Modern Prose And Poetry; For Secondary Schools Part 24

Or shall a haggard ruthless few Warp her over and bring her to, While the many broken souls of men Fester down in the slaver's pen, And nothing to say or do?

NOTES

=Gloucester town=: Gloucester is a seaport town in Ma.s.sachusetts, the chief seat of the cod and mackerel fisheries of the coast.

=Jill-o'er-the-ground=: Ground ivy; usually written _Gill-over-the-ground_.

=Quaker-maid=: Quaker ladies; small blue flowers growing low on the ground.

=wax-red=: The huckleberry blossom is red and waxy.

SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY

Read the poem slowly through to yourself, getting what you can out of it, without trying too hard. Note that after the third stanza the earth is compared to a s.h.i.+p. After you have read the poem through, go back and study it with the help of the following questions and suggestions:--

The author is out on the moors not far from the sea: What details does he select to make you feel the beauty of the afternoon? What words in the first stanza suggest movement and freedom? Why does the author stop to tell about the flowers, when he has so many important things to say?

Note a change of tone at the beginning of the fourth stanza. What suggests to the author that the earth is like a s.h.i.+p? Why does he say that it is not a steadfast place? How does the fifth stanza remind you of _The Ancient Mariner_? Why does the author speak so pa.s.sionately at the beginning of the sixth stanza? Here he wonders whether there is really any plan in the universe, or whether things all go by chance. Who are the captains of whom he speaks? What different types of people are represented in the last two lines of stanza six? What is the "noisome hold" of the Earth s.h.i.+p? Who are those cursing and sighing? Who are _they_ in the line, "But they said, 'Thou art not of us!'"? Who are _they_ in the next line but one? Why does the author turn back to the flowers in the next few lines? What is omitted from the line beginning "To be out"? Explain the last three lines of stanza eight. How do the s.h.i.+ps of Gloucester differ from the s.h.i.+p _Earth_? What is the "arriving"

spoken of in the last stanza? What two possibilities does the author suggest as to the fate of the s.h.i.+p? Why does he end his poem with a question? What is the purpose of the poem? Why is it considered good?

What do you think was the author's feeling about the way the poor and helpless are treated? Read the poem through aloud, thinking what each line means.

ROAD-HYMN FOR THE START

WILLIAM VAUGHN MOODY

Leave the early bells at chime, Leave the kindled hearth to blaze, Leave the trellised panes where children linger out the waking-time, Leave the forms of sons and fathers trudging through the misty ways, Leave the sounds of mothers taking up their sweet laborious days.

Pa.s.s them by! even while our soul Yearns to them with keen distress.

Unto them a part is given; we will strive to see the whole.

Dear shall be the banquet table where their singing spirits press; Dearer be our sacred hunger, and our pilgrim loneliness.

We have felt the ancient swaying Of the earth before the sun, On the darkened marge of midnight heard sidereal rivers playing; Rash it was to bathe our souls there, but we plunged and all was done.

That is lives and lives behind us--lo, our journey is begun!

Careless where our face is set, Let us take the open way.

What we are no tongue has told us: Errand-goers who forget?

Soldiers heedless of their harry? Pilgrim people gone astray?

We have heard a voice cry "Wander!" That was all we heard it say.

Ask no more: 'tis much, 'tis much!

Down the road the day-star calls; Touched with change in the wide heavens, like a leaf the frost winds touch, Flames the failing moon a moment, ere it shrivels white and falls; Hid aloft, a wild throat holdeth sweet and sweeter intervals.

Leave him still to ease in song Half his little heart's unrest: Speech is his, but we may journey toward the life for which we long.

G.o.d, who gives the bird its anguish, maketh nothing manifest, But upon our lifted foreheads pours the boon of endless quest.

SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY

Do not be alarmed if you find this a little hard to understand. It is expressed in rather figurative language, and one has to study it to get its meaning. The poem is about those people who look forward constantly to something better, and feel that they must always be pressing forward at any cost. Who is represented as speaking? What sort of life are the travelers leaving behind them? Why do they feel a keen distress? What is the "whole" that they are striving to see? What is their "sacred hunger"? Why is it "dearer" than the feasting of those who stay at home?

Notice how the third stanza reminds one of _Gloucester Moors_. Look up the word _sidereal_: Can you tell what it means here? "Lives and lives behind us" means _a long time ago_; you will perhaps have to ask your teacher for its deeper meaning. Do the travelers know where they are going? Why do they set forth? Note the description of the dawn in the fifth stanza. What is the boon of "endless quest"? Why is it spoken of as a gift (boon)? Compare the last line of this poem with the last line of _The Wild Ride_, on page 161. Perhaps you will be interested to compare the _Road-Hymn_ with Whitman's _The Song of the Open Road_.

Do the meter and verse-form seem appropriate here? Is anything gained by the difference in the length of the lines?

ON A SOLDIER FALLEN IN THE PHILIPPINES

WILLIAM VAUGHN MOODY

Streets of the roaring town, Hush for him, hush, be still!

He comes, who was stricken down Doing the word of our will.

Hus.h.!.+ Let him have his state, Give him his soldier's crown.

The grists of trade can wait Their grinding at the mill, But he cannot wait for his honor, now the trumpet has been blown; Wreathe pride now for his granite brow, lay love on his breast of stone.

Toll! Let the great bells toll Till the clas.h.i.+ng air is dim.

Did we wrong this parted soul?

We will make it up to him.

Toll! Let him never guess What work we set him to.

Laurel, laurel, yes; He did what we bade him do.

Praise, and never a whispered hint but the fight he fought was good; Never a word that the blood on his sword was his country's own heart's-blood.

A flag for the soldier's bier Who dies that his land may live; O, banners, banners here, That he doubt not nor misgive!

That he heed not from the tomb The evil days draw near When the nation, robed in gloom, With its faithless past shall strive.

Let him never dream that his bullet's scream went wide of its island mark, Home to the heart of his darling land where she stumbled and sinned in the dark.

SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY

What is "his state," in line five? How has the soldier been "wronged"?

Does the author think that the fight in the Philippines has not been "good"? Why? What does he mean by the last line of stanza two? What "evil days" are those mentioned in stanza three? Have they come yet?

What "faithless past" is meant? Do you think that the United States has treated the Philippines unfairly?[14]

COLLATERAL READINGS

Gloucester Moors and Other Poems William Vaughn Mood Poems and Plays of William Vaughn Moody (2 vols. Biographical introduction) John M. Manley (Ed.) Letters of William Vaughn Moody Daniel Mason (Ed.) Out of Gloucester J.B. Connolly

For biography, criticism, and portraits of William Vaughn Moody, consult: Atlantic Monthly, 98:326, September, 1906; World's Work, 13: 8258, December, 1906 (Portrait); Century, 73:431 (Portrait); Reader, 10:173; Bookman, 32:253 (Portrait.)