Page images
PDF
EPUB

There's a fir-wood here, and a dog-rose

there,

And a note of the mating dove;

And a glimpse, maybe, of the warm blue

sea,

40

And the warm white clouds above;
And warm to your breast in a tenderer nest
Your sweetheart's little glove.

There's not much better to win, my lad,
There's not much better to win!
You have lived, you have loved, you have
fought, you have proved

The worth of folly and sin;

So now come out of the city's rout,
Come out of the dust and the din.

Come out-a bundle and stick is all
You'll need to carry along,
If your heart can carry a kindly word,
And your lips can carry a song;

45

50

You may leave the lave to the keep o' the grave,

If your lips can carry a song!

[blocks in formation]

NOTES AND QUESTIONS

1. What is there about a spring day that gives you an impulse to follow a road out to the sunshine and the air? Do you like this comparison of the choosing of a life work with the choosing of a road in springtime?

2. What is suggested by the fact that the road "rolls through the heart of the May"? What is meant by "the year's green fire"? What details does the poet bring in to show how wholly delightful the road is? Explain line 36.

3. What effect has the repetition in the last stanza of the first lines of the poem? Notice the use of color words, such as "sapphire day," "warm blue sea," "long white road"; find others. 4. Do you enjoy a poem that has a hidden meaning underneath the surface? Name some other poem you have read that is similar in this respect.

[blocks in formation]

There is an instinct in the human heart Which makes that all the fables it hath coined,

15

To justify the reign of its belief
And strengthen it by beauty's right divine,
Veil in their inner cells a mystic gift,
Which, like the hazel twig, in faithful
hands,

Points surely to the hidden springs of truth.
For, as in Nature naught is made in vain, 20
But all things have within their hull of

use

A wisdom and a meaning which may speak Of spiritual secrets to the ear

25

Of spirit; so, in whatsoe'er the heart
Hath fashioned for a solace to itself,
To make its inspirations suit its creed,
And from the niggard hands of falsehood
wring

Its needful food of truth, there ever is
A sympathy with Nature, which reveals,
Not less than her own works, pure gleams

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

Rhocus did beat him off with growing This once, and I shall never need it more!" "Alas!" the voice returned, "'tis thou art blind,

wrath.

Then through the window flew the wounded bee,

And Rhocus, tracking him with angry

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

NOTES AND QUESTIONS

1. Judging from the first line of the poem, what is the nature of the story following the introduction? Why is ignorance represented as resting upon "slothful down"? What does the poet say of each form of worship adopted by men? How much of truth does he say is shown to the minds of all races?

2. What poems have you studied in which something in Nature brings home a great truth -in which trees or flowers direct the thoughts to higher things?

3. What does the first act of Rhocus tell you as to the kind of young man he was? Describe what he saw as he turned to answer the voice. Why was his wish a natural one? Read aloud the lines that tell of Rhocus's great happiness.

4. What does the striking of the bee tell you about Rhoecus? How is his apparent for

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch

About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.

NOTES AND QUESTIONS

1. Name some of the "visible forms" of Nature. What does Bryant say Nature does for those who love her? What does he mean? 2. What is meant by "the last bitter hour," line 9? To what does the poet advise us to listen when the thought of death seems terrible? Who will be able to hear this still voice?

3. In the twelfth chapter of Ecclesiastes we read, "Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return unto God Who gave it." Read lines from "Thanatopsis" which show that the poet was thinking of the first part of this quotation. What lines tell of those lying in that "mighty sepulcher"?

4. To make us understand that death is everywhere, the poet says that the earth is a tomb; what things are the decorations of this tomb? What comparison does the poet make between the number of the living and the number of the dead? Why does he mention the Barcan wilderness and the region of the Oregon River as having their dead?

5. In what lines does the call to action come? To what kind of life does the poet urge us? Why? What kind of action will make such a life?

Class Reading. Bring to class and read "Crossing the Bar," Tennyson; "Requiem," Stevenson.

[blocks in formation]
« PreviousContinue »