ravage

of winter I mourn

Nor yet for the
Kind Nature the embryo blossom will save;
But when shall spring visit the moldering urn?
Oh, when shall day dawn on the night of the grave?

5. "'Twas thus, by the glare of false science betrayed, That leads to bewilder, and dazzles to blind, My thoughts wont to roam from shade onward to shade,

Destruction before me, and sorrow behind.

'Oh, pity, great Father of Light!' then I cried,

6

Thy creature, who fain would not wander from
Thee!

Lo! humbled in dust, I relinquish my pride;
From doubt and from darkness Thou only canst free.'

6. "And darkness and doubt are now flying away;
No longer I roam in conjecture forlorn.
So breaks on the traveler, faint and astray,

The bright and the balmy effulgence of morn.
See Truth, Love, and Mercy, in triumph descending,
And Nature all glowing in Eden's first bloom!
On the cold cheek of Death smiles and roses are

blending,

And Beauty immortal awakes from the tomb."

James Beattie.

FOR PREPARATION.-I. Is the nightingale (sometimes called “ Philomela" by the poets) found in America? Account for the frequency with which this bird is spoken of by European poets (see XVII.).

II. Naught (nawt), tŏr'-rent, erĕs'-çent, ma-jěs'-tie.

III. Ye woodlands, for you (would for ye be proper ?); st in canst?

IV. Hamlet, effulgence, "prove the sweets of forgetfulness" (i. e., try them), symphonious (tuned so as to harmonize with his song), inthrall, planets, relinquish, conjecture, forlorn, embryo, ravage.

V. "Thou fair orb "-what orb? "Thought as a sage, felt as a man" (thought wisely, but felt the passions of humanity). Languishing fall" (voice falling in pitch as it closes its melody; expressing weariness and heart longing). "Moldering urn" (the urn held the ashes of the body which was burned by the Romans after death).

XI. THE SURVIVORS OF THE BATTLE OF
BUNKER HILL.

1. Venerable men! you have come down to us from a former generation. Heaven has bounteously lengthened out your lives, that you might behold this joyous day. You are now where you stood fifty years ago, this very hour, with your brothers and your neighbors, shoulder to shoulder, in the strife of your country.

2. Behold how altered! The same heavens are, indeed, over your heads; the same ocean rolls at your feet; but all else, how changed! You hear now no roll of hostile cannon; you see no mixed volumes of smoke and flame rising from burning Charlestown. The ground strewed with the dead and dying; the impetuous charge; the steady and successful repulse; the loud call to repeated assault; the summoning of all that is manly to repeated resistance; a thousand bosoms freely and fearlessly bared in an instant to whatever of terror there may be in war and death-all these you have witnessed, but you witness them no more.

3. All is peace. The heights of yonder metropolis, its towers and roofs, which you then saw filled with wives and children, and countrymen, in distress and terror, and looking with unutterable emotions for the issue of the combat, have presented you to-day with the sight of its whole happy population, come out to welcome and greet you with a universal jubilee.

4. Yonder proud ships, by a felicity of position appropriately lying at the foot of this mount, and seeming fondly to cling around it, are not means of annoyance to you, but your country's own means of distinction and defense.

5. All is peace; and God has granted you this sight of your country's happiness ere you slumber in the grave forever. He has allowed you to behold and to partake the reward of your patriotic toils; and He has allowed us, your sons and countrymen, to meet you here, and, in the name of the present generation, in the name of your country, in the name of liberty, to thank you.

6. But, alas! you are not all here. Time and the sword have thinned your ranks. Prescott, Putnam, Stark, Brooks, Reed, Pomeroy, Bridge-our eyes seek for you in vain amidst this broken band; you are gathered to your fathers, and live only to your country in her grateful remembrance, and your own bright example.

7. But let us not too much grieve that you have met the common fate of men; you lived, at least, long enough to know that your work had been nobly and successfully accomplished. You lived to see your country's independence established, and to sheathe your swords from war. On the light of liberty you saw arise the light of Peace, like "Another morn,

Risen on mid-noon;"

and the sky on which ich you closed your eyes was cloudless.

8. But-ah!-him! the first great martyr in this great cause! him! the premature victim of his own self-devoted heart! him, the head of our civil councils, and the

destined leader of our military bands; whom nothing brought thither but the unquenchable fire of his own spirit; him, cut off by Providence, in the hour of overwhelming anxiety and thick gloom; falling, ere he saw the star of his country rise; pouring out his generous blood, like water, before he knew whether it would fertilize a land of freedom or of bondage!

9. How shall I struggle with the emotions that stifle the utterance of thy name! Our poor work may perish, but thine shall endure! This monument may molder away; the solid ground it rests upon may sink down to a level with the sea; but thy memory shall not fail! Wheresoever among men a heart shall be found that beats to the transports of patriotism and liberty, its aspirations shall be to claim kindred with thy spirit.

Daniel Webster.

FOR PREPARATION.-I. At the laying of the corner stone of Bunker Hill Monument. "Fifty years ago" implies what date for this address? Whose "hostile cannon "" are referred to ? Location of Charlestown? What "metropolis"? "Yonder proud ships" (in the Navy Yard) remind the orator of what other ships? Who were Prescott, Putnam, and the others named? "The first great martyr in this great cause" (Warren). Explain the allusions in the apostrophe in verses 8 and 9.

eŏm'-bat,

II. Boun'-te-ous-ly, eăn'-non (difference from canon?), mär'-tyr (-ter), eoun'-çil (difference from counsel ?).

III. Un and able in unutterable (utter and outer, compare meanings); saw (why not use seen?).

IV. Impetuous assault, summoning, issue, jubilee, felicity of position, annoyance, grateful remembrance.

V. Contrast this style with that of XV. Take up verses 1 to 6, word by word, and see how every slight fact and external circumstance is stated in a sober, weighty manner, so as to express the feeling that pervades the occasion. Notice the long resonant words, and the absence of any tinge of humor. The solemnity of the memories clustered about the scene finds expression in every sentence. Change a verse of this into general statements of fact, and see how the rhetorical coloring vanishes, and, with it, the

expression of the feeling produced by the occasion. Notice in this fact the necessary difference between a spoken production and one that is merely written for publication. (Compare also with Patrick Henry's speech (CXXXV.), in point of impassioned energy.)

XII.-ODE.

1. How sleep the brave who sink to rest
By all their country's wishes blessed!
When Spring, with dewy fingers cold,
Returns to deck their hallowed mold,
She there shall dress a sweeter sod
Than Fancy's feet have ever trod.

2. By fairy hands their knell is rung;
By forms unseen their dirge is sung.
There Honor comes, a pilgrim gray,
To bless the turf that wraps their clay;
And Freedom shall awhile repair,
To dwell a weeping hermit there!

William Collins.

FOR PREPARATION.-I. Read an account of the adventures of the author (want of recognition, wretched death, etc.). Have you read (and committed to memory) any of his "Odes, Descriptive and Allegorical"? (published in 1746, and considered to be the best lyrical poems of the language).

II. Fin'-ger (fing'ger), hal'-lowed, knell (něl), gray (grey).

III. Meaning of un and final n in unseen ;—er in sweeter?

IV. Dirge, hermit, hallowed, pilgrim, deck, dress.

V. Personification of spring, fancy, honor, freedom; in what guise is each conceived? "Turf that wraps their clay "-note the appropriateness of the metaphor implied, like a "martial cloak" in which a warrior "takes his rest" (Burial of Sir John Moore). Find points of contrast and resemblance between this piece and the one preceding (in dignity of style, atmosphere of feeling implied, choice of words, subject in the present surroundings, or in a large assembly, or merely ideal or general, etc.).