Imagini ale paginilor
PDF
ePub

10. Is there, in human form, that bears a heart,-
A wretch a villain! lost to love and truth!
That can, with studied, sly, ensnaring art,
Betray sweet Jenny's unsuspecting youth?
Curse on his perjured arts! dissembling smooth!
Are honor, virtue, conscience, all exiled?
Is there no pity, no relenting ruth,

85

Points to the parents fondling o'er their child?

Then paints the ruin'd maid, and their distraction wild?

[blocks in formation]

11. But now the supper crowns their simple board,
The halesome parritch, chief o' Scotia's food:
The soupe their only hawkie does afford,
That 'yont the hallan snugly chows her cood:
The dame brings forth in complimental mood,
To grace the lad, her weel-hain'd kebbuck fell,
An' aft he's prest, an' aft he ca's it guid:
The frugal wifie, garrulous, will tell,

How 'twas a towmond auld, sin' lint was i' the bell.

12. The cheerfu' supper done, wi' serious face, They round the ingle form a circle wide;

NOTES.-88. ruth, mercy or pity. | 96. weel-hain'd, carefully pre

[blocks in formation]

ANALYSIS.—87. With what is all in apposition ? 89, 90. What is the subject of Points and paints?

92. Scotia's food. What figure?

95. Meaning of complimental?

98. will tell. The future tense is used here for the present by poetic license.

101. cheerfu' supper. What figure?

The sire turns o'er, wi' patriarchal grace,

The big ha' Bible, ance his father's pride:
His bonnet reverently is laid aside,

His yart haffets wearing thin an' bare;

Those strains that once did sweet in Zion glide,

He wales a portion with judicious care;

And "Let us worship God!" he says, with solemn air

13. They chant their artless notes in simple guise;

They tune their hearts, by far the noblest aim:
Perhaps Dundee's wild, warbling measures rise;
Or plaintive Martyrs, worthy of the name;
Or noble Elgin beats the heavenward flame,—
The sweetest far of Scotia's holy lays:
Compared with these, Italian trills are tame;
The tickled ear no heartfelt raptures raise;
Nae unison hae they with our Creator's praise.

14. The priest-like father reads the sacred page,-
How Abram was the friend of God on high;
Or Moses bade eternal warfare wage
With Amalek's ungracious progeny ;

NOTES. 103. ha' Bible, the Bi- | 106. Zion, a psalm-tune.

[blocks in formation]

ANALYSIS.-108. Name the object of says.

109. What is the meaning of guise?

110. by far the noblest aim. Give grammatical construction.

113. What figure in the line?

116. tickled ear. What figure?

raise. Is this correct?

117. What is the antecedent of they?
118. Supply the ellipsis in the line.
118-124. Name the objects of reads.
120. Grammatical construction of wage?
120, 121. Give the meaning of these lines.

105

110

115

120

Or how the royal bard did groaning lie
Beneath the stroke of Heaven's avenging ire;
Or Job's pathetic plaint and wailing cry;
Or rapt Isaiah's wild, seraphic fire;

Or other holy seers that tune the sacred lyre.

15 Perhaps the Christian volume is the theme,— How guiltless blood for guilty man was shed; How He who bore in heaven the second name

125

Had not on earth whereon to lay his head;
How his first followers and servants sped

130

The precepts sage they wrote to many a land;

How he, who, lone in Patmos banished,

Saw in the sun a mighty angel stand,

And heard great Babylon's doom pronounced by Heaven's

135

command.

16. Then, kneeling down, to Heaven's Eternal King
The saint, the father, and the husband prays:
Hope "springs exulting on triumphant wing"
That thus they all shall meet in future days,
There ever bask in uncreated rays,

No more to sigh, or shed the bitter tear,
Together hymning their Creator's praise

ANALYSIS.-122: Who was the royal bard?

124. pathetic plaint. Notice the alliteration. Meaning of plaint 127. Meaning of theme?

129. To what does He refer?

130. Supply ellipsis. Disse of whereon.

133-135. To whom do these lines refer?

135. Heaven's command. What figure?

137. Justify the use of prays instead of pray.

138 Hope springs, etc. What figure?

138, 139. Notice that Hope is used here both figuratively and

literal.y.

139 That thus, etc. What kind of modifier?

140. To what does There refer?

141. Grammatical construction of to sigh and shed!

142. Give a synonym for hymning.

140

In such society, yet still more dear,

While circling Time moves round in an eternal sphere.

17. Compared with this, how poor Religion's pride,

145

In all the pomp of method and of art,
When men display to congregations wide
Devotion's every grace except the heart!
The Power, incensed, the pageant will desert,
The pompous strain, the sacerdotal stole;

150

But haply, in some cottage far apart,

May hear, well pleased, the language of the soul,

And in his book of life the inmates poor enroll.

18. Then homeward all take off their several way;
The youngling cottagers retire to rest;
The parent pair their secret homage pay,
And proffer up to Heaven the warm request,
That He who stills the raven's clamorous nest,

155

And decks the lily fair in flowery pride,

Would, in the way His wisdom sees the best,

160

For them and for their little ones provide;

But, chiefly, in their hearts with grace divine preside.

NOTES.-150. stole, a long nar- | 151. far apart, distant from others.
row scarf with fringed 154. take off, depart.
edges.

155. youngling, etc., the children

ANALYSIS.-143. The meaning of society here?

144. What figure in the line? The meaning of sphere?
145. Point out the figure in the line. Supply the ellipsis

149, 150. Give the meaning of these lines.

151-153. Rewrite in prose.

152. What is the subject of May hear?

154 Why is way used, instead of ways?

156. secret homage. Give the meaning.
157. proffer up. Criticise.

158. raven's clamorous nest. What figure?
159. Point out the figure in the line.

19. From scenes like these old Scotia's grandeur springs,
That makes her loved at home, revered abroad:
Princes and lords are but the breath of kings,
"An honest man's the noblest work of God."

And certes in fair virtue's heavenly road,

[ocr errors]

The cottage leaves the palace far behind. What is a lordling's pomp? a cumbrous load, Disguising oft the wretch of human kind, Studied in arts of Hell, in wickedness refined!

20. O Scotia! my dear, my native soil!

165

170

For whom my warmest wish to Heaven is sent!
Long may thy hardy sons of rustic toil

Be blest with health and peace and sweet content!

175

And, oh, may Heaven their simple lives prevent
From Luxury's contagion, weak and vile!
Then, howe'er crowns and coronets be rent,

A virtuous populace may rise the while,

And stand a wall of fire around their much-loved isle.

180

21. O Thou! who pour'd the patriotic tide

That stream'd through Wallace's undaunted heart;
Who dared to nobly stem tyrannic pride,
Or nobly die, the second glorious part,

ANALYSIS.-163. The meaning of Scotia's?
164. What is the antecedent of That?
165. Parse but.

Explain the figure in the line.

168. What figure in the line? Give the syntax of far and behind 169–171. Name the subjects and the predicates in these lines.

172, 173. Point out the figure.

178. crowns and coronets be rent.

What figure?

179. Grammatical construction of while?

180. Parse wall. Point out the figure in the line. 181. Name the figure in this line.

182. Who was Wallace, referred to in this line? 183. to nobly stem. Criticise.

What is the antecedent of Who?

184. the second glorious part. Dispose of second.

« ÎnapoiContinuă »