Day, too, hath many a star To grace his gorgeous reign, as bright as they; Unseen, they follow in his flaming way: Many a bright lingerer,2 as the eve grows dim, Tells what a radiant troop arose and set with him. And thou dost see them rise, Star of the Pole! and thou dost see them set. Thou keep'st thy old unmoving station yet, There, at morn's rosy birth, Thou lookest meekly through the kindling air; Chases the day, beholds thee watching there; There noontide finds thee, and the hour that calls The shapes of polar flame to scale heaven's azure walls. 4 Alike, beneath thine eye, The deeds of darkness and of light are done: Towns blaze, the smoke of battle blots the sun,5 1 in his flaming way. Whose? 2 bright lingerer. Explain. 3 Nor join'st the dances, etc. Explain the metaphor. 4 shapes of polar flame, the aurora borealis. 5 blots the sun. Change this poetical into a prose expression. The night-storm on a thousand hills is loud, On thy unaltering blaze The half-wrecked mariner, his compass lost, And steers, undoubting, to the friendly coast; And therefore bards2 of old, 3 Sages and hermits of the solemn wood,1 Did in thy beams behold A beauteous type of that unchanging good, That bright eternal beacon,5 by whose ray The voyager of time should shape his heedful way. 5. FOREST HYMN. [The Forest Hymn was written in that early period of Bryant's career, when he was for the most part devoted to the study of nature, and the depicting of its scenes and moods. It overflows with what Wordsworth calls the "religion of the woods," and is pervaded by a sweet solemnity that must touch every impressible soul.] ... 1 On thy. right. Express in your own language the meaning of this stanza. 2 bards. "Bard" (meaning poet) is one of the small number of Celtic words incorporated into English from the language of the original Britons. 3 Sages (from sage, wise), philosophers. 4 hermits of the solemn wood: that is, the British Druids. 5 beacon, signal-fire: connected with beckon. 6 voyager of time. Explain the metaphor. THE groves were God's first temples. Ere man learned 4 To hew the shaft, and lay the architrave,2 6 Might not resist the sacred influences, Which, from the stilly twilight of the place, And from the gray old trunks that high in heaven Should we, in the world's riper years, neglect Only among the crowd, and under roofs That our frail hands have raised? Let me, at least, Here, in the shadow of this agéd wood, 1 shaft, the cylindrical column | in his Elegy speaks of the “longbetween the capital (top) and the base of a column. 2 architrave. That part of an order of architecture which is over 6. a column is called the entablature; and the architrave" is that part of an entablature which rests immediately on the column. drawn aisle and fretted vault." 4 darkling. See Webster for etymology. 5 simple. See Webster for the interesting derivation of this word. 6 resist, withstand. 7 inaccessible. Define. 8 sanctuaries (from Latin sanc 3 vault, an arched ceiling. Gray Itus, holy), literally, holy places. Offer one hymn 1 -thrice happy, if it find Father, thy hand Acceptance in his ear. Hath reared these venerable columns.3 Thou Didst weave this verdant roof.4 Thou didst look down Upon the naked earth, and forthwith rose All these fair ranks of trees. They, in thy sun, Thou fill'st That, from the inmost darkness of the place, In the tranquillity that thou dost love, Passes; and yon clear spring, that 'midst its herbs Of all the good it does. Thou hast not left Of thy perfections. Grandeur, strength, and grace In all that proud old world beyond the deep, Wears the green coronal' of leaves with which 1 barky: a Shakespearian adjective. 2 instinct, animated. Noun or adjective? On which syllable is the accent? 3 continual. See Webster. 4 Of thy perfections. What noun does this adjective phrase modify? 5 immovable. Define. 6 annihilated (from Latin nihil, nothing), hence, literally, made to be nothing. 7 old world, etc. Explain. 8 he: antecedent of this pronoun? 9 coronal (from Latin corona, a crown), a crown, wreath, or garland. What is the figure of speech? (See Def. 3.) |