Selections from American poetry Part 45

17. seditious: tending towards disorder and treason.

52. besprent: poetic for besprinkled.

66. seneschal: the official in the household of a prince of high n.o.ble who had the supervision of feasts and ceremonies.

106. Saturnian: the fabled reign of the G.o.d Saturn was the golden age of the world, characterized by simplicity, virtue, and happiness.

110. Enceladus, the giant. Longfellow's poem "Enceladus" emphasizes this reference. For the story of the giants and the punishment of Enceladus see any good Greek mythology.

THE THEOLOGIAN'S TALE

9. dial: the sun-dial was the clock of the time.

41. iteration: repet.i.tion.

49. dole: portion.

bl. almoner: official dispenser of alms.

100. See Matthew 25: 40.

JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER (1807-1892)

"Best loved and saintliest of our singing train, Earth's n.o.blest tributes to thy name belong.

A lifelong record closed without a stain, A blameless memory shrived in deathless song."

--OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES.

Born at East Haverhill, Ma.s.s., in surroundings which he faithfully describes in "Snow-Bound," he had little education. At the age of twenty-two he secured an editorial position in Boston and continued to write all his life. For some years he devoted all his literary ability to the cause of abolition, and not until the success of "Snow-Bound" in 1866 was he free from poverty.

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

PROEM

Proem: preface or introduction.

3. Spenser, Edmund (1552-1599). His best-known work is the "Faerie Queen."

4. Arcadian Sidney: Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586); an English courtier, soldier, and author. He stands as a model of chivalry. He was mortally wounded at the battle of Zutphen. "Arcadia" was his greatest work; hence the epithet here.

23. plummet-line: a weight suspended by a line used to test the verticality of walls, etc. Here used as if in a sounding process.

30. Compare this opinion of his own work with Lowell's comments in "A Fable for Critics." How do they agree?

32. For Whittier's opinion of Milton see also "Raphael," I. 7 0, and "

Burns," 1. 104.

33. Marvell, Andrew (1621-1678): an English statesman, poet, and satirist, friend of Milton.

THE FROST SPIRIT

Whittier has an intense love and appreciation of winter. With this poem may be read "Snow Bound," the last stanzas of "Flowers in Winter," and "Lumbermen." Many others may be added to this list. Do you find this same idea in other poets?

11. Hecla: a volcano in Iceland which has had 28 known eruptions--one as late as 1878. It rises 5100 feet above the sea and has a bare irregular-shaped cone. Its appearance is extremely wild and desolate.

SONGS OF LABOR. DEDICATION

8. The o'er-sunned bloom.... In this collection of poems are a few written in his youth, the more mature works of the "summer" of his life, and the later works of his old age. The figure here is carefully carried through and gives a clear, simplified picture of his literary life.

22. Whittier himself noted that he was indebted for this line to Emerson's "Rhodora"

26-3b. Compare Longfellow's "The Day is Done" for another idea of the influence of poetry.

36. Compare Genesis 3: 17-19.

43-45. Compare Luke 2: 51-52.

THE LUMBERMEN

33. Ambijejis: lake in central Maine.

35. Millnoket: a lake in central Maine.

39. Pen.o.bscot: one of the most beutiful of Maine rivers. It is about 300 miles long and flows through the central part of the state.

42. Katahdin: Mount Katahdin is 5385 feet in height and is usually snow-covered.

BARCLAY of URY

Barclay of Ury: David Barclay (1610-1686). Served under Gustavus Adolphus, was an officer in the Scotch army during Civil War. He bought the estate of Ury, near Aberdeen, in 1648. He was arrested after the Restoration and for a short time was confined to Edinburgh Castle, where he was converted to Quakerism by a fellow prisoner. His son, also a Quaker, heard of the imprisonment mentioned in this poem and attempted to rescue his father. During the years between this trouble in 1676 and his death in 1686, the persecution seems to have been directed largely against his son. (See Dictionary of National Biography for details.) Whinier naturally felt keenly on this subject, as he himself was a Quaker.

1. Aberdeen: capital of Aberdeens.h.i.+re, and chief seaport in north of Scotland; fourth Scottish town in population, industry, and wealth. The buildings of Aberdeen College, founded in 1494, are the glory of Aberdeen.

7. churl: a rude, low-bred fellow.

10. carlin: a bluff, good-natured man.

35. Lutzen: a town in Saxony where the Swedes under Gustavus Adolphus defeated the Austrians, Nov. 16, 1632.

36. Gustavus Adolphus, "The Great" (1594-1632). He was one of the great Swedish kings, and was very prominent in the Thirty Years' War (1618- 1648).