Selections from American poetry Part 43

72. monody: a musical composition in which some one voice-part predominates.

88. Ghouls: imaginary evil beings of the East who rob graves.

ELDORADO

6. Eldorado: any region where wealth may be obtained is abundance; hence, figuratively, the source of any abundance, as here.

21. "Valley of the Shadow" suggests death and is a fitting close to Poe's poetic work.

HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW (1807-1882)

"His verse blooms like a flower, night and day; Bees cl.u.s.ter round his rhymes; and twitterings Of lark and swallow, in an endless May, Are mingling with the tender songs he sings.

Nor shall he cease to sing--in every lay Of Nature's voice he sings--and will alway."

--JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY.

Born in Portland, Maine, he graduated from Bowdoin College in 1825 and went abroad to prepare himself to teach the modern languages. He taught until 1854, when he became a professional author. During the remaining years of his fife he lived quietly at Craigie House in Cambridge and there he died.

The poems by Longfellow are used by permission of, and by special arrangement with, Houghton Mifflin Company, authorized publishers of his works.

HYMN To THE NIGHT

"Night, thrice welcome."

"Night, undesired by Troy, but to the Greeks Thrice welcome for its interposing gloom."

-COWPER, TRANS. OF ILIAD VIII, 488.

21. Orestes-like. Orestes, the son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, avenged the death of his father by killing his mother. The Furies chased him for many years through the world until at last he found pardon and peace. The story is told in several Greek plays, but perhaps best in AEschylus' "Libation Pourers" and "Furies"

A PSALM of LIFE

"I kept it," he said, "some time in ma.n.u.script, unwilling to show it to any one, it being a voice from my inmost heart."

7. "Dust thou art": quoted from Genesis 3:19, "Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."

10. Pope in Epistle IV of his "Essay on Man" says: "0 happiness! our being's end and aim." How does Longfellow differ with him?

THE SKELETON IN ARMOR

The Skeleton in Armor. "The following Ballad was suggested to me while riding on the seash.o.r.e at Newport. A year or two previous a skeleton had been dug up at Fall River, clad in broken and corroded armor; and the idea occurred to me of connecting it with the Round Tower at Newport, generally known hitherto as the Old Windmill, though now claimed by the Danes as a work of their early ancestors."

19. Skald: a Scandinavian minstrel who composed and sang or recited verses in celebration of famous deeds, heroes, and events.

"And there, in many a stormy vale, The Scald had told his wondrous tale."

--SCOTT, Lay of the Last Minstrel, can. 6, St. 22.

20. Saga: myth or heroic story.

28. ger-falcon: large falcon, much used in northern Europe in falconry.

38. were-wolf: a person who had taken the form of a wolf and had become a cannibal. The superst.i.tion was that those who had voluntarily become wolves could become men again at will.

42. corsair: pirate. Originally "corsair" was applied to privateers off the Barbary Coast who preyed upon Christian s.h.i.+pping under the authority of their governments.

49. "wa.s.sail-bout": festivity at which healths are drunk.

53. Berserk. Berserker was a legendary Scandinavian hero who never wore a s.h.i.+rt of mail. In general, a warrior who could a.s.sume the form and ferocity of wild beasts, and whom fire and iron could not harm.

94. Sea-mew: a kind of European gull.

110. Skaw: a cape on the coast of Denmark.

159. Skoal!: Hail! a toast or friendly greeting used by the Norse especially in poetry.

THE WRECK of THE HESPERUS

On Dec. 17, 1839, Longfellow wrote in his journal: "News of s.h.i.+pwrecks horrible, on the coast. Forty bodies washed ash.o.r.e near Gloucester, one lashed to a piece of the wreck. There is a reef called Norman's Woe, where many of these took place; among others the schooner Hesperus."

On Dec. 30 he added: "Sat till one o'clock by the fire, smoking, when suddenly it came into my head to write the Ballad of the schooner Hesperus, which I accordingly did. Then went o bed, but could not sleep.

New thoughts were running in my mind, and I got up to add them to the ballad. It was three by the clock."... "I feel pleased with the ballad.

it hardly cost mean effort. It did not come into my mind by lines but by stanzas."

In a letter to Mr. Charles Lanman on Nov. 24, 1871, Mr. Longfellow said: "I had quite forgotten about its first publication; but I find a letter from Park Benjamin, dated Jan. 7, 1840, beginning...as follows:--

"'Your ballad, The Wreck of the Hesperus, is grand. Enclosed are twenty- five dollars (the sum you mentioned) for it, paid by the proprietors of The New World, in which glorious paper it will resplendently coruscate on Sat.u.r.day next.'"

11. flaw: a sudden puff of wind.

14. Spanish Main: a term applied to that portion of the Caribbean Sea near the northeast coast of South America, including the route followed by Spanish merchant s.h.i.+ps traveling between Europe and America.

37-48. This little dialogue reminds us of the "Erlkonig," a ballad by Goethe.

66. See Luke 8: 22-25.

60. Norman's Woe: a reef in", W. Glouster harbor, Ma.s.s.

70. carded wool. The process of carding wool, cotton, flax, etc.

removes by a wire-toothed brush foreign matter and dirt, and leaves it combed out and cleansed.