Like shadows on the winter sky, But now my torpid1 fancy wakes, Below me roar 3 the rocking pines, I hear the wild rice-eater thresh I hear the far-off voyager's horn; By forest, lake, and waterfall, 1 torpid (Latin torpidus, stiff), benumbed. 4 rice-eater, the rice-bird, so named from its depredations in 2 thy, in reference to the sender rice-fields; the reed-bird. In New of the quill. 3 Below me roar, etc. This and similar expressions in the succeeding stanzas (as "I hear," "I see," etc.), are examples of the figure of speech called vision. England it is called the bobolink. 6 scythe of fire, etc. A prairiefire. 7 his sail. What figure? The mighty mingling with the mean, He's whittling by St. Mary's Falls,1 He's measuring o'er the Pictured Rocks,2 I hear the mattock in the mine, The clamor from the Indian lodge, I see the swarthy trappers come And war-chiefs with their painted brows, Behind the scared squaw's birch canoe I hear the tread of pioneers Of nations yet to be; The first low wash of waves, where soon 1 St. Mary's Falls. Where are they? 4 Jesuit chapel bell, in allusion to the mission stations established 2 the Pictured Rocks. What in early times, in the Far West, by French Jesuit missionaries, seek do you know about them? 3 mattock, a pickaxe with broad ing to Christianize the Indians. ends. 5 staked, marked off. The rudiments of empire here Are plastic yet and warm; Each rude and jostling fragment soon The raw material of a state, 4 And, westering still, the star which leads. Of many a mountain-chain. The snowy cones of Oregon 6 Then blessings on thy eagle-quill, 1 rudiments, rough elements. How is the thought expressed in the first two lines of this stanza varied in the last two? 2 chaos. Explain. 3 Its muscle and its mind. Turn these figurative terms into plain words. 4 westering, moving westward. The word is used by Milton. 5 the star. An allusion to Bishop Berkeley's line, "Westward the course of empire takes its way;' generally misquoted, "Westward the star of empire," etc. 6 snowy cones of Oregon. In allusion to the snow-clad peaks in the Cascade region, as Mount Hood, Mount Jefferson, etc., all of which are extinct volcanoes. Yet, welcomer than regal1 plumes Thy free and pleasant thoughts, chance sown, Thy symbol be the mountain-bird, In thee let joy with duty join, So, when in darkness sleeps the vale 3. THE GIFT OF TRITEMIUS. TRITEMIUS of Herbipolis,3 one day, While kneeling at the altar's foot to pray, 1 regal (from Latin rex, regis, a | 1516), a distinguished theologian, king) royal, from French roi, a king. = 2 ample air. Compare Milton: was abbot, or head, of the monastery of Herbipolis, -the Latinized name of the modern Wurzburg, in Germany. 4 miserable voice. Explain. A sound which seemed of all sad things to tell, Thereat the Abbot paused: the chain whereby 1 She cried, "For the dear love of Him who gave "Woman!" Tritemius answered, "from our door None go unfed; hence are we always poor: A single soldo3 is our only store. Thou hast our prayers: what can we give thee more?" 1 the chain whereby, etc. plain. Ex-making captives of Christians at 2 Moors. . . Tunis. The Moors of the Barbary States were for many centuries in the habit of sea, and reducing them to slavery. Recall some incidents in United States history relating to this fact. 3 soldo, a small coin. |