saint Bernard 
 Uttered the oft-repeated prayer, 
 A voice cried through the startled air, 
 "Excelsior!" 
 
 8 
 
 A traveler, by the faithful hounds, 
 Half-buried in the snow, was found, 
 Still grasping in his hand of ice 
 That banner with the strange device, 
 "Excelsior !" 
 
 9 
 
 There in the twilight cold and gray. 
 Lifeless but beautiful he lay, 
 And from the sky serene and far 
 A voice fell, like a falling star, 
 "Excelsior!" 
 
 — Henry "Wadsworth Longfellow. 
 
174 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 THE ISLES OF GEEECE 
 Bon Juan, Canto III 
 
 This lyric is found in Don Juan, a long poem which 
 shows Byron at his best and his worst. It shows his 
 versatile genius at its height. 
 
 The setting of the song in the long poem is as follows : 
 Don Juan, the hero of the story, in his wanderings, has 
 been wrecked off the coast of Greece and cast uncon- 
 scious upon the beach. He is found by Haidee, a 
 beautiful Greek girl, the daughter of a wealthy sea 
 pirate, Lombro, and is concealed by her in a cave near 
 the shore. She comes to him day by day, and, with 
 the assistance of her maid, nurses him back to health. 
 Her father goes away to "fleece the flags of many 
 nations.^^ He meets storms and other disasters, and is 
 detained many months. Haidee thinks that her father 
 has been drowned or killed, and, not fearing his return, 
 invites Don Juan to Lombro's mansion, where they live 
 in splendor. As a climax to their joyous life they plan 
 an elaborate banquet and are in the midst of its 
 merriment when the father returns. What follows the 
 coming of Lombro is another story. 
 
 Besides the diversions at the banquet offered by dwarfs 
 and dancing girls, a poet of great fame is called upon 
 to sing. The song that he sings is The Isles of Greece, 
 
THE ISLES OF GEEECE 175 
 
 He sings of "the glory that was Greece/' and contrasts 
 her former honor with her modern degeneracy. Although 
 the spirits of those who drove out the Persian invaders 
 are ready to rise and fight for the independence of their 
 country, the living, in cowardice, are dumb. 
 
 Byron makes the poet sing a song that came from 
 his own heart. At the time these lines were written 
 Greece was struggling to free herself from Turkish 
 tyranny. Byron's consecration to the cause of Greek 
 independence proves how sincerely he felt the emotions 
 presented in these stanzas. Three years after this time 
 he gave his life for the Greek cause. Through the good 
 services of England, France, and Eussia, five years after 
 his death Greece was made free. 
 
 The poem is valuable for its strong patriotic emotion, 
 its suggestive and illuminating classical references, its 
 appeal to the imagination, its pleasing rhythm, its 
 graceful phrasing, and for the beauty of its general 
 conception. 
 
 The poet begins to sing his song under the inspira- 
 tion of the golden days of Greece, but must change 
 his theme to a complaint that modern Greece is too 
 degenerate to fight for her liberties. He feels yet enough 
 of the old patriotism to blush for such a dishonored 
 country. But there is no hope, and he wishes that he 
 may be placed on "Sunium's marble steep," where he 
 may sing his "swan-song" to the waves — and the world, 
 and die — of grief for the lost liberty of Greece — of 
 shame for his degenerate people. 
 
176 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 THE ISLES OF GREECE 
 1 
 
 The isles of Greece, the isles of Greece ! 
 
 Where burning Sapho lived and sung, 
 Where grew the arts of war and peace, 
 
 Where Delos rose, and Phoebus sprung ! 
 Eternal summer gilds them yet. 
 But all except their sun is set. 
 
 2 
 
 The Scian and the Teian muse. 
 The hero's harp, the lover's lute. 
 
 Have found the fame your shores refuse ; 
 Their place of birth alone is mute 
 
 To sounds that echo further west 
 
 Than your sires' "Islands of the Blest." 
 
 3 
 
 The mountains look on Marathon — 
 And Marathon looks on the sea ; 
 
 And musing there an hour alone, 
 
 I dream'd that Greece might still be free ; 
 
 For standing on the Persian's grave, 
 
 I could not deem myself a slave. 
 
 4 
 
 A king sate on the rocky brow 
 Which looks o'er sea-borne Salamis ; 
 
THE ISLES OF GEEECE 177 
 
 And ships, by thousands, lay below, 
 
 And men in nations ; — all were his ! 
 He counted them at break of day- — 
 And when the sun set, where were they? 
 
 5 
 
 And where are they ? And where art thou, 
 My country ? On thy voiceless shore 
 
 The heroic lay is tuneless now — 
 The heroic bosom beats no more ! 
 
 And must thy lyre, so long divine. 
 
 Degenerate into hands like mine ? 
 
 'T is something, in the dearth of fame, 
 Though linked among a fetter'd race, 
 
 To feel at least a patriot's shame. 
 Even, as I sing, suffuse my face ; 
 
 Tor what is left the poet here ? 
 
 For Greece to blush — for Greece a tear. 
 
 Must we but weep o'er days more blest ? 
 
 Must we but blush ? Our fathers bled. 
 Earth ! render back from out thy breast 
 
 A remnant of our Spartan dead ! 
 Of the three hundred grant but three, 
 To make a new Thermopylae ! 
 
178 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 8 
 What, silent still? and silent all? 
 
 Ah, no ; — the voices of the dead 
 Sound like a distant torrent's fall. 
 
 And answer, "Let one living head. 
 But one arise — we come, we come!" 
 'T is but the living who are dumb. 
 
 9 
 
 You have the Pyrrhic dance as yet — 
 "Where is the Pyrrhic phalanx gone? 
 
 Of two such lessons, why forget 
 The nobler and the manlier one ? 
 
 You have the letters Cadmus gave — 
 
 Think ye he meant them for a slave ? 
 
 10 
 
 Place me on Sunium's marble steep, 
 "Where nothing save the waves and I 
 
 May hear our mutual murmurs sweep ; 
 There, swan-like, let me sing and die : 
 
 A land of slaves shall ne'er be mine — 
 
 Dash down yon cup of Samian wine ! 
 
 — George Gordon Byron. 
 
THE ISLES OF GEEECE 179 
 
 Sapho — the lyric poetess of Lesbos, who lived in the seventh 
 century B. C. Only fragments of her poetry have come down 
 to us, but they are fervid enough to justify the epithet 
 "burning." 
 
 Delos — an island in the JEgean sea, which was supposed to 
 have risen from the sea. It was the birth-place of Phcebus 
 Apollo. 
 
 Scian and Teian — refer to Homer and Anacreon. Scio is 
 one of the towns which claim to be Homer's birthplace, and 
 Teos is the birthplace of the lyric poet, Anacreon. 
 
 Islands of the Blest — The classic tradition about these 
 islands was doubtless based upon the tale of some adventurous 
 voyager who sailed as far west as the Cape Verde Islands, or 
 the Canaries. 
 
 Marathon — ^a village on the east coast of Attica, memorable 
 as the scene of the defeat of the Persians under Darius by the 
 Greeks under Miltiades, 490 B. C. 
 
 Salamis — ^a small island of Greece off the coast of Attica, 
 noted chiefly for the great naval battle fought there. 
 
 A Tcing sate, etc. — This refers to King Xerxes and the 
 battle of Salamis, a great naval battle between the Greeks and 
 Persians, 480 B. C. The Persians were utterly overthrown. 
 Byron doubtless got a suggestion for this stanza from lines 
 from -ffischylus, the Greek poet: 
 
 Deep were the groans of Xerxes, when he saw 
 This havoc ; for his seat, a lofty mound 
 Commanding the wide sea, o'erlooked the hosts.- 
 With rueful cries he rent his royal robes. 
 And through his troops embattled on the shore 
 Gave signal of retreat ; then started wild 
 And fled disordered. 
 
 Must we hut weep, etc. — The feeling expressed in this stanza 
 is sincere, for shortly after the time this poem was written 
 Byron consecrated himself to the cause of Greek independence. 
 
180 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 ThermopylcB — a famous pass leading from Thessaly into 
 Locris, and the only road hj which an invading armj can go 
 from northern to southern Greece. It was the scene of the 
 heroic death of Leonidas and his 300 Spartans in their attempt 
 to stem the tide of Persian invasion, 480 B. C. 
 
 Pyrrhic dance — the movements of this dance are in imita- 
 tion of the motions of a combatant. It is said to be named 
 from its inventor, Pyrrhicus. 
 
 Pyrrhic phalanx — a formation of troops in battle named 
 after Pyrrhus, king of Epirus. 
 
 Cadmus — is fabled to have brought the alphabet from Egypt 
 to Greece. 
 
 Sunium — the ancient name of Cape Colonna, the southern- 
 most point of Attica, Greece. Its summit is crowned by the 
 ruins of a temple, 269 feet above the level of the sea, of which 
 16 columns of white marble are still standing. 
 
 Swan-UTce — the swan is fabled to sing as it is dying; a 
 "swan-song" is a death song. 
 
 ON FIRST LOOKING INTO CHAPMAN'S HOMER 
 
 The wonderful English, boy-poet Keats was not a 
 Greek scholar, though he possessed much of the Greek 
 spirit. One night a friend brought to him a copy of 
 Homer's Odyssey translated by George Chapman, and 
 they sat up together all night reading it. They parted 
 at daybreak and his friend went to his lodgings two 
 miles away. At ten o'clock that morning his friend 
 found the sonnet, On First LooMng into Chapman's 
 
LOOKING INTO CHAPMAN'S HOMER 181 
 
 Homer, lying on his library table. Keats had evidently 
 written it before going to sleep after the nighfs 
 reading. 
 
 ON FIRST LOOKIISTG INTO CHAPMAN^S HOMER 
 
 Much have I travelFd in the realms of gold, 
 
 And many goodly states and kingdoms seen ; 
 
 Eound many western islands have I been, 
 Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold. 
 Oft of one wide expanse had I been told 
 
 That deep-browM Homer ruled as his demesne; 
 
 Yet did I never breathe its pure serene 
 Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold : 
 
 Then felt I like some watcher of the skies 
 When a new planet swims into his ken ; 
 
 Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes 
 He star'd at the Pacific — and all his men 
 
 Look'd at each other with a wild surmise — 
 Silent, upon a peak in Darien. 
 
 — John Keats. 
 
 He had travelled in the poetic ** realms of gold'* only in his 
 imagination and his reading, and had seen ** goodly states and 
 kingdoms ' ' only in the same way, for he had never been out of 
 England. His reading had been confined largely to the poets 
 of England, the *' western islands." Apollo was the mythical 
 god of music and poetry, and thus the ruler of these *' realms 
 of gold'' which the poets held in fealty, loyalty, to him as 
 vassals did in the old feudal days. The pictures of Homer all 
 show him as *' deep-browed. " 
 
182 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 Serene — ^is here used as a noun, meaning calm and clear 
 atmosphere. Every schoolboy knows that it was Balboa and 
 not Cortez who discovered the Pacific Ocean, but this slip does 
 not really mar the beauty and majesty of the figure. 
 
 Leigh Hunt says of the last line: "We leave the reader 
 standing upon it, with all the illimitable world of thought 
 and feeling before him, to which his imagination will have 
 brought him, while journeying through these 'realms of gold.' " 
 
 Whether the reader has such thoughts and feelings is a good 
 test of whether or not he has read with the understanding. 
 
 Keats was only twenty-one when he wrote the sonnet. 
 
 BEEAK, BEEAK, BEEAK 
 
 Some readers will find in this lyric of Tennyson's a 
 mood of sorrow, others a cry of grief; which, will 
 depend upon how fully the reader can experience for 
 himself the emotion of the author. To those who can 
 enter completely into the spirit of the piece, the break- 
 ing of the waves of the sea is like the breaking of the 
 heart. 
 
 BEEAK^ BREAK, BREAK 
 1 
 
 Break, break, break. 
 
 On thy cold gray stones, sea ! 
 And I would that my tongue could utter 
 
 The thoughts that arise in me. 
 
BREAK, BREAK, BREAK 183 
 
 2 
 
 well for the fisherman's boy, 
 
 That he shouts with his sister at play ! 
 
 well for the sailor lad. 
 
 That he sings in his boat on the bay ! 
 
 3 
 
 And the stately ships go on 
 
 To their haven under the hill ; 
 But for the touch of a vanished hand. 
 
 And the sound of a voice that is still ! 
 
 4 
 Break, break, break, 
 
 At the foot of thy crags, sea ! 
 But the tender grace of a day that is dead 
 Will never come back to me. 
 
 — Alfred Tennyson. 
 
 In the iirst stanza the author says that the breaking waves 
 give him thoughts which he cannot utter. This is the most 
 evident meaning of the poem, that emotion is too deep for any 
 words to express. That the thoughts are sad ones is evident 
 from the three words, "cold gray stones." The sight of break- 
 ing waves is often a joyous sight, but not so here. 
 
 Stanzas two and three tell why. The fisherman's boy is too 
 young to know, and the cheerful sailor lad does not think of 
 the tragedies of those who "go down to the sea in ships." It is 
 well for them that they sing and shout now, for their own 
 fathers may perchance be the next to lose their lives. The 
 stately ships go on to their haven under the hill, but in some 
 
184 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 home on the shore there is a woman waiting for the touch of 
 a vanished hand and the sound of a voice that is still. 
 
 In these first three stanzas the tragedy of the sea — the story 
 of its awful sacrifice of life — ^is told with marvelous effect. 
 
 The thought in the fourth stanza grows out of the thought 
 in the other three. "The tender grace of a day that is dead," 
 means some love or joy or happiness of a former time which 
 can never return. As the sailor comes not back from the sea, 
 so the lost joy comes not back from the past. And as the sea 
 breaks on its cold gray stones, so the heart breaks on the crags 
 of grief. Thus the closing stanza widens the scope of the 
 meaning of the poem to include all those who lament the ten- 
 der grace of a day that is dead; and its pathos appeals to all 
 mankind. 
 
 The death of Tennyson's friend, Arthur Hallam, inspired 
 this poem as well as In Memoriam and other tributes. 
 
 TUBAL CAIN 
 
 Tubal Cain is the Biblical and legendary father of 
 "all such as forge copper and iron." He was of the 
 seventh generation in descent from Cain. Genesis, 
 Chapter J^, verse 22, says : 
 
 "And Zillah, she also bare Tubal-Cain, an instructor of 
 every artificer in brass and iron." 
 
 EzeTciel, Chapter 27, verse IS, uses the name Tubal 
 in connection with the trading of vessels of brass. 
 Josephus, in The Antiquities of the Jews, says : 
 
 "But Tubal exceeded all men in strength, and was very 
 expert and famous in martial performances * * » 
 and first of all invented the art of working brass." 
 
TUBAL CAIN 185 
 
 Charles Mackay's poem is an epitome of the history 
 of civilization. In the ages of savagery and barbarism 
 the man who could best wield the spear and the sword 
 was actually king and lord, or chief. As civilization 
 progressed the arts of peace were recognized and war 
 became less honorable. Agriculture was the first of 
 the arts of peace to receive attention^ and so the plow- 
 share was invented. To-day civilization has so far 
 advanced that war is no longer honorable except when 
 a people's rights are invaded or "oppression lifts its 
 head." 
 
 Tubal Cain in this poem typifies humanity in its 
 progress towards civilization. 
 
 TUBAL CAIN" 
 
 Old Tubal Cain was a man of might, 
 
 In days when earth was young; 
 By the fierce red light of his furnace bright, 
 
 The strokes of his hammer rung : 
 And he lifted high his brawny hand 
 
 On the iron glowing clear, 
 Till the sparks rushed out in scarlet showers. 
 
 As he fashioned the sword and the spear. 
 And he sang : "Hurrah for my handiwork I 
 
 Hurrah for the spear and the sword ! 
 Hurrah for the hand that shall wield them ■svell. 
 
 For he shall be king and lord !" 
 
186 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 To Tubal Cain came many a one, 
 
 As he wrought by his roaring fire, 
 And each one prayed for a strong steel blade 
 
 As the crown of his desire, 
 And he made them weapons sharp and strong. 
 
 Till they shouted loud for glee. 
 And gave him gifts of pearls and gold, 
 
 And spoils of the forest free. 
 And they sang : "Hurrah for Tubal Cain, 
 
 Who hath given us strength anew ! 
 Hurrah for the smith, hurrah for the fire, 
 
 And hurrah for the metal true I" 
 
 But a sudden change came o'er his heart. 
 
 Ere the setting of the sun. 
 And Tubal Cain was filled with pain 
 
 For the evil he had done; 
 He saw that men, with rage and hate. 
 
 Made war upon their kind ; 
 That the land was red with the blood they shed. 
 
 In their lust for carnage blind ; 
 And he said, "Alas ! that ever I made, 
 
 Or that skill of mine should plan, 
 The spear and the sword for men whose joy 
 
 Is to slay their f ellowman !'' 
 
TUBAL CAIN 187 
 
 And for many a day old Tubal Cain 
 
 Sat brooding o'er bis woe; 
 And his hand forbore to smite the ore, 
 
 And his furnace smoldered low. 
 But he rose at last with a cheerful face. 
 
 And a bright, courageous eye. 
 And bared his strong right arm for work. 
 
 While the quick flames mounted high. 
 And he sang, "Hurrah for my handiwork !" 
 
 As the red sparks lit the air ; 
 "Not alone for the blade was the bright steel made,"- 
 
 And he fashioned the first plowshare. 
 
 And men, taught wisdom from the past. 
 
 In friendship joined their hands, 
 Hung the sword in the hall, the spear on the wall, 
 
 And plowed the willing lands ; 
 And sang, "Hurrah for Tubal Cain ! 
 
 Our staunch good friend is he; 
 And for the plowshare and the plow. 
 
 To him our praise shall be. 
 But while oppression lifts its head. 
 
 Or a tyrant would be lord, 
 Though we may thank him for the plow, 
 
 We'll not forget the sword." 
 
 — Charles Mackay. 
 
188 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 THE EAVEN 
 
 There have been all sorts of curious and fantastic 
 interpretations of The Raven. It has been called a poem 
 of remorse, the ebony bird being the personification of 
 Poe's regret for a misspent life; it has been called a 
 prophecy of evil for the future, springing out of reflec- 
 tions upon his way of living; and various other curious 
 meanings have been read into the verses. 
 
 There does not seem to be any reason for going so 
 far to seek its interpretation. Poe himself, in his 
 Philosophy of Composition, gives the meaning and 
 method of The Raven. He says : 
 
 "The death of a beautiful woman is, unquestionably, 
 the most poetical topic in the world — and equally it is 
 beyond doubt that the lips best suited for such topic are 
 those of a bereaved lover. ... I had now to combine 
 the two ideas of a lover lamenting his deceased mistress 
 and a raven continuously repeating the word 'Never- 
 more"^ — the raven, as he says, being generally con- 
 sidered a bird of ill omen, and the word involving "the 
 utmost conceivable amount of sorrow and despair." 
 
 "I determined then to place the lover in his chamber 
 — in a chamber rendered sacred to him by memories of 
 her who had frequented it. 
 
 "I made the night tempestuous, first to account for 
 a raven's seeking admission, and secondly, for the effect 
 of contrast with the (physical) serenity within the 
 
THE BAVEN 189 
 
 chamber. I made the bird alight on the bust of Pallas, 
 also for the effect of contrast between the marble and 
 the plumage — the bust of Pallas being chosen, first, as 
 most in keeping with the scholarship of the lover, and, 
 secondly, for the sonorousness of the word Tallas' 
 itself." 
 
 He concludes by saying: 
 
 "The undercurrent of meaning is rendered first 
 apparent in the lines : 
 
 Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from 
 off my door! 
 
 Quoth the Eaven, "Nevermore." 
 
 "It will be observed that the words ^from out my 
 heart' involve the first metaphorical expression in the 
 poem. They, with the answer, ^Nevermore,' dispose the 
 mind to seek a moral in all that has been previously 
 narrated. The reader begins now to regard the raven 
 as emblematical — ^but it is not until the very last 
 stanza that the intention of making him emblematical 
 of. Mournful and Never-ending Rememhrance is 
 permitted distinctly to be seen." 
 
 The mood of the poem is, therefore, hopeless despair, 
 personified by the raven, over the loss of a loved one 
 (real or imaginary) represented by the name Lenore. 
 Accepting this as the true significance of the piece, 
 lines which cannot be explained by any other inter- 
 pretation are easily understood — such, for example, as 
 "whom the angels name Lenore, nameless here forever- 
 
190 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 more"; "other friends have flown before"; "she shall 
 press, ah, nevermore"; "thy memories of Lenore"; and 
 all of the last two stanzas. 
 
 Poe may or may not have built the poem up in the 
 method which he details at length in his Philosophy of 
 Composition^, but he certainly knew what he meant in 
 writing it. 
 
 THE RAVEN- 
 
 1 
 
 Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak 
 and weary. 
 
 Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten 
 lore, 
 
 While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a 
 tapping. 
 
 As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber 
 door. 
 
 " 'T is some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my cham- 
 ber door — 
 
 Only this, and nothing more." 
 
 2 
 Ah, distinctly I remember, it was in the bleak December, 
 And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon 
 
 the floor. 
 Eagerly I wished the morrow; vainly I had tried to 
 
 borrow 
 
THE EAVEN 191 
 
 From my books surcease of sorrow — sorrow for the lost 
 
 Lenore — 
 For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name 
 
 Lenore — 
 
 Nameless here forevermore. 
 
 And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple 
 
 curtain 
 Thrilled me — filled me with fantastic terrors never felt 
 
 before ; 
 So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood 
 
 repeating, 
 " 'T is some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber 
 
 door — 
 Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber 
 
 door ; — 
 
 This it is and nothing more." 
 
 Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no 
 
 longer, 
 "Sir," said I, "or Madam, truly your forgiveness I 
 
 implore ; 
 But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came 
 
 rapping, 
 And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber 
 
 door. 
 
192 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 That I scarce was sure I heard you^^ — ^here I opened 
 wide the door : — 
 
 Darkness there, and nothing more. 
 
 5 
 Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there 
 
 wondering, fearing. 
 Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to 
 
 dream before; 
 But the silence was unbroken, and the darkness gave no 
 
 token. 
 And the only word there spoken was the whispered 
 
 word, '^Lenore V' 
 This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word 
 
 "LenoreP 
 
 Merely this and nothing more. 
 
 6 
 
 Back into the chamber turning, all my soul within me 
 
 burning. 
 Soon again I heard a tapping, somewhat louder than 
 
 before. 
 "Surely,'^ said I, "surely that is something at my window 
 
 lattice ; 
 Let me see, then, what thereat is, and this mystery 
 
 explore — 
 Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery 
 
 explore ; — 
 
 'T is the wind and nothing more ?' 
 
THE RAVEN 193 
 
 7 
 Open then I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt 
 
 and flutter, 
 In there stepped a stately Eaven of the saintly days of 
 
 3^ore. 
 Not the least obeisance made he ; not an instant stopped 
 
 or stayed he ; 
 But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my 
 
 chamber door — 
 Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber 
 
 door — 
 
 Perched, and sat, and nothing more. 
 
 8 
 Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into 
 
 smiling, 
 By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it 
 
 wore, 
 "Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou," I said, 
 
 "art sure no craven. 
 Ghastly, grim, and ancient Eaven, wandering from the 
 
 Nightly shore — 
 Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's 
 
 Plutonian shore!" 
 
 Quoth the Eaven, "Nevermore." 
 
 9 
 
 Much I marvelled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse 
 so plainly, 
 
194 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 Though its answer little meaning — little relevancy bore ; 
 
 For we cannot help agreeing that no living human 
 being 
 
 Ever yet was blessed with seeing bird above his chamber 
 door — 
 
 Bird or beast upon the sculptured bust above his cham- 
 ber door 
 
 "With such name as "Nevermore.'^ 
 
 10 
 
 But the Raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke 
 
 only 
 That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did 
 
 outpour. 
 N'othing further then he uttered ; not a feather then he 
 
 fluttered — 
 Till I scarcely more than muttered, "Other friends have 
 
 flown before — 
 On the morrow he will leave me, as my Hopes have 
 
 flown before/' 
 
 Then the bird said, "Nevermore." 
 
 11 
 
 Startled at the stillness broken by reply so aptly spoken, 
 "Doubtless," said I, "what it utters is its only stock 
 
 and store, 
 Caught from some unhappy master, whom unmerciful 
 
 Disaster 
 
THE EAVEN 195 
 
 Followed fast and followed faster till his songs one 
 
 burden bore — 
 Till the dirges of his Hope the melancholy burden bore 
 Of 'Never — ^nevermore.' " 
 
 12 
 
 But the Eaven still beguiling all my sad soul into 
 
 smiling, 
 Straight I wheeled a cushioned seat in front of bird and 
 
 bust and door; 
 Then, upon the velvet sinking, I betook myself to 
 
 linking 
 Fancy unto fancy, thinking what this ominous bird of 
 
 yore— 
 What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt, and ominous 
 
 bird of yore 
 
 Meant in croaking "Nevermore.^' 
 
 13 
 
 This I sat engaged in guessing, but no syllable ex- 
 pressing 
 
 To the fowl whose fiery eyes now burned into my 
 bosom's core; 
 
 This and more I sat divining, with my head at ease 
 reclining 
 
 On the cushion's velvet lining that the lamp-light 
 gloated o'er, 
 
196 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 But whose velvet violet lining with the lamp-light 
 gloating o'er, 
 
 She shall press, ah, nevermore ! 
 
 14 
 
 Then, methought, the air grew denser, perfumed from 
 
 an unseen censer. 
 Swung by seraphim whose foot-falls tinkled on the 
 
 tufted floor. 
 "Wretch,'' I cried, "thy God hath lent thee, — ^by these 
 
 angels he hath sent thee 
 Respite — respite and nepenthe from thy memories of 
 
 Lenore ! 
 Quaff, 0, quaff this kind nepenthe, and forget this lost 
 
 Lenore !" 
 
 Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore/' 
 
 15 
 
 "Prophet!" said I, "thing of evil! — prophet still, if 
 bird or devil ! — 
 
 Whether Tempter sent, or whether tempest tossed thee 
 here ashore. 
 
 Desolate yet all xmdaunted, on this desert land en- 
 chanted — 
 
 On this home by Horror haunted — tell me truly, I 
 implore — 
 
 Is there — is there balm in Gilead? — tell me — ^tell me, 
 I implore !" 
 
 Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore." 
 
THE EAVEN 197 
 
 18 
 
 "Prophet !" said I, "thing of evil — prophet still, if bird 
 
 or devil! — 
 By that Heaven that bends above us — by that God we 
 
 both adore — 
 Tell this soul with sorrow laden, if, within the distant 
 
 Aidenn, 
 It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels name 
 
 Lenore — 
 Clasp a rare and radiant maiden whom the angels 
 
 name Lenore?" 
 
 Quoth the Eaven, "Nevermore." 
 
 17 
 "Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend!" I 
 
 shrieked, upstarting — 
 "Get thee back into the tempest, and the Night's 
 
 Plutonian shore! 
 Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul 
 
 hath spoken ! 
 Leave my loneliness unbroken ! — quit the bust above my 
 
 door! 
 Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form 
 
 from off my door I 
 
 Quoth the Eaven, "Nevermore." 
 
 16 
 And the Eaven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is 
 sitting 
 
198 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber 
 
 door; 
 And his eyes have all the seeming of a Demon's that is 
 
 dreaming, 
 And the lamp-light o'er him streaming throws his 
 
 shadow on the floor; 
 And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on 
 
 the floor 
 
 Shall be lifted — nevermore. 
 
 — Edgar Allan Poe. 
 
 Pallas — the Athenian goddess of wisdom. 
 
 Plutonian — from Pluto, the mythological god of the lower 
 regions. 
 
 Aidenn — Eden. 
 
 Bespite — an interval of rest. 
 
 Nepenthe — a drug used by the ancients to give relief from 
 pain and sorrow. Here it means forgetfulness. 
 
 Balm in Gilead — means cure — ^healing for his sorrow for 
 his lost one. The reference is to Jeremiah 8:22: "Is there 
 no balm in Gilead? is there no physician there?" 
 
 AEMAGEDDON 
 
 Here is a poem of courage, manliness, and the highest 
 ideals; it is a noble battle-cry for the future of the 
 human race. But these qualities are revealed to us only 
 when we understand the historic significance of the name 
 Armageddon. Without this knowledge "Marching down 
 to Armageddon'' is but an empty line. 
 
ARMAGEDDON 199 
 
 Armageddon was another name for the hill or city 
 of Megiddo, in the great plain of Esdraelon, which 
 extends across central Palestine from the Mediterra- 
 nean to the Jordan. It was the great battlefield of Old 
 Testament history, the scene of many mighty struggles 
 of good and evil — the old battlefield of Canaan. It was 
 the scene of two great victories — those of Barak and 
 Deborah over the Canaanites commanded by Sisera, and 
 of Gideon over the Midianites — and of two great 
 disasters — the death of Saul and the death of Jonathan. 
 
 "The kings came and fought; then fought the kings 
 of Caanan in Taanoch by the waters of Megiddo; they 
 took no gain of money. They fought from heaven; the 
 stars in their courses fought against Sisera." 
 
 -From the Song of Deborah. 
 
 "For there the shield of the mighty ones was cast away, 
 The shield of Saul, as of one unanointed with oil. 
 From the blood of the slain, from the fat of the mighty 
 The bow of Jonathan turned not back, 
 And the sword of Saul returned not empty. 
 Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives, 
 And in their death they were not divided." 
 
 From David's Lament. 
 
 On the same historic plain near the city of Megiddo, 
 Josiah, king of Judah, was defeated and mortally 
 wounded by Necho, the Pharaoh of Egypt, 609 B. C. 
 
 The plain of Megiddo was so often, in fact, the meeting 
 place of ancient armies that it seems to have come to be 
 looked upon as the typical battleground. 
 
200 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 In Revelation the evil spirits are spoken of as being 
 gathered together "to the battle of that great day of 
 God Almighty . . . into a place called in the Hebrew 
 tongue Armageddon." 
 
 In this poem of Sir Edwin Arnold's, Armageddon 
 with its historic significance is lifted out of the dim 
 past and projected into the future; and "Marching 
 down to Armageddon" means marching down to 
 humanity's great battlefield of the future, where the 
 forces of right and wrong are to contend, as of old, for 
 supremacy. 
 
 As soldiers in the army marching on to this conflict 
 our banner is the white banner of Hope, our motto, 
 Brotherhood; a song is on our lips, and our bugle rings 
 for the peace of the world. TVe have no hate for those 
 who do not agree with us, and we complain not that the 
 way we tread is so rough and long. This is the battle- 
 cry of the future. 
 
 AEMAGEDDON 
 1 
 
 Marching down to Armageddon — 
 
 Brothers, stout and strong! 
 Let us cheer the way we tread on, . 
 
 With a soldier's song ! 
 Faint we by the weary road, 
 
 Or fall we in the rout. 
 Dirge or Paean, Death or Triumph ! — 
 
 Let the song ring out ! 
 
ARMAGEDDON 201 
 
 2 
 We are they who scorn the seomers — 
 
 Love the lovers — hate 
 None within the world's four corners — 
 
 All must share one fate; 
 We are they whose common banner 
 
 Bears no badge nor sign, 
 Save the light which dyes it white — 
 
 The Hope that makes it shine. 
 
 3 
 
 We are they whose bugle rings. 
 
 That all the wars may cease ; 
 We are they will pay the Kings 
 
 Their cruel price for Peace; 
 We are they whose steadfast watchword 
 
 Is what Christ did teach — 
 *^Each man for his Brother first — 
 
 And Heaven, then, for each." 
 
 4 
 We are they who will not falter — 
 
 Many swords or few — 
 Till we make this Earth the altar 
 
 Of a worship new ; 
 We are they who will not take 
 
 From palace, priest or code, 
 A meaner Law than "Brotherhood" — 
 
 A lower Lord than God. 
 
202 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 5 
 
 Marching down to Armageddon — 
 
 Brothers, stout and strong ! 
 Ask not why the way we tread on 
 
 Is so rough and long ! 
 God will tell us when our spirits 
 
 Grow to grasp His plan ! 
 Let us do our part to-day — 
 
 And help Him, helping Man ! 
 
 6 
 
 Shall we even curse the madness 
 
 Wliich for "ends of State" 
 Dooms us to the long, long sadness 
 
 Of this human hate ? 
 Let us slay in perfect pity 
 
 Those that must not live ; 
 Vanquish, and forgive our foes — 
 
 Or fall — and still forgive ! 
 
 7 
 We are those whose unpaid legions, 
 
 In free ranks arrayed, 
 Massacred in many regions — 
 
 !N'ever once were stayed : 
 We are they whose torn battalions. 
 
 Trained to bleed, not fly. 
 Make our agonies a triumph, — 
 
 Conquer, while we die ! 
 
EACH AND ALL 203 
 
 8 
 
 Therefore, down to Armageddon — 
 
 Brothers, bold and strong; 
 Cheer the glorious way we tread on, 
 
 With this soldier song ! 
 Let the armies of the old Flags 
 
 March in silent dread ! 
 Death and Life are one to ns. 
 
 Who fight for Quick and Dead ! 
 
 — Edwin Arnold. 
 
 EACH AND ALL 
 
 This is one of Emerson's noblest poems ; and although 
 it seems to be difficult, it is not. High-school pupils 
 can understand it, and teachers will find in it one of the 
 greatest of all truths of nature and of life. It is worthy 
 of much rereading and careful study. 
 
 The brackets and italics which we have had the printer 
 use will assist in its interpretation. The central thought 
 — the key-note — of the whole poem is expressed in the 
 italicized lines: 
 
 All are needed hy each one; 
 Nothing is fair or good alone. 
 
 This central thought is illustrated in seven different 
 ways (each indicated by a bracket), and each of these 
 illustrations should be studied closely in the light of the 
 central thought of the poem. 
 
204 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 After giving these seven illustrations of the truth he 
 wants to teach, Emerson says : 
 
 Beauty is unripe childhood's cheat. 
 
 That is, beauty taken away from its natural environ- 
 ment or setting is not truth. In another poem, The 
 Bhodora (page 159), he says that ^^Deauty is its own 
 excuse for being" — ^beauty when true to nature. 
 
 After this bit of philosophizing, he closes the poem 
 with an illustration of each and all in proper harmony 
 (last bracket), and yields himself to the influence of 
 "the perfect whole." 
 
 Throughout the poem, from the first line to the last, 
 may be found the great lesson of the power of influence. 
 Perhaps it is most definitely expressed in the oft-quoted 
 lines: 
 
 Nor Tcnowest thou what argument 
 
 Thy life to thy neighbor's creed has lent. 
 
 This is a lesson which runs through all nature and all 
 human life, and in no piece of literature has it been 
 more beautifully or more effectively expressed than in 
 Each and All. 
 
 EACH AND ALL 
 
 J Little thinks, in the field, yon red-cloaked clown, 
 \0i thee from the hill-top looking down; 
 
 r The heifer that lows in the upland farm, 
 \ Far-heard, lows not thine ear to charm ; 
 
EACH AND ALL 205 
 
 The riexton, tolling his bell at noon, 
 Deems not that great Napoleon 
 Stops his horse and lists with delight 
 _ Whilst his files sweep round yon Alpine height ; 
 
 i 
 
 S^ 
 
 Nor knowest thou what argument 
 
 Thy life to thy neighbor's creed has lent. 
 
 All are needed by each one; 
 Nothing is fair or good alone. 
 
 I thought the sparrow's note from heaven, 
 Singing at dawn on the alder bough; 
 I brought him home, in his nest, at even ; 
 He sings the song, but it cheers not now; 
 For I did not bring home the river and the sky ; 
 He sang to my ear, — they sang to my eye. 
 
 ^ The delicate shells lay on the shore ; 
 The bubbles of the latest wave 
 Fresh pearls to their enamel gave; 
 And the bellowing of the savage sea 
 Greeted their safe escape to me. 
 I wiped away the weeds and foam, 
 I fetched my sea-born treasures home ; 
 But the poor, unsightly, noisome things 
 Had left their beauty on the shore, 
 With the sun and the sand and the wild uproar. 
 
206 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 The lover watched his graceful maid, 
 As ^mid the virgin train she strayed, 
 ISTor knew her beauty^s best attire 
 Was woven still by the snow-white choir. 
 At last she came to his hermitage, 
 Like the bird from the woodlands to the cage ; 
 The gay enchantment was undone, — 
 , A gentle wife, but fairy none. 
 Then I said, "I covet truth; 
 Beauty is unripe childhood's cheat; 
 I leave it behind with the games of youth." 
 
 As I spoke, beneath my feet 
 
 The ground-pine curled its pretty wreath, 
 
 Eunning over the club-moss burs; 
 
 I inhaled the violet's breath; 
 
 Around me stood the oaks and firs ; 
 
 Pine cones and acorns lay on the ground; 
 
 Over me soared the eternal sky; 
 
 Full of light and of deity; 
 
 Again I saw, again I heard. 
 
 The rolling river, the morning bird; 
 
 Beauty through my senses stole; 
 
 I yielded myself to the perfect whole. 
 
 — ^Ealph Waldo Emerson. 
 
 FATE 
 
 The mysterious decrees of Fate or of Providence are 
 set forth in these verses. A few facts are given without 
 
FATE 307 
 
 comment. There was a storm at sea, and the intended 
 passenger, acting wisely as he thought, did not sail. 
 The woods were dangerous with wild beasts, and the 
 hunter, acting wisely as he thought, did not join in the 
 chase. The ship made the trip safely, and the hunters 
 came home in glee; but meanwhile the town, which 
 seemed to be perfectly safe, being builded upon a rock, 
 was destroyed by an earthquake. 
 
 There are thousands of such incidents — a man goes 
 safely through a dozen battles and is finally killed by 
 the scratch of a pin. But there is no such thing as 
 chance or luck or fate in the world. There is a cause 
 for everything. The universe is governed by law, or 
 through law, and law is not freakish. 
 
 FATE 
 
 1 
 
 "The sky is clouded, the rocks are bare ; 
 The spray of the tempest is white in air ; 
 The winds are out with the waves at play, 
 And I shall not tempt the sea to-day. 
 
 "The trail is narrow, the wood is dim, 
 The panther clings to the arching limb ; 
 And the lion's whelps are abroad at play. 
 And I shall not join in the chase to-day." 
 
 By permission of Houghton Mifflin Company. 
 
208 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 3 
 
 But the ship sailed safely over the sea, 
 And the hunters came from the chase in glee ; 
 And the town that was builded upon a rock 
 Was swallowed up in the earthquake shock. 
 
 — ^Bret Harte. 
 
 FOETUNE 
 
 Enid's Song. 
 
 "Man is man and master of his fate/^ is the key-note 
 of these lines. The proud may be affected by the turn 
 of Fortune's wheel, but those whose hearts are great 
 are the lords of their own hands and smile whether 
 Fortune favors or whether she frowns. The staring 
 crowd looks with wonder, but we are indifferent to ("we 
 neither love nor hate'') what is called Fortune, knowing 
 that it is only a shadow in the clouds. Man is master of 
 his fate. 
 
 FORTUNE 
 
 1 
 
 Turn, Fortune, turn thy wheel and lower the proud; 
 Turn thy wild wheel through sunshine, storm, and 
 cloud ; 
 Thy wheel and thee we neither love nor hate. 
 
ULALUME 209 
 
 2 
 Turn, Fortune, turn thy wheel with smile or frown ; 
 With that wild wheel we go not up or down ; 
 Our hoard is little, but our hearts are great. 
 
 3 
 
 Smile and we smile, the lords of many lands ; 
 Frown and we smile, the lords of our own hands ; 
 For man is man and master of his fate. 
 
 4 
 Turn, turn thy wheel above the staring crowd; 
 Thy wheel and thou are shadows in the cloud; 
 Thy wheel and thee we neither love nor hate. 
 
 — Alfred Tennyson. 
 
 ULALUME 
 
 Ulalume is the saddest poem in American literature. 
 It is wonderfully imaginative, beautiful, and musical, 
 but to most readers it has no definite meaning. Its 
 theme is the theme of nearly all of Poe's poems, espe- 
 cially of The Raven and Annabel Lee — grief for a lost 
 loved one. In Ulalume it is grief for his young wife. 
 Stated very imperfectly in prose, the meaning is this : 
 
 Ulalume, as he calls his wife, has been dead a year. 
 This is the first anniversary of her burial, but he has, 
 for the time being, forgotten the fact. Meanwhile some 
 hint or thought of a new love is coming into his mind 
 
310 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 or heart. In the agony of his grief he is in deep com- 
 munion with himself — with his subconscious self, with 
 ''Psyche, his Soul." Thought of the new affection pre- 
 sents itself and he is inclined to sanction it, for it seems 
 to point to peace. But something (that something being 
 Psyche, or his subconscious self) warns him against it. 
 He tries to hush the voice of warning, and succeeds in 
 pacifying its scruples. Suddenly he remembers that 
 exactly a year ago he buried Ulalume. In agony and 
 horror, he banishes the thought of the new love and 
 cries out that some demon has been tempting him. It 
 is like coming unexpectedly upon the grave of his wife 
 when he had been thinking of someone else. 
 
 This tragedy of the soul is told figuratively and 
 imaginatively, of course, and herein lies its great beauty ; 
 but it is none the less a powerful poem and an awful 
 tragedy. 
 
 ULALUME 
 
 1 
 
 The skies they were ashen and sober; 
 
 The leaves they were crisped and sere, — 
 
 The leaves they were withering and sere, — 
 It was night in the lonesome October 
 
 Of my most immemorial year; 
 It was hard by the dim lake of Auber, 
 
 In the misty mid-region of Weir, — 
 It was down by the dank tarn of Auber, 
 
 In the ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir. 
 
ULALUMB all 
 
 Here once, through an alley Titanic, 
 Of cypress, I roamed with my soul, — 
 Of cypress, with Psyche, my Soul. 
 
 These were days when my heart was volcanic 
 As the scoriae rivers that roll — 
 As the lavas that restlessly roll — 
 
 Their sulphurous currents down Yaanek 
 In the ultimate climes of the pole — 
 
 That groan as they roll down Mount Yaanek, 
 In the realms of the boreal pole. 
 
 3 
 
 Our talk had been serious and sober. 
 But our thoughts they were palsied and sere, 
 Our memories were treacherous and sere, — 
 
 For we knew not the month was October, 
 And we marked not the night of the year, — 
 (Ah, the night of all nights in the year !) 
 
 We noted not the dim lake of Auber — 
 
 (Though once we had journeyed down here)- 
 
 Kemembered not the dank tarn of Auber, 
 Nor the ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir. 
 
 4 
 And now, as the night was senescent. 
 And the star-dials pointed to morn, — 
 As the star-dials hinted of morn, — 
 
212 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 At the end of our path a liquescent 
 And nebulous lustre was born, 
 
 Out of which a miraculous crescent 
 Arose with a duplicate horn, — 
 
 Astarte's bediamonded crescent, 
 Distinct with its duplicate horn. 
 
 And I said, "She is warmer than Dian : 
 She rolls through an ether of sighs, — 
 She revels in a region of sighs: 
 
 She has seen that the tears are not dry on 
 These cheeks, where the worm never dies, 
 
 And has come past the stars of the Lion 
 To point us the path to the skies, — 
 To point us the path to the skies — 
 
 Come up, in despite of the Lion, 
 To shine on us with her bright eyes, 
 
 Come up through the lair of the Lion, 
 With love in her luminous eyes/^ 
 
 6 
 
 But Psyche, uplifting her finger, 
 Said, ''Sadly this star I mistrust, — 
 Her pallor I strangely mistrust : 
 
 hasten ! let us not linger ! 
 fly !— let us fly !— f or we must." 
 
 In terror she spoke, letting sink her 
 Wings until they trailed in the dust, — 
 
ULALUME 313 
 
 In agony sobbed, letting sink her 
 
 Plumes till they trailed in the dust, — 
 Till they sorrowfully trailed in the dust. 
 
 I replied, "This is nothing but dreaming : 
 
 Let us on by this tremulous light ! 
 
 Let us bathe in this crystalline light ! 
 Its sybilic splendor is beaming 
 
 With Hope and in Beauty to-night : 
 
 See ! it flickers up the sky through the night ! 
 Ah, we safely may trust to its gleaming. 
 
 And be sure it will lead us aright. 
 We safely may trust to a gleaming 
 
 That cannot but guide us aright. 
 
 Since it flickers up to Heaven through the night." 
 
 8 
 Thus I pacified Psyche, and kissed her. 
 And tempted her out of her gloom, — 
 And conquered her scruples and gloom; 
 And we passed to the end of the vista. 
 
 But were stopped by the door of a tomb, — 
 By the door of a legended tomb : 
 And I said, "What is written, sweet sister, 
 On the door of this legended tomb ?" 
 She replied, "Ulalume ! — Ulalume ! — 
 'T is the vault of thy lost Ulalume !" 
 
214 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 9 
 
 Then my heart it grew ashen and sober 
 
 As the leaves that were crisped and sere, — 
 As the leaves that were withering and sere : 
 
 And I cried, "It was surely October, — 
 On this very night of last year, 
 That I Journeyed — I journeyed down here, — 
 On this night, of all nights in the year, 
 Ah, what demon has tempted me here ? 
 
 Well I know, now, this dim lake of Auber, — 
 This misty mid-region of Weir, — 
 
 Well I know, now, this dank tarn of Auber, — 
 This ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir." 
 
 — Edgar Allan Poe. 
 
 The first three stanzas portray the state of his mind — his 
 heart is like the eruption of a volcano, and everything is as 
 gloomy as a ghoul-haunted cypress woodland when the skies 
 are ashen and gray. The names are invented — Auber, Weir, 
 Yaanek — and their very sound harmonizes with the scene. 
 
 Astarte — another name for Venus, the goddess of love. This 
 star with its nebulous lustre represents the faint new love 
 against which his inner voice is protesting. 
 
 Immemorial — unforgetable. 
 
 Tarn — a little lake. 
 
 Senescent — growing old. 
 
 Arose with a duplicate horn — doubtless referring to its 
 newness, to indicate the new love. It is the new moon and not 
 the full moon which is in the form of a crescent with two 
 horns. 
 
 Stars of the Lion — a constellation of stars called Leo or 
 The Lion. 
 
ULALUME 215 
 
 Bmn — Diana (the goddess of the hunt) who scorned love. 
 
 Lethean — causing forgetfulness. 
 
 Sybilic — prophetic. 
 
 Stopped 'by the door of a tomb — suddenly remembered the 
 anniversary of Ulalume's burial. It recalled him to his former 
 state of mind, and with intensified grief he is plunged once 
 more into the "ghoul-haunted woodland" of his soul. 
 
 It should be said that an entirely different interpretation 
 of Ulalume is made by some critics. At the editor's request, 
 Dr. Edward Everett Hale, Jr., Professor of English in Union 
 College, Schenectady, N. Y., has kindly given the meaning of 
 the poem as he interprets it. Dr. Hale says: 
 
 ** Who was this lost love mourned in so many poems? Those 
 who believe it to have been some living, breathing woman (or 
 women) create the curious condition of a man at once mourn- 
 ing the dead and devoted to the living, for Virginia Poe (who 
 has been thought to be the object of Annabel Lee) was still 
 living at the time of The Baven. Could Poe have suffered bit- 
 ter regret for one love when he was absolutely happy with an- 
 other? Certainly Poe needed no real woman to mourn; there 
 were other things he might have mourned if he had chosen, 
 under the type of a beautiful woman. He might have 
 mourned his lost ideal of classic beauty. He was a 
 romanticist, and his ideal of classic beauty was ut- 
 terly lost to him forever. Poe looked back upon 
 classic beauty and realized that he could never again 
 possess it in the perfect form in which he had known it once. 
 That, I take it, was at the bottom of the mood which created 
 his greater poems, and particularly Ulalume. The poet has 
 had his ideal of beauty and it is gone, and is buried by him- 
 self in a fantastic region of romance. But because that ideal 
 is gone forever, his mind does not cease to act. He still wan- 
 ders with Psyche his soul. And in one wandering he fancies 
 
216 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 that he has found something that will lead him once more to 
 that peace with beauty that he knew. In spite of the warning 
 of Psyche he follows until he suddenly realizes that he is but 
 going on a path he has trodden before, he wiU but end at the 
 door which keeps him ever separate from his ideal. 
 
 "Let it not seem absurd that we should imagine a man to 
 grieve over the loss of an ideal of beauty as keenly as we 
 might grieve over the loss of some beautiful love. "When a 
 poet cares as much for ideals as Poe did, and so little for real 
 people, the wonder is that any one should have ever thought 
 otherwise. ' ' 
 
 PEOSPICE 
 
 Prospice means looh forward. The poem is a defiance 
 of death, the "Arch Fear." It would be hard to find 
 anything more intensely dramatic or anything nobler on 
 the subject. He approaches "the post of the foe" — 
 Death — with eyes unbandaged and with a heroism truly 
 sublime. It is the supreme test of the spirit's mastery, 
 and the spirit stands the test like a strong man, and 
 gains "the reward of it all." He estimates death at its 
 fullest import, when "the worst turns the best to the 
 brave." 
 
 The poem was written a short time after Mrs. Brown- 
 ing's death — a fact which explains the closing lines and 
 adds beauty and pathos to them. 
 
 Every line is crowded with meaning and should be 
 studied closely. As here interpreted, death is "the 
 climax and fruition of life." 
 
PEOSPICE 217 
 
 PROSPICE 
 
 Fear death ? — to feel the fog in my throat, 
 
 The mist in my face, 
 When the snows begin, and the blasts denote 
 
 I am nearing the place, 
 The power of the night, the press of the storm. 
 
 The post of the foe ; 
 Where he stands, the Arch Fear in a visible form. 
 
 Yet the strong man must go ; 
 For the journey is done and the summit attained 
 
 And the barriers fall. 
 Though a battle's to fight ere the guerdon be gained. 
 
 The reward of it all. 
 I was ever a fighter, so — one fight more, 
 
 The best and the last ! 
 I would hate that death bandaged my eyes, and forbore, 
 
 And bade me creep past. 
 No ! let me taste the whole of it, fare like my peers. 
 
 The heroes of old. 
 Bear the brunt, in a minute pay glad life's arrears 
 
 Of pain, darkness and cold. 
 For sudden the worse turns the best to the brave. 
 
 The black minute's at end. 
 And the elements' rage, the fiend-voices that rave. 
 
 Shall dwindle, shall blend. 
 Shall change, shall become first a peace out of pain. 
 
 Then a light, then thy breast. 
 
218 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 thou soul of my soul ! I shall clasp thee again. 
 And with God be the rest ! 
 
 — Eobert Browning. 
 
 CEOSSING THE BAE 
 
 Of this poem Tennyson's son says: 
 
 ^'It was written in my father's eighty-first year, on 
 a day in October when we came from Aldworth to 
 Farringford. Before reaching Farringford he had the 
 'moaning of the bar' in his mind, and after dinner he 
 showed me this poem written out. I said, This is the 
 crown of your life's work.' He answered, *It came in a 
 moment.' He explained the Tilot' as 'That Divine and 
 Unseen who is always guiding us.' A few days before 
 my father's death he said to me: 'Mind you put 
 Crossing the Bar at the end of all editions of my 
 poems.' " 
 
 Farringford is on the Isle of Wight, where Tennyson 
 lived, and the strait between the mainland and the 
 island is the one they were crossing when the poem 
 came to Tennyson's mind. 
 
 Crossing the Bar is a good example of the imaginative 
 treatment of a few familiar facts of nature and life, 
 converting them thereby into a great piece of art. The 
 materials of the poem are the sunset, the twilight, the 
 evening bell and the evening star, the tide moaning on 
 the sandy bar and the tide full and calm and deep, the 
 
CEOSSING THE BAR 219 
 
 uncertain dark, the welcome call from the farther shore, 
 and then the glorified face of the Master and Pilot. 
 Not a word is said about old age, not a word about 
 death; it is all treated imaginatively. And what is the 
 result? Three noble emotions are aroused — -first, 
 beauty; for any genuine poem or any genuine piece of 
 art whatever will arouse the emotion of beauty; second, 
 pleasure; for beauty wherever seen and felt gives 
 pleasure; and, third, trust. This last is here the 
 predominant emotion. 
 
 CROSSIITG THE BAR 
 
 1 
 
 Sunset and evening star, 
 
 And one clear call for me : 
 And may there be no moaning of the bar. 
 
 When I put out to sea. 
 
 2 
 But such a tide as moving seems asleep. 
 
 Too full for sound and foam, 
 When that which drew from out the boundless deep " 
 
 Turns again home. 
 
 3 
 
 Twilight and evening bell. 
 
 And after that the dark: 
 And may there be no sadness of farewell. 
 
 When I embark. 
 
220 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 4 
 For tho' from out our bourne of Time and Place 
 
 The flood may bear me far, 
 I hope to see my Pilot face to face 
 
 When I have crost the bar. 
 
 — Alfred Tennyson. 
 
 When that which drew from out the boundless deep — means, 
 of course, the soul, the individual personality. 
 Bourne — a boundary, a limit. 
 
 Compare with this poem the lines of Whittier: 
 
 And so beside the Silent Sea 
 
 I wait the muflaed oar ; 
 No harm from Him can come to me 
 
 On ocean or on shore. 
 
 I know not where His islands lift 
 
 Their f ronded palms in air ; 
 I only know I cannot drift 
 
 Beyond His love and care. 
 
 Landor's calm and stoical farewell: 
 
 I warmed both hands before the fire of life, 
 It sinks and I am ready to depart. 
 
 Emerson's Terminus: 
 
 As the bird trims her to the gale, 
 
 I trim myself to the storm of time, 
 I man the rudder, reef the sail, 
 
 Obey the voice at eve obeyed at prime : 
 Lowly faithful, banish fear, 
 
 Right onward drive unharmed ; 
 The port, well worth the cruise, is near. 
 
 And every wave is charmed. 
 
CKOSSING THE BAR 221 
 
 David, in the twenty-third Psalm: 
 
 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I 
 will fear no evil : for Thou art with me ; Thy rod and Thy staff 
 they comfort me. 
 
 And Longfellow, in 'Resignation: 
 
 There is no Death ! What seems so is transition , 
 
 This life of mortal breath 
 Is but a suburb of the life elyslan, 
 
 Whose portal we call death. 
 
 FINIS 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL 223 
 
 BIOGEAPHICAL NOTES OF THE AUTHOES 
 EEPKESENTED 
 
 Alexander, Cecil Frances (Humphreys). — Bom in Ire- 
 land in 1830, and married Eev. William Alexander, after- 
 wards Bishop of Derry. She wrote many hymns for chil- 
 dren, and poems on Old Testament subjects, the best of 
 them being The Burial of Moses. She died October 12, 
 1895. 
 
 Arnold, Edwin (Sir). — Bom January 10, 1832, in Sus- 
 sex, England, and died in London, March 24, 1904. He was 
 educated at University College, Oxford, became principal of 
 the government Sanscrit College at Poonah, India, was 
 editor of the London Daily Telegraph, 'and lived in Japan 
 for some time. He was a student of the literature and 
 life of the Eastern peoples and his poems deal with the 
 Orient. The Indian Song of Songs, Pearls of the Faith, 
 The Light of Asia, and The Light of the World, are the 
 most widely known. The Light of Asia deals with Buddha, 
 and The Light of the World with Christ. 
 
 Browning, Robert.— Bom May 7, 1812, at Camberwell, 
 England. He was educated privately, devoted himself 
 wholly to literature, and died m 1889, in Italy, where he 
 spent much of his life. His wife was Elizabeth Barrett 
 Browning, also a distinguished poet. Browning's fame 
 came slowly, his genius was much disputed by critics, and 
 for a long time he was ignored by the public. His lan- 
 guage is eccentric and sometimes obscure, but his thought 
 
224 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 is deep and subtle; and Browning and Tennyson stand side 
 by side as the great poets of the latter part of the 19th 
 century. His theme is always the human soul, generally 
 studied under exceptional circumstances. The Ring and 
 the Book, Pippa Passes, My Last Duchess, Prospice, Saul, 
 Rabhi Ben Ezra, The Laboratory, Childe Boland to the 
 Dark Tower Came, Aht Vogler, The Bishop Orders His 
 Tomb at St. Praxed's Church are some of the great things 
 written by him. 
 
 Bryant, William Cullen. — ^Bom at Cummington, Massa- 
 chusetts, 1794, and died in New York City, 1878. Famous 
 both as a poet and as the editor of the New York Evening 
 Post, being the chief editor of that journal for more than 
 half a century. After two terms at Williams College he 
 studied law and practiced this profession for nine years 
 at Plainfield and Great Barrington, Massachusetts; but he 
 found himself out of place and thereafter gave himself 
 to poetry and journalism. He was the real founder of 
 American poetry. Thanatopsis was published in 1817, and 
 his first volume of poems in 1821. Notwithstanding the 
 fact that he spent the greater part of his life in New 
 York his poetry is the poetry of the New England land- 
 scape and life. Read Thanatopsis, Lines to a Waterfowl, 
 The Yellow Violet, The Fringed Gentian, The Forest 
 Hymn, The Death of the Flowers, Autumn Woods, The 
 Ages, Inscription for the Entrance to a Wood, and Green 
 River. 
 
 Burns, Robert.— Bom January 25, 1759, in Ayrshire, 
 Scotland, the son of a small farmer. The family was poor 
 and the son received but little regular education; he was 
 
BIOGEAPHICAL 225 
 
 "a hardworked plowboy." But he was a great reader, hav- 
 ing a book before him even at meal times. He early be- 
 gan writing songs of country life that attracted atten- 
 tion, and he was recognized and lionized, as a real genius. 
 In 1789 he was appointed exciseman for the government. 
 He died July 21, 1796, only thirty-seven years of age, 
 having led a life mixed of misery, remorse, and happi- 
 ness, his few peaceful years being those he lived as a 
 farmer in Dumfrieshire with his wife, Jean Armour. Like 
 Poe, although his life was miserable, his fame is immortal. 
 His love songs are among the finest ever written. The Cot- 
 ter's Saturday Night, Tarn O'Shanter, The Twa Dogs, To 
 a Mountain Daisy, To a Mouse, To Mary in Heaven, High- 
 land Mary, Ye Banks and Braes 0' Bonnie Doon, Flow 
 Gently, Sweet Afton, 0, My Luve's Like a Bed, Bed Bose, 
 Scots wha hae wi' Wallace Bled, and Is There for Honest 
 Poverty are the glory of Scotland's literature. 
 
 Byron, George Gordon (Lord).— Bom in London, Jan- 
 uary 22, 1788, and died of a fever at Missolonghi, Greece, 
 October 19, 1824, while aiding the Greeks to free them- 
 selves from Turkish despotism. By birth he was entitled 
 to a seat in the English House of Lords, but he spent his 
 life in travel and in writing. His first book of poems, 
 Hours of Idleness, was ridiculed by critics, but he lived to 
 see himself the most famous author in all Europe, although 
 he died at thirty-six. His personality as much as his lit- 
 erary genius contributed to the spell which he threw over 
 the world. Proud, passionate, handsome, fascinating, he 
 captivated all who came within his reach. The story of 
 his own exploits was 'as interesting to the public as any- 
 thing he wrote. After his death his fame greatly dimin- 
 
326 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 ished, but his place in the literary world is still a large 
 one. CMlde Harold's Pilgrimage and Don Juan are his 
 greatest productions. His greatest dramas are Manfred 
 and Cain. Among his shorter poems The Prisoner of Chil- 
 lon, The Destruction of Sennacherib, She Walks in Beauty, 
 To Thomas Moore, are representative. 
 
 Campbell, Thomas. — Born in Glasgow, Scotland, in 
 1777, educated at the University of Glasgow, resided at 
 Edinburgh, London, and Boulogne, was three times Rec- 
 tor of the University of Glasgow, died in 1844, and was 
 buried in Westminster Abbey. His famous war-odes are 
 among the best war-poetry of England. Hohenlinden, The 
 Battle of the Baltic, Ye Mariners of England, are full of 
 martial music. Other poems of his are Lord TJllin's 
 Daughter, O'Connor's Child, The Spectre Boat. His longer 
 poems, Gertrude of Wyoming, The Pleasures of Hope, and 
 Theodoric are no longer read. 
 
 Clough, Arthur Hugh. — Bom at Liverpool, England, 
 January 1, 1819, and died in 1861 at Florence. He studied 
 at Rugby and Oxford, and spent some time in the United 
 States during his childhood and later in life; became the 
 head of University Hall, London, which he held for a short 
 time, and later filled a position in the Education office. 
 Clough was a poet of doubt, though not of despair. Say 
 Not the Struggle, Qua Cursum Ventus, Where Lies the 
 Land, and The Shadow are among his best poems. 
 
 Drake, Joseph Rodman. — ^Born in New York City, 1795, 
 and died in 1820, of consumption. Although he lived to 
 be only twenty-five years old he wrote The Culprit Fay, 
 and The American Flag, both of which are still read. The 
 
BIOGEAPHICAL 227 
 
 late George Bancroft, the historian, considered The Culprit 
 Fay the finest thing in American literature, but not many- 
 persons hold this opinion. 
 
 Eastman, Julia Arabella. — See page 237. 
 
 Emerson, Ralph Waldo. — ^Bom May 25, 1803, in Boston, 
 where he resided for thirty years, and died April 27, 1882, 
 at Concord, where 'his home was the literary centre of 
 America. He was graduated from Harvard in 1821, 'and 
 some years later from the Harvard Divinity School. For 
 a few years he engaged in the active ministry of the Con- 
 gregational Church in Boston. The rest of his life was 
 devoted to lecturing, writing and thinking, with three visits 
 to Europe. He was our greatest seer and our most orig- 
 inal thinker. Perhaps America has produced no finer mind 
 than his. His writings are of two classes— essays and 
 poems, for his lectures are really essays. Such poems as 
 The Problem, The Ehodora, The Concord Hymn, Each and 
 All, Brahma, The Snow Storm, Good Bye, Wood Notes, 
 and Terminus are immortal. Among his greatest essays are 
 Nature, The American Scholar, Self -Reliance, Friendship, 
 Compensation, History, and Character. No other writer 
 has so enriched American thought; no other writer has had 
 sucli influence upon the best minds of the country. 
 
 Harte, Francis Bret.— Bom in Albany, New York, in 
 1839 and died in London in 1902. He went to California 
 when he was about sixteen and became by turns school 
 teacher, miner, printer, newspaper writer, and editor. In 
 1868 he founded the Overland Monthly in San Francisco. 
 He is best known as a writer of stories of life in Call- 
 
228 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 fomia in the mining days. The best of these are The Luck 
 of Boaring Camp, The Outcasts of Poker Flat, Tennessee's 
 Partner, Brown of Calaveras, and How Santa Claus Came 
 to Simpson's Bar. These tales are intensely dramatic, and 
 full of humor, pathos, and power. His later years were 
 spent in London. 
 
 Holmes, Oliver Wendell, — Born in Cambridge, Massa- 
 chusetts, August 29, 1809, and died in Boston in 1894. He 
 was educated at Harvard, graduating there in the famous 
 class of 1829. For thirty-five years he was professor of 
 anatomy and physiology in that institution. He was a 
 poet, an essayist, a novelist, a man of science, a wit, a 
 humorist, 'a teacher— and famous in everything he tried. 
 His writings are the best representation in our literature of 
 the cultured life of Boston. "He was the laureate of Har- 
 vard and of Boston.'^ In poetry his best work is The 
 Chambered Nautilus, The Last Leaf, Old Ironsides, The 
 One-Hoss Shay, and The Living Temple. His informal 
 essays are grouped in the Autocrat Series— The Autocrat at 
 the Breakfast Table, The Professor at the Breakfast Table, 
 The Poet at the Breakfast Table, and Over the Teacups. 
 The latter was written when he was eighty years of age. His 
 novels are Elsie Venner, The Guardian Angel, and A Mortal 
 Antipathy, all dealing with the problem of heredity. 
 Holmes was not a profound or original thinker, but he 
 knew many sides of life remarkably well and he told what 
 he knew with great grace and polish. 
 
 Hood, Thomas. — Born in London, May, 1799, and died 
 in May, 1845. His best known poems are The Bridge of 
 Sighs, and The Song of the Shirt, but he wrote many other 
 
BIOGEAPHICAL 229 
 
 ( 
 graceful and pathetic or humorous pieces. He devoted 
 much of his life to journalism. 
 
 Hunt, Leigh. — Born at Southgate, England, October 
 19, 1784, and died August 28, 1859. He was educated at 
 Oxford; was editor of The Examiner; was imprisoned for 
 libel on the Prince Regent; later received a pension from 
 the Crown. He spent some years in Italy. He wrote 
 much graceful and cheerful prose, and The Story of Rimini, 
 Ahou Ben Adhem, Nile, Jenny Kissed Me, The Grasshopper 
 and the Cricket, and other fine things in verse. 
 
 Ingelow, Jean. — Born in 1830; died 1897. A popular 
 English poet and story-writer, best remembered by her 
 poem High Tide on the Coast of Lincolnshire. 
 
 Jackson, Helen Hunt. — Born at Amherst, Massachu- 
 setts, 1831 (daughter of Professor W. W. Fiske of Am- 
 herst College) and married Captain E. B. Hunt, an army 
 engineer. After his death she married W. S. Jackson of 
 Colorado Springs. Her greatest achievement was Ramona, 
 a romance of Indian life, a powerful plea for the rights of 
 the Indian. She died in 1885. Resurgam, Down to Sleep, 
 Spinning, My Legacy, Joy, and Thought are her best 
 poems. But she will be best remembered for her Ramona 
 and A Century of Dishonor. 
 
 Keats, John.— Born in London, October 29, 1795: Was 
 apprenticed for five years to a surgeon, but took to verse- 
 making and abandoned the profession of surgery. His 
 health was not robust and in 1820 he went to Italy. He 
 died there in 1821 of consumption and was buried in the 
 Protestant cemetery at Rome. Although he died at twenty- 
 
230 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 five Matthew Arnold classes him with Shakespeare. Cer- 
 tainly so great a name in poetry was never made so young. 
 There is nothing greater of their kind in English litera- 
 ture than the Ode to a Nightingale, Ode on a Grecian Urn, 
 To Autumn, On First Looking into Chapman's Homer, La 
 Belle Dame sans Merci, The Eve of St. Agnes, and Lamia. 
 
 Key, Francis Scott. — Born in Frederick county, Mary- 
 land, 1779, educated at St. Johns College, and practiced law 
 in Washington, D. C. He died in 1843 and was buried at 
 Frederick City, Maryland. His miscellaneous poems were 
 collected and published after his death, but The Star- 
 Spangled Banner is his only poem of importance. 
 
 Kingsley, Charles. — Born June 18, 1819, in Devonshire, 
 England. He was educated at King's College, London, 
 and at Cambridge University, and became Rector at Evers- 
 ley in 1844, which position he held the remainder of his 
 life— until January 23, 1875. Also for nine years he was 
 Professor of modem history at Cambridge and later he was 
 made Canon of Chester, Canon of Westminster, and Chap- 
 lain to the Queen. He is best known as a novelist from 
 Hypatia, Westward Ho, Alton Locke, and The Water Ba- 
 bies. He wrote but little poetry, but all of it is pleasing, 
 for example. The Sands o' Dee, The Three Fishers, and 
 When Ail the World is Young. 
 
 Kipling, Rudyard. — Born at Bombay, India, of Eng- 
 lish parents, December 30, 1865, was educated at the United 
 Service College, travelled in China, Japan, America, Africa, 
 and Australia; lived for some time in the United States 
 after marrying Miss Carolen Starr Balestier, an American. 
 His home is now in London, but he is really a citizen of the 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL 231 
 
 world. Mr. Kipling has published much in both prose 
 and verse, and is the most widely read of living English 
 writers. Among his books are Plain Tales from the Hills, 
 Barrackroom Ballads, The Jungle Books, Many Inventions, 
 The Seven Seas, Captains Courageous, The Day's Work, 
 Kim, etc. 
 
 Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth. — Born at Portland, 
 Maine, Febiiiary 27, 1807, was graduated from Bowdoin 
 College in 1825, studied for the next three years in France, 
 Spain, Italy, and Germany, taught modern languages for 
 five years at Bowdoin, again studied two years abroad, and 
 then began his work as professor of modern languages at 
 Harvard, which he continued until 1854. From that date 
 until his death, in Cambridge, in 1882, he devoted himself 
 to literary work. While abroad and during his career as 
 a college professor he wrote much in both verse and prose. 
 He is the most widely read of American poets, standing 
 supreme as the poet of the heart and the home. He added 
 beauty, grace, sentiment and European culture to American 
 poetry. Evangeline, Hiawatha, The Courtship of Miles 
 Standish, The Rainy Day, The Skeleton in Armor, Excel- 
 sior, The Village Blacksmith, The Psalm of Life, The Old 
 Clock on the Stairs, The Arrow and the Song, The Day Is 
 Done, Paul Bevere's Bide, The Building of the Ship, The 
 Bridge and The Wreck of the Hesperus, are some of his 
 poems that are familiar everywhere. 
 
 Lowell, James Russell. — Born in Cambridge, Massa- 
 chusetts, February 22, 1819, in the old mansion at Elmwood, 
 where he passed his life and where he died in 1891. He 
 Was graduated from Harvard in 1838. In 1840 he was 
 
232 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 admitted to the bar, but never practiced, for he at once de- 
 voted himself to literature. For twenty years, beginning 
 in 1857, he was professor of modern languages at Harvard, 
 succeeding Longfellow. Like Longfellow he had prepared 
 himself by studying abroad. He was one of the founders, 
 and for the first five years editor, of the Atlantic Monthly, 
 and later was one of the editors of the North American Re- 
 view. In 1877 he was appointed Minister to Spain, and 
 in 1880 transferred to London. Lowell was our greatest 
 literary critic, one of our greatest scholars, and in some re- 
 spects our greatest poet. At his death in 1891 he was gen- 
 erally considered the foremost citizen of the country. The 
 Vision of Sir Launfal, The Biglow Papers, A Fable for 
 Critics, The Commemoration Ode, Under the Willows, The 
 First Snow Fall, An Indian Summer Reverie, Under the 
 Old Elm, Rhoecus and The Cathedral represent his best 
 poetry. His Essays in Criticism are the high water mark 
 of American criticism. 
 
 Luders, Charles Henry.— Born in Philadelphia, 1858, and 
 died there in 1891. He wrote The Dead Nymph and Other 
 Poems and Hallo, My Fancy. He was a poet of imagina- 
 tion and considerable power. 
 
 Montgomery, James. — Born in Ayrshire, Scotland, 1771, 
 and died 1854. For more than thirty years he was the 
 editor of The Sheffield Iris, a weekly paper. Twice he was 
 imprisoned for publishing seditious articles. Among his 
 poems are Greenland, The Wanderer in Switzerland, The 
 West Indies and Make Way for Liberty. In 1833 he was 
 granted a pension of three hundred pounds. 
 
BIOGEAPHICAL 233 
 
 Mackay, Charles.— Born 1814, died 1889. An English 
 journalist, who wrote a good deal of both verse and prose, 
 the latter including Tubal Cain, A Good Time Coming and 
 Te Tears. 
 
 Miller, Joaquin (his real name is Cincinnatus Hiner 
 Miller). — Bom in Indiana in 1841, has lived in Oregon, 
 Nicaragua, Washington, London and California. While in 
 Nicaragua he joined a tribe of Indians and became their 
 sachem. Since 1887 he has resided in California. He has 
 written both prose and poetry of a picturesque and stir- 
 ring quality. Songs of the Sierras, The Ship of the Desert, 
 The Danites and Shadows of Shasta 'are typical. His best 
 short poem is perhaps Columbus. 
 
 Moore, Thomas. — Born in Dublin, May 28, 1779, resided 
 in London, where he was a great social favorite, traveled in 
 the United States and Canada, and died February 25, 1852. 
 During his life he was immensely popular, and was con- 
 sidered a great poet, but to-day his rank is not so high. 
 Lalla Bookh, Irish Melodies and The Loves of the Angels 
 used to be read by everybody. 
 
 Piatt, Sarah Morgan Bryan. — Born in Kentucky in 
 1836, but has spent much of her life in Ohio. She has 
 written many poems for children, besides The New World 
 and Other Poems, A Voyage to the Fortunate Isles, In 
 Primrose Time, etc. 
 
 Poe, Edgar Allan. — Born in Boston, January 19, 1809, 
 the son of members of the theatrical profession, was 
 adopted upon their death by John Allan of Richmond, 
 studied for one session at the University of Virginia, later, 
 
234 FAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 after enlisting in the regular army and serving for two 
 years, was appointed to West Point, but after ten months 
 there was expelled. The rest of his life was spent in liter- 
 ary and journalistic work in Baltimore, New York, Phila- 
 delphia and Richmond. Most of the time he was in poverty 
 and distress. He died in Baltimore, October 7, 1849. The 
 story of his life is a sad and tragic one, Poe's great fame 
 rests upon a half dozen short poems, and a few brief prose 
 romances. The Baven, Ulalume, The Bells, To Helen, The 
 Haunted Palace, Israfel and Annabel Lee are familiar 
 everywhere. His best short stories are The Fall of the 
 House of Usher, Ligeia, The Gold Bug and The Murders 
 in the Bue Morgue. Poe stands as one of the three or four 
 greatest names in American literature. *^He was great in 
 his genius, unhappy in his life, wretched in his death, but 
 in his fame he is immortal." 
 
 Read, Thomas Buchanan. — ^Born 1822 and died in 1872., 
 Most of his life was spent in Philadelphia, Cincinnati, 
 Florence and Rome. He believed himself to be more of 
 an artist than a poet, but his pictures are piled away in art 
 store cellars, while Sheridan's Bide, Drifting, The Closing 
 Scene, The Wagoner of the Alleghanies (especially the lyric 
 beginning "The maid who binds her warrior's sash") are 
 a genuine, if not weighty, contribution to American litera- 
 ture. 
 
 Shakespeare, William. — Born at Stratford-on-Avon, 
 England, April 23, 1564, and died there April 23, 1616. 
 He attended a school of academic grade. In 1582 he mar- 
 ried Anne Hathaway, daughter of a neighboring farmer. 
 In 1585 he went to London, where for twenty years he 
 
BIOGKAPHICAL 235 
 
 made his home, employed in some capacity at one of the 
 playhouses, later as a member of the company, and in 
 writing his immortal dramas. He played principal parts in 
 his own dramas, which followed one another in rapid suc- 
 cession. He returned to Stratford-on-Avon about 1610 or 
 1612 in good circumstances. Shakespeare's name is the 
 greatest in English letters. Hamlet, Macbeth, Merchant of 
 Venice, Julius Caesar, The Tempest, Twelfth Night and 
 Lear are a part of the thought of the English-speaking 
 world. He was buried in the parish church at Stratford, 
 and his tomb bears this inscription, written by himself : 
 
 "Good friend for Jesus sake forbear 
 To dig the dust enclosed here; 
 Blest be the man that spares these stones 
 And curst be he that moves my bones." 
 
 Southey, Robert. — Born at Bristol, England, August 
 12, 1774, educated at Oxford, and died near Keswick in 
 1843. In 1813 he was made Poet Laureate. His was a 
 life of industrious authorship, after he had tried to study 
 both medicine and law. His best prose work is the Life of 
 Nelson, and in poetry he is best known by The Curse of 
 Kehama, Roderick and After Blenheim. 
 
 Tennyson, Alfred (Lord).— Born August 6, 1809, at 
 Somersby, England, educated at Trinity College, Cam- 
 bridge, and devoted his whole life to poetry. His reputation 
 grew steadily. In 1850 he became Poet Laureate. Three 
 years later he took up his residence at Farringford in the 
 Isle of Wight, which was his home the rest of his life. In 
 1883 he was raised to the Peerage. The story of his life is 
 simple, but for more than half a century 'Tie held the poetic 
 supremacy almost unchallenged," and his name is one of' 
 
336 rAMOUS POEMS EXPLAINED 
 
 the half dozen chief names in English poetry. He died Oc- 
 tober 6, 1892, and was buried with unequaled solemnity by 
 the side of Chaucer in Westminster Abbey. He was the 
 most representative poet of the last half of the 19th cen- 
 tury. His greatest poems are The Idylls of the King, In 
 Memoriam, Locksley Hall, The Palace of Art, The Lotus- 
 Eaters, The Brook, Sir Galahad, Break, Break, Break, 
 Ulysses, The Vision of Sin and Crossing the Bar. 
 
 Thazter, Celia. — Born in the Isle of Shoals off the 
 coast of New Hampshire in 1835, where she spent much of 
 her life. Died in 1894. Her writings are full of the sounds 
 and colors and odors of the northern sea. Among the 
 Isles of Shoals is a charming prose study of the ocean. 
 Her best poems are The Sandpiper, Before Sunrise, The 
 Watch of Boon Island and The Spaniards' Graves. 
 
 Whitman, Walt. — ^Bom at West Hills, Long Island, 
 
 thirty miles from New York City, in 1819, and died at Cam- 
 den, New Jersey, 1892. His school education was slight, 
 and he worked as gardener, printer, and carpenter in many 
 of the principal cities north and south. During the civil 
 war he was an army nurse in Washington and in the south, 
 tending the northern and southern wounded alike. He called 
 himself the poet of democracy and many have taken him at 
 his word. His best work is in such lyrics as Out of the 
 Cradle Endlessly Bocking, When Lilacs Last in the Door- 
 yard Bloomed, Captain, My Captain, and The Man-of- 
 V/ar Bird. They are among the treasures of our literature. 
 
 Whittier, John Greenleaf. — Born at Haverhill, Massa- 
 chusetts, December 17, 1807, and died at Danvers, Massa- 
 chusetts, September 7, 1892. He was country-bom and 
 
BIOGEAPHICAL 237 
 
 country-bred, and his school education was meager, being 
 obtained at the country school and at a neighboring academy 
 where he spent a year. All of his life he was a Quaker. 
 When he was twenty he took up journalism, and was en- 
 gaged in Boston, Hartford, and Philadelphia. From 1840 
 until his death he lived at Amesbury or at Danvers, Massa- 
 chusetts. He never married. In journalism as well as in 
 poetry he was an earnest advocate of the anti-slavery cause. 
 Whittier was our best poet of simple country life and na- 
 ture. He was in an especial sense the poet of New Eng- 
 land. His most characteristic poem is Snow-Bound, a 
 Winter Idyll. Other poems most worthy of attention are 
 The Barefoot Boy, Telling the Bees, Among the Hills, 
 Maud Muller, Ichahod, Laus Deo, The Pine Tree, Abraham 
 Davenport, Cassandra Southwick, The Tent on the Beach, 
 Corn Song, and The Eternal Goodness. 
 
 Wolfe, Charles.— Born 1791, died 1823. An English 
 clergyman whose only poem worth remembering is The 
 Burial of Sir John Moore. 
 
 Eastman, Julia Arabella. — A Massachusetts teacher who 
 has written a number of juvenile tales, among which are 
 Short Comings, Long Goings, Young Rich, and Kitty 
 Kent's Troubles, Born in New York in 1837. [Adams's 
 Dictionary of American Authors."] 
 
In this abridged Lorna Doom an ideal edition of 
 an ideal story comes into the hands of teachers and 
 scholars. ^"The book is too long'', says one of our best 
 known American literary men, and certainly its six 
 or seven hundred pages as found in the other text 
 editions have either kept it out of the class-room or 
 restricted its use. Yet it is an admirable book for 
 the school, if in an abbreviated form. That the 
 abridgement and the annotations were done by H. C. 
 Davis is a sufficient earnest of quality. 
 
 The story is a rich mine of historic allusion. It is 
 put together with great literary skill. It has admir- 
 able points for the teacher's investigation. And it 
 will hold the pupils' interest — for the unique charac- 
 ters who stand out very real in its pages, for the 
 quaintness of its diction, for the richness of its humor, 
 and for its wonderful descriptions of all things in 
 nature. 
 
 Our edition — text, notes, prefaces and glossarjr — 
 is not 300 pages in length, yet the story is here with 
 no essential omitted. The historical setting is com- 
 plete, and descriptions of spring and summer, autumn 
 and winter, bud and flower, harvest and revel, sufiEer 
 not at all from omitted detail. The details of the 
 Doones' forays and deviltries, the unsuccessful at- 
 tacks upon their stronghold, the repetitions of Lorna's 
 ancestry, the longstory of Uncle ReubenHuckaback's 
 mine, and the non-essential interview with Mother 
 Meldrum, and whatever else halts the story, have 
 been shortened or entirely omitted. 
 
 In the Life of the A uthor we tell much that does not 
 appear in other editions. His school ambitions, his 
 school companions, his college career, his youthful 
 appearance and his recreations, are all recounted. 
 His literary life, with its early disappointments and 
 its later fame ; how he never traveled out of England, 
 yet by extensive reading and prolonged preparation 
 wrote most accurately of the other countries in which 
 he laid the scenes of his novels; how he loved to write 
 with purple ink; the books he wrote besides Lorna 
 Doone and what they are about are described in the 
 Introduction. 
 
And then we have a full description of his best- 
 known novel Lorna Doom. Rejected by 18 publishers, 
 but finally published, then neglected until a happy 
 chance brought it to fame. In the Introduction also 
 appears something of the legendary Doones, of the 
 kind of country; Exmoor once was, what it looks like 
 now and why it was so good a field for romance. 
 For the teacher the whole field of historic romance 
 is opened by suggestion and the opinion of others is 
 quoted as to the literary value of this novel and the 
 place its author has earned in English literature. 
 
 The illustrations are more abundant than in any 
 other school edition. "Lorna" herself appears in a 
 copy from the well-known beautiful portrait to be 
 found in almost every household. Other illustrations 
 show the famous "water slide", the old Blundell 
 School, the picture of the Doone Valley as it looks 
 to-day, and in the portrait given we can look into the 
 very face of the novelist himself with its strong fea- 
 tures and good-natured expression. The map found 
 in this edition does not merely give the immediate 
 locality but also the general view of the west of 
 England, which enables us to trace the location of 
 the places of the story better than in the mere local 
 map generally given. 
 
 The completeness of the Notes and their conven- 
 ience by being placed at the bottom of the pages 
 where they belong should appeal to the teacher and 
 student at once. The arrangement of the Glossary 
 and its accompanying Notes for ready reference, with 
 the other features of the book which have been 
 pointed out will, we confidently believe, make this 
 the most practical School edition yet published. 
 
 LORNA DOONE, ABRIDGED, 
 
 WITH 
 
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 discuss it or write about it in a thoroughly intelli- 
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 sized it up completely ? 
 
 There are many text-books on literature. But so 
 far no T^ork has appeared which provides sytematic 
 instruction in the study of literature itself, applicable 
 to every classic, let us say, or to any classic. 
 
 Such a book we published last year. It is entitled 
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 literary productions. Taking up Narrative Poetry 
 first, an outline is given, in the form of questions, 
 which will lead the student to comprehend the sub- 
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 of such a work for example as Tennyson's "Princess" 
 or Coleridge's "Ancient Mariner." Next follows 
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 the ,nood, the style, the metre ; and suggestions 
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 to a full comprehension of the work studied. 
 
 The author is a successful teacher in one ol the 
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 Teachers zvho have tested this book as a class-book, in con- 
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 Price 75 cents, postpaid 
 
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The Worth of Words 
 
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 M 
 
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 w 
 
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 m 
 
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 wmm