115 And a wave like the wave that is raised by an earthquake grew, Till it smote on their hulls and their sails and their masts and their flags, And the whole sea plunged and fell on the shot-shatter'd navy of Spain, And the little Revenge herself went down by the island crags To be lost evermore in the main. GLOSSARY. Flores; Azores; Sir Richard Grenville; Lord Thomas Howard; Inquisition; devildoms; Bideford; ballast; thumbscrew; weather bow; Seville; Don; galleons; womb; grisly. STUDY. Why did Lord Howard sail away? Why did Grenville refuse to go? What impression of him do you get from his care of the sick men? Why did he decide to fight? Do you like his spirit? and that of his men? How is the terrible inequality of the impending conflict suggested? Give the details of the fight. What strong comparison in stanza 8? What is gained by the repetitions in stanza 9? What insight does stanza 10 give you of Sir Richard? What was the situation when morning came? Picture the scene clearly. Why was the Revenge surrendered to the Spaniards? How did the Spaniards regard Sir Richard? Was Sir Richard's death in keeping with his character? What became of the Revenge? Does it seem that the higher powers interfered to keep the Spaniards from enjoying the fruits of their hard-earned victory? What are the characteristics of the fight that make it so famous? Has Tennyson succeeded in making it stirring and dramatic? Do you get a clear idea of the strong partisanship of the time in Sir Richard's last words and elsewhere in the poem? And how can man die better And the temple of his gods? THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY. That man is little to be envied, whose patriotism would not gain force upon the plain of Marathon, or whose piety would not grow warmer among the ruins of Iona. SAMUEL JOHNSON. ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON Born, at Somersby, Lincolnshire, England, August 6, 1809. One of the finest looking men in the world. A great shock of rough dusty-dark hair; bright-laughing hazel eyes; massive aquiline face, most massive yet most delicate; of sallow-brown complexion, almost Indian-looking; clothes cynically loose, free5 and-easy;-smokes infinite tobacco. His voice is musical metallic, fit for loud laughter and piercing wail, and all that may lie between; I do not meet, in these late decades, such company over a pipe! THOMAS CARLYle, 1844. The broad scope of his poetic interest and the variety as well 10 as the general felicity of his art, helped to make him the most popular poet of his time and race. Tennyson has something for everybody. He is easy to read. He has charm. Thus he has found a wide audience, and his poetry has not only reflected, but powerfully influenced, the movements of his age. The poet whose 15 words are quoted is a constant, secret guide of sentiment and conduct. The man who says a thing first may be more original; he who says it best is more potent. The characters which Tennyson embodied in his verse became memorable. The ideals which he expressed in music grew more clear and beautiful and familiar 20 to the hearts of men, leading them insensibly forward. HENRY VAN DYKE. He was undoubtedly the poet of his age, and the fact of his popularity is flattering to the age. Appreciation means sympathy. As Tennyson was widely read and enthusiastically admired by all classes of minds in his time, he is in a way the mirror of his 25 century. Hence it is not an unfair inference that very many men and women, his contemporaries, were sensitive to beauty in all its forms, possessed broad culture and thorough refinement, lived on the moral uplands, and envisaged with earnestness the tremendous riddles of human life and destiny. For poetry is not an amusement, a recreation. It is truly a "criticism of life." 30 We turn to our poets instinctively for guidance in matters of faith. Not in vain do we come to Tennyson. He may not offer a very certain hope, but he does "Teach high faith and honorable words And courtliness and the desire of fame 35 GLOSSARY. Pan; fronds; nymphs; graces; pelf; mull. STUDY. What is the result of dreaming that you are Pan? What does the season have to do with this result? What difference between Pan and mortals is brought out in the second stanza? Is there any way to improve the condition of mortals? Do you have the desire stated in line 16? What would it mean to achieve that desire? Is it worth while now and then just to dream of being the finer thing, even if we come short of it in our waking performance? A SUCCESSFUL SCHOLAR MAX MÜLLER But now I am asked to give a much fuller account of myself, not only of what I have seen, but also of what I have been, what were the objects or ideals of my life, how far I have succeeded in carrying them out, and, as I said, how often I have failed to accom5 plish what I had sketched out as my task in life. People wished to know how a boy, born and educated in a small and almost unknown town in the center of Germany, should have come to England, should have been chosen there to edit the oldest book of the world, the Veda of the Brahmans, never published before, 10 whether in India or in Europe, should have passed the best part of his life as a professor in the most famous and, as it was thought, the most exclusive university in England, and should actually have ended his days as a member of her Majesty's most honorable Privy Council. I confess myself it seems a very strange career, 15 yet everything came about most naturally, not by my own effort, but owing again to those circumstances or to that environment of which we have heard so much of late. Young, struggling men also have written to me, and asked me how I managed to keep my head above water in that keen struggle 20 for life that is always going on in the whirlpool of the learned world of England. They knew, for I had never made any secret of it, how poor I was in worldly goods, and how, as I said at Glasgow, I had nothing to depend on after I left the university, but those fingers with which I still hold my pen and write so badly |