other lyric poems, rather than the better known Faerie Queene. 4. Sir Philip Sidney, contemporary and friend of Spenser, wrote a romance called Arcadia, and many lyrics. 33. Marvell, see note on Lowell's White's Selborne, line 31. Ichabod. The title-name of this poem means "the glory is departed." (See 1 Samuel, IV, 21.) It was written after Webster's Seventh of March Speech (1850), which supported Clay's Compromise and the Fugitive Slave Law, and which most of the North considered an act of treachery. Webster, however, had been the champion, not of the anti-slavery forces, but of the Union; and he believed to the end that war could be avoided if the opposing parties would only exercise enough patience. The Lost Occasion (p. 303) should be read along with Ichabod. Skipper Ireson. Years after this poem was written Whittier was told that not Ireson but his crew committed the crime told of in stanzas four and five. He had based the verses on a bit of rhyme of a schoolmate. 3. Apuleius's Golden Ass was a young man who had been transformed into the animal but retained his human conscious-. ness. 4. Calender's horse. The Tale of the Third Calender in the Arabian Nights tells of one Agib, who was entrusted with the keys of a palace and given permission to enter every room but one. He nevertheless entered that one, mounted a horse he found there, and was carried through the air to Bagdad. The horse set him down, and with a whisk of his tail knocked out Agib's right eye. 6. Al-Borak, the animal brought by Gabriel to carry Mahomet to heaven, had the face and voice of a man, the cheeks of a horse, the wings of an eagle. 8. Marblehead, coast town of Massachusetts. 6. Bacchus, god of wine. 30. Mænads, female attendants of Bacchus. 35. Chaleur Bay, an inlet of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Playmate. — A tender recollection of a boyhood love - Whittier never married. 1. Ramoth hill was near Amesbury, the poet's home from 1836 to 1876; as were the "woods of Follymill" (line 36). 59. The veery is a kind of thrush. Laus Deo. "On hearing the bells ring on the passage of the amendment abolishing slavery." (Whittier.) constitutional See Lost Occasion.· 3. Thou, Daniel Webster. See note on Icha bod. 15. Phidias, the greatest sculptor of Greece. Olympian, godlike. 17. Cadmon, English poet of about the seventh century. 23. Norse god, Odin. 24. Talus, the groom of Sir Artegal in Spenser's Faerie Queene (book V, canto 1, stanza xii), carried an iron flail, "With which he threshed out falsehood, and did truth unfold." 51. See Judges, XVI, 6-9. 74 ff. Mount Webster (3876 feet), in the White Mountains, about sixty miles from Webster's birthplace. WHITMAN. - Whitman is the most individual poet in our literature; and his admirers assert that he must not be judged by the methods used in judging other poets. John Burroughs, the most noted American champion of the "sage of Camden," says: "We can make little of Whitman unless we allow him to be a law unto himself, seek him through the clues which he himself brings. When we try him by current modes, current taste, we are disappointed." Sydney Dobell, English critic, says: "It is the American poet's first demand upon us that we shall dismiss our prepossessions in favor of the poets of culture from our minds - not asking whether he conforms to the rules which we apply to them, but whether he has a new message for the world, which demands a new and freer method for its fit expression. If we are not willing thus to reconsider our established ideas as to the art of poetry, we had better conclude that Whitman has no message for us, and concern ourselves no further about him." If these statements hold, it should be easier for young readers, who have fewer "prepossessions" and less fixed standards, to understand and appreciate Whitman than for those who have for many years been reading and loving the "poets of culture." A Child's Question. — 8. hieroglyphic, secret sign. 11. Kanuck, a Canadian; Tuckahoe, a Virginian (see the Standard dictionary); Cuff, a miserly old fellow. All three are slang. Mannahatta. 1. my city, New York. 2. the aboriginal name. The aboriginal Delawares of New York City were called "manhatanis," meaning "those who dwell upon an island." (New Inter. Enc.) 7. high growths, etc., the "sky-scrapers." 16-18. Students who have visited New York might check up Whitman's description from their own observation. This is the sort of poem Robert Louis Stevenson has in mind when, in The Amateur Emigrant, he speaks of "all that bustle, courage, action, and constant kaleidoscopic change that Walt Whitman has seized and set forth in his vigorous, cheerful, and loquacious verses." O Captain!-Lee had surrendered, the Union was preserved, but Lincoln had died by the assassin's hand. When Lilacs. See Carpenter's Whitman (Eng. Men of Letters), page 105: ". . . strange and beautiful hymn, in which Lincoln's name is not mentioned, nor is there more than a faint reference to him; a threnody, therefore, of all that had died in the colossal struggle, symbolized through him. A poem of three themes, it sings of the lilac blossoms, sweet, and homely, and transient; of the evening star, shining luminous for all men, but slowly sinking to its rest; of the hermit thrush, Nature's one foreboding singer of the wilderness at twilight. The flower of the dooryard fades at the appointed time, the star disappears according to its season, the bird sings of death as the deliveress' of mankind, for the poet's trust is as strong as his love, and he contemplates death with gratitude and with praise. Further analysis fails." Come, said my Soul. This poem appeared first as a sort of preface to the 1876 edition of Leaves of Grass. In the edition of 1881 it was placed on the title-page and signed by the author. The Height of the Ridiculous. HOLMES. 16. Any one who doesn't appreciate the trifling jest may look up "printer's devil" in the dictionary. The Last Leaf. — Holmes did outlive most of his close friends; he died in 1894, at the age of 85. The Chambered Nautilus. -This poem was 66 suggested by looking at a section of one of those chambered shells to which is given the name of Pearly Nautilus. . .. [Such a section] will show you the series of enlarging compartments successively dwelt in by the animal that inhabits the shell, which is built in a widening spiral. Can you find no lesson in this?" The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, No. IV. The student should look up an illustration of the nautilus in dictionary or encyclopedia in order to get the full meaning of the poem on the natural side. Much use must be made of the dictionary — few poems will better repay detailed study. 4. purpled wings. Many purple wings or arms are attached to the head of the nautilus. When alive, it can 66 'fling" these out at will. 5. The Sirens were sea nymphs who by their beautiful singing lured sailors to destruction on the rocky shores they inhabited. 8. The webs of living gauze are the "purpled wings" of line 4. 9. When the animal dies, the shell is tossed about by the sea, and ... a thus wrecked." 11-12. dim dreaming life . . . frail tenant. These expressions refer to the low order of life to which the nautilus belongs. 14. irised, many-colored. 16. The coil was lustrous because of the "irised ceiling." 22. heavenly message, given in the last stanza. 26. Triton, trumpeter of Neptune, god of the sea. His wreathed horn was a shell. 31. low-vaulted. The nautilus successively dwelt in larger compartments of the spiral, which may be thought of as rooms of higher vault or ceiling. Hence, its previous mansions might be called “low-vaulted" by comparison. 32. Let each new temple, Shut thee from heaven, i.e.: "Let each new temple, the dome (or roof) of which stands between thee and heaven (i.e., the sky), be vaster than its predecessor." Or, leaving the figure of speech: "Keep growing, intellectually and spiritually." The Deacon's Masterpiece. — Shay is colloquial for "chaise," light carriage. 11. George II was hardly a "drone." He was willing enough to work, but yielded the opportunity when he found a prime minister more capable than himself. German hive. The House of Hanover, which still rules England, is German in origin. 20. felloe (also written "felly"), wooden rim of wheel. thill, shaft. 22. thoroughbrace, leather strap used as spring, or to join C-springs. See line 53. 45. ellum, provincial pronunciation of "elm." 92. encore is restricted in English to a single use, where it means "again." Here it has, of course, one of its other French meanings, "besides." Parson Turell's Legacy. 2. Legally Harvard is still only a "college." 5. Edward Holyoke was president of Harvard from 1737 to 1769. 64. ye is the old abbreviation for "the," and should be so read, not as if written "ye." Similarly, yt was frequently written for the conjunction "that." In the quotation Holmes imitates the forms of the seventeenth century. 69. An English crown is five shillings (about $1.25). 98. Triennial. From 1776 to 1875 Harvard published every three years a catalogue of officers and graduates. Since 1880 the catalogue has appeared every five years and been called the "Quinquennial." 118. cock-a-hoop, exultant. There is an interesting discussion of this word in the New English (Oxford) Dictionary. 147. Vice-Gub, Lieutenant-Governor. All Here. — Written for the thirty-eighth anniversary of Holmes's class at Harvard-the famous class of 1829. 20. triennial; see note on line 98 of preceding poem. 21-22. In a list of names, deceased persons are usually indicated by stars. 24. The Boys, title of Holmes's poem for the class reunion of 1851. 52. ubique-om nes – semper, every where - all — always. 70. Gracious Mother, Harvard. The translation of "Alma Mater." 72. In pace, in peace. The Broomstick Train. 11. Essex. Salem, the scene of the witchcraft trials of the seventeenth century, is in Essex County. So also are Ipswich River, Cape Ann, Swampscott, Danvers, Beverly, Wenham. Wilmington is just over the line in Middlesex. Chelsea is a suburb of Boston. 41. Norman's Woe, a dangerous reef near Gloucester, Massachusetts. See Longfellow's The Wreck of the Hesperus. 53. See line 9. 77 ff. Recall the witch-scenes in Macbeth, and compare the lists of attendant spirits or "familiars." 128 ff. The broomstick, it is hardly necessary to say, is the trolley; the careful man, the conductor; the black cat's purr, the whirr of the motor; the gleam, the spark made when the trolley slips off the wire. In Over the Teacups, written the same year as this poem (1890), Holmes has a long passage on this subject, beginning : "Look here! There are crowds of people whirled through our streets on these new-fashioned cars, with their witch-broomsticks overhead, if they don't come from Salem, they ought to." The first trolley line had been started four years before in Richmond, Virginia. Episode of the Pie. 10. cela va sans dire, that goes without saying. 22. stillicidium, the flowing of a liquid, drop by drop. 27. Inferno, Italian for "hell," and the title of the first part of Dante's great poem, The Divine Comedy. 39. Benjamin Franklin was "our landlady's youngest." 40. “ Quoiqu'elle," etc. Although it is strongly made, this toy must not be handled roughly. My Last Walk. 18. See Ruth, Chapter II. 40. single is used here, of course, in the sense of "one." 70. Common, a large and beautiful park in the heart of Boston. 87. Gingko, an Asiatic tree having fan-shaped leaves. Also spelled "ginkgo"; the initial g is sounded either hard or soft. 90. the old gentleman who sits opposite, i.e., opposite the Autocrat at the boarding-house table. He is never named; but in the last chapter the Autocrat "took the schoolmistress before the altar from the hands of the old gentleman who used to sit opposite." (Italics are the editor's.) |