lofty, the fiercer, the more ambitious, feelings seem also to have been his favorite studies. With this power Dryden's poetry was gifted in a degree surpassing in modulated harmony that of all who had preceded him, and inferior to none that has since written English verse. He first showed that the English language was capable of uniting smoothness and strength. The hobbling verses of his predecessors were abandoned even by the lowest versifiers; and by the force of his precept and example the meanest lampooners of the year seventeen hundred wrote smoother lines than Donne and Cowley, the chief poets of the earlier half of the seventeenth century. What was said of Rome adorned by Augustus has been, by Johnson, applied to English poetry improved by Dryden-that he found it of brick, and left it of marble.

ALEXANDER'S FEAST.

NOTE. This ode is pronounced by Macaulay to be Dryden's greatest work. He calls it "the masterpiece of the second class of poetry," and says it "ranks just below the great models of the first." Dryden himself was very proud of it, and is said to have claimed - that " a nobler ode never was produced, nor ever will be." The poem was written for an English musical society which annually celebrated the festival of St. Cecilia, the patron of music, and was composed in a single night, the author claiming that he was so struck with the subject that he could not leave it until he had completed the poem.

I.

'TWAS at the royal feast, for Persia won

By Philip's warlike son:

NOTES.-2. Philip's warlike son,

Alexander the Great, son of

Philip, king of Macedon (B. C. 356-323).

ANALYSIS.-1, 2. 'Twas at, etc. Parse 'Twas. Transpose to the natural order.

Aloft in awful state

The godlike hero sate

On his imperial throne;

His valiant peers were placed around,

Their brows with roses and with myrtles bound
(So should desert in arms be crowned):

The lovely Thais by his side,

Sate like a blooming Eastern bride,

In flower of youth and beauty's pride.
Happy, happy, happy pair!

None but the brave,

None but the brave,

10

None but the brave deserves the fair.

15

II.

Timotheus, placed on high

Amid the tuneful choir,

With flying fingers touched the lyre:
The trembling notes ascend the sky,

And heavenly joys inspire.

The song began from Jove,

Who left his blissful seats above,

NOTES.-9. Thais, an Athenian | 16. Timo'theus,

beauty and wit who accom

a celebrated

Greek musician.

Saturn.

panied Alexander in his in- 21. Jove, Jupiter, the son of vasion of Persia.

ANALYSIS. 3, 4. Write in natural order.

4. sate. Give the meaning. Name the modifiers of sate.

7. Their brows.... bound. What kind of phrase? Parse brows.

8. Give the construction of the parenthetical words.

10. like and bride. Give construction. What figure?

15. none. Singular or plural?

13-15. What figure?

16. Timotheus, placed, etc. In what case is Timotheus? What does the participial phrase modify?

on high. Give grammatical construction.

20. joys inspire. Give grammatical construction. 22. blissful seats. What is the present form?

20

The listening crowd admire the lofty sound,
A present deity! they shout around;

A present deity! the vaulted roofs rebound.
With ravished ears

The monarch hears,

Assumes the god,

Affects to nod,

And seems to shake the spheres.

III.

The praise of Bacchus then the sweet musician sung,—
Of Bacchus ever fair and ever young:
The jolly god in triumph comes;
Sound the trumpets, beat the drums;
Flushed with a purple grace,

He shows his honest face:

Now give the hautboys breath. He comes! he comes! 40

NOTES.-24. A dragon's fiery | 32. Affects to nod, signifies his

form, etc.—that is, Jupiter

appeared in the form of a 34.

dragon.

27. deity, a god.

will by nodding.

Bacchus, the god of wine;

son of Jupiter.

39. honest, handsome.

ANALYSIS.-23. such. What part of speech? Dispose of the

parenthetical sentence.

24. Dispose of belied.

27. around. What part of speech?

28. Is the verb in the line transitive or intransitive?

29. With ravished ears. An adjunct of what?

34. sung. Modernize.

35. ever fair, etc. Why is ever repeated?

38. flushed with a purple grace. What kind of phrase, and what does it modify?

40. hautboys. Give meaning.

Bacchus, ever fair and young,

Drinking joys did first ordain;
Bacchus' blessings are a treasure,
Drinking is the soldier's pleasure:
Rich the treasure,

Sweet the pleasure,

Sweet is pleasure after pain.

IV.

Soothed with the sound, the king grew vain;

Fought all his battles o'er again;

45

And thrice he routed all his foes, and thrice he slew the slain. 50
The master saw the madness rise,

His glowing cheeks, his ardent eyes;

And, while he Heaven and Earth defied,
Changed his hand, and checked his pride.
He chose a mournful Muse,

Soft pity to infuse:

He sung Darius, great and good,

By too severe a fate,

55

NOTE-57. Darius; that is, Darius III, king of Persia at

the time of Alexander's invasion.

ANALYSIS-41, ever fair, etc. Why is ever not repeated?

41, 42. Name the subject, the predicate, and the object in this sen tence. Rewrite the sentence in prose.

45, 46. Supply the ellipsis. What is the order of these two lines? 48. Soothed, etc. What kind of phrase? What does it modify? 49. Explain the contraction d'er. Dispose of o'er and again. 50, thrice he slew the slain. What figure? Dispose of thrice and thrice

31. sau the madness rise. Parse risa

What is the object of sar?

53, 54. To what does he refer? To what the first his? To what the second his? What fault in the lines?

70

65

60

Fallen, fallen, fallen, fallen,
Fallen from his high estate,

And weltering in his blood;
Deserted, at his utmost need,
By those his former bounty fed;
On the bare earth exposed he lies,

With not a friend to close his eyes.
With downcast looks the joyless victor sate,
Revolving in his altered soul

The various turns of chance below;
And, now and then, a sigh he stole,

And tears began to flow.

V.

The mighty master smiled to see
That love was in the next degree;
'Twas but a kindred sound to move,

For pity melts the mind to love.
Softly sweet, in Lydian measures,
Soon he soothed his soul to pleasures.

NOTES.-61. weltering in his | 75. Lydian measures.

blood. This refers to the

murder of Darius by one
of his satraps.

67. Revolving, reflecting on.
72. in the next degree; that is,

came next to pity.

ANALYSIS.-59, 60. Fallen, fallen, etc. 64, 65. Name the modifier of he. 62-65. Analyze the sentence.

66. joyless victor. Who is meant ?

68. Dispose of below.

Of the

five styles of Grecian music, the Lydian was soft and voluptuous; the Phrygian, religious; the Doric, martial; the Ionic, gay; and the Eolic, simple.

What figure?

69. Dispose of now and then. Give the meaning of a sigh he stole.

71. mighty master. To whom does this refer?

73. 'Twas. Write in full. Explain the use of the apostrophe here. Parse but.

74. What figure in the line?

76. he.... his. To what docs each refer?