matter, which the ambitious chatter of the schools 1 would persuade us to despise. We nestle 2 in nature, and draw our living, as parasites,3 from her roots and grains; and we receive glances from the heavenly bodies, which call us to solitude, and foretell the remotest future. The blue zenith is the point in which romance and reality meet. I think, if we should be rapt away into all that we dream of heaven, and should converse with Gabriel and Uriel, the upper sky would be all that would remain of our furniture.6 It seems as if the day was not wholly profane, in which we have given heed to some natural object. The fall of snowflakes in a still air, preserving to each crystal its perfect form; the blowing of sleet over a wide sheet of water, and over plains; the waving ryefield; the mimic waving of acres of houstonia, whose innumerable florets whiten and ripple before the eye; the reflections of trees and flowers in glassy lakes; the musical steaming odorous south wind, which converts all trees to wind-harps; the crackling and spurting of hemlock in the flames, or of pine logs, which yield glory to the walls and faces in the sitting-room, 1 the schools, philosophers and theorists. What is the figure of speech? (See Def. 8.) 5 Uriel, another of the archangels. 6 furniture, physical conditions 2 We nestle. Explain the meta- here on earth. phor. 8 parasites. See Webster. 4 Gabriel (a Hebrew word meaning the mighty one of God), an archangel who in the Bible appears on various occasions to communicate prophecies. 7 The fall, etc. Here is another long compound sentence. Tell how many members, and select such details as you deem most descriptive or picturesque. 8 houstonia. What is the common name of this plant? these are the music and pictures of the most ancient religion. My house stands in low land, with limited outlook, and on the skirt of the village. But I go with my friend 2 to the shore of our little river; and with one stroke of the paddle I leave the village politics and personalities, yes, and the world of villages and personalities, behind, and pass into a delicate realm of sunset and moonlight, too bright almost for spotted man to enter without novitiate3 and probation. We penetrate bodily this incredible beauty: we dip our hands in this painted element; our eyes are bathed in these lights and forms. A holiday, a villeggiatura,4 a royal revel, the proudest, most heart-rejoicing festival that valor and beauty, power and taste, ever decked and enjoyed, establishes itself on the instant. These sunset clouds, these delicately emerging 5 stars, with their private and ineffable glances, signify it and proffer it. I am taught the poorness of our invention, the ugliness of towns and palaces. I am overinstructed for my return. Henceforth I shall be hard to please. I can not go back to toys. 6 2.- LITERARY FORM IN POETRY. MUSIC and rhyme are among the earliest pleasures of the child; and, in the history of literature, poetry precedes prose. Every one may see, as he rides on the highway through an uninteresting landscape, how a little water instantly relieves the monotony:1 no matter what objects are near it, a gray rock, a grasspatch, an alder-bush, or a stake, - they become beautiful by being reflected. It is rhyme to the eye, and explains the charm of rhyme to the ear. We are lovers of rhyme and return, period and musical reflection.3 The babe is lulled to sleep by the nurse's song. Sailors can work better for their yoheave-o. Soldiers can march better and fight better for the drum and trumpet. Meter begins with pulse-beat, and the length of lines in songs and poems is determined by the inhalation and exhalation of the lungs. If you hum or whistle the rhythm of the common English meters, you can easily believe these meters to be organic, derived from the human pulse, and to be therefore 1 monotony (Greek monos, alone, one, and tonos, tone), sameness. 2 reflected. Define. to 5 inhalation (Latin halare, breathe), to draw air into the lungs, Give the derivation of "exhala 8 reflection, echo of sound and tion." iteration of movement. 4 Meter (Greek metron, a measure), poetical measure or rhythm, dependent on number and accent of syllables. 6 pulse (Latin pulsus, a beating; from pellere, pulsum, to beat), the beating of the heart or blood-vessels. The phrase "derived from the human pulse" explains "organic." not proper to one nation, but to mankind. I think you will also find a charm heroic, plaintive, pathetic,2 in these cadences, and be at once set on searching for the words that can rightly fill these vacant beats. Another form of rhyme is iterations 2 of phrase, as the record of the death of Sisera: "At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay down: at her feet he bowed, he fell where he bowed, there he fell down dead." : The fact is made conspicuous, nay, colossal, by this simple rhetoric. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end." Milton delights in these iterations: — "Though fallen on evil days, On evil days though fallen, and evil tongues." 5 "Was I deceived, or did a sable cloud 1 not proper to: that is, not the exclusive property or possession of (Latin proprius, one's own). 2 heroic, plaintive, pathetic. Are these adjectives placed in the strict or rhetorical order? (See Definitions 13, 14.) Place them in the prose order, and determine which arrangement is the more effective. 3 iterations (from Latin iter, a journey), repetitions. 4 colossal (Greek kolossos, a great statue), of great size: the meaning here is very emphatic, very apparent. 5 From Paradise Lost. 6 Was I.. night. Point out the examples of iterations. 7 From Comus. "A little onward lend thy guiding hand, 3 Every good poem 2 that I know I recall by its rhythm also. Rhyme is a pretty good measure of the latitude and opulence of a writer. If unskillful, he is at once detected by the poverty of his chimes. A small, well-worn, sprucely-brushed vocabulary 5 serves him. Now try Spenser, Marlow, Chapman, and see how wide they fly for weapons, and how rich and. lavish their profusion. In their rhythm is no manufacture, but a vortex, or musical tornado, which, falling on words and the experience of a learned mind, whirls these materials into the same grand order as planets and moons obey, and seasons, and monsoons. There are also prose poets. Thomas Taylor, the Platonist, for instance, is really a better man of imagination, a better poet, or perhaps I should say a better feeder to a poet, than any man between Milton and Wordsworth. Thomas Moore had the magnanimity to 1 From Samson Agonistes. bethan age, and contemporaries of 2 Every good poem, etc. Trans-Shakespeare. Spenser is the author pose this sentence into the direct of the "Fairy Queen;" Marlow was order. a dramatist (an old poet speaks 3 latitude: that is, the width of of "Marlow's mighty line"); and Chapman was the earliest transla his poetic resources. 4 chimes. Explain the use of tor of Homer into English. the word here. 7 how wide they fly. Explain 5 vocabulary (Latin vocabulari- | the metaphor. um), stock of words. What epithets does the writer join to these words? What are metaphorical? 6 Spenser, Marlow, Chapman. All English poets of the Eliza 8 Thomas Taylor (1758-1835) an English philosopher, is known as "the Platonist," because he translated the works of Plato, and others of the Platonic school. |