10 Life greatens in these later years; Yet, haply, in some lull of life, Some Truce of God which breaks its strife, Wood-fringed, the wayside gaze beyond; NOTES AND QUESTIONS For Biography see page 288. Discussion. 1. Into what parts may this poem be divided? 2. How does the description of the sun "that brief December day" prepare you for what is to follow? 3. Of what was the appearance of the sun a "mute prophecy"? 4. What is the difference between a portent and a threat? 5. What told the coming of the storm? 6. What does the poet mention as being the "nightly chores" at his home? 7. What does the word "meanwhile" tell you as to the time at which they did these chores? 8. Find the lines that tell of the beginning of the snowstorm. 9. In what connection is the word "swarm" commonly used? What picture does it give you of the snowflakes? 10. How does the addition of the word "whirl-dance" change the picture you had made? 11. What other words does the poet use to describe the crossing and recrossing of the snow? 12. Find two lines that tell the changes the snow made in the appearance of familiar objects. 13. Why was the making of a path a necessity? 14. Where is the story of Aladdin told? What were his lamp's "supernal powers"? 15. How does the poet make us feel the solitude of the farmhouse? 16. Try to give in your own words the picture of the moonlight on the snow. 17. Try to give in your own words the picture of the hearth. 18. Of whom did the circle gathered around the fire consist? 19. Select the lines that please you most in each description. 20. How did the members of the family amuse themselves? 21. Who told the stories? 22. Of what did their library consist? 23. Who are meant by the "heathen Nine"? 24. Can you explain how Ellwood's Muse may be called a stranger to the "heathen Nine"? 25. What put the household again in touch with the outside world? 26. Of what did they read in the paper? 27. What was printed in the "corner for the rustic Muse"? 28. What is meant by the "hue and cry"? 29. Find lines that tell the effect of the news upon the snow-bound family. 30. What is the voice that bids the dreamer leave his dreams? 31. What is meant by "Truce of God"? 32. Why does the poet compare the pictures he has shown with Flemish pictures? 33. Memorize the lines you like particularly well. 34. Which scenes described in this poem can you picture most clearly? 35. What were you told in “Literature and Life" on pages 17 and 18 about literature as a source of learning the facts of life? How does this poem give you a clearer idea of "the facts of life" on a New England farm than you could gain from your history or geography or from an encyclopedia? 36. What did you read in the Introduction on pages 333 and 334 about literature as a "form of history"? What ideals of justice, brotherhood, industry, and thrift does this poem show were characteristic of the simple folk in this region? 37. Find in the Glossary the meaning of: idyl; waning; portent; querulous; spherule; sweep; buskins; clean-winged. 38. Pronounce: stanchion; harem; silhouette; mirage; cavalcade. Class Reading. Select some scene or incident in the poem for special preparation. Study the passage, using all the helps available until you can visualize the scene and enable your classmates to get a vivid picture from your reading. Library Reading. The Life of a Pioneer, Shaw; A Son of the Middle Border, Garland. Suggestions for Theme Topics. 1. Contrast a modern farmhouse with which you are familiar with the Whittier house pictured in the poem. 2. Contrast the opportunities for education in rural districts in Whittier's boyhood days with those of the present time. 3. Discuss the influence that the schoolmaster might exert on such a household as Whittier describes, illustrating from Whittier's own life. 4. Modes of coöperation in country life in early days, and the necessity for it. 5. The most interesting person about the Whittier fireside. 6. An account of the work of Gilbert White in the English village of Selborne (See The Natural History of Selborne, White). 7. Rural customs in old New England, as "village dance," etc. A Suggested Problem. In the Introduction on page 336 you were told that the selections in this unit are only examples of glimpses into American life, and that the better you understand American life, the better citizen you will be. Prepare a program for a class period devoted to Little Pictures of Varied American Life. Members of the class who have lived for a time, or traveled, in some distant part of the country may give threeminute talks about life in these communities (illustrated, if possible, by pictures). Pupils who cannot contribute any first-hand experiences, may gain material for their discussion from books similar to those listed above, under the topic Library Reading. RIP VAN WINKLE * WASHINGTON IRVING Whoever has made a voyage up the Hudson must remember the Kaatskill Mountains. They are a dismembered branch of the great Appalachian family, and are seen away to the west of the river, swelling up to a noble height, and lording it over the sur5 rounding country. Every change of season, every change of weather, indeed, every hour of the day, produces some changes in the magical hues and shapes of these mountains, and they are regarded by all the good wives, far and near, as perfect barometers. When the weather is fair and settled, they are clothed in 10 blue and purple, and print their bold outlines on the clear evening sky; but sometimes when the rest of the landscape is cloudless, they will gather a hood of gray vapors about their summits, which, in the last rays of the setting sun, will glow and light up like a crown of glory. 15 At the foot of these fairy mountains the voyager may have descried the light smoke curling up from a village, whose shingleroofs gleam among the trees, just where the blue tints of the upland melt away into the fresh green of the nearer landscape. It is a little village of great antiquity, having been founded by 20 some of the Dutch colonists in the early time of the province, just about the beginning of the government of the good Peter Stuyvesant (may he rest in peace!), and there were some of the houses of the original settlers standing within a few years, built of small yellow bricks brought from Holland, having latticed 25 windows and gable fronts, surmounted with weathercocks. In that same village, and in one of these very houses (which, to tell the precise truth, was sadly timeworn and weatherbeaten), there lived many years since, while the country was yet a province of Great Britain, a simple, good-natured fellow, of the 30 name of Rip Van Winkle. He was a descendant of the Van *See Silent and Oral Reading, page 11. Winkles who figured so gallantly in the chivalrous days of Peter Stuyvesant, and accompanied him to the siege of Fort Christina. He inherited, however, but little of the martial character of his ancestors. I have observed that he was a simple, good-natured 5 man; he was, moreover, a kind neighbor and an obedient, henpecked husband. Indeed, to the latter circumstances might be owing that meekness of spirit which gained him such universal popularity; for those men are most apt to be obsequious and conciliating abroad who are under the discipline of shrews at home. 10 Their tempers, doubtless, are rendered pliant and malleable in the fiery furnace of domestic tribulation; and a curtain lecture is worth all the sermons in the world for teaching the virtues of patience and long-suffering. A termagant wife may, therefore, in some respects be considered a tolerable blessing, and if so, Rip 15 Van Winkle was thrice blessed. Certain it is that he was a great favorite among all the good wives of the village, who, as usual with the amiable sex, took his part in all family squabbles; and never failed, whenever they talked those matters over in their evening gossipings, to lay all 20 the blame on Dame Van Winkle. The children of the village, too, would shout with joy whenever he approached. He assisted at their sports, made their playthings, taught them to fly kites and shoot marbles, and told them long stories of ghosts, witches, and Indians. Whenever he went dodging about the village, he was 25 surrounded by a troop of them, hanging on his skirts, clambering on his back, and playing a thousand tricks on him with impunity; and not a dog would bark at him throughout the neighborhood. The great error in Rip's composition was an insuperable aversion to all kinds of profitable labor. It could not be from the 30 want of assiduity or perseverance; for he would sit on a wet rock, with a rod as long and heavy as a Tartar's lance, and fish all day without a murmur, even though he should not be encouraged by a single nibble. He would carry a fowling-piece on his shoulder for hours together, trudging through woods and swamps, 35 and up hill and down dale, to shoot a few squirrels or wild |