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ONTARIO
TEACHERS' MANUALS
NOTES ON
ONTARIO READERS
BOOKS II, III, IV
AUTHORIZED BY THE hlINISTER OF EDUCATION
TORONTO
THE COPP CLARK COMPANY. LIMITED
Copyright, Canada. 1916, by
THE MINISTER OF EDUCATION FOR ONTA.]O
Reprinted. 191. 1917. ]9"20. 192.1. 122,
1923, 1923, Ir2L
2 THE ONTARIO READERS
PACE 4.--The funniest thing. The most curious thing.
Which is always very slow. What is the antecedent
of "which "?
The way he likes to grow. As the child approaches a
light, the shadow on the wall behind shoots up rapidly.
Arrant sleepy head. An utter sleepy head. " Arrant"
means thorough or shameless. Compare "an arrant
rogue"
THE PAIL OF GOLD
PAC, 5.--Compare Forlune and the Beggar, Book
IlI, p. 2.
PAUE 7.--As you wish. The fairy makes no promise,
but the man's eager greed fails to notice this.
A WAKE-UP SONG
P.a 8.--Wind's upl The
sinks with the sun.
Golden Head and Brownie.
so called ?
Rowan tree.
fish dialect.
Bobolinks. These return about the first of June.
story of their migration is a very interesting one.
Chapman's Bird Li[e.
Cat-bird. A cat-bird is a species of American thrush ;
its cry when disturbed resembles that of a kitten in dis-
tress, though at other times it has a sweet thrush note.
A lot to do. The poet is to spend the day gardening
and wants the little ones for company.
wind usually rises and
Why are the two children
The mountain-ash is so named in Scot-
The
See
SECOND BOOK 7
We were not waked. What details bring out the con-
trast between this and the usual military invasion?
Paraded. Keeps up the comparison.
Their trembling beads and gray. The dandelions had
now reached the stage when children use them to tell the
time.
Will, pride. No doubt on account of their military
exploits and experience.
Well-a-day. t Wclaway! Alas! The word is now
usually employed with a humorous purpose.
MARCH
PA6E 31.--The poem depicts the freshness and glad-
ness of awakening spring. The cock, the stream, the birds,
and the lake are full of joyous life. Interposed in the
picture of bustle and activity is the restful quiet meadow.
Old and young are at work as well as those who naturally
bear the yoke of toil. Again comes in the scene of quiet
peace, "There arc forty feeding like one"
On the hilltops the snow is being dispersed like an
army in full flight, and a rejoicing welcome is given to
blue skies hy the whooping ploughboy, the leaping moun-
lain cascades, and the flowing streams.
SIR PHILIP SIDNEY
PAar 32.--Sir Philip Sidney was a courtier of Queen
Elizabeth and a famous writer. II was General of the
cavalry in the army sent to tile Netherlands to assist the
revolted subjects of Philip II of Spain. Ou September
21st, 1586, he fell in with a convoy of the enemy marchin
toward Zutphen. With only 500 men he charged 3,0on
THE ONTARIO READERS
of the enemy and fell mortally wounded. So nuwh was
he loved that, for some time after his death, no ge3tleman
cared to appear in London except in the garb of mourning.
NEARLY READY
PAC, E 33.--ln the ..nou'i,g, etc. March weather.
Far beneath our feet. Underground.
Nofily taps the ,'pri,g, eta-. The little flowers are
awakened from their winter sleep by the warmth of spring.
Cheerly. Cheerfully. The word is used only in
poetry.
A SONG FOR LITTLE MAY
PaaE 4.l'ompare the structure of the poem with
.-In Apple Orchard in the Spring, Book III, p. 60. The
poem is in the form of an address to a young child.
O'er their ,'ay. That is, the way of the waters.
At their feet. At the feet of the willows.
When "lis done. After daybreak.
The u'ooi,g breeze. The breeze is represented through
personification as making love to the blossoms.
With haply!! call. " Call", invitation. All things call
upon the little maid to praise the Lord.
THE LITTLE LAND
PnoE 45.--The little boy beguiles his loneliness by
visiting in fancy the fairy-land, where he himself becomes
as small and dainty a creature as the dwellers there. To
such little folk the clover-tops seem as large trees and the
rain-pools wide as seas; the flowers and grasses become
a veritable forest. Loitering in the mazes of thi
10 THE ONTARIO READERS
SEPTEMBER
PAE 64.--The gentian. One very beautiful species,
the fringed blue gentian, is common in Canada.
The sedges. Familiar grass-like plants grwing in
narsbes and damp hollows in meadows.
Ma'e asler. in the brool'. Are reflected in the brook.
The roads all flutter. A poetic transference of ideas.
Of course it is the butterflies that flutter.
Be.d of cheer. ('beer, in the sense of good things to
eat--the fruits of harvest alld orchard,
RIDING BEHIND REINDEER
P.cs 80.--East of the nrthern port, etc. They in-
habit indeed the Arctic regions of Norway, Sweden, and
Russia.
I).. 81.--Crou.ded farfher north. By the pressure
of Norwegians. Swedes, and Russians.
Below the horizon. Explain.
Pa:E 3.--Travel from place to place. This is true
only of the mouttain Lapps and the f.rest Lapps. The
fisher Lapps do not move ab,,ut, but have permanent
abodes.
HOW THE LEAVES CAME DOWN
PAGE 85.--What lesson is taught in thi poem?
Yellow md Brown. The coiours of the leaves in
autumn.
Perhaps the great Tree will forget, etc. This is a
touch of nature which establishes the kinship of the little
leaves to other little folks.
PA(E 86.--One from far away. Winter.
SECOND BOOK 17
P.,,C,F 141.--Reynard. This name is applied to the fox
in a famous German satire on the social conditions of
Europe during the middle ages, in which the struggle
between the barons and the clergy is depicted as a struggle
between the wolf and the fox; the fox by his cunning
always coming off best. leynard means cunning.
SEVEN TIMES ONE
P.GE 142.--The little seven-year-old child feels quite
grown up and demands her toll of pleasure from all things.
Unlike the foolish lambs who know no better than to play
in rain as well as sunshine, she, in the wisdom of her
graver years, waits till dew is dry and task is done. She
is a little disappointed that the moon has waned and its
face is hidden, but hopes for he best. She thinks the
bee has no right to all the gold that is going, and asks the
marsh marigolds for some of theirs.
P.GE 143.--Columbine. The columbine derives its
name from the fancied resemblance of its four spurs to
doves (Latin, columba, a dove).
('uc'ool, int. The Wake P, obin, somewhat similar in
general appearance to the Indian turnip, or Jack-in-the-
pulpit, "the clapper" being, of course, the spadix.
THE LAZY FROG
P,E 144.--Willow-weed. The willow-herb.
Money-wort. Creeping loose-strife.
May-flies. A dull brown insect ofteu found on wall
or pa|ings near water; very common here oward the
end of June.
SECOND BOOK 19
of Attica, who penetrated the Labyrinth through the help
of Ariadne (A-ri-ad'nO, daughter of Minos.
The King. Minos (Mi'nos), King of Crete, famed
throughout the world for his justice.
PAtI 158.---A strange prison. The Labyrinth.
His son. Icarus (Ic'arus), who by the accident, related,
gave a name to the Icarian Sea.
HASTE NOT. REST NOT
PAC.E 166.--A homely paraphrase of the poem is, " Be
sure you are right, then go ahead ".
Mar speed. Ever)" unworthy act lessens the
inclination to do right.
Pond,r well. This corresponds to " Ila.te not ", just
as " Onward then " corresponds to "rest not ".
Reckless action. Nearly synonymous with " thought-
less deed"
TIc storms of fate. The ills and misfortunes of life.
Polar. Fixed and constant. The metaphor is from
the polar star, which alone among the heavenly bodies
appears to retain a fixed position.
Shall crown. Shall reward.
INDIAN SUMMER
PAGE 171.--Smoky hills. The haze characteristic of
Indian summer. Compare " By the smoky amber light",
Book IV, p. 369.
Crimson forest. Crimson refers to the rich colouring
of the autumn woods.
SECOND BOOK 21
Talents. The talent was equal to about $1,180.
Alexander. Alexander the Great, who afterwards
became conqueror of the known world and, as the story
goes, wept because " he had no more worlds to conquer"
SPEAK GENTLY
P),.E 175.--AcccMs. Tones.
Sands of life. This metaphor is derived from the
hour-glass, in which time is measured hy running sands.
In peace depart. " Now lettest thou thy servant depart
in peace." St. Luke it. 29.
The errbg. Those who have strayed into the paths of
sin.
Made them so. Made them wicked.
LIFE IN THE DESERT
PAC, E 181.--None too sweet. Slightly stale, or brack-
ish, as much of the desert water is.
THE UNION JACK
Phone 183.--Uio Jack. The Jack wa. a quilted
military coat covered with lcather w.rn over a c-at of
mail. In the time of the Crusades, a cross was displayed
upon it, so that when the three crosses were united, the
flag came to be called the Union Jack.
A VISIT FROM -qT. NICHOLAS
P. 185.--St. Nicholas. The patron saint of boys;
said to have been the Bishop of Myra in Lycia (Lyc'i-a),
and to have died ,.D. 326.
30 THE ONTARIO READERS
FORTUNE AND THE BEGGAR
Compare with this selection The Dog and His Shadow,
and The Boy and the Jar of Nuts. They both contain
the same moral: He tcho gra.'ps at too much is apt to lose
all. Notice how the boy. the dog, and the beggar alike fall
victim. to the discipline of consequences. In the punish-
ment of the beggar there is a tou(.h of poetic ju.tice, for
he is condemned out of his own mouth. The introduction
of Fortune with the magic gold gives the fable all the
charm of a fairy story; while the '" tragic irony" in the
beggar's blinduess to his own fate, which is an open secret
to tle reader, lends pungency to the narrative.
Make four divisions: (1) The beggar, (2) the beggar
philosophizes, (3) the incidet, (1; the i.sue. The con-
clusion leaves the obvious moral unstated.
Why is a beggar employed to convey the moral ? Notice
that he is the usual wretched, whining, shiftless fellow.
Iu what respects are the merobant and the beggar
alike? Wherein different?
Pac, e 2.--Mountain. of gold. Scarce]y an exaggera-
tion from the beggar's point of view. as a small sum
would seem to him an enormous fortune.
His riches were swallowed up. The beggar allows him-
self to become figurative while moralizing upon the folly
of his fellow mortal.. What other figurative expressions
does he employ?
Do not lod it. The beggar is as deaf to warning as
he is false to his own philosophy of life.
Began o tremble. The transformation from philo-
sophie contentment with little, to arrant greed, is
THIRD BOOK $1
THE LARK AND THE ROOK
The poem is an allegory containing a rebuke to
worldliness and display.
The bird that soars on highest wing
Builds on the ground her lowly nest,
And she that cloth most sweetly sing
Sings In the shade when all things rest;
In lark and nightingae we see
What honour hath humility.
PAGE 4.--Tire Lark. The English sky-lark, which is
referred to here, is a much smaller bird than the American
meadow-lark. "The bird that occupies the second place
to the nightingale in British poetical literature is the
sky-lark, a pastoral bird as the Philomel is arboreaI,--a
creature of light, and air, and motion, the companion of
the ploughman, the shepherd, the harvester,--whose nest
is in the stubble, and whose tryst is in the clouds. Its
life affords that kind of contrast which the imagination
loves---one moment a plain pedestrian bird, hardly dis-
tinguishable from the ground, tile next a soaring, un/irin
songster, revelling in the upper air, challenging the eve
to follow him and tile ear o separate his notes."--Birds
and Poefs--Bt'nnOrOHS
The English rook is a bird resembling the crw, but
differing from it in not feeding on carrion but on insects
and graiu.
Any little depression in the ground serves the lark
for a resting-placea hoof-print, or the hollow left by a
displaced stone. The rook, on the other hand, builds a
large nest of looselv interwoven sticks and twigs in the
tops of tall trees. The obtrusive habits of the rook and
his ebon plumage are too well known and too eloquently
described by himself here to call for more than a passing
THIRD BOOK
of these birds represent? The reading should express
disdain.
Aa ugly speck .... beams. The line is scarcely
consistent with "at peep of day" abo'e. Compare with
"The sun shone forth on my ebon wing ", below.
What a foolish bird. Foolish to " waste his sweetness
on the desert air".
The park. Where he could be seen and admired by
the fashionable throng.
Made more noise ia the world. To " make a noise in
the world" is to become famous. The line conveys the
writer's suppressed cynicism upon the methods by which
fame is usually acquired. Notice the double meaning
(pun).
Looked and wondered. That is, at his own beauty.
Poor thig. '" You're of no account ".
,Iy choice. Compare the life ideals represented by
the two birds.
THE PICKWICK CLUB ON THE ICE
P(E 6.--The Pickwickiars have been mid-winter
guests at Mr. Wardle's house part)', and ever)- one is out
to-day for the skating.
!Mr. Winkle has been posing as a " sport", a character
which he .ometinle. finds it diiticult to sustain. He seeks
to escape the results of his pretensions I)v pleading that
he is out of practice; but who could refuse requests so
prettily preferred; his second line of defence is broken
down e'en more easily; and Dickens proceeds to relate,
with inimitable humour, the storv of his complete dis-
eomflture. The surprising skill of the other skaters, while
it serves for a time to draw attention from his own odd
performances, must have filled him with dismay.
6 THE ONTARIO READERS
Carnage blind. That is, purposeless. Notice the suit-
ability of " lust", which means fierce desire, to convey
the idea of blind, purposeless strife.
P.c.z 13.--The blade. The sword-blade, part put for
the whole.
The willing lands. Nature is represented as being
anxious to bestow her gifts.
Oppression lifts its head. Oppression is personified
in the guise of a serpent.
Tyrant u'ould be lord. Repeats the preceding idea in
concrete form. Is the poem, as a whole, true to the history
of the progress of civilization ?
PROFESSOR FROG'S LECTURE
Recall the fable of The Boy and the Frogs. This
fable is inter,deal to inculcate the lesson of kindness to
harmless creatures, usually /he objects of a thoughtless
persecution. As in Fortone and the Beggar, this fable
takes the form of an interesting story, and the moral is
enforced, though without such serious consequences,
through the application of poetic justice. The dream
form of the story permits the writer to employ her
materials--the boy and the frogsin ways otherwise inex-
plicable. The usual machinery of the fable--the speaking
animals and the supernatural personages--would not have
permitted the free play of light and sketchy humour in
which the selection abounds. The lecture of the professor
was, of course, suggested to the author by the fac that
frogs are familiar subjects of laboratory experiment and
vivisection.
Pae.E 14.--Not quite sure. The description of the
little lad, lying in the bright spring stmshine by the edo ,f
THIRD BOOK 43
German states, which barred his ambitions to make him-
self master of Europe. A clear passage to the Danube was
assured him by the accession of Bavaria to his cause, and
he at once began to move four large, fully equipped
armies upon Vienna, the heart of the confederacy. By the
time that three of these had concentrated, Marlborough
had effected a junction of his army with those of Prince
Eugene and the Margrave Louis. The opposing armies
met, on August 13th, 1704, near the village of Bleuheim
in Bavaria, at a point where several small rivulets run
through swampy ground to the Danube. It was the diffi-
culty of crossing this swampy ground to force the French
into action which constituted Marlborough's main obstacle,
and here the heaviest slaughter occurred. Here, no doubt,
Peterkin found the skull beside the rivulet. For a good
account of the battle the teacher is referred to Allison's
Life of Marlborough. Henry's Cornet of Horse gives an
admirable description for the pupils. The victory of
Blenheim put an end to dreams of French supremacy in
Europe and gave the Teutonic nations an opportuuity for
expansion and development. It is likely that Southey
had never taken the trouble to inform himself fully as to
the causes and outcome of the war, or he would scarcely
have put the words, "our good Prince Eugene ", into the
mouth of the Bavarian Kaspar.
The poem is written in simple, plain language, almost
devoid of adornment. Its purpose is to show that the
whole question of the value of war as a factor in human
progress needs to be reconsidered from a fresh point of
view. Old Kaspar is quite content to accept the historical
and conventional view. The grandchildren, with a fresher
outlook not yet obscured by tradition and custom, demand
44 THE ONTARIO IEADEIS
a more reasonable justification of war with all its horrors,
than the mere glory gained by the victor.
PaGE 3..--Theres many. Colloquial for there are".
I'ouny Peterkin, he cries. The repeated subject is
especially awkward here.
Wonder-u'aitin#. The epithet is well chosen.
The Duke o[ Marlborough. 3ohn Churchill, Duke of
/larlborough, was born in 1(;50. Hc entered tile army at
an early age, ad served with distinction in France. He
held high rank in the army in the reign of James II, but
deserted him to espouse fle cause of William of Orange.
Upon William's accession, he was rewarded by important
commands in Ireland and elsewhere; but the Princess
Anne falling under the sway of his wife. Marlborough
formed a plot to place her on the throne. For this he
was disgraced, but returned to court when the Princess
was recalled after the death of Queen Mary. Upon his
death-bed, King William recommended Anne to intrust to
]larlborough the conduct of the war. His great fame
began with the victory of Blenheim.
lie died in 1722, after amassing an enormous fortune
by peculation and avarice.
P.c,E 33.Prince Eugene. The great grandson of the
Duke of Savoy was born in 1663 and died in 1736. He
was one of the greatest generals of modern times, and won
distinction not only in the Marlborough campaigns, but
also against the Turks.
Why "lea.. N'otice how abruptly the little girl breaks
in on the old man's reminiscences, as also "little Peter-
kin " below.
"'Nay, nay". The particle of deprecation, not nega-
tion.
THIRD BOOK 45
THE RIDE FOR LIFE
)Irs. Murray and Rana]d had taken the journey to
carry relief to Ranald's father, who had been injured by a
falling tree.
The superb self-control of Mrs. Murray and the devo-
tion of Ranald are brought out hy the terrible dangers to
which they were exposed. The gratitude of Mrs. Murray
forms a satisfactory conclusion to a story told with vivid
realism. The story requires little eplanation.
P.Gv, 35.--A dark form. Is this one of the wolves
belonging to the pack " trying to head off their prey"?
If so, he disappears rather oddly frtm the story.
P.(v, 36.--Su.'picious mture. Suspicious of a trap;
many stories are told illustratix'e of this trait aiding in the
escape of travellers.
Dropped it on the road. To arouse their suspicion of a
trap.
The dangers from the attacks f wolves have been
greatly exaggerated.
IAGOO. THE BOASTER
This selection is taken from Hiatcatha (1855), Section
XI, " Hiawatha's Wedding Feast"
Iagoo (I-ah'-goo) is represented in the poem as old
and ugly.
P-6 39.--2Vokomis (No-ko'-mis). Grandmother of
Hiawatha.
THE STORY OF A FIRE
The story is used as an illustration of the truth of
Shakespeare's famous line, " One touch of nature makes
the whole world kin". In a moment such as that
THIRD BOOK 47
Slender poles with cross-bars. A simple drawing will
make this clear. The use of a single stringer would greatly
reduce the weight of the ladder.
Like human flies. This is almost the only figure of
speech, the author relying mainly upon the directness and
vigour of the language for his effects.
Nearer arid nearer. The repetition suggests effort.
Span. The space between the windows of one story
and those of the next above. The distance spanned I,y the
ladder.
Just a.q tl, e petit-up flames. The moment of crisis is
well described.
PACE 42.--Like a Comalche (Ko-man'che). A raid-
ing Indian tribe of Western Texas famous as horseback
riders. The expression, " to yell like a Comanche', has
become proverbial.
THE QUEST
The poem is founded on the ohl Erse legend that a
boy sought the world over for the four-leaved shamrock
which should bring him happiness, and returned, an old
man, to find it growing beside his own door-step. The
well-worn theme is treated with a dainty, airy freshness,
which not only redeems it from the commonplace, but
compels the commonplace to add to its charms.
PAE 43. A restless boy. Hence the quest.
Who du'elt free. Affords little excuse for
his discontent.
But. For all that.
Good motler. This is changed to " Sweet mother",
when he returns. Why?
This little brou'n house, this old brou, n house. The
repetition suggests the boy's mood, weary of the same dull
THIRD BOOK
self-denial in ancient days. lie now takes his illustration
from the immediate present, as more likely to appeal to
the boys of the Westminster Public School whom he
appears to be addressing.
P-(E 52.--Very few adrantages of birth. The West-
minster School is for the education of the sons of the
upper and middle classes.
Pa(E 53.--Do you knou" of u'hom I am thinking?
The orator must endeavour to keep his audience just a
little ahead of him by skilful suggestion, as is done here.
Notice in this connection the frequent use of interroga-
tion, by which the speaker seeks to keep the attention of
his audience and to feel his way.
The training-ship Goliath. This ship, which is men-
tioned in the list of battle-ships with Nels,ll at the hattie
of the Nile, was afterwards employed as a training-ship,
and was burned December 22nd, 1875.
Pa(E 54.--The barge. This is spoken of above as a
boat. A barge is a fiat-bottomed vessel used in loading
and unloading ships.
The u'ay at sea. For " the way at sea" compare with
The Wreck of the Orpheus, p. 184.
HEARTS OF OAK
The year of Pitt's greatest triumph, 1759, witnessed
the victories of Minden, Quiberon, and Quebec. The
spirit of the time is well represented in Admiral Ilawke's
reply to the pilot who conducted his fleet to the attack of
the French at Quiberon Bay. When warned that the
shoals were impassable, he coolly replied : " You have done
your duty iu this remonstrance, now lay me alongside the
French Admiral"
52 THE ONTARIO READERS
The poem has the salt air of breezy seas in its breath.
P,c.F. 55.--Conic, c]eer up, my lads. Addressed to
sailors sad at leaving home.
Tlis u'onderful year. See above.
To lwnour u'e call you. Compare with " to glory we
steer ".
Not press you. " Press", in contrast with "call",
refers to the institution of the "press-gang" which
scoured England for suitablc men to serve at sea.
Wlo are so free? The interrogation develops the con-
trast iu.tituted in the foregoing lines.
Sons of the u'aves. A title well calculated to arouse
the pride of the sailors in their calling.
l[carls of oak agab and again. This con-
stitutes a fine chorus with a ringing close.
A WET SHEET AND A FLOWING SEA
The theme of the poem is the fierce joy that a sailor feels
in the war with roaring tempests. The swinging, heaving
pitch of tlm wood ship as she dashes on throuv.h foaming
billows, the splintering flash of the lightning, and the
wild, shrill music of the piping winds fill him with a joy
of mastery altogether kingly; so that the ship becomes
his palace and the sea his heritage. As the poem proceeds,
the fresh free wind becomes a gale, and with moonrise a
tempest.
PAGE 56.A wet sleet. The sheet is not the sail, but
the rope which, attached to the boom, regulates the posi-
tion of the sail.
A flowing sea. A sea with onward-sweeping billows.
Rustling sail. lustling as it fills.
THIRD BOOK 53
And bends the #allant ,hast. Observe that the repeti-
tion of the line gives freedom, verve, and swing to the flow
of the rhythm; for the production of like effects see The
Fighting Tkmraire (Tt-m-rtr'), p. 273.
On the lee. Would not England be to windward of a
ship leaving her with a following wind? One may sup-
pose that the general meaning is, /eaves the sheltering
of the coast. The language is obviously that of a sheer
landsman.
The snoring breeze. Describes a steady, heavy breeze
--the opposite of the "soft and. gentle breeze" above.
PaGE 57.--Yon hornkd moon. A moon with clearly
defined upward pointing horns is, as every sailor knows or
believes, a sure sign of coming storm.
A FAREWELL
The poem is said to have been written under depre.-
sing circumstances, for a young lady who had asked the
poet for an autograph, as he was on the point of leaving
a country house at which he had been visiting.
PaG 59. Xo lark could pipe. Develop the compari-
son.
Who hails the dawn. See notes and reerenees under
The Lark and the Rook, page 4.
The breezy down. A down is a stretch of hilly
country.
To earn. How to earn.
Poet's laurel. The laurel, or sweet bay, was sacred to
Apollo, and chaplets of it with berries adhering were
placed upon the heads of victors and poets.
Do noble things. Let the poets dream them.
That vast [orever. Eternity.
THIRD BOOK 55
PAGE 60.--Spreading trees. Suggest such trees as the
pear, the Lombardy poplar, the mountain-ash, or rowan,
as contrasts to these.
Hoary. The trees just before the buds burst present
the appearance of being covered with hoar frost.
Glory. Glorious beauty.
The marts. The throstle, or song-thrush. This bird's
rich song may be heard from early spring to autumn. It
frequents copses, groves, and orchards, and feeds on worms
and snails.
Caught their subtle odours. Calls attention to tile rich
variety of odours due to tile honey secreted by tile blossoms.
Pink buds u'hile. Notice tile prevalence of
labials and liquids (b's, p's, and l's) in these lines, giving
the impression of velvety softness.
Pink cascades. Showers of apple blossoms. Distin-
guish cascades, fall, cataract.
Compare Wordsworth's Green Linnet :
Beneath these fruit-tree boughs that shed
Their snow-white blossoms on my head.
With brightest sunshine round me spread
Of spring's unclouded weather,
In this sequestered nook how sweet
To sit upon my orchard-seat!
And birds and flowers once more to greet.
lIy last year's friends together.
Silver brooklets. This is suggested by "cascades"
above, and supplies the necessary sound accompaniment to
the falling cascades; notwithstanding this, the line seems
a trifle out of place here.
The cuckoo bird. "These birds frequent gardens,
groves, and fields, in fact any localities where their insect
food is abundant In habits the cuckoo is
60 THE ONTARIO READERS
second, an apostrophe to the harp; whilst the first four in
each refer to the Minstrel-boy and carry on the narratix'e.
Read iu connection with this lesson: The Harp That
Oce Tlro,gh Tara's Halls, Book IV, p. 174.
t'aE 71.--Tie ranks of death. The ranks of the
doomed.
His wild lmrp. The adjective is descriptive of the
free, untaught melodies rather than of the harp; trans-
ferred epithet.
Land of sog. Ireland.
Tle warrior-bard. Unites the ideas of "'sword" and
" harp", though it is somewhat out of keeping with
" Minstrel-boy" above.
Tied" all the v'orld betrays thee. Paraphrase "I am
ready to fight for nay country even if I have to fight
aloe ". ('mnpare "" Ote sword " below.
The foema's chai. Discuss the propriety of the
metaphor.
Brbg lis proud soul uder. Subdue.
Spoke again.. Xote the personification.
The poets refuse to sing while their country is in
chains. In connection with thi% the teacher will do well
to recall lhat it was the Welsh bards who protracted the
hopeless struggle for freedom against overpowering odds
in the time of Edward First and kept alive the spirit of
freedom until they were butchered by the order of the
King. Poetry has always given its voice for freedom.
Read Tennvson's Of old sat Freedom o the heights,
and Yo, ." me n'ly : also Bms' Scot.q wire hae.
"We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst
thereof. For there they that carried us away captive
required of us a song: and they that wasted us required of
us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion."--
Psalm cxxxvii. 9..
THE ONTARIO READERS
A noble shame. What reason had he for shame? Why
is it described as "noble "?
PAe): 9.--Names sed to mean fhing.. This sug-
gests that early memories are being aroused.
PAGe, 80.--She--gets it, sir. Compare above, " and
snatch something and steal like Joe",
Be wondering for me. Looking anxiously for me.
P,6, 81.--Made less noise. Suggests--what ?
"Forty dollars "', Why quotation marks?
PaaE 82.--But he ordered chicken, etc. Note tile long
sentence without a single break, appropriately used to
express one long unbroken feast.
What is to be learned from this lesson ?
Might be yet. This phrase satisfies the reader with its
promise of repentance and reformation for the hero of
the story.
THE FROST
Tile first stanza describes how the frost works. The
second shows how he dresses nature. The third shows his
work as an artist. The fourth introduces a touch of
humour describing the mischief he does.
What contrast is brought out in the first stanza?
P,G, 83.--That blustering train. " The wind and the
snow, the hail and the rain." The frost compares his own
silent method of work with that of other natural agencies.
Pou'dered its crest. An allusion to the habit of dress-
ing tile hair with powder.
The trees are compared to ladies decked with jewels;
the lake to a warrior defended by a coat of mail; the
rocks to spearmen armed for battle.
Like a fairy. :Noiselessly.
THIRD BOOK
Explain the action of frost on the window pane in a
warm room with a moist atmosphere.
Distinguish between "bevies" and "swarms ".
PAE 84.--Sheen. Brightness.
Had forgotlen. What preparation might they have
made?
CORN-FIELDS
The introduction includes stanzas one and two. The
conclusion is given in the last stanza. Each of the remain-
ing four contains a reference to a Biblical story.
The theme as given in the introduction and explained
in the couclusion is "lemories awakened by gazing on the
fields at harvest-time".
What simile occurs in the first stanza? Wherein does
the likeness consist ?
P.E 85.--1 feel the day; 1 see the field. A rather
unpleasant conjunction. I feel the influences of the day.
Its calm and restfulness put the writer in the dreamy,
reminiscent frame of mind suitable to development of the
ideas expressed in the poem.
Good old Jacob and his house. Jacob and his household.
The story of Joseph's dream referred to is given in
Genesis xxxvii. 7. For tho beautiful story of Ruth and
Boaz, see the Book of Ruth. Explain to the class
"sickles" and "gleaners "; use pictorial illustrations if
possible. The story of the Shunammite is given in 2
Kings iv. 20, et seq. The story of the Saviour in the corn-
fields is given in St. lIatthew xii. 1. These stories should
be read fo the class before the study of the poem is com-
menced at all.
How do you justify the printer's indentations in the
verse form ?
THIRD BOOK
It'll take longer to do the mutton then. Compare
above, " Only till the mutton's done".
Dryly. Ironically.
P.OE 90.--The knuckle. Toward the end of the knee-
joint; a piece from this would not be much noticed.
PAOE 91.---An educalional box on the ear. Ruskin,
as might be guessed, was not in sympathy with these edu-
cational methods.
Amen. So be it. Schwartz's expression is'taken liter-
ally; this indicates the coolness of the little gentleman.
PAOE 92.--A drying-house. A place for drying meat
so as to preserve it.
WalkWThe single word emphasizes the rudeness of
Hans.
Red-nosed fellov.'. A reference to the brassy tint of his
nose.
A little bit. The modesty of the request justifies the
retribution which followed its refusal.
P,,GE 94.--Double bar the door. To prevent the
entrance of the unwelcome guest.
P,GE 95.--A hole in lhe shutter. All the shutters had
been put up.
P, 96.--Horror-struck. Or horror-stricken.
THE MEETING OF THE WATERS
Moore sings of conviviality, love, friendship, and
patriotism. His longer poems are for the most part
romantic or sentimental. Classify this poem. Many of
his lyrical poems derive their beauty from the undertone of
sadness. Nature is only attractive to him as the scene
of human joys and sorrows, loves and friendships. The
teacher should trace this last idea throughout the poem.
THIRD BOOK
WORK OR PLAY
The selection is in Mark Twain's characteristically
humorous style. The humour of exaggeration is em-
ployed; }Jut more effective are the delightful touches in
which he depicts the peculiarities, the likes and dislikes of
his boys, and the singular felicity of his idiomatic boy-
talk.
The divisions of the story are: (1) Tom's depression.
(2) His plan. (3) How it, worked. (4) The lesson he
had learned.
The world pictured in the first paragraph as so full
of inviting delights accounts for Tom's gloom on account
of not being able to share in them.
PAGE lO1.--Conlinent of unwhitewashed fence. In
what sense is "continent" used ?
His sorrows multiplied. Why?
Delicious expeditions. Suggest some of them.
At this burst upot lim. How does Tom
show his utter despondency? From being a dark and
gloomy pessimist, Tom's practical philosophy changes him
into a cheerful and contented optimist.
PAGE 102.--Hove in sight. This suggests the keen
outlook Tom kept up for possible scoffers.
Personating a steam-boat. The writer draws on a per-
sonal experience for his illustration. One of his most
popular books is Life on the Mississippi.
No answer. Superb acting on Tom's part. What is
it intended to suggest ?
How does Tom show the delight of an artist in his
work ?
I'm going in a-swimming, I am. Where is the em-
phasis ? Note the triumphant close.
THE ONTARIO READERS
Tom contemplated the boy. In an affectation of won-
der. At what?
PAG 103.--It suits Tom Sawyer. Why does Tom
refer to himself by name ?
Like it? By what methods does Tom make the boys
anxious to share in the work ?
PAGE 104.--The slauyhter of more innocents. Note
the humorous periphrasis. The allusion, now lost through
long usage, is to Herod's massacre of the innocents. St.
Matthew, Chapter it. 16-18.
Came to jeer, but remained to whiteu'ash. Humorous
allusion to those '" who came to scoff, remained to pray",
in Goldsmith's The Deserted Village.
PAGE 105.--Bought in. The language of the stock
exchange. " Slaughter of more innocents" is also a stock
exchange phrase.
Itollow world. The language of the blas6, humorously
attributed to a mere lad. This is the humour of incon-
gruity.
THE BURIAL OF SIR JOHN MOORE
Sir John Moore was born at Glasgow in 1761. He
entered the service as an ensign at the age of fifteen. At
the beginning of the Peninsular War, the command of
the second division of the British Army was intrusted to
him. After a series of disasters, he withdrew his troops,
by-the most masterly retreat recorded in the annals of
history, to the harbour of Corunna (KS-run'ha), where he
expected to re-embark. The fleet had not yet arrived.
Here, on Januarv 16th, 1809, the French, under Soult,
gave battle, and Moore was mortally wounded in-the hour
of victory, the British loss being 800 as azainst n Frn,,h
THIRD BOOK 69
loss of 3,000. The story of his death and burial is thus
recorded by /he historian: "When life was just extinct,
with an unsubdued spirit, as if anticipating the baseness
of his posthumous calumniators, he exclaimed, ' I hope
the people of England will be satisfied. I hope my coun-
try will do me justice'".--NArlEI. During the night
the body was removed by the officers of the staff to the
citadel in which, in accordance with his wish to be buried
near the scene of his glory, it was resolved to inter his
remains. As the feeble light of a wintry morning broke
over Corunna and the French guns were opening fire
upon the barbour, the chaplain of the Guards read the
funeral service by a hastily dug grave, into which the
body of the deceased general was lowered " with his
martial cloak around him", there being no means to
provide a coffin.--Abbreviated from Clinton's Peninsular
War.
The usual military funeral with all its details--the
slow-moving procession, the muffled drum, the military
band, the coffin covered with the flag, the riderless steed,
the arms reversed, the farewell volley, etc., should be con-
trasted with the deseri|)tion here given. See The Burial
o[ Moses, Book IV, p. 80.
But, when the warrior dieth,
His comrales in the war,
With arms reversed and muffled drums,
Follow his funeral car.
Who is supposed to be telling the story?
PAGE 106.--Where our hero we buried. A rather weak
and awkward line yielding to the exigencies of the rhyme.
Darkly. Secretly. Why ?
Struggling. Explained by "misty".
70 THE ONTARIO READEBS
Like a warrior taking his rest. As if he were merely
asleep. It would be some consolation for them to remem-
ber him thus.
P,E lo7.--Tho,ght of the lnorrow. This refers to
the sense of bereavement they would feel on account of the
loss of their gallant commander.
O'er his cold a.hes upbraid him. They fear that the
h,e and the stranger will upbraid him, or perhaps the
reference is to the storm of hostile and ignorant criticism
of his conduct of the war. in Egland. See introduction.
Sullenly. Sullen after their defeat.
Fresh and gory. An unhappy conjunction of ideas.
Carved nt a lin. Erected no memorial stone.
The teacher will observe that the story is told strictly
in order of the events--the funeral march, the digging of
the grave, the funeral service, the filling in of the grave.
Ilead in connection with the above Collins' Ode
Written in 176, Book IV, p. 315.
THE WHISTLE]
Written in the grave and precise style and elegant
diction of .Xddison, of whom the author was an imitator
and admirer. To a modern ear it is prosy and stilted.
3.n amusin. story is told in the first paragraph, illus-
trating a childish propensity. In the second, the story is
made use of to coi a llrase, quite in tim author's usual
way. In the third, this phrase is given currency. The
two following paragraphs make special application to life
of the lesson contained in the phrase. The last paragraph
sums up.
PAcE 108.A whistle that I met. An unusual use of
the verb.
THE ONTARIO READERS
each in his own way, the essentials of the story alone being
preserved in each.
Its variety of fortune in war. The heroic defence of
Haarlem from December, 15;2, to July, 1573, against the
Spanish forces under Don Frederick, son of the Duke of
Alva, is one of the most romantic and heroic struggles in
the history of the world.
But happily still more so. The first paragraph sug-
gests the ethical purpose of the story, namely: "That
Peace hath its victories', that the performance of the
simplest duties may call for a more unselfish heroism than
the greatest military achievements. See also the con-
cluding paragraph.
PAGE lll.--Rather than above it. Parts of the coast
of ttolland are lower than the sea; hence the necessity of
the sea-wall.
The cock of a [ountain. The kitchen tap.
The dike. The canal embankment, used commonly as
a road in Holland.
PAGE ll2.--That the bbe of tle flowers, etc. All
colours tend to the same shade as night comes on.
Every object is perceptible. Explains his finding the
hole in the sluice gate.
His injunction. What was this? Itow had he shown
that he wished to obey it ?
The ravine. Probably only a hollow on the inner side
of the dike, a few feet deep. What is the proper meaning
of the word ?
The beach. The sea-shore. He had been travelling
along on the landward side of the dike.
Upon pebbles. The sloping sides of the dike were faced
up with pebbles.
THIRD BOOK
Instant perception. Compare with second paragraph.
Pao l13.--To see, to throw away the flowers, etc.
:Note the rapidity of his actions. How is this suggested
by the literary form ?
All very well. The emphatic " all " suggests a con-
trast, in this case introduced by '" But ".
No o,e came. Note the succession of short sentences
indicating the boy's excitement.
The boy moved not. :Note the special force of the nega-
tive sentence.
What circumstances are recorded to show the lad's
courage and tenacity of purpose ?
Pxo l l4.--Wrilhing from pain. An unusual use of
the preposition.
Was the answer, in perfect simplicity, of the child. An
unusually stiff inversion. The child was unconscious of
his heroism.
The Muse of History. Clio. Who were the remaining
Muses ?
Real. Suggests that those honoured by history are not
always true heroes.
FATHER WILLIAM
The poem is a parody on Southey's Father William. It
is to be treated so as to bring out its humorous absurdities.
The flippancy of the old man, and the correction of his
follies by his son. humorously alter the situation presented
in Southey's Father William:
"You are old, Father W.llllarn," the young man cried;
"' The few locks which are left you are gray;
You are hale, Father Wllllam,--a hearty old man:
Now tell me the reason, I pray."
74 THE ONTARIO READERS
" In he days of my youth," Father William replied,
"I remembered that youth would fly fast.
And abused not my health and my vigour at first,
That I never might need them at last."
THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE
The Charge of the Light Brigade occurred in the Battle
of Balaklava during the Cri_ean War. See Book IV, p.
316.
The rhhm adopted by the poet, though found in
earlier British poetry, is said to have been suggested by
the line "' Some one had blundered", vhich occurred in
the original newspaper report of the battle. The poem
vas written next day after reading the report, in a moment
of patriotic fervour. In the ring and clangour of its
rhythmical effects it is scarcely surpassed.
The features of the Charge, presented successively, are:
The order to charge, the advance, tle charge, the carnage,
the return, the conclusion.
P.GE 123.--H, lf eage. The repetition of the
phrase emphasizes the terrible destructio] to which the
soldiers were exposed in that half league through "the
valley of Death ".
All. What part of speech?
Ifo fIe valley of DeaI,. The language is borrowed
from Psalm xxiii. 4: " Yea, though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil"
Rode le six ]dred. What is the purpose of the
inversion ?
ClaLqe for ]e gs. The order was to attempt to cap-
ture a Russian battery--an impossible feat, which could
only result in a useless sacrifice of
THIRD BOOK
Note the symmetry of form in the first stanza, the last
two lines in each quatrain corresponding.
Select other examples of poetic symmetry, and note
the frequent use of parallel construction to gain the effect
of hurry and excitement.
Not tho" the soldier knew. Illustrating the soldier's
unquestioning obedience to duty. See note on "' Charge
for the guns"
To do awd die. Compare in Burns' Scots wha hae,
"Let us do or die ".
Cannon in front of tlera. Compare with the fifth
stanza, and account for the change.
PAGE 124.--The jaws of Death the mouth of
Hell. .Note the force given by the metaphors.
They turned. That is, the sabres. The sabre is the
short caralry sword.
Charging an army. Emphasizes the disparity in num-
bers.
Cossack. A Russian light horseman drawn from the
steppes in the vicinity of the Don River.
MAGGIE TULLIVER
This selection is taken from The Mill on the Floss,
Chapter VII.
The story is divided into three scenes: the greeting,
the rash act, the punishment.
Treated as a story, these are the divisions. Much more
significant, however, is the passage as a character study.
Bring out the contrast between Maggie and Lucy.
PA 125Heyday. t An exclamation of surprise and
deprecation.
76 THE ONTARIO READERS
Loud enphasis. Suggests the unsympathetic char-
acter of Aunt Glegg.
Do little boys f Why is the question asked in the third
person ?
POE 126.--She ,anted to 'lHsper, etc. An author's
aside to the reader, suggestive of the fact that Mrs. Tulli-
ver herself stood a little in dread of the aunts.
Look 1 . Clearly Aunt Glegg is the family regulator.
Aunt Pullet is not quite so outspoken in her disapproval,
but still somehow manages to make remarks which sound
disagreeable.
Shutting her lips. Suggests the answer she would
have liked to make had she felt at liberty.
Mr. Tulliver comes with rough humour and sympathy
to the rescue of his daughter; though he, too, has fallen
into the family habit of eriticising his rather weak wife.
Pao 127.You ],'now 1 did. A petulance natural
under the circumstances.
For this. Maggie is in too much of a hurry to explain
fully; besides, she wants to surprise even Toni.
P,. 128.--My buttons. The teacher will note
throughout, Tom'. idioms. Compare Tom Sawyer in
Work or Play, p. 100.
It was ratler good fun. Tom is inconsiderate even
beyond the common run of boys; of a nature purely
egoistic, and lacking sensitiveness.
PA. 129.--,'pitfire. Tom, with his accustomed self-
ishness, throws the whole blame of the affair on Maggie.
P,o 130.--Who waited at table. Even the servants
would laugh at her.
Perhaps her father and her uncles. Why "perhaps"?
Apricot pudding and the custard. What a dreadful
THIRD BOOK 77
price, with her childish love of goodies, she had to pay
for her impulsiveness.
What have you been a-doing? Dialect suitable to the
maid.
PAor. 131.--Bitter. How well the word expresses her
experience.
Ye-e-es. Doubtfully, yet preparing to give in.
The dessert, you know. ,Some consolation in nuts,
apples, and raisins, even for woes as great as hers.
Looked reflectire. What was she reflecting upon?
The keenest edge. Explain the metaphor.
Slowly slowly. Parallel construction; why
employed ?
Dining-parlour. Dining-room.
Peeping in. Doubtful of her reception.
An empty chair. How tempting it all looked!
Too much. Too much to resist.
PAo. 132.--What little girl's this? Uncle Glegg good-
humouredly tries to treat it as a joke.
Fie, [or shame! Aunt Glegg, true to herself, uses the
tone of severity. Compare above, as also Aunt Pullet.
Pao. 133.--In a pitying tone. Her tone, rather than
her words, expressed her real feeling.
Derikion. Maggie, in her distress, fails to understand
Uncle Glegg.
Supported by the recent appearance, etc. What insight
is given of Tom ?
Ran to her [atler. Who had a more perfect under-
standing of her than had her weaker mother.
-ive over crying. A colloquial expression for "stop
crying ", as we should say in Canada.
lad done very ill. Cant expression for "had left them
poorly provided for ".
THE ONTARIO READERS
THE CORN SONG
The first three stanzas are introductory. The next
six stanzas present in succession: the ploughing, the sow-
ing, the growing, the harvesting, the preparation of the
corn, and the feasting upon it. The last stanza forms the
conclusion.
PaGe. 134.--W.intry hoard. For "winter hoard ".
Autumn poured. Personification.
Her larish horn. An allusion to the fabled cornucopia,
or horn of plenty, represented as filled with fruits and
flowers.
The second and third stanzas develop a contrast be-
tween the corn of the northern latitudes and the fruits
of milder climes, wholly favourable to the former.
Glean. Used in the sense of gathering joyously. What
is the usual significance .9
The apple from the pine, etc. Pine-apples, oranges,
and grapes. Of what countries are these the special
products ?
Glossy green.
in these words.
The hardy gift.
implied.
Our rugged tales.
Changeful April.
above.
Frigh tened
this usually done ?
P.GE 135.--Its soft
reference ?
Moon-lit e,es. Explain why specially applied
autumn. Why not speak of summer's moon-llt
The leaf of the orange is well described
Corn; bring out the contrast
Especially of New England.
Explained by "sun and showers ",
the robber crows away. $Iow is
and yellow hair. What is the
to
THIRD BOOK 79
The fabled gift. Probably an erroneous reference to
the Golden Apples of the Hesperides.
Get the exact significance of " vapid " and " loll ".
Bowl of samp. Bowl of corn mush.
By homespun beauty poured. Paraphrase, and bring
out in full the contrast suggested in this stanza.
Wide old kitchen hearth. Characteristic of the New
England farmhouse.
The kindly earth. Gene.rous.
SPORTS IN NORMAN ENGLAND
The selection is from a description of London by
William Fitzstephen, probably written in the reign of
Henrv II. The description is quoted in Social England,
edited by H. D. Traill, Vol. I, p. 376, etc.
The teacher should examine specially the quaint style,
noting the frequent use of the adjective phrase where we
should now use adjectives.
Distinguish "sport " from "play"
P,(]. 136.--The field of the suburbs. Suggests an
unfenced common surrounding the city.
Address themselves to. As though it were a serious
matter of business; compare "whose business it is to
laugh ", below.
Of each school. Private schools at which the children
of the wealthier classes were educated, especially in French.
The particular trades. In early times these cultivated
esprit de corps in various ways.
Participation o[. Now "in " would be used.
Festive sons. Would now be used only for a humorous
effect.
THE ONTARIO READERS
The conclusion of the fourth stanza is more natural
and effective than the more ambitious ending attempted
in the preceding stanza.
Comfort wain. Paraphrase these lines.
Land of Contentment. Poetic depth of feeling con-
verts the last part of the stanza into an apostrophe, or
direct address to Canada.
Forest arches. Compare Indian Summer, Book IV, p.
369.
A MAD TEA PARTY
The severely literal, logical, and somewhat superior
littIe girl comes off rather badly in her unlooked-for con-
test with the clever absurdities of the sharp-tongued
Hatter, the milder and more conciliatory March Hare, and
the justly incensed Dormouse, the butt of the party.
PACE lt2.--Talking over its head. Shows their un-
concern. The sleepy Dormouse counts for nothing in the
conversation.
P:(3E 143.--ll'ith great curiosity. An unbidden guest
should receive criticism in a proper spirit.
Opened his eyes very wide. Suggests that he was sur-
pri.ed at Alice's rudeness.
[ can guess that. The alliteration in raven and writ-
ing-desk, the ink and the ink-black feathers of the bird,
the quill pens and the feathers of the bird, no doubt made
the riddle seem a simple one.
Find out the answer. The Hare is a stickler for the
exact use of language. Are the expressions referred to
synonymous ?
PaoE 1-14.--Hastily. And then she reconsiders, as
shown by her hesitating answer.
THIRD BOOK
You know. Coaxing assent.
Alice's hasty answer is made to appear more and more
absurd until the Hatter snubs the Dormouse.
I haven't the slightest idea. Alice is righteously
annoyed at such a " take-in"
PAE 145.--Than wasting. Or than waste?
Change the subject. The odd humour consists very
much in the restless jumping from one thing to another
all through.
A hoarse, feeble voice. That belied his words.
Once upon a time. The story is begun in due form.
In a great hurry. Why?
PAGE 146.--So they were. The Dormouse in his nat-
ural pride of authorship is fully prepared to defend his
lapses.
Take some more tea. The )larch Hare wants to hear
the story.
Your opinion. She had been talking to the March
]Z[are.
P,c_, 147.--May be one. Willing to concede some-
thing for the sake of hearing the story.
P,6, 148.--This last remark. "' Eh stupid?"
THE SLAVE'S DREAM
The Slave's Dream is in reality a "liberty" poem. and
concludes appropriately with the liberation of the slave from
the bonds of the body. Worn out by exhaustion, the slave
at work has fallen to the earth in a swoon which passes
into a dream of his native land where, before his capture,
THIRD BOOK
" By east the isle of May, twelve miles from all land
in the German seas, lies a great hidden rock called Inch-
cape, very dangerous for navigators, because it overflowed
every tide. It is reported, in old times, upon the said
rock there was a bell, fixed upon a trie (tree) or timber,
which rang cmdinually, beinff moved by the sea, giving
notice to the sailors of the danger. This bell or clock was
put there and maintained hy the Abbot of Aberbrothok,
and being taken down bv a sea pirate, a year thereafter
he perished upon tile same rock, with ship and goods, in
the righteous judgment of God ".
Stevenson built a lighthouse up}n tile hwlwape or Bell
Rock in 1811. It lics duc cast of the mouth of the Firth
of Tav. Aherhrothock or Aherbrothwi.k. now Arhroath,
lies on tile coast, not far north of tile Firth of Tay. The
prefix " AI)er ", as also tile dialectic form " Inver ", means
"where waters meet ". Thc prcfix " hwh " means island.
Some sketch of the roving pirates--the gentlemen
adventurers of the sea--and their operations, should be
given to the class.
The piratical rover is usually represented as a man of
reckless impiety and daring, and fond of practical" joking
in his lighter moments.
Get the class to picture as clearly as possible the
dangers of tile sea from storm and mist and reef.
In this poem there are two scenes, with an interlude.
Fix these divisions.
The style is that of the simple, dramatic narrative in
which Southey excels.
Note that lines three and four in stanza one repeat the
ideas in lines one and two respectively.
la(}E 159.Sign . of their shock. No breakers.
THIRD BOOK 89
A ROUGH RIDE
The selection is taken from the tenth chapter of Lorna
Doone. The scene is laid in Exmoor, at the headwaters of
the River Exe, in the northern part of Devonshire; hence
the dialect.
PaCE 161.--Standing stoutly -up. Althou._,zh questioned
so rudely.
Being a tall boy nou,. Ile was about fifteen years of
age at this time.
Such a beauty, sir. Obviously an ingratiatin. speech to
secure the lonffed-for privilege.
P.CE 162.--Hare o burden but mine. ('arry nobody
but me.
To kill thee. To let her kill thee.
But 1 could tackle. "But" equal. "which not".
Which I could not tackle; here, " tackle " mean. to tame.
Those leathers. ('ontemptuously, of the saddle and
girths.
Dry, little whistle. Ironically.
Thrust his hands into his pockets. Sugestive of in-
difference to one beneath notice.
Grinned. At what he chose to consider ehihlish folly.
Annie. Annie Ridd, the sister of Jan (John), the
hero.
Tire worst of all. As it ave no chance for reply.
I u'ill not orerride ler. Jan imputes a motive to sting
the other's pride in his mare into compliance with his
request.
Go bail. Be surety. This means, "] have no manner
of doubt about that"
My son. Contemptuously.
Come out into the yard. {}ut of the garden into the
stack or stable-yard.
90 THE ONTARIO READERS
Pride must have its fall. Proverbs xvi. 18: " Pride
goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before a
fall"
l'.tGV 163.--As ererybody l,'nozrs. Tom Faggus was
a well-known highwayman of the Exmoor country, re-
nowued for his generosity, liberality, courage, and cour-
tesy. Many tales of his exploits are still current in Devon.
Demurely. 3_. if there were some secret under-
standing between them.
Droppiay her soul. Submitting herself.
Led by lore to anything. Pwady to do anything for
love of her master.
Came bad," again. As if too dainty for defilement.
This finely exhibits the horse's free and graceful action.
l'p for it slill? Still determined to make the trial?
Faggus perhaps hopes that the boy's courage may have
failed him, or else asks the question to provoke him to
further rashness. At any rate be clears himself of all
responsibility for the consequences.
PC,E 16t.ls she able to leap, sir? The boy dis-
dains to answer when his courage is questioned and
adopts the same tactics as above. See note on, " I will
not override her".
Good take-off. Good ground on which to prepare for
a leap.
Good tumble-off. Faggas gives the same kind of
punning reply above. See "override her".
The sub.dance of their sZ'ull.*. A kindly reference to
Jan's stupidity, which he admits in the narrative to be
almost proverbial.
I will try not to squeeze her ribs in. The boy's
petulance does much to excuse Fam'
THIRD BOOK 91
John Fry and Bill Dadds. Farm servauts, or, in those
kindly days, retainers of the Ridd household.
Duello. A battle between two.
P.6E 165.--Brcal]tcd to ]ti.q breat]t. As if in response
to bet master.
The nia'en. The refuse heap.
Minced abotd. Moved daintily with her short steps.
Gee wugg. (let along.
Flung li." lat p. In admiration of his young nmster's
pluck.
Outraged not. Kept her temper.
Ctzrbed. Curvetted.
P.,,6E 166.--Comb. The part of the horse's head be-
tween the ears.
Robin Snell. This recalls a sanguinary figl,t at the
boys' school which Jan had attended--Blundell's
Tiverton, where Blackmore him,elf received his early
education.
I lrow. I vouch, I avow.
The cob wall. .k cob wall is one built of mud and
straw.
To cruslt ]ter. By letting her smash against the wall.
Dear ne. The words in the original text are " Mux
me ", meaning " bless me "
Courtyard. Stackyard, called courtyard here, as it
would be partial/y surrounded by stables and outhouses.
Quickset hedge. A hedge, usually of hawthorne; that
is, hedgethorn, set out with living plants; not of brush,
stuck into the ground. " Quick" means "living"
As if tlte sky were a breatlt to her. This describes the
wildness of the leap.
Scattering clouds around her. Clouds of vaporous
breath.
94 THE ONTARIO READERS
THE POET'S SONG
The poem was published in 184. in the volume con-
taiuing English Idylls and Other Poems. The poem
seems to iudicate that Tennysou's view of the poet's
mission was that lie should be, not tile voice of the time,
but rather tile voice of its highest aspirations and ten-
denotes, those, lmmely, which are to create the future:
For he sings of what the world will be
When the years have died away.
After the publicatiou of the 1832 volume, there was
a "stroug depreciation" of Tennyson " in certain literary
quarters". A friendly critic, Venables, advised Tenny-
sou to adopt as hi. themes " objects of high imagination
a,d il,tense popular feeling". These he affirmed were
uot to be sought in " ally transient fashions of thought,
but in the couvergcnt tendencies of many opinions on
religi-,n, art, and nature". " My father", says the son,
in his memoirs of Tcuny.on, " pondered all that had been
said. and after a period of utter prostration from grief,
and many dark fits of black despondency, his passionate
It,re of truth, of nature, and of humanity drove him to
work again, with a deeper and fuller insight into the
requiremel,ts of the age ". It is hoped that the discerning
teacher will see in this sketch the spiritual sources of the
poem.
PAOE 173.--The rain bad fallen, the Poet arose. After
a period of ghom, tim poet takes up his work again with
freshened energies.
He passed by tl, e town. " By" instead of "through ",
as utterly regardless of it. He escapes from the pressure
of the preseut and tile transient, as represented by the
life of the town, to draw his inspiration from the eternal,
as represented by nature herself.
THIRD BOOK 99
PAGE 179.--All hail. A form of greeting extended
to those held in high honour.
The broad-leafed maple. The sugar maple is the
emblem, not, as is often represented in pictures, the soft,
or red, maple.
Changeful dress. Observe bow the delicate yellowish
green with reddish brown shadings of early spring, gives
place to the more pronounced tints of summer, and later
to the gorgeous colourings of autumn.
Dark-browed firs. The spruces, balsams, and hem-
locks are all dark green in foliage.
Like the dau'n of the brighter future, etc. The com-
parison seem. a trifle strained, but something mu.t be
allowed to patriotic enthusiasm.
Downs. Are low, rounded, grassy hills.
PaGE 180.--Like drops of life-blood welling. "' Well-
ing" is here surely out of place, in view of its use in the
fourth stanza.
DAMON AND PYTHIAS
PAGE 181.--So hard a ruler. Dionysius (Di-o-nis'i-us).
xvho flourished about four hundred years befre Christ.
Similar friendships recorded in literature are those of
David and Jonathan, Pylades (Pil'a-dGz) and Orestes
(O-res'tSz).
THE WRECK OF THE ORPHEUS
The poem probably refers to the wreck of the Orpheus,
which was sent out to New Zealand early in the Iaori
(Ma'o-ri) war, and was wrecked off the coast, on the
THIRD BOOK 101
THE TIDE RIVER
This selection is from Charles Kingsley's Water
Babies.
The poem, which describes the course of a river clear
and pure at first, then defiled by contact with the filth
poured into it, and at last purified again, finding its free
way to the sea, may be regarded as an alle.uory of human
life, which, pure at first, becomes defiled bv contact with
the world, but redeemed at last, is nmde one with f;od.
P.GE 185.--Clear and cool. Observe the emphasis
given to these characteristics hy repetition and inversion
(cool and clear), and notice corresponding effects in the
following stanzas.
Laughing shallow and dreaming pool. Contrast.
When the rier is shallow, it runs swiftly, dimpling like
laughter; in deep pools it moves slowly, as if asleep.
Shining shingle. Alliteration. The shingle, con-
sisting of pebbles rounded smoothly by the water, would
shine in the sun.
Weir. A weir is a dana in the stream over which the
water pours, or a line of stakes set up in it to preveut the
passage of fish; in either case the epithet " foaming" is
appropriate.
Ouzel or ousel. An old name of the blackbird; here
the water-ouzel, a species of thrush, is meant.
The i.ied call. The Euglish ivy clothes the church
towers in green.
Undefiled for the undefiled. The undefiled river for
the undefiled mother and child. The mother and child
are taken as representafive of purity. Possibly fhe poet
had in mind Raphael's famous picture of " The ]Iadonna
of the Chair ".
11)2 THE ONT/kRIO READERS
PAO. 186.wDank. Usually applied to moisture oozing
out of noisome places, as "dungeons dank ".
Cou'l. The smoke is represented as hanging over the
town like a cowl on the head of a monk.
Slimy bank. Is suggestive of unwholesome filth and
corruption.
The richer I grow. Richer in foul matters won from
drain and sewer.
The leaping bar. Tide rivers usually deposit sand-
bars at the point where the current slackens in its en-
counter with the waters of the ocean.
Leaping. Transferred epithet.
In the infinite main. See introductory note.
THE ORCHARD
The poem has a good deal of lyric sweetness, sim-
plicity, and freedom. It is cyclical in form, and the three
stanzas constituting the " treatment" of the theme are
artistically linked together.
P.6. lgS.--Just a sea of frogront blo.soms. Retains
only a part of the original force of the metaphor as
employed in the second stanza, where the bees are repre-
sented as swimming in it, for it is difficult to imagine a
sea " drenched in dew ".
Which holds the spice o" youth. Which suggests joy
and gladness.
Holds the best o" things, forsooth. A weak line
specially condemned by its last word, as " forsooth" is
usually employed ironically
1D4 THE ONTARIO READER
Curres and elongates. This is further illustrated by
"' twin footprints". Explain.
With no apparent purpose. Compare with the descrip-
tion of a " real boy" above.
To scold an intrtder. Compare with The Squirrel
following this selection.
Pa6 191.--The chipmunl ". Sometimes called the
ground squirrel from his habit of burrowing in the ground,
especially in banks near streams or ponds.
From one rigid altitude to another. Notice the
felicitous use of the word " twitching" to picture this
change of attitude, and the not less happy comparison
employed in "electrified by the crisp atmosphere" which
further illustrates the jerky movements of the squirrel.
The repellent bark. The shell-bark hickory, which
bears the edible nut, is covered with scales of thick old
bark projecting loosely below, thus presenting a surface
difficult to climb.
Frtgality. Scarcely a suitable word here; the writer
means "' providence" or " thrift ".
That the boys may not annoy him with stones or
sticks. When the trees are stripped bare they offer no
temptation to the boys.
THE SQUIRREL
The poet gives a dainty and amusing picture, full of
life and grace, of one of those wild, harmless things that
he loves.
PaE 192.--Refuge. From the winter storms.
Ventures forth. Suggests the short period of sun-
shine of the .,-1,
THIRD BOOK 105
The squirrel. Some care should be taken to see that
the pupils uuderstand the inverted construction.
His brush. His bushy tail.
Perks. Pricks up.
Prettiness of feigned alarm. He merely pretends
alarm and puts on all tl:e airs of a petted aud spoiled
beauty.
Insignificantly fierce. Powerless as fierce.
SOLDIER. REST
The song is from The Lady of the Lake, Canto i. 31.
It is sung by Ellen Douglas for the entertainment of
James FitzJames, the Knight of Snowdon, who in the
eagerness of the chase bad become separated from his
followers, lost his way, and been hospitably entertained
at the retreat of the outlawed Duglas on the Island in
Loch Katrine. The trochaic measure, the douhle rh3maes,
the repetition of lines slightly varied in form, all con-
tribute to its beauty of rhythm and movement. The
theme of the song is the contrast between the peace and
security of his present surroundings, and the stress,
turmoil, clangour, and danger of war. The key to this is
given in the first line:
Soldier rest, thy warfare o'er.
PA(E 192.--Battled fields. Hard-fought fields.
!
Our isle. See introductory note.
Enchanted hall. Explained by "Hands unseen", and
"Fairy strains", and "in slumber dewing" as though
he had reached in his wanderings a fairy-land of enehant-
106 THE ONTARIO READERS
merit. The song carries out the playful turn given by
Ellen to the Knight's inquiries as to his whereabouts:
"Weird women we! by dale and down
We dwell, afar from tower and town.
We stem the flood, we ride the blast,
On wandering knights our spells we cast;
While viewless minstrels touch the string1
'Tis thus our charmed rhymes we sing,"
She sung, and still a harp unseen
Filled up the symphony between.
P.a. 193.--Fighling fields. Fighting, the adjective,
not the gerund. ('ompare "battled fields" in the first
stanza.
War steed chaT,ping. Champing the heavy military
bit.
Pibrocl. A Highland air suited to the passion the
musician wishes to arouse. Sometimes a war-song, at
others a lament for the dead. Here the word is appa-
rently used for the pipe itself to correspond with "trump"-
]'el lice larlc's s]rill fife drum. Note that
the fife and drum are instruments of military music, and
account for the employment of the adversative "Yet".
The bittern. A bird which makes a loud booming
noise. It frequents marshy places.
Guards or warders. " Guards" of a camp, " warders"
of a c, astle.
Challenge. The usual challenge to the approaching
stranger takes the form, '" Vho goes there ?"
FISHING
This selection is taken from Torn
Days, Chapter IX.
Brown's School
THIRD BOOK 109
The next three stanzas centre about its tireless and
tameless energy; the seventh summarizes what precedes;
the last contains the application to life.
The teacher will observe the paradoxical form of ex-
pression employed in " Motion thy rest", and "Changed
every moment, Ever the same ".
PA(E 199.--Full of the light. Refers to the sunlight
gleaming on the spray of the fountain.
PAGE 200.--Happy at midnight, etc. From this point
onward the fountain is endowed by the poet with life and
feeling.
BREAK. BREAK, BREAK
The poem was written when Tennyson was immersed
in grief on account of the death of his friend, Arthur
Hallam. It was written, the poet says, " in a Lincolnshire
lane at five o'clock in the morning ". This is of little con-
sequence, as the scenery before his mind's eye i that of
Clevedon in Somersetshire, the burial place of the Hallams,
where, from the top of the cliff, the eye traverses the
broad estuary of the Severn with its moving ships. To
the poet, the waves dashing on '" the cold gray stones"
seem to be singing a mournful dirge for the dead, and he
wishes that he, too, could give expression to his feelings
and so find relief. .
But. for the unquiet heart and brain
A use In measured language lies,
The sad mechanic exercise
Like dull narcotics numbing pain.
--In Memoriam
With the fisherman's boy playing with his sister in the
surf, with the sailor lad fishing near the harbour bar, as
THIRD BOOH 111
P(E 202.--What greater pleasure. The entertainment
of the stranger was the most sacred of Greek religious
obligations.
Hear tales from them of foreign lands. This ]o'e of
the strange, new, and marvellous was a passion with the
ancient Greeks.
PA(E 203.--They never saw the like. Observe the
double meaning. An instance of " tragic irony". Com-
pare "as he never slept before ", below.
Fits him to a hair. tIair's-breadth.
Churlish. Lacking in good manners, self-centred.
He shrank from the man, he knew not why. This is in
the Germanic, rather than the Greek spirit. Oddly enough,
Kingsley at once proceeds to tell why.
Till a horror fell on Theseus (Th'sfis). Note the con-
creteness, given force by the use of the article.
PAE 204.--Their ware. Their goods, what they had
for sale.
Had laid down his faggot. Expresses his weakness and
weariness.
PAGE 205.--Who I am my parents know. He had
never seen or known his father.
Clapped his hands together. In grief.
PAE 26.--0n thy youth. On thee, because of thy youth.
But yesterday. 0nly yesterday.
Procrustes. Procrustes means the " stretcher"
Laid his hand, etc. To silence.
Evil death. Dreadful death.
PE 207.--As green as a lizard. Compare the pre-
vious comparison of his voice to a toad's voice.
Squea]cing like a bat. A comparison frequently em-
ployed by the Greeks in speaking of the souls of the de-
parted in :Hades.
THIRD BOOK 113
Rainbowed thicket. Refers again to the autumn colour-
ing, as seen through the haze referred to in "hazy uplands".
('reeks the cricket. The cricket derives its name from
its "creek'. The sound is made by rubbing the wing
cases together.
Chorus. Usually refers to the part sung by several
voices, perhaps eml,loyed here to iadicate that the I,ird's
song is self-responsive, or possibly only to its reiteration
again and again.
Why should we not companions be? See introductory
note.
RADISSON AND THE INDIANS
By virtue of the explorations ,f St. Lusson {San
LiissSn) to the waters of Lake Superior. an,I of Father
Albanel up the Saguenay River, the French laid claim to
the tract of territory in the region of lIuds,n Bay. The
brothers-in-law, Groseilliers (GrS-za-ya} and Pierre Radis-
son (Py'r Rad-Ps-sSn), penetrated into the country be-
yond Lak.e Superior. Here they learned from the Assini-
boines of a great inland sea lying far to the uorth. Fail-
ing to secure the SUlTort of the French Trading Company,
they went to England, where they succeeded in interesting
Prince Rupert in their scheme of explorati,,n. In two
small ships, they ma,le a safe w,yage, to lluds,n Bay, and
at its southern extremity erected F-rt Charles in honour
of the English sovereien, Charles I I. IIcre they entered
into a profitable trade with the Indians; and their report
induced the King to grant a charter, dated May 2nd. 1670,
to "The Governor and Company of Merchant-Adventurers,
trading into Hudson's Bay", of which Prince Rupert was
the first governor. :No sooner had the new Company begun
114
THE ONTARIO READERS
its trading operations than Radisson, becoming discon-
tented with the treatment he received at the hands of the
new officials, abandoned the English cause with the same
versatility with which he had previously forsaken the
French; and just previous to the opening of the story had
taken and burned the little English trading post on the
Island. in reprisal for similar amenities of the English to-
ward the French traders, whom they wished to expel from
these regions. The story is told with a good deal of
dramatic power, and is interesting as an account of the
early struggles of the Iludson's Bay Company, as well as
of Indian character and habits, and the methods employed
by the bold and often unscrupulous adventurers in keeping
the Indians under control.
PAC, E 2og.--The tribe. Probably the Crees.
Pemmican. The dried lean of venison, pounded into a
paste and moulded into cakes.
Those who make no such profession. The English.
P.. 210.--A dog. The brave ,'ho had just spoken.
Had adopted ldrn. The practice of adoption
is ery common among the Indians. Many captives
taken in foray were spared to replenish the tribal popula-
tion.
P..E 211.--.4t the head of the Bay. To Fort Charles.
Take lhis. The gift of tile knife or dagger is the token
of perpetual enmity..
Factory. So the trading posts of the Hudson's Bay
Company were called ; for example, York Factory.
P.. 212.--Sogarnile. Probably the much-prized In-
dian d.ish of parched rice or corn, pounded up with meat
and flavoured with bear's grease and maple sugar. The
root "sagam " which means "to grow" is a common one
in many Ind ;o'
THIRD BOOK 115
Thy grandmother's skull. Many of the Indian tribes
trace their lineage through the female line.
Three fathons of tobacco. West Indian tobacco is
still twisted into the form of a rope and sold by the foot.
Women's tobacco. In the absence of the genuine
article, many substitutes, such as dried leaves, the inner
bark of some trees, etc., were used to replace it. This was
contemptuously called "women's tobacco ". One of the
lobelias is still called Indian tobacco.
In tile cow, Mr!! of the lyxes. Probably in the country
of the Montagnais south of the divide, where lynxes were
common and beaver scarce. This is simply another way
of telling them to "go to the mischief ".
THE BROOK.
This selection is the lyric in The Brook, first published
in 1855. The brook at Somersbv in southern Lincoln-
shire, where Tcnnyson's father lived, no doubt furnished
many suggestions for the poem. The four sections of the
lyric, each concluding with the lines:
For men may come and men may go,
But I go on for ever
are the interludes in the idyllic poen bearin the above
title. The nmtivc of the poem, as thus suggested, is the
transitoriness of human life and affairs as compared with
the permanence of nature.
The lyric has throughout the clear note of untram-
melled joy and gladness.
PAv. 212.--Coot. A wading bird of the rail family,
with a blue body, short tail, and lobated toes; the bird is
about fifteen inches in length.
THIRD BOOK
Eddying bays. Why "eddying "? Note the careful
description, which is a leading characteristic of Tenny-
son's style.
Fret. Wear away; form curves.
Fallow. Cultivated but unseeded land.
Fairy foreland. Little promontory. Fairy suggests
beauty and diminutiveness.
Willow-weed. A tall, purple flowering weed growing
iu damp places, represented in Ontario by two familiar
varieties, one of which is often called " fireweed", as it
grows densely in bush clearings which have been run over
by fire.
Mallow. The lilac-flowered mallow is familiar to every
one.
Tennyson was an enthusiastic collector of plants, aud
loved to look them up in his Baxter's Flowcrbg Plants.
A grayling. A fish with a large dorsal fin, found in
clear, rapid streams.
Waterbrcak. A diminutive rapid, a shallow over which
the water breaks in a slight fall. The word is a coinage
of Tennyson's.
P. 214.Draw hem all along. " All" here includes
trout, grayling, and foamy water flake.
I steal. Move slowly and silently, as if by stealth.
Hazel covers. Thickets; hazel shrubs grow thickly
along the hanks of streams.
Grow for ]appy lovers. Used by them as tokens o[
mutual affection.
I gloon, I glance. Tennyson is fond of the word
"gloom " to signify "to darken ".
For every movement gleamed
His silver arms and gloomed.
122
THE ONTARIO READERS
The dull, tame shore. Outlines the appropriate con-
trast to the picture just presented.
Backwards flew. Not simply to hurry back, hut to
alter his proposed course. Notice the alliteration which
gives added emphasis to the words involved.
Like a bird. Suggest the points of likeness. The
simile prepares the way for the rather startling revelation
contained in the last line, which also introduces the next
stanza. With how much truer sense of the poetic pro-
prieties does Bvrm say: " For l was--as it were--a child
of thee ", etc.. See Byron's address to the " O.ean ", from
('l, ilde lIarohl's Pilgrimage. (Book IV, p. 216}
Pc,E 223.--The wares morn. In simplicity
and wealth of suggestion, this is the finest line in the
whole poem. Notice thai the inversion in the last clause
emphasizes the contrast. Compare the less vigorous effect
in " Tile wave was white, the morn was red"
Red morn. A red sky in the morning portends storm.
Tle porpoise. It belongs to the whale family, of
which it is a diminutive member. ,qhakespeare refers to
the porpoise's wonderful prescience of coming storm in
Pericles, . i.
Scene 1. rd Fisherman--Nay, master, said I not as
much, when I saw the porpus (porpoise) how he bounced
and tumbled a plague on them! they ne'er come but
I look to be washed.
The dolphin has on his back a dorsal fin half the
width of his body, extending from the crown of his head
to within two or three inches of his tail. This fin is in
colour a burnished yellow gold, in striking contrast with
the dazzling peacock blue of the hack.
With weallh to spend. He lacked inclination, not
opportunity ,
124 THE ONTARIO READERS
PG 233.--Bred in France. The land of gaiety and
romance.
Monsieur le Plaisir. Sir. Pleasure.
,','ome people are of opinion etc., that old
Mr. Toil was a magician. This prepares the way for a
better interpretation.
THE SANDPIPER
l,'ead with thi. poem, Cooper's Bob White, p. 208;
BryaJJt's To a Water-Fowl, Book IV, p. 377 ; Longfellow's
Fire of Driftwood, and Burns' To a Mouse.
PAGE 2:;4.--,','andpiper. There are many varieties of
these, most of them being shore or marsh birds. The
nest is a mere depression of sand or gravel in the beach,
usually containing four .mall eggs placed with the small
ends together. This prevents them beiug rolled out of
position by the wind. They are coloured in such a way
as to elude observation. The sandpiper is a companion-
able little fellow, keeping only a few paces ahead of the
beach wanderer, and looking round with an eye of piercing
brightness. The movement is rendered oddly quizzical
by a beak of extreme length in comparison with the size
of the bird.
Across flit. The line presents a swiftly
drawn picture of the companion fires as they pass to
and fro "' Across the beach", ziagging onward as the
driftwood is gathered.
One little sandpiper and 1. This is the refrain, and
carries in it the general meaning of the poems" Are we
not God's children both?"
Fast I gather. To provide against the approaching
storm.
Bit by bit. Explained hy "scattered" below.
126 THE ONTARIO READERS
My driftwood-fire to what warm sheller.
Note the contrast. The teacher should try to impart
some sense of the force and beauty of the description in
which " the loosed storm breaks furiously" and "The
tempest rushes through the sky". Notice how the change
of rhythm contributes to the effectiveness of the descrip-
tion.
THE LEGEND OF SAINT CHRISTOPHER
Sain ('hristpher wa. x uative of Lyeia (Lis'i-a), or,
as other. say, a Canaanite, who flourished in the third
century. " tie was very tall and fearful to look at. So
proud was he of his bulk and strength that he would
serve only the mightiest masters." At length he entered
the service of the Devil, but observing that his master
quailed before the image of Christ he resolved to seek
out and follow our Saviour. Him he finally found in a
little .hild whmu be attempted to carry a.ross a river:
when he would have sunk under his iucreasing burden,
tl.e child declared him.elf to be Christ and wrought a
miracle to prove it. Christopher embraced Christianity,
perfirmed miracles, was martyred, and canonized. His
image, which was thought to be a protection from sick-
hess and the visitations of God, was painted of colossal
size on the outside of churches and hol.es, especially in
Italy, Spain, and Germany. The Greek f'hurch celebrates
hi. festival on the 9th day of May, the loman on the 25th
of July.
Like the great Giant Christopher It stands
Upon the brink of the tempestuous wave.
Wading far out among the rocks and sands,
The night o'ertken mariner to save.
The Liohthouse--..' ....
THIRD BOOK 127
The point of interest in the poem lies in the fact that
the giant found his master in tile guise of a little child,
after seeking him among tim great and mighty of the
earth.
WILLIAM TELL AND HIS SON
William Tell is said to have lived in the earlier part
of the fourteenth century, and to have taken a leading
part in freeing his fellow countrymen from the Austrian
yoke. The main authority for tile story is tile Chronicle
of Tschudi, quoted in the easily accessible IIiMory
Germany by Wolfgang Menzel; tile only variation being
that in the Chronicle, Tell is made to say that he had not
noticed the cap at all, but would do it homage for the
future if released. The story here given presents Tell in
a mueb more heroic light. It has often been questioned,
but there is little, if any, doubt that the story, though
considerably embellished, is, in the main, true.
PAE 241.--Allorf. The chief town of the Canton
of Uri (5"rl. The four Lake Cantons, Uri, gehwyz
(Shvts), Unterwalden (Un'ter-viil-den}, and Lucerne
were concerned in the rising against the Austrians.
Gessler (Ges'ler). The governor of Uri and Sehwyz.
P_,,E 242.--Refined act of torture. To compel him
to purchase his son's liberty and his own at the risk of
slaying his son.
t'.', 2-13.--To a linden tree. The whole road here
'as lined with lindens.
And one arrow. By what clever trick did Tell manage
to possess himself of the second arrow?
Roused himself drew the bow, etc. Note
the interrupted construction expressixe of breathless
suspense.
THIRD BOOK 131
and captured it; though the English assault upon the
Redan was aain checked, qhe city was evacuated by the
Russians. The war was closed by the Treaty of Paris,
1856. The incident of the poem may be assigned appro-
priately to the eve of either of the two assaults mentioned
above, but more probably to the latter.
The song Annie Laurie, by William Douglas, may be
found in any collection of Scottish song.
PaGE 250.--The outer trenches. It is said that dur-
ing the three hundred and thirty-six days of the sie._-e fifty
miles of trenches had been dug to cover the approaches to
one bastion alone.
In silent scoff. Suggests that it was impregnahlc. See
above.
Belched its thunder. ]Ietaphor. Note the felicity of
"belched"
The forts. The Redan and the 5Ielakoff.
Sing tchile u'e may. Let us be happy while we may.
ll'ill bring enough of sorrov. Alludes to the havoc
to be wrought at the storming of the forts.
Severn, Clyde, Shannon. Representative rivers of
England. Scotland, and Ireland.
PGE 251.--A different name. Whose?
Like an anthem. The song takes on a sa.red t'hara.-ter
from the circumstances. It becomes a confession, such as
warriors were wont to make to the priests upon the eve of
battle.
He dared not speal'. Why? Explain the contrast in-
troduced here by "' But ".
Darkening ocean. The Black Sea.
The bloody sunset's embers. Fixes the time, but is
also prophetic of the carnage of the morrow.
THIRD BOOK 133
The su'eetness of life's repose. The sweet and common
joys of home.
The ethical merits of the conclusion reached in the last
stanza are perhaps open to question, but at any rate we
are indebted to the poet for emphasizing a set of human
relations too much disregarded in the hurly-burly of life,
and for giving us in lyrical form the expression of a mood,
delicate, tender, and true.
KING RICHARD AND SALADIN
The selection is froln ('hapter XXVII of The
Talisman.
In 1187, Jerusalem was taken hy Saladin, the noblest
of the Saracens; Riclmrd the Lion-hearted of England,
and Philip Augustus of France led the Third t'rusa,le for
its recovery. They quarrelled, and Philip returned home.
Richard carried on the war for nearly a year and a half.
During this time he fell sick of a fever, an.-'l his generous
enemy sent him fresh fruits from Damascus and snow
from the mountain-tops. Courtly compliments were fre-
quently exchanged between them. The great strength of
Richard is illustrated by the weight of his battle-axe, with
twenty vmnds of steel in its bead. The iucident described
in the lesson took place at the Diamond .f th,. lk.scrt at
a point equally distant between the camps of the Crusaders
and the Soldan, where a trial by combat had been arranged
between the Knight of the Leopard and ('onrade of
/vlontserrat. The lists had been prepared by the Soldan,
who was the host of the occasion.
PaE 253.--Pavilion. A large tent raised on posts,
with the roof sloping equally on all sides.
De Vaux. The rough, sturdy, and faithful attendant
of the King.
10 a
THIRD BOOK 137
PAGE 259.--The hurricane. Refers to typhoons, fear-
ful cyclones in these seas.
The torrent-floods. The great American rivers. To
which of these is the description peculiarly applicable.
Cohmbia (America). These are two nalucs for the
western coutinent, derived from their first discoverers.
Who were these?
Like rose leaves. Explain the purpose of the simile.
Fresh wreaths. Of piue boughs. The allusion is to
the wreaths placed upou the graves of the illustrious dead.
Roncesvelles" field. The scene of a fanmus battle, aud
hence the field of glory. ]|ere ('harlemagne was defeated,
and his bravest knights slain. (Pronounced R,n-thes-
'al'yes)
P.(E 260.--The cold-blue desert. That is, of iceberg
from the Arctic seas. The frozen seas.
Their corse is done. They sail the seas no
more.
Observe the cyclic form of the poem, the first two
stanzas correspondilig il form with the last two.
HOHENLINDEN
The poet describes the battle with tile vividness of an
eye-witness, tie, indeed, sw some of the battles of this
campaign, though uot tile battle here depicted.
Napoleon's General, Moreau, in COlnmand of the
French army in Germany, met tile combiued forces of
Austria and Bavaria under tile Archduke John, at
ttohenlinden on December 3rd, 1800, and utterly routed
them. Their loss was eight thousand men killed or
wounded, twelve thousand prisoners, and eighty-seven
pieces of cannon. Moreau followed the Austrian retreat
to within a few leagues of Vienna. where an armistice was
THIRD BOOK 141
appearing. The mood is suggested in the first line. It is
one of melancholy sadness, scarcely relieved even by the
contrasts introduced in stanzas two, three, and four. Tile
idea mainly emphasized, if not the theme of the poem, is
that the most precious tllings of life so soon perisll.
While the pupils should, throughout the year, have been
familiarized with tlle images froln nature here employed,
tile teacher should avoid, when tl,e lesson is reached, nmk-
ing it into a nature study discussion.
PAOF. 267.--,qere. Parched.
They rustle to the eddying gast, etc. An evidence of
their lifelessness.
The fair and good of ours. Our loved ones.
Calls not from out the gloomy earth. As the spring
rain would.
P.OE 68.--The n'ind flou'er. The anemone.
Orchis. Known also as orchid.
The brightness of their smile. Personification. Stqect
other examples.
As still some days will come. How would the mean-
ing be modified if " will " were omitted? "Will ", in
spite of the season.
Their winter home. Describe.
Twinkle in the smoky light the u'aters of the rill. The
line is the only one in the poem in a lighter strain.
Tile smoky light. Explained by the condition of the
atmosphere in ]ate autumn.
The Soldh wind, etc. A heautiful hit of personifica-
tion, gathering up in conclusion the sentiment in the
poem.
Select from the poem the passages in which the fate of
humanity is compared to the fate of the flowers.
149. THE ONTA1RIO READE1RS
'TIS THE LAST ROSE OF SUMMER
The motive of the poem is given in the two concluding
lines :
Oh! who would inhabit
This bleak world alone!
Life is worthless without the sweet companionship of
those we love.
Moore's genius is at its best in his songs of love and
friendship. The sweet, sad melody of his characteristic
rhythms is especially suitable to these themes. Compare
with this poem The Meeting. of the Waters. The present
poem is free from the overloaded imagery in which he
sometimes indulges even in his masterpieces. Apart from
the personifi.ation, there is but one figurative expression in
tile whole poem. In other words, he relies solely upon the
beauty, the propriety, and tile naturalness of the sentiment
for poetic effect, and this is the ideal of lyric poetry.
Constru.t from the poem the incident upon which'it
may he supposed to be founded. The poet, observing a
solitary belated rose in his garden, scatters its petals upon
the ground, and desires for himself under like circum-
stances, a similar fate.
PaGE 269.--To reflect back her blushes, Or gire sigh
for sigh. N-ore how tile attributes of personality increase
in life and ralue throughout the stanza. At first it is only
a rose. "Alone" gives the first hint of personification,
"companions" enlarges this, then "kindred", then
"' lovers"
To pine. Contrasted with the anticipated " to bloom".
Shlni. crcle. The metaphor is that of a ring set
with gems.
True hearts. Friends.
Fond ones. Lovers.
THIRD BOOK 143
A ROMAN'S HONOUR
Carthage had made herself mistress of the northern
coast of Africa from the Straits of Gibraltar to the Gulf
of Sidra. She deemed it essential to her commercial
supremacy to assume control of the islands in the Medi-
terranean. It was upon the Island of Sicily nearly
adjacent to her position on the African coast that she came
into contact with the Roman power; and then began the
First Punic War (B.c. 2--211). In the course of this
war, the Roman Consul, M. Attilius Regulus (Attil'li-u e
Reg'u-]us), .ai]ed for Africa, and occupied a strc)ng mili-
tary position at ('lupea to the east of Carthage, and soon
made himself master of two hundred places along the
coast. The Carthaginians in distress sued for peace, but
being unwilling to accept the terms proposed bv their
haughty conqueror, secured the assistance of Xanthippus
(Xan-thip'pus), the great Greek general, who thoroughly
reorganized their forces, offered battle to the Romans and
utterly routed them. Regulus and five hundred of his
troops were taken prisoners. Some years later, the tide of
victory turned again, and the consul, Cacilius (('a,-cil'i-us),
defeated the Carthaginians in a great battle in the neigh-
bourhood of Panormus (Pa-nor'mus). Desiring peace and
an exchange of prisoners, they sent Regulus on the mission
described in the selection.
Thanks to their god. The Phoenician god Moloch was
worshipped by burning human sacrifices upon his altar.
P.E 2"iO.--Hm'ing first made him swear, etc. He was
given his liberty on condition that, failing in his mission,
he would return to captivity.
They little h'new, etc. Still they must have conjectured
it or they would not have let him go. The sentence, how-
THIRD BOOK 147
Quixote. Quixada, a Spanish gentleman of small
means, lived in a little village of the Province of La
/Iancha with his housekeeper and his niece, and on terms
of intimacy with the priest and with the barber-surgeon.
He became infatuated, through much reading of books
of chivalry, with the exploits of knights-errant there
recorded, and in the desire to emulate their glorious deeds
furbished up the armour of an ancestor, selected a strap-
ping wench of the neighbourhood as his lady patroness,
mounted his rickety old mare, and set forth in quest of
adventures. These, unfrtunately, came only too soon,
and having boldly attacked a company of merchants whom
he met on the road, be was returned in grievous case to
the home and friends he had left. These, ascribing his
misfortunes to the influence of the books of chivalry, took
the bold step of burning the whole library, explaining
its loss to their master as due to the machinations of
Freston, a notorious sorcerer. Quixada, who had by this
time adopted for himself the name of l.n Quixote, as
more in accordance with his present diznity, had also
acquired the services of a simple-minded and lt,val country-
man, Sancho I'anza, as is squire. Nothing daunted by
his previous misfortunes, after undergoing the necessary
repairs, be made a second essay into the world of Chivalry
and Romance. The adventures here recorded took place
early in his second expedition.
To fight with 'in,lmills has become a proverbial ex-
pression for a foolish and useless attempt to make head
against overpowering odds, or to run one's head into
dangers which do not properly lie in one's way, and the
adjective "quixotic" has been used to express foolish
though chivalrous self-sacrifice. Don Quix,te is often
referred to in literature as "the knight of the sorrowful,
THIRD BOOK 149
So many Moors. For five hundred years, until the
fall of Granada, the Moorish capital in 1491, continual
wars had been waged between the Moors and Christians
in Spain. These wars were celebrated in the Spanish
romances.
Holm. Tile evergreen oak.
PAGE 280. An't plea,e you. If it please you.
Sideling. Leaning to one side.
And yet Hearth knows my heart. Tbc g,,,,,l-lmtured
but plebeian Sancho feels, tllougb he fears to say so lest
he should offend his master, that a little pride might well
be sacrificed for the sake of all easeful groan.
THE ROMANCE OF THE SWAN'S NEST
A romance originally meant a tale of wonderful ex-
ploits written in verse in one of the Romance languages.
These tales centred around such worthies as King Arthur
and his Court in Britain, Roland and Oliver in France,
and Bernardo del Carpio and the Cid in Spain. In
mediaeval times, knights-errant set forth to redress all
manner of wrongs under the warranty of their lady-loves,
who usually gave them, on their departure in quest of
adventures, some gift in token of their favour, and suit-
ably rewarded their successful return. Why is this poem
called a romance?
The poem is an exquisite picture of ingenuous and
artless childhood, with its dreams and fancies, and the
inevitable disillusionment. The preface of the poem is:
So the dreams depart.
So the fading phantoms flee,
And the sharp reality,
Now must ct its l)art.
14 THE ONTARIO READERS
P-GE 289.--His gloriots rugged head aad massive
figure. A brief, but accurate description of the musician.
See photographs.
A wihl, elfin passage. The scherzo movement referred
to a)ove.
Ayitato finale. A hurrying close.
Read in connection with the selection Frances Ridley
I Iavergal's poem, The Moonlight ,qonata.
THE RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD
The poem is the fond, sad recall of vanished youth.
It may be compared as to moc, d and manner of treatment
to Christina G. Rossetti's poem, The First Spring Day.
See Book IV. p. 17.
Describe in your own words the appearance of the bird.
Select the expression directly descripttve of the bird's song.
What emotion does the song of the bird suggest or inspire
in the heart of the poet? What recollections does the
song arouse? Upon what characteristic of the bird is
emphasis specially laid? What is ile refrain? Select
two instances where the drift of ideas is interrupted, to
give intensity to the expression of emotion.
The poet's description of the bird's song is also appli-
cable to the poem.
P_c, 290.---Black benealh a. the night glow.
Note the contrast between the terms of the similes.
Morning glow. The red glow of sunrise.
Sooty. Dull black, like soot.
Throat float. Note the internal rhmae.
Float. Well expresses the low. smooth note of the bird.
Ravishing. Filling the hearer with a oassionate toy.
THIRD BOOK 55
Liquid, low. Note the equivalence of the consonants
with those in " O-ke-lee"
Bliss that ne'er can flee. An implied contrast; the
bliss of life fails, but the bliss of the bird's song, never.
Sweet fall. Sweet cadence, falling from one note to
another.
P.GE 291.--To tlarill my frame. Compare " Ravish-
ing ", above.
TIo igtt is tenderly black" brig]t. These
lines are in poetic correspondence with the two opening
lines of {he poem.
T],at old, old spring i. blossoming. It. recollections
are so vivid as to approach realitv. Note that " In the
soul and in the sight" is a climax.
Brbags my lost youth bac'. An amplification of the above.
Tl, e swale. Colloquial. The red-winged bla,.kbird
frequents marshy lands, overgrown with reeds and rushes.
TO THE CUCKOO
The poem is a delightful expres.ion of the poet's joy
in the freshness and beauty of spring, given concentration
and intensity by being addressed to the cuckoo. Apply
the criticism. Compare as to mode of treatment Tle Red-
winged Blach'bird, Wordsworth's To tl, e Cuch'oo, and
Edmund Gosse's Return of the Swallows.
The poem falls into two divisions: (1) The poet's wel-
come to the bird. (2) Regret at his departure. The last
stanza is the conclusion, identifying the bird with per-
petual spring.
What appellations are given to the bird? How is his
return prepared for and welcomed? Note throughout the
poem the continued use of personification. What fixes
THIRD BOOK 157
THE STORY OF A STONE
This selection presents in a gral)hic and popular way,
with something of a story interest, the successive Geological
Ages of the world, which are given roughly below :
Life Forms
Age of Man
Age of Mammals
Age of Reptiles
Age of Acrogens and Amphibians
Age of Fishes
Age of Invertebrates
Archman Age
Rock System
Recent
Tertiary
Secondary
Carboniferous
Devonian
Silurian System
Laurentian System
Pa(E 293.--Washed the highest crests of the Alle-
ghanies. This implies that the emergence of the Lauren-
tian surface from the ocean was earlier than that of the
Alleghanies.
Wrote its name. Refer. to the "ripple marks " on the
face of these rocks, supposed to have been carved by the
action of the tides.
The Pictured Rocks. The Pictured Rocks in Michigan
on the south shore of Lake Superior are sandstone cliffs
about 300 feet in height.
A Polyp. Also denominated as a radiate. See illus-
tration, p. 294. The name, which means many-footed, is
explained below, "a whole row of feelers ". The coral
polyp is propagated either from an egg or by branching;
both these nmdes are referred to in the lesson.
Gathering little bits of limeMon. The coral polyp
is composed of gelatinous and almost transparent tissue.
The animal, however, has the power of extracting carbon-
ate of lime from sea water and depositing it within its
own body.
THIRD BOOK 161
Looked in. This expression is in harmony with their
ghostly appearance.
Nothing we could call our ozvn. Nothing we could
identify; the whole face of the surroundings was changed.
The glistening wonder. The world nletamorphosed.
No cloud above, no earth belozv. Explained in the line
following, and amplified in the details afterwards given.
Belt of wood. Strip of woodland.
PA(m 300.--The bridle-post, etc. Gives a touch of
comicality to the description.
ll'ell-curb. A I)ox-shaped frame over the mouth of a
well.
A Chinese roof. A high cone with out- and up-coming
base, not displaying any of the sharp angles of the ordin-
ary roof.
The long sweep. The long pole set in the top of a post
and used as a lever, with a rope attached to one end, for
drawing water from a well.
Pisa's leaning miracle. The T.wer of Pisa in Italy,
180 feet high, deviates more than fourteen feet from the
vertical. The miracle, of course, is that it retains its
position without falling oer. It is now feared that the
tower will soon fall, owing to its rapidly increasing in-
clination.
Buskins. Here, top-boots.
The solid n'bileness. The abstract for the concrete, the
whiteness for the white snow.
Rare Aladdin's. The epithet refers to the storv of his
wonderful adventures as told in The Arabian Nights" En-
tertainment. Aladdin's cave consisted of three halls lead-
ing into a garden full of trees, laden with jewels of every
description, and illumined by his famous lamp.
THIRD BOOK 163
What dil he dread more than the death he was pre-
paring for himself and his comrade?
PAGE 303.---Put on a hat. Why ?
For our country and our religion. The Iroquois and
the English were at this time (Frontenac's second admin-
istration) engaged in a fierce struggle with the French.
French enterprise in the New Worhl was stimulated by
the desire to acquire new territory and by the missionary
spirit.
DLstrusting the soldiers. Who might take possession
of the canoe and desert.
PAGE 30t.--A ruse. A trick to decoy them.
A sortie. A surprise attack from a besieging force.
Put so bold a face on it. Paraphrase the idiom.
Lurking. Distinguish from "hiding"
Site then assembled. Madeline is abruptly dropped into
the third person. " After assembling her troops", would
have made an easier transition.
Bastions. In this case these were projecting towers at
the corners of the fort, so that each would colnlnand two
approaches to it.
PAGE 305.--Were behaving. What gave her ground
for anxiety as to their behaviour ?
P.GE 306.--Who goes there? The usual challenge of
a sentry.
Gallantly. With the chivalrous courtesv due to the
gentler sex.
La'e Chhmplain. The old military highway during
these wars was by way of the River Richelieu and Lake
Champlain.
166 THE ONTARIO READERS
In crery livbtg thing, etc. This is scarcely an accurate
description of Iudian pautheism.
For him to breallte upon. Cartier made a poor return
for the idolatrous veneration in which they held him, when
he carried off several of their chiefs to France.
The river. The St. Lawrence.
Its freshness for a hundred leagues.
to fact.
PAG lO.Presented o his sighf.
prosaic.
The fortress cliff. Quebec.
This is contrary
The expression is
ANTS AND THEIR SLAVES
For interesting matter relative to the hal,its of ants,
see Sir .lohn Lubbock's .ltt., Bees, ad ll'a.ps, and Grant
Allen's Fla.hlights on Nature.
The industry and intelligence of ants has been the
subject of remark and investigation from the earliest
times. The selection will present few difficulties. It is
necessary only to remark upon its literary form that it is
a plain piece of story-telling, rendered interesting by the
analogy set up to the practices of barbarous warfare; and
by the interesting moral and scientific truth, that func-
tions not employed tend to become atrophied.
LEAD, KINDLY LIGHT
The poet, in this sublime prayer for the idance of the
Yfolv Spirit. declares his willingness to accept faith rather
than knowledge as his guide. Compare the introduction
to Tennyson's In Memoriam for a similar sentiment. Corn-
THIRD BOOK 167
pare also Bryant's To a Water-fowl in Book IV, p. 377.
Upon what does Bryant found his faith, in the poem re-
ferred to? What is the foundation of faith in this poem?
The poet contrasts his past with his present state of
feeling. In the past, his pride compelled him to accept
the conclusions arrived at by his own reason as his only
guide, even though he felt and feared that its light might
lead him astray. Ite now repents this folly and asks for
forgivenes,,, resting only upon the guidance of the Holy
Spirit, however little may be revealed, and secure in his
self-surrender. Trace throughout the poem the expression
of these ideas in poetic form. The image employed in the
first stanza is that of a solitary and benighted traveller far
from home, guided on his way, step by step, by a light in
the darkness. What does each part of the pic.ture--the
traveller, the darkness, the way, the light, his home--
represent? How are the difficulties of the journey repre-
sented in the last stanza ? .
PXE 316.--The garish day. Suggests that the light
of human knowledge merely "leads to bewilder, and dazzles
to blind ".
The morn. The awakening in heaven.
Those angel faces smile. The friends who have gone
before.
Lost a while. Suggests a blessed reunion.
THE JOLLY SANDBOYS
Thi. selection is from Old Curiosity Shop, Chapter
XVIII.
Dicken.% in his early days as a newspaper reporter,
must have been familiar with such a scene as that de-
scribed here.
170
THE ONTARIO READERS
THE GLADNESS OF NATURE
Compare the sentiment expressed in the poem with that
in the opening lines of Bryant's Thanalopsis.
The mood of cheery buoyancy is well expressed by the
tripping metre. The poem is full of glad laughter and
merry smiles. Select the expressions which justify this
description.
P.e:E 324.--Is ilis a time, etc. The question is one of
surprise, or deprecation.
Our roof her Nafure. With whom we should rejoice.
Laugls around. Explain.
E'en fle deep blue learens. " Even" as these express
calm serenity rather than gladness.
Gladness breaHes from, etc. The sweet odours of the
opening blossoms should fill the heart with gladness.
Tle lmng-bird. The oriole, so called frem its mode o
hanging its ne.t, often on the lowest sprays of the droop-
ing wayside elm.
Gossip of swallows. The twittering of the swallows.
Tle groined-squirrel. The chipmunk, which burrows
in the ground.
('lirp.. Well describes the sound.
And lere fley sfrech o le frolic clmse. The cloud
shadows seem to be racing after each other along the
ground.
And fhere. In the sky.
Apen bower. The aspen often grows in clumps. As
the leaf stems are flat, the leaves tremble in the slightest
airs.
Beechen. To harmonize wth "aspen".
PAGE 325.--Broad*faced. And so, jovial.
Smiles i " " ..... '
172
THE ONTARIO READERS
Mosaic. :Mosaic is inlaid work consisting of little
pieces of enamel, glass, marble, etc., set in cement, and
forming a pattern. Consult dictionary for derivation.
P.,GE 327.---Boasted cushions. "Boasted" in the
sense of, were furnished with.
The work of demolition. The idea in demolition is
amplified in the epithets which follow, "great ", "huge",
" vast", and the descriptive substantives, "horns",
" wedges ", "lumps ", "piles"
Melted like magic. As if by magic. For similarly
abbreviated expressions with "like" compare "He ran
like mad". The allusion is to the famous vanishing trick
empl,yed by most conjurers.
PaGE 32S.--Retired into prirate life. Itaving secured
a competency; note the touch of humour.
Officious slaves. Slaves eager to render services. The
word "offit.iou." usually implies tiresomely eager.
PaGe 329.Drinking-bout. Note that the expression
implies a contest
PGz 33.--Human burden. What is the significance
of "" burden" here ?
PUCK'S SONG
Note the general form of the stanza; the first two
lines put in the form of a question, the last two in the
form of an answer. There is between these two parts of
the stanza a well-defined contrast, especially well-marked
in stanzas one. five, and seven, whilst in all, the change
between the olden and the present time is strongly marked.
PaGE 330.--The dimpled track. Dimpled, explained
hy "hollow" in the line following. The track worn deep
by hauling the heav mm n 1 * *-- r .... e
THE ONTARIO READERS
'.',c,,E 345.--Calm and bright. Both wind and rain
have ceased.
The jay ,akes answer. The jay seems to delight in
mocking mimicry of the bird voices he bears.
Note that the concluding line in each stanza has an
extra foot, thus giving an air of completion.
All things that lore the sun. Suggest some of these.
Thc sky rejoices. Comparc
The moon doth with delight
Look round her when the Heavens are bare.
Intimations o] lmmortalty--WoavsWOaTr
Plashy. Covered with pools of water.
Runs with her. The mist is elevated into a thing
animated with feelings of play and companionship.
Notice how in each stanza the joy of Nature changes;
calm and sweet at first, then glad, then gleeful.
CROSSING THE BAR
IAGE 346.--Sun.ct and et'ening star. These words
set the keynote of the poem, written in the premonition
of death, as is suee._ted . in the expression, " one clear
call for me"
Moaning of the bar. Refers to the mournful plash
of the waves over the bar, or shoal, at the mouth of the
harbour. Explain the formation of such bars, where the
river current meets the dead waters of the sea.
It will be seen that the poem may be separated into
two equal parts. Assign a subject to each.
Note the careful correspondence between the parts of
the first stanza in each: " Sunset and evening star" with
"Twilight and evening bell "
Sun.et and evening star. These typify the creeping
on of old age.
190 THE ONTARIO READERS
Peccari (pek-kfivi). I have sinned.
I beliere you. An understatement for the sake of
emphasis. Maggie's question is treated by Tom as an
assertion.
All u'omen are crosser than men. A distinct triumph
for Tom's views on the sexes.
,lu,t Glegg. See notes on Maggie Tulliver, Book III,
P,E 8.--It'll be very wicked. Maggie's use of the
indicative for a supposition shows how deeply she is
affected by the possibility of Tom's displeasure.
Oh, bother, never mind. 5faggie's sense of futurity is
pressing and immediate. Tom is willing to let the future
take care of itself. His present troubles are quite enough
for him.
P.te 9.--Mathematical mortificalion. A humorous
application of the adjective.
PaE lO.--Xo donke9s. Account for the use of the
plural.
INGRATITUDE
(From As You Like It. Act II, vii)
PAGE lO.--The speaker endeavours to escape from the
buffetings of men, or at any rate to alleviate their force by
encountering the fierce buffetings of nature. Corapare
King Lear, Act nr, ii.
Spit, fire! Spout, rain!
Nor rain, wind, thunder, fire, are my daughters:
I tax not you. you elements, with unkindness;
I never gave you kingdom, calrd you children.
To what is "Ingratitude" compared in the first stanza ?
FOURTH BOOK 193
The Pinta. In command of Martin Pinzon; Columbus
sailed in tle Santa Maria.
Pa(;E 16.--.in island. San Salvador, sighted seventy
days after leaving Palos.
Te Deum. "'Te Dcum Laudamus.'" The psalm be-
ginning with the words " We praise Thee, (t God !"
Transports. They were beside themselves with re-
joicing.
The paragraphs mark accurately the stages in the
development of the narrative. Give the suhject of each.
THE FIRST SPRING DAY
Pa(E 17.--The poet, suffering under a sense of irrepar-
able loss, is longing for the coming of spring in the hope
that the joy of the season will bring some a.ssuagement of
her grief.
The Poem is lvric in form; that is, it is the free,
spontaneous, and unrestrained expression of some single,
deep emotion. The essential chara'tcr of lyric poetry is
that it aims to reproduce the whole mental experience of
the writer in the mind and heart of the reader. The
writer's thoughts, moods, and emotions thus become re-
incarnated. The melody of the verse suggests the mood;
the fall of the metrical accent hrings out the words on
which the stress of meaning or emotion lies ; the symmetry
of form regulates the development of the ideas. It is not
necessary to make the child a literary critic to secure his
understanding of these principles, as exemplified in a poem
like this, of rare delicacy and heautv.
Stanza I. The poet has heard the first doubtful notes
of the robin's song, and in the ensuing silence, she asks for
FOURTH BOOK 201
PACE 29.--Shadou's of, etc. Premonitions of his
death; compare "Coming events cast their shadows
before"
Qui rive f (kS-v6v). Equivalent to " Who goes there ?"
A con,,oy from Bougai, ville. All Montcalm's supplies
were drawn from Montreal and Three Ilivers, and so
passed through the hands of Bougainville (BS-gan-vSl'),
who was stationed at Cap Rouge. Wolfe's attempt to gain
the Plains of Abraham aboc the city was inspired by the
hope of cutting off Montcalm's supplies; for lie expected
that the French would choose a stele, not a battle, and
here, perhaps, ]fontcalm's generalship failed.
PAE 31.--The vessels had dropped downu'ard. From
Cap louge the force had been carried down in thirty large
bateaux and sonic boaL.
Plains of Abraham. So called from Abraham Martin,
once the owner of the land. These lie to the west of the
city, guarded on the south by the precipitous cliffs of the
St. Lawrence and on the north by a .atura] glacis, the
('6t Ste. G6neviSve, sloping down to the swampy flats of
the St. Charles.
His wide-extended camp. It stretched from the city
to the mouth of the Montmorenei, about eight miles to
the east.
The ciril power had thu'arted him. Vaudreuil
(VS-dru'y), the Governor-general, was jealous of Mont-
calm's superior military rank and his popularity and did
all that he could to thwart his plans, whilst claiming all
the glory of his success. Bigot (BrigS'), the Intendaut,
by an infamous system of peculation, had debauched the
civil service and beggared the army commissariat.
FOURTH BOOK 205
"waits ", who went from house to house, usually receiving
some refreshnlent. The most famous of these carols
beginniug,
God rest you, merry gentlemen,
May nothing you dismay,
was sung bv a small boy through Scrooge's key-hole on
Christmas Eve.
PAGE 39.--ll'as his own. This iteration is a favourite
trick of Dickens to euforce an idea. Compare below "a
splendid laugh, the chuckle ", etc.
The Spirits o] all Three shall strife within me. His
memories of his youth, with its fancies, its affections, and
its :joys; the clear knowledge of his present sordid self;
and especially the thought of the possibilities of making
amends to humanity for his selfish coldness, and thereby
reviving in himself the joy of his youth, would henceforth
direct his life and conduct.
Jacob Marley. His former business partner, seven
years dead, who had been such a man as himself, had
appeared to him at the beginning of the vision to warn
and, if possible, to reclaim him.
Answer to his call. Respond to his will.
They are not torn down. In the vision of "Christmas
to come" the bed curtains had been plundered by the char-
woman and sold to the second,hand dealer.
PaOE 40.--Laocoon (La-oc'o-on). (See VnoIL, .Eneid
ii. 40. et seq.) A priest of Apollo, who with his two sons,
as a punishment for endeavouring to persuade the Trojans
to destroy the wooden horse consecrated to Minerva. was
crushed to death in the folds of two serpents sent against
him up out of the sea by the incensed goddess. Dickens
humorously compares the stockings to the serpents.
OURTH BOOK 207
The chuckle the chuckle the chuckle.
Ringing the changes on the same expression.
Requires attention. A humorous use of understate-
merit.
PAGE 45.--His nephew's house. The grasping nature
which had growu in 8t.rooge had overlaid his early tender-
heSS for his sister, and lie had neglected and quarrelled
with her son in the selfish fear that his help might he
looked for.
Show you up.tairs. To the waiting-room. In London
the drawing-room, parlour, or waiting-room is generally
upstairs.
PAGE 46.--Will yo let me in, Fred? Fred had asked
him to dinner on Christmas Eve, hut had met with an
insulting refusal.
PAGE 47.The Tank. The little outer offlcs in which
the clerk worked; so called by Dickens to epress its
narrow, cramped, gloomy appearaace.
PAGE 48.--Strail-u'aislcoat. A long-sleeved garment
used to restrain lunatics.
Bishop. Punch.
Their fill of laughter. Dickens hated a cynic.
PAGE 49.--Spirits. The rather commonplace pun is
quite in place in bringing the narrative to an easy and
pleasant close, though it must be admitted that Dickens'
fondness for this sort of wit sometimes betrayed him into
its use when ilappropriate. See, in particular, previous
parts of A Christmas Carol.
The spirit of Dickens as displayed in his writings
and in his life is this Christmas spirit, which was born
in Scrooge by his terrible experiences.
208 THE ONTARIO READERS
HANDS ALL ROUND
Tennyson was a strong Imperialist, and to him Canada
owes a debt of gratitude for discouraging the sentiment,
at one time str.ng in Eugland, of allowing her to drift
away from the Empire.
The scene presented is a patriotic banquet at which
toasts were dru,k, the guests joining hands after drinking
tl,e glass.
Tho toasts are to " Queen and Country", to "The
Colo,ies", and to--as we simuld say in Canada--" Our
Legislators ".
PAGE 49.--This solemn night. The night of an
annual festival; the word "solemn " originally meant
annual.
Cosmopolite. A citizen of the world. The reference
is to the " Little Englanders", consisting of a coterie of
statesmen who belie'ed that, ia rebuking a patrioti-.m
which centred wholly in England and the extension of
her power, they were the apostles, of a higher political
morality. They prided them.elves upon their co.mopoli-
tanism, and instead of looking to the prosperity of Eng-
land alone, they conceived it to be the policy of the
highest statesmanship to forward the progress of ciiliTa-
tion without regard to the interests of any particular
coun.try.
Freedom's oak. The oak, emblematic of England, is
identified with the cause of liberty.
The true Conserralire. CoSaservatism has sometimes
been taken to mean the policy of preserving the systems
of the past in their integrity; but, as Tennyson saw, a
policy is a growth; and just as a tree can be preserved
only by lopping away the rotten or the rottine limb._ -
FOURTH BOOK 211
Baal. Bel, ,pelles (A-pel'les), all three names are
given to the sea god of the Assyrians. Sometimes identi-
fied with Apollo.
The idols are broke. The ..ssyrians are represented
as taking revenge on their gods for their defeat.
Note Byron's excessive employment of poetic imagery;
the images in his hands become more important than tSe
thought underlying them. He belongs to an age when,
as has been truly said, the body of poetry was more highly
esteemed than its soul. Like IacauIay b prose, he was
fond of striking lights and shadows. Note the effective
contrast employed in the second stanza.
Byron is always graphic. Note the correctness of the
details given to picture the utter overthrow of the
Assyrians.
The poem is far below Moore's in lyrical spirit, partly
because it is too full of detail, and partly because tim
narrative form is adopted too exclusively. The key to
this difference is found in the opening lines of each poem.
Sound the loud timbrel--
The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold.
THE LARK AT TH] DIGGINGS
The scene is laid in Australia after the outbreak of
the gold fever in 1,57. The persons are miners, most .f
them, perhaps, convicts, for Australia was a convict colony
until 1853.
P.tGE 58.--The friends. George Fielding and Tom
Robinson had been fellow-lodgers in England: Fielding
had emigrated to Australia, where he had failed as a
farmer. Robinson, who had been sent out to Australia
212 THE ONTARIO
to look for him, found him in the last stages of a severe
illness. [;old was discovered, and the txo friends started
for lhe mining camps.
Note how carefully the writer works out the idea of
a little hit of England dropped down in the heart of the
Australian '" hush" Point out the significant details.
Mo.t of theln diggers. As ,corge wanted the scene
wholly English, this little bit of Ausiralia jars upon him.
A gigantic cage. To give the little bird a sense of
freedom.
Ptz 59.--The lark. A cant phrase fr a piece of
svrt ; and it was in this sense that Tm had under-
stood it.
From the other rn,l of the camp. The camp at
Ballarat e'tended for some miles, so that these miners
did not know the two friends.
Like most singers. A touch of nature.
Sotto vote (s,t'tS-vO'[.ha). Softly, in a low voice.
P_c, 60.--Gave music back. That is, in gratitude, as
a repayment.
Out burM. Note the order of words in this sentence,
and the hreaks in it to suggest the suddenness with which
the bird breaks out into full song.
To thin of its theme. ]n contrast with this, recall
Wordsworih's "' So might'st thou seem. proud privilege,
to sing, all independent of the leafy spring"
Dulce domum. Sweet home.
Sing this rery song. " Out burst in that distant land
his English song."
Pc,F. 61.They. The miners. "They" must be
emphasized strongly in reading fo bring out the reference.
Song-shine. A beautiful coinage from sunshino
214 THE ONTARIO READERS
Cleared. Expresses the difficulty of getting a sailing
vessel out of the harbour.
Below the l'irl'. Account for the order of the details.
Upon the left. They were sailing south.
O'er the n,cst. At the equator, the sun is over the
mast at noon.
Ba.soo. A wind instrument, a |)ass horn.
Paz 63.--The Bride minstrel.y. A dainty
picture of the olden time.
Nodding lleir heads. Keeping time to the music.
Minstrelsy. Band of minstrels.
Cannot choose but ]tear. As if bound by a mesmeric
spell.
The storm-bla.t. The blast takes on the guise of a
spirit of evil. Note the vigour of the personification.
With .lopbg 00.l.% etc. Note (1) the vividness of
the description ; (2) the means by which hurry is suggested,
namely, the alliteration, the rhythm, the compression of
six lines into a stanza, the use of the internal rhyme, the
bold and striking simile. Use the black-board to illustrate
the meaning.
Cold. ()riginally written "' cauld", as emerald,
"" emerauld". The ship has now reached the region of
the South Pole.
P.,(;E 6.--Throtzgh the drifts. Between the moving
ice-floes.
Cliffs. Old form of cliffs, snow-clad icebergs.
Sheen. Here a noun; the word is often used as an
adjective.
Nor shapes of men. So far south are they that they
get glimpses of neither men nor beasts; one old writer
says that the albatross may be found in waters where no
fish can live.
218
THE ONTARIO READERS
Or feet our crown star. A little
florid.
The honeyed words. His eloquence.
Masl'. llepresents the political theories of the states-
men opposed to Imperialism as clothed in language so
specious as to pass for profound wisdom. The fool is wise
in his own conceit. See Proverbs xxvi. 5.
The sequence of ideas is scarcely convincing or satis-
factory, but the poem i,as merit i, tl,e vigour of its phrases
and in its forcible n,etapl,ors, as well as in its spirit of
ardent loyalty.
THE BLq:tIAL OF MOSES
The scene is one of sublime grandeur, presented with
a dignity of language, a nobility of thought, and a rich
and solemn metrical movement entirely worthy of it.
P. SO.--Bnt no ron. Note the use of contrast here
and elsewhere in the poem.
Train. Funeral procession. The similes taken from
the dawn of day and the spring-time are beautiful and
appropriate.
Them that wept. lefers to the Oriental custom of
employing professional mourners at the funerals of the
great.
Pa 81.--Eyry. What is the derivation?
Stalking. Hunting by stealth.
Arms reversed. So the arms are carried at a soldier's
funeral, indicating that war is over for the dead.
Mffled drums. Shrouded with black cloth, with the
same idea as above.
Funeral car. Usually
FOURTH BOOK
The minute-gun. Fired at intervals of a minute,
corresponding to tile tolling of church bells.
These incidents of a military funeral should be carefully
explained to the class.
Minster transept. In cruciform churches, the transept
forms tile arms of the cross, the head of the cross is the
choir, the nave corresponds to the larger supporting beam.
There is a reference to Westminster Abbey, where rest
England's bonoured dead.
Lights like glories [all. From stained glass windows.
E,blazo,ed wall. With richly decorated tablets in
memory of the dead.
Pa(r'. 82.--ll'arrior, poet, pl, ilosopher. Suggested from
Ihe preceding stanza.
The hillside [or his pall. A pall is properly a drapery
covering a coffin; its meaning here is obscure.
Lie in state. The honoured dead for some days after
death are placed in coffins covered bv a pall, on a dais ill
some great church illuminated by constellations of candles.
Bier. The carriage which conveys tile corpse to the
grave.
Shall break again. Refer to the story of the Trans-
figuration. St. lIatthew xvii. 2, 3.
The hills he nerer trod. The hills of Palestine, the
Promised Land which he was not allowed to enter.
The stri[e. Christ's life, sufferings, and death.
P.n 83.--Curious. Inquisitive.
The poem is applied as an illustration that the ways of
God are "past finding out ". It teaches the lesson of
simple, unquestioning faith.
Read the Funeral o[ lVelli,glon, p. 324, and the Burial
o[ Sir John Moore, Book III, p. 106.
FOURTH BOOK 221
Mace. A long-handled hammer, with a spiked ball for
a head.
Address. Practised skill.
PAGE 87.--Hs harness. His armour.
PA(E 88.--Lingua franca. A mixture of Italian with
Turkish, Arabian, and Greek.
Emir. A title bestowed on all independent chiefs, and
descendants of Mohammed through his daughter Fatimah.
Nazarene. A follower of Jesus of Nazareth.
Moslem. Mussulman is a corrupted form of the word
M,slem ; a Mohammedan.
A synthesis of the lesson may be worked out on these
lines :
1. What advantages had each of the combatants?
2. How did they strive to make use of them ?
The conclusion, like that of The Battle of the Pipes,
leaves everybody satisfied.
MERCY
This selection is taken from The Merchant of Venice,
Act IV, i.
PAGE 89.--Strained. Forced; in reply to Shylock's
" On what compulsion must I ?'"
Droppeth. In contrast with "strained"
Sceptre. The sceptre is emblematic of the kins
power and authority, and so is suggestive of him as
executing justice.
Attribute to awe. The appropriate emblem of awe.
Attribute to God. A part of God's nature, a quality
that helps to make up man's idea of God.
Shew. Appear.
FOURTH BOOK 225
See Milton's catalogue of the fallen angels, Paradise
Lost. Bk. 1.
King of Kings.
Stare of Slates.
King of Kings.
Perfect freedom.
Revelation of St. John, xix. 16.
Ruskin's coinage, by analogy with
See the Book of Common Prayer,
the Collect for Peace : "Whose service is perfect freedom ".
Slavery. Because in this latter case one gives work
grudgingly, the object being money; and in the former
gladly, the object being the perfection of the work.
Note throughout the uses of contrast and the rhctori(.al
means by which these contrasts are rendered effective.
In what way does Ruskin give vivacity to the illustra-
tions which he employs ?
UNTRODDEN WAYS
The poem is based on the proneness of humanity to
regard the lot of others as hal,pier than their own. It
consists of a well-marked introduction, development, and
conclusion.
The introduction 1)resents a scene of idyllic beauty.
The development shows the lonely ploughman halting his
team to catch some glimpse of the life of the great city,
which seems to him embodied in the passing train, which,
as it rapidly recedes from view, leaves llim in a reverie
upon the joys and excitements of city life in comparison
with his own dull round ; by way of contrast with this, the
wearied travellers on the train, enchanted with the beauty
of the scene, think life to the ploughman must be one long
holiday.
The conclusion gives the application to life ; each sees
only one side of the picture---that illumined by fancy.
FOURTH BOOK 227
as their life span is but a single day. (See Comstock's
Insect Life, Chapter IV.)
From tle mould. The ephemera, in the state of larvae
and pupae, are aquatic. When ready for their final change,
they creep out of the water, generally toward sunset, and
shed their whole skin (mould), propagate their species,
and die, taking no food in the perfect state.
Gossamer. The webs spun by small spiders on stubble
or grass, and rendered easily visible on a dewy morning.
(See Comstock, Chapter VIII.)
Come up. The ground is dr)-, and so ready for the
plough on the hilltop earlier than in the damp valleys.
The bigh-]ole. This bird, also called flicker, and
golden-winged woodpecker, or yellow-hammer, arrives
about the middle of April. "It is chiefly a ground feeder,
ants forming a large portion of its food", for the capture
of which its tongue is specially adapted.
Tle woodgrbs. Observe that each bird selects food
to his taste.
The assemblage of details in the last stanza gives
movement, colour, life, and reality to the picture.
The pupils should write papers, telling all they know
about the habits of these birds.
THE ARCHERY CONTEST
The extract is from Scott's Irahoe, Chapter XIII.
The incident took place at the close of the second day's
tournament at Ashby, in the presence of Prince John, at
that time deep in a plot to seize the throne of his brother,
Richard I. The latter had been imprisoned in a castle
in the Tyrol by the Duke of Austria, whose enmity he
had incurred in the Holy Land. The tournament is indeed
228
THE ONTARIO READERS
a part of the plot against the King, of whose liberation
Prince John had just heard.
PAGE 97.--Waldenar. Fitzurse, confidential adviser to
Prince John.
Yeoranlih'e. Creditably to this class. The yeomen
were the substantial common people of England below the
ranks of the gentry; from this class the archery of Eng-
land were mainly drawn.
.4 forester. As we should say, a game warden.
MIcoisin. A Norman baron in the service of John,
who had competed in the tournament.
Try conclL.ions. As we should say, "see who will come
out best ".
,,'ith. Old form for " since"
It be no better. No better terms are offered.
Braggart. A name scarcely deserved in view of
Locksley's modesty of speech.
The bgle. A bugle was to be the prize for the winner.
Silcer penies. The silver penny was a coin containing
twenty-four grains of silver.
Hastings. When the Conqueror came over.
PG 98.--The former target. This paragraph is a
fine examp|e of graphic description. Note the carefully
elaborate details which produce this effect.
Anxiety to pause. In contrast with Hubert's delibera-
tion.
An. In case.
Runagate. Vagabond.
Kna'e. A low fellow.
POF 99.--Generation. Descendants.
Mend. Better, improve.
Shivers. Splinters.
FOURTH BOOK 231
AUTUMN WOODS
PA(E 103.--The two opening stanzas set forth the time
and the place. The time is when the trees, depleted of the
luxuriance of their summer foliage though not yet
stripped bare by the tempests, are gay with the rich colour-
ing of autumn. The place is a ,'alley embowered in the
heart of woodland slopes rising into mountainous peaks in
the distance. In the second stanza, the poet's fancy
idealizes the scene; the mountain peaks become groups of
richly attired kings; the vale becomes enchanted ground.
Note, too, in the stanza, the slower and more dignified
metrical movement. The following stanzas describe the
poet's walks along the woodland slopes, sweetened by the
companionship of the south-west wind, and brightened by
the mild beams of the early autumn sun. The poem con-
cludes with the reflection that a life spent among such
scenes as these would be happier than that permitted to
mortals.
lXTote the uses made of personification throughout the
poem and the varied rhythms in the metre.
Note the use made of contrast, especially in the sixth
and seventh stanzas.
In the seventh stanza, explain "strange"
Bryant's literary work, notwithstanding its employ-
ment of suspended and even involved constructions, is,
on account of its grammatical exactness and the propriety
of its expressions, always of an admirable lucidity. To
this he adds a singular power of condensation. Test the
justice of this criticism.
IN A CANOE
The extract consists of a description of the canoe:
(1) As it glides over the smooth surface of a lake or down
23
THE ONTARIO READERS
some swift stream; (2) as it rushes headlong de)wn the
rapids. Note the long sentences in the first part, broken
only by one or two short sentences for tile sake of variety,
as compared with the quick, incisive, short sentences and
sentence phrases in the exciting part. of the description.
Note, too, the succession of participial phrases in parallel
construction. These devices are employed to give the
reader a sense of excitement. The justic.e of this remark
may perhaps be exhibited by altering the form of one of
these sentcuces only slightly. " Before you there is a
seething mass of foam with its whiteness broken by lurid
black rocks, whose jagged sides with a single tout'h, after
ripping the canoe into tatters, would hurl you iuto eter-
nity." The change in effect is entirely due to the linking
of the phrases more closely te)gether and the adoption of
the periodic structure.
Much of the effectiveness of tile description depends
upon the sense of hearing--for example, "the sharp,
quick beat of the paddles", " the roll of their shafts
again.t the gunwale ", " the hiss and ripple of the stream ",
and the use of onomatopoetic expressions.
Note tile use of the second personal pronoun and the
present tense throughout, to impart vividness.
PG l*5.--Thwnrt. The crossbar upon which the
paddler rests.
PE 108.--Crash ! You are right on that rocl'. His
fears are so vivid as to assume the guise of reality.
AFTON WATER
Alton Water is a small tributary of the Nith in Ayr-
shire, near Alton Lodge, which was the house of Mrs.
Stewart, formerly of Stair. "This song was presented to
FOURTH BOOK 233
her in return for her notice--the first Burns ever received
from any person in her rank of life." {ilbert Burns, how-
ever, asserts that the poem is addressed to IIigbland Mary.
P.(JE 109.--Den. A wooded hollow. Compare Ilaw-
tbornden, IIazeldean.
Lapu'ing. The lapwing, sometimes called the peewit
from its cry, is a bird of the plover family, and derives
its uame from its leaping or jerking mode of flight; lap
equals leap.
P,(E llO.--Mild eeening weeps. Refers to the
evening dews.
Birk. Birch. The birk shares the honours of Scottish
poetry with the pine and rowan.
Wanton. Parse. The line contains a beautiful
picture.
Write a description of Afton Water as here portrayed.
What is the pervading feeling in the poem?
Observe that poetic symmetry is attained: (1) By the
similarity in form of the opening and closing stanzas;
(2} by the arraugemeut of ideas in each stanza--the first
part devoted to the praise of the stream, the second to
the expression of a tender affection for the beloved one.
DAVID COPPERFIELD'S FIRST JOURNEY ALONE
The selection is from David Copperfield, Chapter V.
This is a little comedy in three acts, representing
David's embarrassment, his guilelessness, and his awaken-
ing.
What circumstances emphasize David's embarrass-
ment ?
What incidents present his guilelessness and sim-
plicity ?
FOURTH BOOK 235
I sleep on the coals.
with considerable artistic skill.
Received up
incongruity.
PaE liB.--Qualities, etc.
life.
The waiter works up his climax
thumb. Humour of
Gives the application to
THE BAREFOOT BOY
The divisions of the poem are as follows: An intro-
ductory and a concluding address to the barefoot boy.
The introduction, however, has two main divisions, indi-
cated, as all the main divisions are, by lines concluding
with "barefoot boy". The development consists of three
parts, each opening with the expression of a wish, " Oh
for", etc., and containing reminiscences, for which the
line "I was once a barefoot boy" prepares us.
The motive is well expressed in the concluding lines:
Ah! that thou couldst know thy Joy
Ero it passes, barefoot boy!
What characteristics of the barefoot boy are described
in the first part of the introduction ?
What in the second?
PAGE ll8.--Prince thou art Only is republi-
can. The reflection is a little out of place in an address
to a barefoot boy. The boy claims service from all.
Everything is to minister to his wants and caprices. He
is thus a prince. He will learn, when he grows up, that
he has no more claim to service than any one else, and
that in republican phrase---" All men are free and equal "
The reach of ear and eye. This idea is fully worked
out in the succeeding lines of the poem.
238 THE ONTARIO READERS
COUNTRY LIFE IN CANADA IN THE " THIRTIES"
The style is simple and naturah It scarcely departs
anywhere fr,n, direct statement (Note exceptions.) The
paragraphs are each headed with a statement of the
suhject and contain an exposition of that and nothing
else. There are here and there some gentle touches of
humour.
P.E ] 25.--Drags. Harrows.
P6E l?7.--Spbzet. A stringed instrument of trian-
gular form, not unlike a harp; so called because in playing
it the strings were twitched with a spine or quill.
HEAT
Describe what the poet sees; what he feels; what he
hears.
Make a sketch of the scene, introducing: (1) The dis-
tant background of hills; (2) the road climbing up hill;
{:)) the wagoner and his horse; (4) the bridge, the stream,
the near-by fields, the distant shelteri,g elms. The
teacher should encourage the pupils to select carefully
the relative positions in which these objects are to be
placed in the picture, so as to accord with the scene pre-
sented in the poem.
In what way does each of these images contribute to
the object of the poem?
PE ]S.--Tlat reel. Swim before the eyes in the
sun's glare. Compare with "seems to swim"
Idly clac'i,g ,']eels. What other fine example of
imitative harmony occurs i, the poem ? " Idly clacking"
conveys the idea of slow, leisurely, lazy movement.
244
THE ONTARIO READERS
lines, perhaps, better than anything else in the poem indi-
cate the poetical bent of :Roberts' genius.
Than its summer canopy sifted. Make a grammatical
analysis of the line. The metaphor is ri.hly suggestive,
and is a great improvement on the "' chequered shade" of
the older poets.
And oh! to be near it still. Note the fulness of sug-
gestion in this line.
THE GREENWOOD TREE
PAC, E 142.--The selectiou is from As You Like It, v. ii.
This is the truest and nmst natural presentation of
the "'simple life" in literature. The appeal is to a uni-
versal longing for temporary respite from social bondage
to live the life of the birds and flowers and all the sveet
and gentle kindred of the wild. Compare with this poem
Hogg's The Skylark, p. 32, and the closing stanzas of
Bryant's Autumn ll'oods, p. 104.
Man's ideal of happiness, properly understood, is per-
fect freedom, tlere it is freedom from care that is
emphasized.
It is notable that the poem is almost devoid of orna-
ment of any kind; its effect depends solely upon the depth
and sincerity of the sentiment.
LAKE SUPERIOR
The selection depends for its effectiveness upon a pic-
turesque grouping of well-known facts, each of which,
taken by itself, is uninteresting; but grouped as they are,
offset by a vigorous contrast, and expressed in language
always rhetorical and sometimes poetic in its rhythm and
FOURTII BOOK 245
freedom, they are invested with the charm of the imagina-
tion. The paragraph arrangement is not quite satisfactory,
and the loose adjectival clause at the end is a little dis-
appointing.
P.E 143.--English miles. What is the length of a
geographical mile ?
Cedar Rapids. The rapids on the St. Lawrence River
above Montreal are, in order, the Lachine, Cascade, Cedar,
Coteau. The Cedar Rapids marked, in 159, the western
limit of Canadian settlement.
PAE 144.--The only ones thai ecer lasl. Allusion to
"the everlasting hills", Genesis xlix. 26. The Lauren-
tian hills are of Archaan formation; these primitive rock
formations suffer less from the agencies of denudation and
erosion than the subsequent stratified rocks.
There are rivers. Compares the waters from Lake
Superior, which flow through the St. Lawren(.e channel,
with such rivers as the Mississippi and the Rhiue. Sig-
nificant comparisons such as these may be found in the
School Geographies.
The teacher shouhl endeavour to apply the introductory
criticism in the teaching of the lesson.
THE RED RIVER PLAIN
The opening sentent.e would seem to suggest a very
different line of treatment from that which follows. The
writer is wholly preoccupied with the immensities of
things. Compare, in this respect, what it is that appeals
to him most in Lake Superior. Even in what is pr.ac-
tically a second paragraph, beginning with "The effect of
sunset ", where one would have expected the emphasis to
17
248
THE ONTARIO READERS
Spiked candlesticks. The spiked foot of the candle-
stick was thrust into the wood wherever convenience sug-
gested.
Marred that player's enjoyment. Humour, by ironical
mildness of statement.
PA61 151.--Draughts. Cheekers.
Bull-bail. Still a favourite Spanish amusement.
The lance. See the Chronicles of De .loinrilIe (I)
Zhoan-vl ) and Froi.sarl's (Froissirt') Ch ton icle
(Ew.r,-la x's L,,ar).
Garlic. A kind of leek or onion.
P).31 152.--ll'ith a cross. We still have our "Hot
Cross Buns" on Good Friday.
Rufus. William II. called Rufus, or The Red, on
account of his complcxion, second son and successor of
William the Conqueror.
Acquiremenls. Accomplishments.
Pac, E 153.--Ma.s-prieM. A priest whose rank entitled
him to administer the c,,mmunion.
The cloister. The monastic life.
Tilt. Joust. A sport in which opposing knights rode
at full tilt against each other, armed with long. steel-shod
lances with which each endeavoured to kill or unhorse his
opponent.
Pagehood, squirchood. The knight had to serve first
as page, then as squire, before being admitted to the
honours of knighthood.
In matters of style, note the skilful alternation of long
and short sentences, and the dear, simple, lucid, and inter-
esting presentation of ideas. Especially in the second
paragraph, note the graphic series of pictures. Note also
the effective use of comparison and contrast.
FOURTH BOOK 249
YE MARINERS OF ENGLAND
The poem may be summarized as follows: Your ances-
tors have left you a heritage of glory ; you are called upon
to emulate their deeds. These historic memories will
inspire you in your task. Britain looks with proud con-
fidece to you alone as her defence. England will not be
unmindful of you when your task is done.
PAC, E 154.--0ur native seas. Coined after "our native
land". What are the native seas?
Brm'ed the battle and the breeze. The flag
is used for the might of wbich it is emblematic.
A thousa,d years. Alfred the (-;rear is popularly sup-
posed to have founded the fleet toward the close of the
nintb century; as this poem was completed in 1800, the
fleet had existed for nearly a thousand years.
Launch. Fling forth to the breeze.
To match another foe. In the year of the poem, the
Armed Neutrality League had been formed, consisting of
Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Russia, with the Czar
Paul at its bead. (See Green's llistory of the Engli.,h
People, Bk. IX, ('bapter 5.) The Battle of the Baltic and
the assassination of the Czar put an end to its existence.
It is amusing to recall that in this year, part of which the
poet spent in France, he was arrested there as a spy. The
search made of bis belongings revealed nothing more trea-
sonable than this poem, and he was at once set at liberty
as he was "only a poet "
Where Blal'e atd nighty Nelson fell. The line stood
originally " Where Blake, the boast of freedom, fell ".
Nelson was already made famous by his destruction of
the French fleet in the Bay of Aboukir (A-bS"kr) on
August 1st, 1798. It was uot till five years after the pub-
FOURTH BOOK 251
Dangeds troubled night. The gloom cast over Eng-
land by the threatening attitude of Napoleon.
The storm has ceased to blow. The corresponding
lines in the preceding stanza. are taken literally; here
the "storm ", hv metaphor, represents war.
The poem stirs the blood like the sound of a trumpet.
Suggest three reasons for this.
q'he stanza at the foot of page 155 is from Tennvson's
You ask e why.
HOME THOUGHTS FROM ABROAD
P.. 157.--0h, to be in England. Browning spent
a great part of hi. time in Italy.
April's there. A personification, as though April were
a friend one would wish to meet.
Whoerer wakes. The joy is universal--shared hy
every one.
Unaware. Unexpectedly.
The brushwood sheaf. The suckers at the foot of the
tree trunk, and pos.ibly the growth from adventitious buds
along the bole.
The chalnch. A British finch, whose song is heard
from early spring till midsummer, possibly so called from
its note. Compare the Canadian period for the American
goldfinch.
In Enfflandnow. The break, which should be well
marked in the reading, indicates emotion roused in the
poet's mind hy the far-off, beloved scene.
White-throat. A small British bird of the warbler
family.
FOURTH BOOK 253
imitative harmonies being a special feature of the com-
position. The double rhymes have called for a rare ingenu-
ity, which, though generally successful, works out in
some cases at the cost of sober sense. The defects, how-
ever, escape notice in the maze of wonderfully woven
melodies. Apply the criticism.
PaE 158.--River Lee. The river on which Cork is
situated.
TI, y belfry. The spire of Shandon Church was built
on the ruins of old Shandon Castle.
Adrian's Mole. Adrian's Mausoleum at lome, after-
wards reconstructed as the Castle of St. Angelo. Adrian,
or ttadrian, will be remembered as the Emperor who built
the Roman Wall from the Tvne to the Solway in a.D. 120.
The Vatican. The Pope's palace at Rome.
Notre Dame. The great cathedral at Paris is intended.
P.tE 159.--The dome of ,'. Peter. St. Peter's at
Rome, which was rebuilt. The dome was designed by
Michael Angelo, the celebrated Italian painter, sculptor,
and architect. A good idea of St. Peter's and the Vatican
may be got from Robinson's Inlroduction o lle History of
ii'eler, Europe, pp. 3---5, illustrated with a cut.
A bell i, lloscow. "' The Monarch of Moscow." The
largest bell in the world, twenty-one feet in diameter, and
weighing one hundred and ninety-three tons. It was
broken by a fall in 1797, and now forms the dome of a
chapel. The poet, in 1834, the date of the poem, evidently
assumes that it was still in use as a bell.
Kiosk. Properly a summer-house; here it seems to
mean an open tower.
Saint Sophia. Originally a Chri.tian church at Con-
stantinople, but con'erted by the Turks into a Moham-
medan temple.
FOURTH BOOK 257
It is one of our fatal human frailties that we continu-
ally rob ourselves of the joy in beauty through a barbarous
covetousness which desires to possess itself in some way of
the beautiful object. We cannot see a noble deed done
without applauding it, and thus claiming credit for simi-
larity of intention, if not of act.
Compare, in some respects, tile sentiments in Each and
All by the same poet, and also Wordsworth's ]'arrow Un-
visited, and The Highland Girl.
MERCY TO ANIMALS
PAe, E 169.--Fine sense. Culture, refinement.
Wanting. Lacking.
Sensibility. Tenderness of heart; thoughtfulness for
others.
Forewarned. That is, if forewarned.
The reptile. Any creeping tiling; here the snail.
Vermin. Used chiefly in the plural, here singular.
Alcove. A recess intended for a couch or seat.
Refectory. An eating-room.
The sum. The principle.
Eztinguish. Override.
This didactic poem is written in English heroic metre
(iambic pentameter). It is a protest against thoughtless
and unnecessary cruelty. It forms good subject-matter
for re-statement in plain prose.
THE UNITED EMPIRE LOYALISTS
PAGE 170.--Inaugurated. The use of the
"inaugurated" in this sense is open to criticism.
word
FOURTH BOOK 259
PAGE 172.--To Chippewa. To avoid Niagara Falls
and the Rapids.
Sir Richard Bonnycastle. He wrote The Canadas in
1841, and Canada and the Canadians iu 1846.
The Pilgrim Fathers. These were a body of Noncon-
formists who, toward the end of Elizabeth's reign, went
to Holland, but finding it difficult to maintain themselves
them returned to England in July, 1620. At Southamp-
ton they embarked in two small vessels, one of which, the
Speedwell, had to be abandoned as unseaworthy at Ply-
mouth. In the other, the Mayflower, they reached the
coast of Massachusetts in November, and shortly after-
ward selected the site of their new settlement, which they
called Plymouth, in memory of the port from which they
had last sailed. Half of their number perished through
hardships before the folloxving spring.
OFT, IN THE STILLY NIGHT
P),3 E 173.--Stilly.
an adverb.
Slunber's chain. Note Moore's fondness for
metaphor.
Fond Memory. Note personification. Explain
sense in which the word is here used.
The light of other days. The vision of the past.
idea is expressed in a beautiful poetic phrase.
The six following lines fill in the details of the vision.
Sad Memory. -ote the change from "fond" to
" Sad" Explain.
P.,3E 174.--Linked. Linked by the ties of love.
Fall like leares. What figures are employed? Are
the images consistent ?
Silent. The word is also used as
this
the
The
FOURTH BOOK 261
Compare :
The soul of music slumbers in the shell,
Till waked and kindled by the master's spell;
And feeling hearts, touch them but rightly, pour
A thousand melodies unheard before!
Human LiIe--ROGERS
Shed. Like light, all-pervading.
The pride. The pride that inspired men to noble
deeds; compare the following expressions: " beat high for
praise '; and "glory's thrill ", which suggest the same idea.
Beat high [or praise. I{ead in any Irish history the
exploits of Fin McCool and his famous band.
That pulse. Here a noun, equivalent to "throb" or
"thrill ".
PAOE 175.--Chiefs and ladies bright. This conjures
up a scene of gay festivity, suggestive of the glories of
the ancient capital.
That breaks. The chord gives forth the single musical
sound in the breaking. This represents the few, spas-
modic utterances of the Irish muse, wrung from her by
the bitterness of her grief.
Thus freedom. The sadness of the patriotic Irish is
the only sign that the spirit of Freedom still survives.
The comparison introduced by "Thus" between the
breaking chord which shows that the soul of music is not
quite dead, and the breaking heart, which shows that
freedom still survives, should be fully developed.
Moore's mastery of melodious verse is well exemplified
in this poem.
HUDSON STRAIT
PAOE 175.--Resolution Island. A small island off the
southernmost extremity of Baffin Island.
266 THE ONTARIO READER
B,uce. See History of England.
Lotr. Threaten; also spelled, lower.
Proud Edward's. Edward II.
ST. AMBROSE CREW WIN THEIR FIRST RACE
This selection is taken from Tol, Brown at Oxford,
Chapter XI] I.
PA(E 180.--Harl'. The reader is placed in the scene
of the race.
Tle first gu. The signal to make ready for the race.
Sent Tom's leart iafo his todl. The centre of
interest in the story lies in following out Tom's emotions
and feelings as the race goes on.
Se,eral of flee boats ];..led o. The racing boats
were lying at regular intervals along the banl,:. How are
boats usually placed at the beginning of a race in Canada?
Crowds of men. Mainly students of the different
colleges of which Oxford University is composed. The
men of each college would be naturally assembled in the
vicinity of their college boat.
The slacou, of the combg excitemet. Coming events
cast their shadows before.
The St. Atbrose. St. Ambrose and Exeter are the
only colleges named in the extract.
Th.e stretchers. Bars laid across the bottom of the
boat against which the feet of the rowers are braced.
Bow (pronounce as "bough"). The first oarsman,
seated in the bow.
Turtted on his seat. The coxswain, or steersman, was
seated in the stern with the captain in the next seat, facing
him.
Up the boat. Toward the bow.
FOURTH BOOK 267
To pass from him into the crew. Compare Vital
Lampada, page 395.
PaGE 181.--To get way on her. To get the boat in
motion, to give momentum.
The lemon. Used by athletes to keep the mouth and
throat moist and clear of phlegm.
Poised their oars. Placed them in position for the
stroke.
Number two. In a race the oarsmen are addressed
by number. The captain and Number Two each held a
right-hand oar, and so could conveniently thrust the boat
off.
Pay out. Let it slide out gradually.
Her place. The place assigned to her for starting.
P.GE 182.--You must back her. The Captain speaks.
To keep her behind the starting-line.
On stroke side. The right-hand oarsmen.
No easy matter. Their whole mind was bent on going
ahead, not backward.
The torpids. Junior races.
Unshipping his oar. Removing it from the rowlocks.
Short minute indeed. In their excitement it seemed
an age.
PaGE 183.--Taut. Tight, with the pull of the rope
against the push of the boat-hook, necessary to maintain
the boat's exact position for the start.
Before the sound. At what rate does sound travel?
Light?
Can roll up the river. The race was upstream, and
the starting-gun fired from far in the rear.
In leash. As hounds are held by means of thongs
before the hunt begins.
FOURTH BOOK 271
Hawks. Hawks were used for fowling, for which
their strong, swift flight and mighty talons peculiarly
fitted them. They were taken into the field with their
heads covered with a hood, and were attached to their
owner's wrist with a leash until the suitable moment,
when they were released. Then they shot up into the
air with tile velocity of an arrow until well above their
prey, which they pounced down upon. Compare " Let
the hawk stoop, his prey is flown"
Horns are knelling. Read the well-known song Do
ye ken John Peel?
Knelling. What is the usual significance?
Merrily, merrily mingle they. Note the quickened
measure and the alliteration.
The mountain gray. The gray granite of the mountains.
Springlels. A coinage. Mist is rising from the little
pools where the mountain springs have gathered their
waters.
The brake. Probably thickets of heather or of the
bracken fern; though the word simply means a thicket.
PatE 190.--The greenwood. A familiar expression
in tile border minstrelsy. See Shakespeare's The Green-
wood Tree, p. 142.
]'onlh and mirth and glee run a course. And so
come to an end, when their course is run. The moralizing
at the close is not at all in the spirit of the minstrelsy,
which has hitherto furnished the model for the poem.
Baulk. The more modern spelling is "balk"; the
word originally meant an impediment in the shape of a
beam laid across the way, and so came to its verbal use
of "to frustrate". The moral is that of Horace, " Carpe
Diem "' Enjoy the present, let the future take care of
itself.
FOURTH BOOK 273
movement of bodies of armed men. The little dramatic
touch in the second line renders the scene more vivid.
Note the vigorous explosive opening of the successive
lines, well calculated to rouse the martial spirit.
THE GREAT NORTHERN DIVER
P,C,,E 192.--The loon. The characteristics of the
loon, so well portrayed in the skctch, are its sleepless
activity, its dreary, expressionless cry, its graceful swim-
ming, its suspicious nature, its pride in its handsome
personal appearance, its steady, strained, energetic flight,
its graceful, silent dive, its maternal solicitude.
The work is evidently that of a close and sympathetic
observer of nature, whom we recognize in the angler
picturesquely protected bv a mosquito net. The pictures
are presented with the ease and viva.ity of a pen that
never lacks the appropriate expression. The phrases ex-
pressive of t'olour, sound, and movement are singularly
suggestive. The style is so simple and direct that annota-
tion seems superfluous.
Tremolo. A musical term to designate the vibration
of the voice.
The roice of the bhospitable night. Approaches the
poetic in freed-m of expression. It brings up a picture
of the lone night wanderer to whom all doors are closed.
The ear of Mght. The silent night. Night is repre-
sented as listening in silence. Would the ear of day have
any meaning ?
And sometimes, etc. Note the exquisite beauty and
truth of the picture in this sentence.
P,oF 193.--His kinship. He belongs to the same
family as the duck, all the members of which take a delight
in preening themseh'es.
FOURTH BOOK 277
Cuckoo and the Vighlingale. These poems should be
read ; each will be found to contribute something to the
understanding of this poem.
ON THE GRASSHOPPER AND CRICKET
The music of nature is never silent, for when the
summer heat has drowsed the birds, the grasshopper's
cheery voice is heard; and when the chill of winter has
tilled the note of SOllg, tile cri.kct comes to take tile place
of the grasshopper, and does it so well that he who drowses
by the fireside dreams of summer chirpings upon sunny
hills.
The sonnet consists of an o.tave and a sestette. The
octave usually luay be arranged as two quatrains. The
arrangement of the rhymes is variable. In the present
instance, the rhyme scheme for the two quatrains is
a b b a; a b b a and for the sestette c d e; e d e.
P.,,E 197.--,"tttttttter ltt.rttry. The delights of summer.
His deliglls. What are his delights, as set forth here?
Pa6E 198.--Some plea.att tceed. Weed in its original
sense of a "growing thing'. The word has deteriorated.
Is cea.bg. Why the imperfect tense?
The Cricket. Describe its haunts.
THE GREAT NORTHWEST
Note here, as in The Red Rirer Plain, page 1-t5, the
writer's fondness for dwelling on the immensities. Select
nouns, adjectives, and adverbs in the extract, expressive
of this idea.
A valuable exercise on the lesson will be to have pupils
re-state the facts in precise form.
19
280 THE ONTARIO READERS
Makes the voice of solitude audible. 0nly serves to
intensif.v the feeling of loneliness.
Compare with this passage I3rvant's Prairies and
Byron's Ocean. " Such as Creation's dawn beheld, thou
rollest now", from the latter, is so nearly parallel that
the writer must have had it in mind.
RULE. BRITANNIA
PA, 202.--At tlearen's command. Britain is repre-
sented in the poetic ision as rising from the waves at
tile cmmand of |leaven, while her assembled guardian
angels announce in choral s)ng her mission as mistress of
the seas. It is important that the reader should fully
image the picture.
The charter of the land. This would specify the lib-
erties and privileges of the land thus brought to birth.
Specify in your own words what these are.
Px6 2[.3.--Xot so blest as thee. Thee or thoug
To tyrants fall. To native or foreign tyrants? Com-
pare in Byron's Orean--"Assyria, Greece, Rome, Car-
thage, what are they ?"
More dreadful. ]lore to be dreaded.
Each foreign stroke. Each attack of foreign nations;
for example, the attack on England by the Invincible
Armada.
Tame. Subdue.
Thy generous flame. Thy noble spirit, in especial the
spirit of freedom.
Their woe and thy renown. An effective contrast.
The rural reign, etc. Britain shall be first in agricul-.
ture, in commerce, in naval power, and in colonial great-
aess. Illustrate each of these.
FOURTH BOOK 291
The Muses, still with Freedom found. This gives ex-
pression to the idea that poetry can flourish only in a land
that is free. Compare, for poetical expressions of the same
view, Byron's Isles of Greece, M,ore's Minstrel-Boy, Book
III, p. 71; The IIarp Thor Once Through Tara's IIalls,
Book IV, p. 174.
And manly heart.. This is out of construction with
the preceding line.
Note throughout the poem the use made of allitera-
tion, contrast, simile, vi.ion, and apostrophe.
THE SPACIOUS FIRMAMENT
Refer to Psalm xix. 1.
Note sequence of general and particulars.
PaGE 205.--The spaciou. a shining frame.
What part of these lines seems to refer to the skies by day
and what to the skies by night?
Firmament. This designation is retained from a time
when the celestial sphere was conceived as a solid concave
in which the stars were set or fixed. Compare "a shining
frame" below.
Their great Original proclaim. That is, proclaim the
greatness of their Creator. How?
To every land. As the earth revolves.
Soon as. Supply the ellipsis.
The wondrous tale. Of creation.
Nightly to the listening Earth, etc. A beautiful poetic
invention, embodying a sublime truth.
The dari" terrestrial ball. The earth. Would the earth
appear dark to the inhabitant. of the other planets?
FOURTH BOOK 253
abounding that every sense feels it. The poem from be-
ginning to end, in its subtly woven melodies, is a piece of
music, 'opening with a soft and thrilling sweetness and
growing richer and bolder toward its triumphant close.
The careful art with which the poet links together
related ideas by varied rhyme schemes and grammatical
devices is worthy of note. Examine, in this particular, the
last section of the poem from " We may shut our eyes" to
the close.
P.GE 206.--So rare. So exquisite.
If erer. What is the effect of the qualification?
Towers. Implied simile; " towers" is applied to the
upward flight of a bird.
Cowslip. The cowslip belongs to the same family as
the primrose (prinula). It is found in Britain in damp
places. The name is sometimes applied in America to
the marsh-marigold, and this is probably the flower re-
ferred to here.
Startles. Starts up.
Nice ear. Delicate, exact ear.
P,w,v. 207.--CreelS'. Bend in the coast.
Robin is plastering his house. What sort of nest does
the robin build ?
Couriers. Messengers.
Chanticleer. Chaucer's name for the cock.
The new wine o[ the year. What figure?
('ompare in some aspects Chaucer's prologue to The
Canterbury Tales. "When that Aprille", etc.
FOURTH BOOK 285
Hewn stone. An evidence of its magnificence.
PAGE 214.--YOU vay endanger your life. Note the
way in which the interest is continually carried forward.
Tlrew cocoa-nLts at us. This is still said to be the
habit of apes when enraged.
PAGE 215.--ll'lere pepper grows. The East Indies.
The isle of Comari (Kom'a-rP). Probably Comoro
(Kom'o-rS), off the coast of Africa, near Madagascar.
A-pearl-fi.l[bg. "A" equals o. This usage is now
only archaic and poetic. Ceylon is noted for its pearl
oyster fi.heries.
P,u..oral. Bassorah, or Basra, at the head of the
Persian Gulf.
Bag,lat. Bagdat, or Bagdad, on the Tigris River. See
note on Tl, e Vi.qion of Mirzal, p. 254.
OCEAN
The leading characteristics of the poem are its sonorous
and magnificent eloquence, its vigour and force of expres-
sion, the vividness of the pictures it presents, the life given
to it by its effective contrasts, the interest of its historic
allusions, the sublimity of its conception in the fifth stanza,
and its graceful and pleasing close. But with all that, one
hesitates whether to describe it as a poem or merely as
a magnificent piece of declamation. Its beauty is marred
by a bitterness of spirit for which there is small excuse,
even had the poet been as badly used by his fllow men as
he conceived himself to be; and this is scarcely redeemed
when he professes to find in the o'ean the embodiment of
the Divinity. Conceding everything to the exigencies of
art, is it necessary to make man so contemptible, to glorify
the ocean? Was not man, too, made in the image of the
Creator? The sentiment, but for Byron's magnificent
FOURTH BOOK 259
The common. The cleared, unfenced area in the
vicinity of the fort.
Arlifice. tlere, trickery. What is its usual meaning?
The pale warrior. The Governor adopts the Indian
mode of speech, describing, not naming, the person re-
ferred to. This was Sir Reginald Mort,,n, the Wacousta
of the story. Ite, for purposes of private vengeance, had
adopted the Indian mode of life and is represented as the
friend and counsellor of Pontiac.
Glanced. Usuallv intransitive.
P.CE 220.--Is his 'oice still sick? Still the Indian
mode of expression by particularization. Compare below,
" the tongue is full of wisd,m ".
It arose before. Note the rnmntfi" interest
thus given to the historical des,.ription. The whole selec-
tion is full of fine dramatic effects.
A second or tu'o, etc. The sentence will repay close
study. Note especially the arrangement and rhythm. At
times there seems to be in English prose a sort of heroic
measure, " the wild' and deaf' ning yell' of a le' gion of
fiend' ish voi' ces"
The dratcbridge. Across the moat which surrounded
the fort.
Tomabau'k. The tomahawk, the how, and the scalping-
knife are the weapons of Indian warfare familiar to our
imagination.
Pac 221.--The scarlet cloth, etc. Another fine
dramatic" situation.
Assured him. Scarcely the appropriate word. Suggest it.
Piazza. lere a verandah ; properly an open space sur-
rounded by buildings or colonnades.
The surprise of the Indians, etc. The surprise was so
great that they could not help showing it.
290 THE ONTARIO READERS
PAGE 222.--A field-piece. A cannon.
Lighted matches. Torches for igniting the powder.
The bloclc-]ouses. See introduction.
The 9'nard-roorn. A room for the accommodation of
the soldiers detailed for duty as guards, or sentinels.
Coz'er. Protection.
PAGE 223.--A land grenade. A shell of iron or glass
filled with explosives.
PAGE 221.--The ]urdle. The lacrosse stick.
P.GE 25.--The fall of Ponliac. Pontiac, on entering
the gate, had prctcnded to stumble and fall, to furnish a
pretext for the signal agreed upon.
Secessions. Dcparture, withdrawal.
The whole sclection should be studied carefully in
respect of (1) thc narrative arrangement--the problem
beforc the writer beig to correlate the two threads of his
story, namcly, what was going on outside the fort, with
what was going on withiu it; (2) the production of the
dramatic effects--the sudden transformation of the scene
being pcrhaps the most powerful; (3) the sentence
arrangement; (4) the life and interest given to the whole
by the particularity of its descriptions; (5} the rhythmical
movement of the more impassioned passages. It is to be
observed, too. that while this kind of writing is apt to
become grandiose or tumid, the writer's control of his
material and his sanity, prcserve it from both these faults.
His flights are never so long as to give the impression of
insincerity: and whilst it is obvious that the author's con-
ception of the situation has supplied him with imaginative
details, even these are stamped with the verisimilitude of
historic facts.
FOURTH BOOK 291
MY NATIVE LAND
From Canto VI, Stanza i, Tle Lay of the Last
Minstrel.
The poem is a spirited expression of patriotic feeling
in the form of a condemnation of the man so wrapped up
in his own petty concerns as to have no feeling for his
country. Such an one, however highly placed, lives with-
out honour, and dies a double death in that he dies the
death of the body and ceases to live in the affectionate
memories of his fellow-beings.
P.U}E 227.--Breathes there fire man. Why d,,es the
sentence conclude with an exclamation mark instcad of
an interrogation point?
As home shore. Account for the selection
of such an occasion.
No minsfrel raptures swell. He has no appreciation
of the poetry of noble or generous deeds.
MORNING ON THE LIVRE
The Livre flows from the north into the Ottawa River
a few miles below the Capital. It must thus have been
a familiar scene to the poet.
The poem presents us with a scene typically ('anadian,
and notwithstanding some obscurities of expression, in
part accounted for by the difficult nature of the rhythm,
fin part by the somewhat strained effort to produce an
effect identical with that of a picture by suspending the
sense until the details are filled in, and partly, it must be
admitted, by an incompleteness of expression, the main
features stand out with sufficient distinctness. The break-
ing of day is announced by a jay screaming where the
mists rise and hang over a wooded gorge, like vapour
292 THE ONTARIO READERS
from a gigantic forge. Otherwise the silence of forest
and stream is unbroken, save by tha silvery drip of the
water from the paddle blades. The mirror-like surface of
tile river gives back the purple gray of the mists which
bang alcove it as far as the distant bend, where the forest
shadows lie in dream-like stillness on its surface. All at
once, this silence is broken with st.artling suddenness by
tile flurried rise of a flock of wild ducks out of the reeds,
xvhere a little stream joins the main river.
PGE 22,q_.---Matins. ]Iorning song. What name is
given to the evening song ?
Amethyst. A clear, translueeut stone, with a eolour
inclining to purple.
Out of learing of the clang. What is the grammatieal
relation of this phrase?
S'irls of mist. :Refers to the drooping fringes of the
mist.
,'ky above and sky below. The surface of the river
reflects tile sky in its depths.
Silvery drip. May refer to the sound, as well as to
the colour, of the water drops, as they fall on the surface
of the stream.
Crystal deep of the silence. "' Deep" is here a notua,
"crystal" an adjective; the expression means simply
"the deep unbroken silence". The exact value of
" crystal" is not evident. The translucence of air and
water no doubt suggests it. " Crystal" is transferred
from air and water to the silence.
Of the forest. What is the relation of this phrase ?
River reaches. :River stretches, that is, the straight
part of a river between two bends.
Shear away. Take an oblique direction; to slip or
move aside.
FOURTH BOOK 295
AN ELIZABETHAN SEAMAN
Sir Walter Raleigh was born in 1552. His life was
full of adventurous enterprises. When only seventeen, he
took part with the Huguenots in the civil wars in France,
and afterwards fought in Holland and in Ireland. In
1583 he went with his half-brother, Sir Humfrey Gilbert,
to Newfoundland, and afterward tried to found a colony in
North Carolina. When the war with Spain broke out, his
privateers were the dread of the Spanish treasure ships.
He was high in favour with Queen Elizabeth and received
from her large estates both in England and Ireland. IIe
was imprisoned by Jalnes I for plotting .against hinL
The twelve long years which he spent in prison were
occupied in writing The llislory of lhc World. He was
released to go on an expedition to South America in
search of a gold mine, but fell f, ul of the Spaniards and
burned the little town of St. Thomas. On his return, he
was again thrown into prison, and, in 1618. was beheaded
on his former sentence. "'Tis a sharp medicine", said
he, as he felt tile edge of the executioner's axe, "but it
cures all diseases" Interesting references are made to Sir
Walter Raleigh in Scott's Kenihcorth, and a note is given
at the end descriptive of his personal characteristics.
PAC.E 231.--Dartmouth. On the English Channel at
the mouth of the River Dart, in Devon.
Manor House. A Manor is a large landed estate; the
:Manor House is the residence of its proprietor.
May ride. That is, at anchor.
Must lmre net. Indicates that this is the author's
reconstruction of the facts.
Humfrey. Afterwards Sir Humfrey Gilbert.
FOURTH BOOK 297
Tu,iliglt iglts. The sun does not drop far below the
horizon in these latitudes in summer. Explain.
The AmericAn sore. As distinouished from the
Greenland shore.
]IZalsingham. Sir Francis Walsingham was one of the
Protestant exiles in Mary's reign. He afterwards became,
with Cecil, a Minister of Elizabeth. She repaid his great
services with the foulest ingratitude.
Burleig]. Cecil, Lord Burleigh, Elizabeth's sagacious
and most trusted counsellor.
Vates sacer. An inspired bard.
P,tOE 235.--The Easter, seas. The Indian Ocean and
neighbouring waters.
A :/utah'. A fiat-bottomed ship used by the Chinese and
Japanese.
As t]e fool dieth, so dieth tl, e wise. The same fate
awaits all.
Epamino,das. The great leader of the Thebans. See
" Epaminondas" {E-pam-i-non'das), in Cornelius Nepos'
Lives, where his death is described. He died fighting
bravely at Mantinaa, .c. 362. As the enemy were well
aware that he was the soul of the Theban power, they bent
all their efforts to take him alive. " I have lived", said
he, "long enough; for I die unconquered". It would
have seemed more fitting had Davis met his death in an
encounter with some of those gigantic forces of Nature
which all his life he had braved.
In tle flo,'er of their days. In the prime of life.
Raleigh was executed by James I; Gilbert perished in the
seas off Newfoundland, in an attempt to explore and
colonize the northern coasts of America.
298
THE ONTARIO READERS
PAGE 236.--It is beautiful, but not the most beautiful.
This short senteuce marks the transition from one member
of the comparison to the other.
There is anolher life. Notice that the descriptions
" hard, rough, and thorny" prepare us for the full-blown
metaphor in " trodden with bleeding feet ", etc.
The cross is the symbol. Compare with "a holy
sacrifice offered up to duty"
The grave is won. Compare with "the slow-
dropping mellow autumn ".
They to whom highest work. Such men as
St. Paul, Socrates, Savonarola (Si-von-i-rS'li).
The same bitter cup. The lan.,..uage recalls our
Saviour's words in the garden of Gethsemane.
THE SEA-KING'S BURIAL
The sea-king. were Norsemen, who, two centuries B.C.,
expelled the Keltic iuhahitaut. of Norway aud took pos-
session of the country. About the fifth century, A.D., they
began that career of piracy which made them the terror
of the coasts; and afterwards they made expeditions of
conquest which extended their power along the northern
coast of France. hence called Normandy, and even as far
as the Gates of the Mediterranean. The pagan belief to
which they adhered for a thousand years of the Christian
era was of a very high type. For the purpose of under-
standing the poem. the following explanations are neces-
sary. Odin is the highest and oldest of the gods, and all
the others honour him as their father. Odin's hall is
Valhalla; the ceiling is made of spears covered with
shields, and its benches are ornamented with coats of mail.
To this place Odin invites all who have fallen in
FOURTH BOOK 299
The sport of the invited heroes is to go out every day and
fight and kill each other, hut toward evening they awake
to life again and ride home as friends, where Odin's
maidens, the Valkyries, fill their horns with mead. Odin
is also the god of wisdom and poesy. Thor, the son of
Odin, is the strongest of all the gods. None who die of
sickness or age are allowed to enter Valhalla. These are
sent to Helheim, the Place of Evil. Balder, the hero of
this poem, derives his name from a son of Odin.
P.GE 238.--In nail. In armour.
The purple. The purple cloak worn as an emblem of
royalty.
Ancltor ready u'eiglted. Hoisted from the bottom so as
to release the ship.
The slips. The leash.
P.OE 241.--Drit'itg keel. The ship cutting its way
through the waves.
MY CASTLES IN SPAIN
This selection is from " My Chateaux" in Prue and I.
P.GE 243.--Castles in ,'pain. An equivalent expres-
sion to "castles in the air"
May of iliem lie in tlie west. This is suggestive of
the pleasure of dwelling on the beauties of cloudland at
sunset until a new and more glorious world seems actually
present to the view, and is a particular instance of the
delight in the imaginative contemplation of natural
beauties in general.
Are in Spain,. The writer makes the expression mean
hopes that may never be realized, a past gone for ever but
still present to the imagination and enri.hed hv its glow:
or a retreat in which the soul escapes from the pressure of
300
THE ONTARIO READERS
the present to live in a world of its own creation. Examine
the selection, so as to see clearly where each of these con-
ceptions of a castle in Spain is suggested. The location
of these air castles in Spain is suggested by its out-of-the-
way remoteness, and, as the writer tells us, because it is
a country "famously roinantic". The selection is
marked by a mood half sad, half playful, and the varia-
tions are interwoven with remarkable lightness and deli-
cacy of touch. The Pleasure Dome of Kubla Khan,
which Coleridge saw in Xanadu. and the fine Castle of
Indolence belonging to Thomson, and the Palace of Art
which Tennyson built as a " lordly pleasure house for his
soul", are among the best statistical accounts of these
Spanish estates.
Describe the contrast between Mr. Bourne and his
business partner.
Why is a mad poet selected as the only person who had
viewed these estates?
How is Mr. Bourne's double nature, as an active, prac-
tical business man and as a dreamer, suggested?
P.,(TE 246.--T/e Nortlu'est Passage. One of the most
notable voyages made to discover this Passage was that of
Sir Jf,hn Franklin in 1845. In this year, two ships, the
Erebus and Terror, were fitted out and set sail. No news
was heard of the explorer until 1858, when Sir L. Mc-
Clintock found a cairn on King William Island containing
papers which told the fate of the expedition. Sebastian
Cabot was the first to attempt the discovery of this
Passage. Over two hundred voyages were made in search
of it before its discovery by Captain ]tlcC]ure in 1857.
Po ?47.--CymbeHne. One of the most delightful
of Shakespeare's romantic olavs.
FOURTH BOOK 301
A Canterbury Tale. One of Geoffrey Chaucer's
Canterbury Tales.
What answer does the writer supply to his own query ?
ALADDIN
This poem is taken from Under the Willows, and other
Poems; with it should be read Longfellow's Castles in
Spain.
The poet compares the joys of the boy whose fancies
elevate him above the misery of his surroundings, with the
disappointment of the man whose fancies have hardened
into realities.
The meaning of the poem is, that no successes which
we may achieve in after-life can ever give the same joy
as the fond, ambitious imaginings of boyhood's days.
PaOE 247.--Aladdin in The Arabian Nights" Enter-
tainment, is an idle little lad, the son of a poor widow. He
is led by a magician to a wonderful cave. At the end of
a long passage, he reaches a garden with its trees laden
with gems and finds there a magic lamp, which, when
rubbed, summons a genius, the slave of the lamp. The
magician had also given him a ring with the same magic
properties. The genii of the ring and the lamp accomplish
all his wishes as soon as they arc spoken. By their aid. he
marries a daughter of the Sultan of China and builds a
beautiful palace in a single night.
In Lowell's interpretation, the genii are the power
youth has to convert a real world, however sordid, into an
imaginary one of rich and magnificent beauty; for a
similar idea compare Wordsworth's Cuci'oo, last stanza.
See note on The Cuc'oo, in Book IV, p. 274.
PAtE 248.--Castles in Spain. See notes on preceding
selection.
FOURTH BOOK 303
Scoured. To clean them of barnacles, sea mould, etc.,
u'hich would retard their progress.
The rigging. Masts, spars, shrouds, halliards, etc.
Sails new bent. Provided with new ropes.
Ansu'ering to the February. Explain.
P.xGE 251.--Port St. Julian. On the east coast of
Patagonia.
Heaving the lead. Measuring the depth with the
sounding-line.
Infinite seals. A great number of seals.
Penguins. The penguin is a swimming bird, allied to
the auk. It has rudimentary wings, useless in flying,
though they assist it in swimming.
No peaceful ocean. The name Pacific was given to
this ocean by Magellan, as it was calm when he entered
it. It had been named the "South Sea" by its discoverer,
Balboa, the Spaniard, on September 25th, 1513. Cook,
Anson, Van Dieman, and Vancouver explored considerable
portions of it in the eighteenth century.
Instantly that. Suggest an equivalent expression.
PaOE 252.--Winter. Commander of the Elizabeth.
Valparaiso. A port of Chile.
Tierra del Fuego. Land of Fire. So named on account
of its volcanoes.
Golden Hin. This was also the name of the vessel in
which Sir Humfrey Gilbert made his disastrous voyage.
Galleon. A Spanish ship, formerly used by the
Spaniards in their commerce with America.
The fruit. Note the cynicism of this comparison.
POE 253.--To cross. To make the sign of the cross.
Hatches. Trap-doors in the deck of a ship, entering
tho hold.
FOURTH BOOK 305
Afteru'ards published. When the Spaniards claimed
redress from the Queen, instead of granting it she
knighted Drake and wore in public the jewels derived
from his plunder, with which he had presented her.
P,t3E 257.--Gualulco (Gwi-tiSl'cS). A port of 5Iexico
on the coast of the Pacific Ocean.
The best way for his country. The best way home.
Stem. The beam in the bow to which the planking
is fitted.
The lndia Archipelago. The East Indian Islands.
The Celebes (Sel'O-bOz). South of the Philippines.
Pa(JE 259.--Vampires. A sort of bat.
The remainder of the voyage should be carefully fol-
lowed on the map. Other incidents in Drake's career are
worthy of mention. He afterwards sailed with a fleet of
twenty-five vessels to the Spanish Main, where he burnt the
cities of St. Domingo and Carthagena, and plundered the
coasts of Cuba and Florida. Upon news of the Armada, in
1587, he burned the Spanish storeships and galleys in
the harhour of Cadiz, stormed the ports of the Faro
Islands, made a descent upon Corunna, and was only re-
strained from attacking the Armada itself by orders from
home. He, however, did signal service in its subsequent
defeat.
THE SOLITARY REAPER
The poem exemplifies Wordsworth's power to enrich
a commonplace incident with the glow of imagination.
All that is given is the fact of a Highland girl singing,
as she reaps in a field by the wayside. Out of this scanty
material he has made a song rich in its appeal to human
sympathy. The scene is for the poet so full of emotional
FOURTH BOOK 311
Doubt not. Why does Fitz-James correct himself,9
PA6E 273.--Point. Sword point to sword point.
Dubious. As to the issue.
Darkly. Fiercely.
Targe. A round shield, or target, of light wood,
covered with leather and studded with brass.
Trained abroad. Fitz-James had spent some time at
the Court of France, which, at that period, produced the
best swordsmen in Europe.
Unequal war. Unequal combat. His opponent had
the advantage of skill in fencing.
Showered his blows. Apprehensive that his strength
would soon fail.
lnrulnerable. What variation is this from the usual
meaning .9
Foiled. Baffled. Note contrast.
At adrantage ta'en. Upon obtainin an advantage.
Front his hand. A favourite trick of the expert
swordsman was to weaken his adversary's sword-hand,
and then to jerk away his weapon by a deft twist of his
own blade.
PAGE 274.--Recreant. One who is false to the cause
he has espoused ; but see dictionary.
His dagger bright! The full Highland equipment
consists of the targe, which he had thrown away, the clay-
more, which had been forced from his hand, and the
dagger, which he now attempts to use.
Hate and fury ill supplied. Ill replaced the strength
he had lost through his bleeding wounds.
PAGE 275.--To turn the odds. All the odds had been
in favour of the Saxon, and tloderick's present advantage
had come too late to alter them.
314 THE ONTARIO READERS
Every boy was lhere but every boy. What is
the effect of the reiteration? Compare further, "every
eye, every head". There is a sort of mockery here.
PAGE 281.--The usher. An undermaster at an English
public school.
Had he boasted such a decoration. A humorous peri-
phrasis.
PAGE 283.--We'll try and find out. Expressive of the
brutality of Squeers.
PA(E 284.--"Wretch,'" rejobed Nicholas, fiercely.
Dickens here makes the mistake he so often makes, and
which he would have been the first to ridicule in others, of
putting stilted and affected language in the mouths of his
leading characters.
Have a care. Such expressions as this and the above
go far to justify a criticism sometimes made, that Dickens
uses his leading chara-ters as lay figures for the expression
of proper sentiments. This is the only charge of literary
insincerity which can he laid against him.
PAE 285.--Horossed the enemy in the rear. otice
here, and everywhere, the lightening touches of humour
with which Dickens relieves every situation, no matter
how far removed from laughter.
Pa( 786.--I the full strength of his volence. In his
rage and excitement.
Form. A bench on which the pupils sat.
The story is a fine example of the working out of
" poetic justice ". At the outset, the hideous brutality,
and later, the triumphant and heartless tyranny of Squeers
and his wife, are purposely painted in strong colours, so
as fully to justify the punishment administered by
Nicholas. These points, and the underplay of humour ,'ad
FOURTH BOOK B15
irony, should be carefully studied in the teacher's prepara-
tion of the lesson.
DICKENS IN THE CAMP
The grandson of Thomas Hood picked up a copy of
The Lue" of Roaring Camp on a London bookstall, and
becoming interested in the style, forwarded a copy to
Charles Dickens, receiving the reply that the story was
already known to him, and that he had written Bret Harte
a complimentary letter referring to it. Bret Harte was
at that time the editor of The Overland Monthly in San
Francisco, and happened to be away at Santa Barbara
when he saw the report of the death of Dickens in a local
newspaper. IIe at once went to his hotel, and, denying
himself to all visitors, is said to have composed this poem
in two hours, the publication of The Overland Monthly
being held by his telegram for forty-eight hours. On re-
turning to San Francisco, he received Dickens' letter.
Dickens had no warmer admirer than Bret tlarte, the
writer of this poem, who was himself one of the greatest
of American novelists. Harte's own manner as a writer.
while essentially different from Dickens', is imbued with
the same spirit of universal sympathy and boundless
charity. Perhaps his Gabriel Conroy is the best represen-
tative of his genius. Two of his little stories, called A
Waif of the Plains and M'liss, are charming books for
children.
The first stanza la,'s the general scene in some rude
canyon of the Sierras, through which a river brawls; half-
way up the heights on either side the tall pines stand,
backed by the everlasting snow of the treeless peaks above.
FOURTH BOOK
He who wrought that spellf Dickens died June 9th,
1870, at his house, Gadshill, in Kent ; the poem was pub-
lished in July following.
Towering pine tell. As the pines may be sup-
posed to mourn over the departure of those wont to
assemble around the camp-fire, so the church in 'hich
Dickens worshipped mourns him who will return ro more.
Its fragrant story. The story here told of the camp-
fire; the fragrance of fir, pine, and cedar seem to be a sort
of incense to the memory of the " Master", ju.t as are
the odours of the Kentish hopvines.
The pensive glory hills. A glory derived
from the memory of Dickens. They were the hills his eyes
daily gazed upon and his feet trod in this life.
P,ov. 289.--0a1, ad lwlly, ad laurel. The oak, em-
blematic of England, the scene of his tales : the holly, which
Dickens loved as the emblem of Christmas-tide ; the laurel,
as the emblem of his mastery in his art.
Too presuptuon,s. Ilarte, with fine delicacy of feel-
ing, fears that his own feeble talents are unworthy to con-
tribute any offering worthy of a place among those dedi-
cated to the memory of the " Master ".
This spray of Western pine. This refers, of course, to
the present poem. This stanza is suggested by the floral
offerings placed upon the graves of the dead by those who
hold their memory in love and reverence.
DOST THOU LOOK BACK ON WHAT HATH BEEN
Tennyson's poem In Memoriam, from which this poem
is selected, was written in menmry of his friend, Arthur
Henry Hallam, son of Henry Hallam, the historian. Young
Hallam was one of the brilliant '" Tennyson group" which
FOURTH BOOK
His birth's inridious bar. Suggests that a man of
hmnble birth in England has little opportunity of rising
to places of trust and influence.
Grasps the s'irls. Chance, or Fortune, is represented
often in literature as riding swiftly past, and the difficulty
of seizing upon her is suggested in this phrase, it may be
rendered " seizes the lucky moment ". With this compare
Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Iv, iii.
There is a tide in the affairs of men,
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
Breasts the blows of circumstance. The figure seems
to be taken from a swimmer against a stormy sea.
E,il star. A reference to astrology, which taught that
the destiny of man was controlled by the stars. Compare
"disaster". The expression would thus mean, "over-
comes all obstacles"
By force. Compels a recognition of his greatness,
though sprung from low estate.
Tke golden 'eys. The keys of office; the post of the
Prime Minister.
To mould the throne. This refers to the
function of his office, as chief adviser of his sovereign, and
director of the policy of the State.
Fortune's crowning slope. When he has attained his
highest ambitions.
Pillar of a people's hope. The man on whom the
nation's hopes depend; expand the metaphor.
The centre of a world's desire. Humanity's hopes of
progress and advancement are centred in him.
THE ONTARIO READERS
p.,v. 290.--When all his active powers are still. In
the reverie of his leisure moments.
A distant dearness. The distance that "lends en-
chantment"; the stream is enshrined in the halo of
memory.
A secret sweetness. A joy so purely personal and in-
timate that to reveal it to his prent associates would be
to violate his sanctities. Note the alliteration in this and
the preceding expression.
The limit of his narrower fate. The hill and stream
marked the boundaries of his world in his boyhood.
Vocal springs. The music of the waters of the stream.
He played at counsellors and Z'ings. This suggests his
turn of mind, the root of his budding ambitions.
Does my old friend remember ,e? Compare with the
first line of the poem. The question is asked by the humble
ploughman.
TIlE PASSING OF ARTIlUR
The Morte d'Arthr, completed in 1740, was drawn
from many French sources, and is of the greatest impor-
tance in English literature.
From this narrative of Sir Thomas Malory is derived
lhe material for Tennyson's Morte d'Arthur, which should
be read.
P,eE 290.--The passing. Whether or not to death, is
a doubtful matter.
Dressed tl, em togetter. Arrayed themsel'es for battle
against each other.
This nhappy day. In whiA his own subjects were
warring against each other; Mordred, his kinsman, had
rebelled.
FOURTH BOOK 321
Foining. Thrusting.
Many a deadly stroke. Supply, was exchanged.
I'AGE 291.--The battle of Sir Mordred. The hosts of
the enemy.
Stinted. Desisted, lost ardour.
The doa'n. The battle was fought "upon a down be-
side Salisbury, and not far from the seaside'.
Wroth. Angered, enraged.
So slain. So, of degree; not of manner.
Then was he ware. Then he became conscious that.
b'ir Lucan de Butlere. Sir Lucan had been butler to
the King.
They full were sore wounded. They were full sore
wounded.
Jesu mercy. Jesus have mercy--a form of objuration.
Where are all my noble knights becontenf What has
become of, etc.
Where were. Note the subjunctive in an indirect
question.
PAGE 29?.--Until him. Unto him.
The might that he had. All the strength that he had
left.
The bur. The ferule, where the handle of the spear
joined the shaft.
Right so. Even so, that is, although mortally wounded.
In both his hands. To mend the blow delivered by one
in such sore straits.
,Stark dead. Stone dead, as we should say.
Heaved him. Raised him with effort, for they were
both grievously wounded.
The one part the other part. By his body
and by his lower limbs.
PGE 293.--Heavy sight. Sorrowful sight.
FOURTH BOOK 323
Three q,,ens. Ttmir names are elsewhere given by
Malory. "That one was King Arthur's sister, Morgan le
Fay, the other was the Queen of Northgalis (Wales), the
third was the Queen of the Waste Lands. Also there was
the chief Lady of the Lake."
PAGE 296.--Vale of Acilion. Possibly the valley of the
River Brue or Bret in Somersetshirc. In this river is an
island, the site of Glastonbury Abbey, where a coffin, be-
lieved to be that of King Arthur, was discovered.
THE ARMADA
Read Kingsley's Westward Ho!
P.c.E 296.--Atterd, all ye. A time-honoured way of
beginning a popular ballad.
List. Wish. Compare " The wind bloweth where it
listeth ".
Thrice famow. An effective form of the superlative.
Great fleet invincible. The " Invincible Armada " sent
by Philip II of Spain to invade England in the reign of
Elizabeth, 1588.
Spoils of Mexico. See Drake's Voyage Roud the
World. The Aztec Empire had fallen before the power of
Cortes in 1521.
The stoutest hearts of Spain. Along with the Duke of
Medina Sidonia (MS-dS"ni S5-dS-n-i), himself entirely
unfitted for the post of Admiral, came Juan de Martinez
(Ju'an d Mir-t'nez), and Miguel Orquendo (M-gel'
Or-ken'dS). It is said that no noble Spanish family
lacked a representative.
PE 297.--A warm summer day. On the 29th of
July, the sails of the Armada were seen from the English
FOURTH BOOK 327
The royal city. London.
P),C,E 3Ol.--Blackheath. in Kent, now an open com-
mon.
Itampslead's swarthy moor. In the northern era'irons
of London.
Mah'ern's lonely height. Malvern Ilills, between Wor-
cester (WSs'tSr) and Hereford (He're-ford). Toward
the south and east they look out on a wide stretch of level
country.
Wrekin's crest of llgIt. Wrekin, a noted hill in Shrop-
shire, one thousand three hundred and twenty feet high.
Ely's stately lane. The Cathedral on the Isle of Ely,
in the Ouse River (Sz), Cambridgeshire.
Bch'oir. In England pronounced " Beaver". The
Duke of Rutland's castle in Leicestershire.
P-(;E 3o2.--Skiddaw. A mountain in Cumberlaud.
Gaunt's embattled pile. Gaunt House, near Oxford,
rebuilt by John of Gaunt.
DEPARTURE AND DEATH OF NELSON
The opening paragraph of this select'ion is taken from
Chapter IX, paragraph 5, of Southey's Life of Nelson. It
refers to " The Departure of Nelson from Portsmouth".
The rest is from paragraph 22 to the close.
Nelson left Portsmouth on September 14th, and
arrived off Cadiz on the 29th. The action was fought on
October 21st, 1805, just off the Cape Trafalgar shoal,
south of Cadiz.
The theme of the first paragraph is "The love of his
fellow-countrymen for Nelson ". How did they show their
love ? What qualities in him commanded it?
FOURTH BOOK 1
The chariots and the horses of fire. What is the allu-
sion ? See 2 Kings ii. 11.
A mantle of inspiratlon. 1%call the mantle of Elijah
which fell upon Elisha.
The management of the sentences, the propriety and
freedom of expression, the simplicity and directness of the
language employed, are worthy of careful study.
WATERLOO
This metre was first employed by Edmund Spenser in
The Faerie Queene.
PAOE 311.--Belgium's capital chit'airy. A
ball was given by the Duchess of liehmond, wife of the
British Ambassador in Brussels, on the eve of Quatre Braz.
Beauty and her Chivalry. Note the use of the abstract
for the concrete.
Bright. The adjective for the adverb.
Fair women and brave me,. ]epeats the idea in
" Beauty and Chivalry" above.
A thousand hearts. "A thousand", in the sense of
"many "
Eyes wh ch spake. A form of metaphor.
Merry as a narrage bell. What figure? ote the
use made of contrast, the swift change from joy to fore-
boding, and then to despair.
Hush. t harlt'.t The poet places the reader on the scene.
Compare "Did ye not hear it?"
"Twas but the wncL The pleasure seekers try. to
reassure themselves and to forget their forebodings in a
wilder hilarity.
FOURTH BOOK 335
Evan's, Donald's. Sir Evan Cameron fought with dis-
tinction at Killiecrankie, 1715; his grandson Douahl,
espousing the cause of the Young Pretender, was severely
wounded at Culloden in 1746.
And Ardennes, etc. Note again the change of tone.
What is the prent mood of the poem ?
Ardennes (At'den}. A wood (Soignies, or Soigny),
which lies between Brussels and the field of Waterloo, is
so named by the poet because of "its association with
nobler memories than those of war". Tie fore.t of
Ardennes proper lies on the borders of France and Bel-
gium; it is the scene of Shakespeare's comedy .4. You
Like It.
Dewy with Nature's tear-drops. By a beautiful fancy
the poet conceives of the forest as grieving over the brave
men now passing through on a road by which they will
return no more.
If aught inanimate e'er grieves. Does the reservation
here strengthen or weaken the idea expressed ?
P.OE 314.--Which nov beneath hem. Supply th
ellipsis.
But above shall grou" in its next verdure. Rearrange,
and supply omitted words.
In its next verdure. Replace bv an adverbial clause.
Note the fulness of the imaginative content in the con-
trast.
Fiery mass of liring valour. The metaphor is sug-
gested by the lava stream pouring down upon the plain
beneath, or possibly from an advancing conflagration.
Burning u'ith high hope. Is a continuation of this
metaphor.
Moulder. Crumble into dust.
THE ONTARIO READERS
Cold and low. With all its fires quenched. In con-
trast with "' burning with high hope"
Last noon, etc. The concluding stanza of the poem
in the first five lines makes the actior pass again in pano-
ramic view before the reader. A veiled momentary
glimpse is given of the battle, and then the cloud is
removed, to expose to full view the frightful carnage.
Beauty's circle. Explain.
Battle's magnificently stern array. There is a noble
eloquence in this line. :Note the retarded rhythm to sug-
gest the stern and magnificent grandeur of the scene.
Tluder-clouds close o'er it. Explain.
Which wlen rent. And when these are rent; the con-
struction would lead us to expect a verb as predicate to
" which ", "' which when rent (reveal that) the earth, etc."
With oliver clay, u'hch ler own. The contrast is neat,
almost to the point of artificiality, perhaps even to such
an extent as to detract from the " seriousness" of the
line. Compare "the grass which now beneath them ", etc.,
above.
One red bural blent. The fierce enmities and bitter
revenges are become as naught.
Why does the poet avoid all description of the actual
engagement? What is his main purpose in the poem?
In what respects does the poem resemble Aytoun's
Edbburgl After Flodde?
ODE WRITTEN IN 1746
p(v. 315.How sleep. How well they sleep. Com-
pare England's Dead, Book III, p. 258, for the same senti-
ment.
FOURTH BOOK 39
afterwards distinguished himself in the suppression of
the Indian Mutiny.
Muscovite. Muscovy is another name for Russia.
The whole preceding paragraph is in the nature of a
parenthesis.
His massive squadrons. The heay cavalry brigade.
Corps d'lite (Kor-d-lt'). A select troop, judging
from their rich uniforms.
PAGF 318.--They came in sight. The British cavalry,
being concealed behind the ridge {see above), would
neither see the Russians nor be seen by them until the
latter had reached the summit.
The shock of battle. Note throughout the vigour and
force of the expressions.
Zouares. Certain French Light Infantry Corps, ori-
ginally organized in Algeria.
The boxes of a theatre. Compartments in a theatre,
partitioned off, which afford the best view of the stage.
Canter trot halted. Gradually
diminishing, instead of increasing their pace, as they
would have done had they thought it necessary to get the
advantage of added impetus in the charge.
They evidently despised but their time was
come. Note the effective way in which the contrast is
pointed by the cutting directness of the short phrase
above quoted.
Greys. A famous Scottish cavalry, regiment, recently
disbanded. So called from the colour of their horses.
Gather way. Reach full speed.
Quite space sufficient. This must refer to the space
between themselves, and not, as the language suggests, to
the space between them and the Russians.
FOURTH BOOK 341
Being most dangerou.s. A front attack is easily met
by a cavalry charge; the attack on the flank cannot be
so met; hence the neces.4tv of .quadrons in column, that
is, in bodies narrow in front, but deep from front to rear.
Redoubt. A temporary fortification.
P.GE 322.--And far indeed. A weak and lumbering
addition to the effective beginning of the sentence.
Than by those who beheld these. Awkward. Supply
the words necessary to complete the construction.
Rushing to the arms of Death. Develop the meaning
of this vividly descriptive metaphor. '
Thirty iron moulh.x. Thirty cannon.
Steeds flying wounded or riderless across the plain.
The line is Homeric.
Russians had laid. An expression signifying p]acing
in position and aiming a large gun.
PaGE 324.--Grape and canister. Shot put up in cases,
which burst on being discharged.
At thirty-fire, etc. }low long had it taken to accom-
plish the havoc described ?
FUNERAL OF WELLINGTON
This is the tir.t of Tennyson's Laureate Poems. The
Duke of Wellinzton died in his eighty-f,urth year Sep-
tember 14th, 1852. The Ode on the Death of the Duke
of Wellington, froln which this is an extract, was published
on the day of his funeral. Iic is buried in the crypt of
St. Paul's Cathedral, where also lies the body of Lord
Nelson.
P.,., 324.--Who is he. The poet makes the shade of
Nelson ask the question.
28
FOURTH BOOK 345
words : " Do what we would, we could not venture to break
the solemn hush ". With what startling effect the "" awful,
inexplicable roar" breaks in upon tile solenm silences.
II'hence Ihe noise came or u'hat had produced it. Ex-
plains the rather unsuitable word " inexplicable" above.
Thunderous rererberalions. Note again the harmony
of sound and sense.
PAGv. 329.--Hearls thumping bosoms. This
seems homely after the highly wrought passage imme-
diately preceding; and tile apologetic " Really, tile sensa-
tion was most painful ", is weak, but it at any rate relieves
the tension of feeling.
A goodly bull-ltumpbacl'. Bullen, in his relief, fairly
bubbles over with joyous loquacity, lie can think now of
tile odd saying of the old negro and can dress up a modern
maxim to correspond with it; his harpooner is now a
"gallant harpooner with semi-savage instincts", and tile
whale is "old Blowhard ".
What comparison is instituted to describe the new situa-
tion developed by the attack on tile whale? What are the
points of similarity on which the comparison depends?
P.GE 330.--Gumption. Practical e,nnnon sense.
Radiation of tle disturbance. The waves, flowing out
in circles from the point at which the whale had played,
would drive the boat up against the walls of the cavern.
P.3v. 331.--lVe sl ran" togeller li'e tnfledged ct iclcens.
Serves the double purpose of showing how frightened they
were, and at the same time by its hnmoar reassures the
reader as to the issue of the catastrophe. It would he very
bad art to renew the strain experienced above.
Tlat mountainous carcass fell. Xote the emphatic use
of "that . Compare with " tile confinement of that
mighty cavern ", above.
46
THE ONTARIO READERS
Carcass. Why does the author emplov a word which
usually means a dead body .9
The rebound. The thrust of the water from below
against the wall would produce a refluent wave.
A resumption of the clamour. A renewal of the
clamour.
The night ebb. Explain.
Leare the premises. Note the humorous touch in these
expressions.
Dead or had gone out. The reader is kept in the same
state of mind as the adventurers, hy the author's conceal-
ment of what has already taken place.
PaE 332.--The skipper. The captain of the whaling
vessel from which the boat had put off.
The blackness beneath was lit up. For fuller account
of this phenomenon and the voracity of the shark see "The
Shark" in Denizens of the Deep.
Inferno. Hell; a rather vigorous metaphor.
Tartarus. Classical name for the infernal regions, the
lowest hell.
PAE 333.--Titanic. The Titans were the twelve
gigantic children of heaven and earth, defeated by Zeus
and thrown into Tartarus.
l'ery grie,ed. "Very" not usually directly attached to
the perfect participle; "very much grieved ".
THE GLOVE AND THE LIONS
"Lions Street took its name from the huilding and
courts wherein were kept the Kins great aud small lions.
One day whilst Francis I anmsed himself looking at a
combat among his lions, a lady, having let her .lm,,
FOURTH BOOK 347
said to De Lorges: ' If you would have me believe that
you love me as much as you swear you do, go and recover
my glove'. De Lorges went down, took up the glove in the
midst of these famous animals, returned, and threw it in
the lady's face and, notwithstanding all the advances she
made and all the arts she used, wouhl never see her after-
wards."--II istorical Essays upon Paris.
It will he observed how closely Leigh IIunt has fol-
lowed his source; and yet with what a wealth of realism
he has clothed his descriptions.
A different turn, and more favourab]e to the ]ady, is
given by Browning in The Glot'e, which the teacher should
read.
Stanza one describes the scene in the gallery. Stanza
two describes the scene in the pit. Stanza three states the
lady's plan. Stanza four tells how the lady's plan worked
out.
PaE 334.--Hearty. One who took all the pleasures
he could out of life; further explained by " and loved a
royal sport ".
The court. An inclosed space, the arena.
A #allaM thing, fallant, nearlv in it. original sense
of gay, showy, splendid" compare "gala " day.
Crownin# show. Superior to all others.
Valour and lo'e. By metonymy for the lords and the
ladies.
Ramped. P, eared up on the hind legs. Compare
"rampant ".
Ramped and roared the lions. What is the effect of
the inversion ?
Laughing laws. What is the va|ue of the epithet in
amplifying the idea expressed in "horrid "
FOURTH BOOK 349
vividness and picturesque detail, is purely illustrative.
The local and historic setting should be treated briefly, so
as not to withdraw attention front the pictures presented
and their purpose.
Maximilian I (1459-1519), Emperor of Germany, 1493,
inherited the Tyrol on the death of his cousin, Archbishop
Sigismund. Ile was extremely fond of hunting and fish-
ing, and was beloved by his people on account of the free-
dom of his manners. His chief delight was in those feats
in which he could di.play his personal courage, strength,
ad gallantry. The picture of him presented here is drawn
with careful truth.
You are standing. The reader is brought into the scene.
To draw itself. The fire of speech endowing the road
with action, vividly depicts the difficult pass.
The Ri,er I,n. The Inn flows through the Tyrol into
the Danube.
Buttress. Here a projecting precipice. What is its
proper meaning ?
Throu, your head far back. Nothing could heifer ex-
press the idea of great height.
Mark! He loses his footing, etc. Note the short,
broken, interrupted expressions. What is the purpose?
The Abbot of Wiltau. Wiltau. a small village in the
Tyrol, containing a monastery. The introduction of the
Abbot suggests the Divine interposition whit.h saves the
Emperor's life. See introduction. How is this idea further
worked out ?
Imperial destiny. An emperor in mortal peril; the
abstract for the concrete.
Pa. 337.--Crampons. Irons fitted to the shoes for
mountain climbing.
FOURTH BOOK 351
and what do we hear ?" What is the need of mystery and
secrecy ?
PAGE 338. Now wither in a moment before the
derisive laugh of the storm. Note and explain the bold
and striking figures employed.
Melee. A mob, here a band of men moving without
orderly array.
There is another vision. Compare above, " a vision of
a plumed hunter"
Inn.bruck. The capital of the Tyrol on the River Inn.
Carinthia. A division of the Austrian Empire east of
the Tyrol.
PaC, E 339.--His teeth firmly set. Suggests the stub-
born pride of the great Austrian.
Charles V. Charles V (1500-1558), grandson of Maxi-
milian I. In 1555, after the conclusion of the Peace of
Augsburg, worn out with incessant wars and ever-shifting
diplomacies, he abdicated in favour of his son Philip.
A stern lesson. The author's point of view i. that
Charles V, by his oppression of his Prote.tant subjects,
had called down the wrath of God, and that his present
sufferings and humiliations and ultimate deliverance were
intended as a discipline to bring him to the feet of Him
whose "long-suffering would lead to repentance ".
Aenger of blood. Allusion to Joshua xx. 3.
Maurice of Saxony (1521-1553). The Duke and Elec-
tor of Saxony, who succeeded his father in 1541.
PAGE 340.--Star of ,4uMria. His lut.ky star. He was
Archduke of Austria, and believed, in the phrase of the
astrologer, "that the star of Austria was ever in the
ascendant ".
In 1805, the Tyrol, so long nominally a dependency
of Austria, but really a free commonwealth, was ceded by
FOURTH BOOK 353
The same disaster as that recounted above befell
Burscheidt later, on August 8th, 1809, at the Bridge of
Pontlatz.
The selection at the foot of page 3-t2 is from Tenny-
son's I Memoriam, Canto cxiv.
The poem, while it deprecates any attempt to limit the
scope of human inquiry and investigation in the search
of knowledge, still insists that, unless knowledge be guided
by wisdom, it may be rather a curse than a blessing.
l|'ho shall fi.r her pillar.s? " Wisdom hath builded her
house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars."--Proverbs
ix. 1.
2Vol the tirol. Wisdom is the first. Knowledge the
second.
I all be nol in rain. If here is no higher ruth than
Knowledge can reveal, then is the saying justified : " Van-
ity of vanities, all is vanity".
The yoner child. Knowledge.
MARSTON MOOR
Compare this spirited ballad with Macaulay's The
Caralier's March to London, which opens " To horse!
to horse! brave Cavaliers". Macaulay's poem represents
the cavaiiers as bloodthirsty, ruffianly, riotous, and licen-
tious. Even courage is denied them as a virtue, in his
Naseby. The picture here presented of a gallant cavalier
who loves his home better than the courts of Kings, who
goes forth to battle like a knight of old bearing the token
of his true love--his sweet and noble wife--and who fights
to the last extremity when all is lost, presents a truer, cer-
tainly a nobler, view of men whose gallantry and self-sacri-
FOURTH BOOK 355
in-chief of the Parliamentary Army, he never desired the
utter overthrow of the King. The language used here,
natural enough in the mouth of a Royalist, does little
justice to this great and patriotic leader.
Oliver. Oliver Cromwell was looked upon by the
Royalists as an utter hypocrite. It may be conceded that
he made religious fanaticism a weapon of war.
The braggarts Rhine. The author concedes
that there were in the ranks these two classes of adherents
unworthy of the Royalist cause.
Stout. Brave.
Langdale. Sir Marmaduke Langdale commanded the
Royalist cavalry of the Northern counties at Marston Moor
and Naseby.
Astley. Sir Jacob Astley, leader at Stow, in 1616, of
the last Royalist rally.
Newcastle. The Earl of Newcastle had mustered the
King's forces in Northumberland and secured York for
his cause throughout the war.
The German boor. Prince Rupert had slipped past
the forces of Fairfax into York, and might have lain there
in safety. The line suggests the feeling of envious
like entertained by the English Royalists for Prince
Rupert as one who had usurped a post which should have
been theirs.
PaE 3t5.--And now be burns a stave, And nor be
quotes a stage-play. Why are these interjected? What
characteristics of the cavalier are indicated?
Belial. Satan. By the Roundheads the Cavaliers
were called "The Sons of Belial" for their godless gayety.
I would, etc. What characteristics of Cromwell are
brought out in this speech ?
358
THE ONTARIO READERS
the beauty imparted by the first rays of the rising sun,
its smokeless silence, and freedom from the stress and
turmoil of the day. The whole poem derives much of its
force and beauty from its underlying contrast of the scene
with that which London preseuts by day.
HOW THEY BROUGHT THE GOOD NEWS FROM GHENT
TO AIX
(tf this poem, Browning says: "I wrote it under the
bulwark of a vessel, off the Atria.an coast, after I had
been at sea long enough to apprcciate even the fancy of
a gallop on the back of a certain good horse ' York' then
in my stable at home". The poem has no foundation in
fact ; it is simply the expression of delight in rapid motion.
The route followed may easily be traced on the map of
Belgium. They go north-easterly to Lokeren, then keep
due east to Boom, and then more south-easterly to Aershot,
about ten miles from Louvain. They probably passed be-
tween tlasse]t on the one side, and Looz and Tongres on
the other, riding straight across country to Aix-la-
Chapelle. The ride can hardly bare been less than one
hundred and thirty miles.
The poct imagines thrce ridcrs hurrying on a secret
mission from Ghent to Aix-la-('hapelle in Rhenish Prussia
on the Belgian frontier, during the pariod of resistance to
Spanish rule in the Netherlands, in the sixteenth and
seventeenth centurie.. Examine this poem in detail to
discover how the ideas of baste, secrecy, and speed are
brought ont. N'ame the three riders.
PA6E 351.--Tle walcl. The warder of the gate.
Speed/ ec]oed the wall. -N'ote the accuracy of detail
only the last wo.rd is echoed,
FOURTH BOOK 359
Postern. A small covered gate in a fortification, usually
in the flank of the bastion.
3lidnight. Deep darkness.
P,6 352.--The great pace. The speed of the horses
and their long stride are both icluded in the meaning.
-A'erer cbaging otr place. Keeping side by side.
Pique. The pommel of the saddle.
5"or galloped less steadily. These movements on the
part of the rider would have thrown any steed but the
gallant Roland out of his stride.
]'ellow star. The morning star. Why yellow?
Against hint the cattle stood black. A flue hit of
realistic description. Why did they look " black"9
PA(;E 353.--A/ last. Suggests the anxiety of the rider
as to his horse's plight after so fierce a ride.
Each bulling aray the haze. Suggests in one phrase
the stubborn gallantry of the horse and the thickness of
the mist through which they were galloping.
As some bluff ricer headland.
Note the simile.
And his loc head and crest.
the verb "saw" above ?
One eye's black intelligence.
Bluff, high and steep.
What are the objects of
A poetic and beautiful
rearrangement for "one intelligent black eye"
His own master. Suggests affection and fidelity.
,q'pume-flakes. Flakes of foam from his horse's mouth.
Fierce lips. Suggests the horse's indomitable spirit.
The whole description is unsurpassed in careful detail
and wealth of suggestion.
Dirck groaned. At the failure of his horse.
Roos. Name of Dirck's steed. Joris tells him (Dirck)
to drop out of the race, and they would send back assist-
anee from Aix.
FOURTH BOOK 365
Is this all that can be said. Sharply reverts to the
main subject. One is apt to forget its value as a great
naval depot in the contemplation of its beauty.
In connection with this lesson Parkin's Round the
Empire should be consulted by tile teacher and portions
of it read by the class.
ENGLAND, MY ENGLAND
The first stanza of the poem furnishes a pretty com-
plete model for all the rest, and the variations are worked
out with poetic spirit and skill. This al,plies especially,
of course, to the first four and the last two lines of each
stanza.
The expression of love for, and devotion to, England
is deep and impassioned.
The central thought, that England is the special in-
strument of Divine Providence, appeals to a sentiment
which has been growing in force since the time of Eliza-
beth, and which is the source of a good deal of our national
pride.
P(}E 363.--What hare I done for you? Express this
idea in assertive form.
Austere. Removed from all that is mean or trivial;
full of the vision of destiny.
Where shall the watchful sun done. Para-
phrase.
Agen. So spelled by tile poet to rhyme with "men"
As come foru,ard. As volunteer for service against
fearful odds--one to ten.
Take and break us. A sublime expression of willing
sacrifice.
FOURTH BOOK 875
Can necer under.tand, lie is so eniirely filled with
the preoccupations of his avocation, that he has no
imagiuation left for the keen joys of the sympathetic
observer of nature.
The waters under the earth. In tile language of the
Second Commandment.
3locing and motionless. A paradox, finely suggestive
of the fish gliding onward, apparently without any effort
of its own.
More tangible. As the shadow is jet black and the
fish merely gray, and so almost of the colour of the water
by torchlight.
Mottled. Spotted, variously coloured.
Indentation. The indentations are the depressions of
the river bed in which the hadows lie.
Sheaf of wriggling glimmers. A graphic description
of the effect of the refraction of light on a rippled surface,
which must have been seen to be fully appreciated.
The waiting pike. Fascinated bv the glare of the
torchlight.
Cannibal. "The pike is one of the most voracious of
our fishes, feeding upon any form of animal life which it
is able to overpower." See Vertebrates of Ontario, page
68--XaSH.
P),(E 381.--His dcadly zpear. The primitive weapon
harmonizes with the description of man as a cannibal: the
use of the word cannibal has been extended for artistic
purposes to mean a feeder on all kinds of flesh. What is
its strict meaning ?
There is no moon. Note the succession of short sen-
tences indicating excited suspense.
Savage joy. Keeps up the idea expressed in cannibal.
The slack of a clothes-line. The loose, or spare end.
376
THE ONTARIO READERS
PAGE 382.--Yet we wonder u'hy, etc. It is small
wonder that a lad of so many devices should succeed.
The seductire glimmer. Explained helow as the ignis
[atuus which the vorld calls success.
Ignis fatuus. May be translated as '" fool's fire" It
is usually called " the Will o' the Wisp" or "Jack o'
Lantern", and is a glimmering light which hangs over
boggy places, and sometimes lures travellers to destruction.
In connection with the last paragraph, the selection
from Ronola, p. 38J,, should be read, as illustrative of a
higher kind of "' success"
DAFFODILS
This poem, written in ls[t, was published in 1807.
In the " Journal " of Dorothy Wordsworth, the poet's
sister and constant (.Oral)anion, there is the following:
" When we were in tile woods below Gowbarrow Park, we
saw a few daffodils close to the water side. As we went
along there were more, and yet more; and at last, under
the boughs of tile trees, we saw that there was a lar
belt of them along the shore, about the breadth of a
country turnpike road. I never saw daffodils so beauti-
ful. They grew among mossy stones, about, and above
them. Some rested their heads on the stones, as on a
pillow for weariness: and the rest tossed, and reeled, and
danced, and seemed as if they verily laughed with the
wind that blew upon them over the lake. They looked
so gay, ever glancing, ever changing"
In this poem, Wordsworth expresses the solace and
joy he ever)where feels in the close companionship and
communion with Xature. This joy he feels not only in
the presence of natural objects, but even with rr,ter
FOURTH BOOK 379
Europe. tomola's father had been a savant, in whose
library.the Greek, Tito, had been employed. She would
thus naturally be interested in tile works of the great
Florentine who had exerted so profound an influence on
Italian thought.
While life was new. See introductory note.
That entertainment. A mild irony suggestive of the
degree of absorption Romola exhibited.
P.(E 386.--The Tuscan peasant. The boy's mother.
Mamma Romola. As Romola had been almost a
mother to him.
A great deal of glory. Presents the usual theory of
greatness.
PAGE 387.--Haring a good deal of pleasare. Tile boy
is very like his father.
By hating wi,le thoughl.. Observe the painful sim-
plicity with which 12omola tries to make her meaning clear
to the boy.
Whal we would choose before ererything. The philo-
sophical and reflective cast of the writer's mind is here
evident.
Gets strength to endure. Tito is still the background
of her thought. Compare with tile teaching of tile whole
paragraph the simple and noble words of f'brist: "Who-
soever will save his life shall lose it; and whosoever will
lose his life for my sake shall find it". St. Matthew
xvi. 25.
Pa(}E 388.There was a man. See introduction.
He denied his falher. His foster father had been cap-
tured and sold into slavery. It had been in Tito's power
to ransom him ; this he put off from time to time, until,
when finally confronted by him, he denied all knowledgo
of him.
3gO THE ONTARIO READERS
Romola, in the extract, is of course the medium of
expression for George Eliot's own views.
THE PRIVATE OF THE BUFFS
The incident upon which the poem is founded occurred
in the ('hinese War of 1860.
" Some Seiks and a private of the Buffs, having re-
mained behiiid with the grog carts, fell into the hands of
the ('l,inese. On the next morning they were brought
before the authorities and commanded to perform the
Ko-lou (Kow-tow). The Seiks obeyed, but Moyse, the
Eglish soldier, declaring that he would not prostrate
himself before any Chinaman alive, was immediately
knocked upon the head, and his body thrown upon the
dung-hill."--London Times. The Kow-tow consisted in
prostrating one's self and touching the ground with the
forehead nine times.
The poem presents the picture of the typical British
soldier, who, however ignorant and debased he may some-
times be, still preserves that proud and stubborn indepen-
dence of spirit upon which Britain's greatness mainly
rests.
PGv. 389.--The Buffs. The East Kent Regiment, so
called from the buff facings on their uniforms.
Never looh'ed before. Took no thought of the future.
Last nigltt to-day. Note the contrast.
In Elgin's place. Lord Elgin was the British Ambas-
sador to China.
Ambassador. He felt that his duty to his country
demanded that he should show his enemies that an Eng-
lishman can never be humbled, and so he is the bearer of
England's message.
THE ONTARIO READERS
tions, and altogether Cyclopean. His speculative and his
practical philosophy largely influenced the thought of his
time, especially of Ruskin, who, in some respects, imitated
even his style.
PAo 391.--Two men I lonour. Note the abrupt
opening.
Craftsraen. The capitals are used throughout to
emphasize or to elevate.
A cunning rirt,e. A skilful deftness.
Indefeasibly royal. Royal beyond dispute. Indefea-
sible is a legal term apl)licd to titles which cannot be
attacked.
As of the S'ceptre of this Planet. This may be roughly
paraphrased as '" any upon earth"
,S'ceptre. A staff, the emblem of royal dignity.
A man liri,g nmnlike. What contempt of idleness
lies beneath these words! See note on p. "29 (To-day,
Book III).
O. bd. " But" in the sense of "only" or "even".
The expression is in the form of a paradox. The rude
and humble toiler is even for his rudeness and lnisery all
the more to be venerated.
Hardly-entreated. Badly used.
Our Conscript. A conscription is a compulsory enrol-
ment for military service of those under a certain age,
from which drafts are made by lot from time to time as
the need arises. The labourer is like the conscript, in that
his lot is determined by destiny and not by himself.
Weft so marred. Such sympathy as this with the
toilers led Ruskin to devote himself to their service.
A god-created Form. In allusion to the Platonic
" Idea" or form ; according to Plato's theory all
FOURTH BOOK
usually learn fully to value their opportunities only after
they are gone.
My Maker. hnplies his sense of responsibility.
True accoM. Compare the language of the Parable,
"' reckoneth with them "; an "account" is a "reckoning ".
Day labour, liglt de,ic,l. Does God exact day labour
while denying the day light ?
Fodly. Foolishly. This is thc primary meaning of
the word.
His own gifts. The talents given to man.
His mild yoke. The service aud suffering His will
imposes. See St. Matthew xi. 29, 30.
His state is kbgly. Explained by what follows.
Tho,sa,ds at Hi. bid,thug speed. Explains why God
does not ueed man's work; thousands of angels serve IIim.
Post. Hasten; the allusion is to the speed at which
the letters were carried in earlier times from post to post,
with fresh relays of horses.
They al.o scr'c. The last line of the sonnet has in
it the sublimity of simple pathos.
MYSTERIOUS NIGHT
As Adam, forewarned by God of approaching night
which should blot the world from view, awaited its
approach with dread, so we await the approach of death,
which removes us from the scenes of earth. And as when
night fell, Adam saw the beauties of earth obscured only
to reveal the infinities of boundless space gemmed with
a myriad worlds, what realms of light and loveliness may
we not expect to behold, when we have passed into the
shadow of death!
FOURTH BOOK
begin with a wide general assertion whi.h, while not
requiring attention, still arrests it. (2) It allows blm to
conclude with a statement fully warranted and, so, con-
vincing. In addition to this, the attention is kept in sus-
pense until the interpretation is reached.
As to all .... rest. Explains the bearing of the
text.
There is no power .... done. Again repeats in
more emphatic terms the idea that the past is irreparable,
thus producing an effective climax.
Such repetitions as these are a necessity in oratorical
composition. The speaker is compelled to be diffuse, so
as to avoid taxing the memory and attention of his hearers.
He is allowed to repeat, provided that he gives a new turn
to the expression or introduces a fresh point of view.
PArAGaAPrt 2.--Let us procccd .... of thls. Of
this principle.
"This principle .... misspent youth." This is the
topic sentence of paragraphs two, three, and four. The
special topic of this paragraph is given in the third sen-
fence: "The young are, hy (od's Providence, exempted
in a great measure from anxiety". The main business of
this paragraph is to establish the parallel set up in the
next sentence.
They are, etc. They are (in the same relation) to
their parents as " the apostles .... to their Master'.
The second and third menfl)ers of this sentence are ampli-
fications of its first.
They are ot called upon .... ohers. :Expresses the
same idea as above, introducing particulars.
P),(w. 397.They get their brpad. .... smile. Fur-
ther particularizes and emphasizes the leading idea.
26 1
THE ONTARIO READERS
first seems to le endeavouriug to discover the policy of
Brutus and his attitude toward himself.
Were sligl, ted off. Disregarded.
You u, rong'd yourself. Put yourself in a false position.
This is in effect a politic rebuke.
In such a time. Note how the form suggests that
this is a retort to Brutus' speech closiug " in such a case ".
('assius is willing to sacrifice principle to expediency; he
is the typical practical politician.
Erery nice offence. Nice here means petty, trifling.
" hice" at first seems to have meant foolish, then foolishly
precise.
His comment. "Its" had not come into general use
in Shakespeare's time.
P.6F 403.--Let me tell you. To be plain with you.
('ondenn,'d to l, are. Accused of having.
,4t itc],ing paint. A fondness for bribes. Explain
the figure.
.lIart. To market, to offer for sale.
Udesercers. The uudeserving.
]'ou are ]:,'rutus tltat speal" tltis. Suggests that Brutus
is taking undue advantage of their mutual friendship. To
this Brutus retorts that he is, on the contrary, conceding
much to friendship in withholding chastisement.
Remember Marcl. tle ides of .l[arcl remember. A
warning rendered impressive by its form. Notice the
arrangement of the words.
Great J.ulius. Julius Cesar, who was murdered by
the conspirators in the Roman Forum on the ides of
March (March 15th ), .c. 44.
Villain. Common fellow. Note "deterioration" in
the modern
FOURTH BOOK 895
The argument is that when the meanest of the Romans
had such a high regard for justice shall we, the noblest,
repeat the crimes for which we condemned Ceesar? For
a different interpretation see W. Aldis Wright's note on
this passage in the CLARENDON PRESS SERIES. " Who
was such a villain of those who touched his body, that he
stabbed for any other motive than j,stice?"
Tle miglt!! space of mr large loours. The great
offices in our gift ; with the underlying meaning, " prove
ourselves unworthy of the high place ve have attained".
Trasl. Money :
Who steals my purse steals trash;
But he that filches from me my good name
Robs me of that which not enriches him,
And makes me poor indeed.
--Othello, , 111
Bay tl, e moon. Typifies idle folly.
P.aE 4o4.--Bay not me. This means, " don't drive
me into a corner, don't press me too far'. This is also
read "bait not me'; which is in any case the meaning:
"worry not me"
To l, edge me in. That is, by checking his misconduct.
I am asoldier, I. The"I" at the end has the effect
of a repetition of the whole clause with added emphasis.
To make co,dilions. Cassius claims greater political
sagacity, though, as the line ends at "yourself ", the first
meaning that would occur to the hearer would be that
he claims to be an able soldier, and it is in this meaning
that the quarrel proceeds.
Go to. An old expression indicating contemptuous
disbelief.
Urge me no more. Press me no more; the whole ex-
pression means, " Don't press me too far, or it will be at
your peril ". Compare above.
FOURTH BOOK $97
dition to "the quiver of suppressed emotion from his own
deep seated private grieYs, on account of the suicide of
his wife Portia, passing into unwonted emotion of resent-
ment at what looked in Cassius like want of honour and
of friendly care. Cassius is quick of temper; Brutus
habitually calm; hut Cassius has now to wonder at lhe
sensitiveness of his friend, whose anger has hut a short
life, and whose alnends for it are generous and full".
P..CE 406. Arm'd so .trong in lozesly. Y[onesty of
purpose. Righteousness; compare "Thrice is he arm'd
that hath his quarrel just". 2 Het, rg VI, HI, ii.
Drop my blood for dra(l, mas. The drachma was a
Roman coin. The expression is explanatory of "coin my
heart ", above.
Indirection. Crookedness, injustice.
Rascal courtiers. There are several references in the
plays of Shakespeare to the practice of his time of casting
up accounts by means of sticks, each representing certain
coins. Brutus, in speaking of coins as counters, makes
them appear to have no value in themselves, thus
emphasizing the epithet "rascal " applied to them.
He u'as but a fool. That is, he misunderstood my
meaning.
Rired. Torn.
PACE 407.--Bear lis friend's infirmities. Make allow-
ance for, hence the propriety of the contrast below.
Till yo pracfi.e fl, ern on me. Try them on me. This
speech, on its face, is unworthy of Brutus. He, however,
means merely that Cassius has, bv his conduct, abolished
that friendship which should condone the faults of a
friend.
AUTHORS
Andersen, Hans Christian (1805-1875), a Danish
writer of fairy tales and travels, was born at Odense, in
the Island of Funen. IIis talents secured him friends,
who placed him in the University of Copenhagen and
afterwards obtained for him a money grant from the
King. IIe travelled extensively through France, Ger-
many, and Italy. In 1835, appeared his first collection of
Fairy Tales. He continued writing until 1872, when an
accident befell him at Innsbruck, from which he never
recovered. IIe died at Copenhagen.
Bates, David (1810-187o), an Alncrican poet. Died
at Philadelphia, Pa. His principal work was The .Eoliaa,
a collection of poems (1848).
Blackmore, Richard Doddridge (1825-1900), a dis-
tinguished English novelist, was born at Longworth, Berk-
shire, and educated in Tiverton and at Exeter College,
Oxford. After graduation in 18-17, he studied law and
was called to the Bar in 1857. Ahandonin the ]axv after
some years, he devoted himself to literature and market-
gardening at Teddington-on-Thames, where be died. Ills
best known works are Lorna Doone (1869), The Maid of
Sker (1872), and Cripps tl, e Carrier (1876}.
Blewett, lean McKishnie (1869- ), Canadian
poet, was born at Scotia, Lake Erie, Ontario, ano was
educated at the St. Thomas Collegiate Institute. In
1886, she married Mr. Basset Blewett. IIer chief w',rks
are Out of tle Depths, Heart Songs, and Tle Cornflot,'er
and Other Poems, all distinguished hy "that subtle gift,
the power to make you hear, see, and feel with her"
Irs. Blewett has contributed verse and prose to
Globe, Toronto, and The Canadian Magazine.
THE ONTARIO READERS
Carlyle, Thomas (1795-1881), celebrated Scettish
essayist and historian, was born at Ecclefechan, Dum-
friesshire. He was educated at the Annan Academy and
at Edinburgh University. Here he attended the classes
in Arts until 1813, when he began to prepare for the
ministry of the Church of Scotland. In 1818, he moved
to Edinburgh to study law, and supported himself by
tutoring and by writing for encyclopaedias. In 1824, he
paid his first visit to London and remained there until
Mart:h, 1825, superintending the publi.ation of his Life
of Schiller. In October, 1.q26, he married Miss Jane
Welsh and settled in Edinburgh. Here he became con-
nected with the Edinburgh Rerie,v. In 1828, he removed
to Mrs. Carlyle's property of Craigenputtock. During the
six years spent here, he produced his essays on Burns,
Jolnson, Goetl, Diderot, and Voltaire, a. well as his
most characteristic and greatest work, Sartor Resartus.
In 18.q4. he removed to Chelsea, London, where he con-
tinued to reside until his death. The works produced dur-
ing the Chelsea period were The French Rerolution
(1837), PaM and Pre.ent (1843), Cromu'ell's Letters and
?,'peeche.q (1.q45), Life of John ,<,'titling (1851), and The
Hstory o Frederick the Great (1858-1865).
Carroll, Lewis (.q37-1.9.). "' Lewis Carroll " was
the pseudonym of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, English
mathematician and writer of fairy tales. He was edu-
cated at Christ Church. Oxford. where he became mathe-
matical lecturer. 1855-1881. Besides his works on mathe-
matics, which were published under his own name, as
"Lewis Carroll" he wrote those delightful stories for
childrenAlice's 4drentures in Wonderland (1865), and
its sequel, Through the Looking-glass (1872). These
AUTHORS 417
title of The Life and Pas.ion of Archbishop Becket. It is
in the preface to this work, edited by Dr. Pegge in 1772,,
that the description of the b'ports in Norman England
occurs.
Follen, Eliza Lee (1787-186(I), Eliza Lee Cabot,
American author and reformer, was born in Boston, Mass.,
and in 1828 was married to Professor Charles Follen. She,
with her husband, took an active interest in the caml, aign
against slavery, lter principal publications are Poems
(1839), Twilight Stories (1858), and Home Dramas
(1859).
Franklin, Benjamin (1706-1790), American states-
man, diplomatist, and aulhor, was born at Boston, Mass.
He began life as a prinler's boy. ttis most famous pro-
duction, Poor Richard's Ahnanac, otherwise known as
The Way to Wealth, begun in 173, was continued till
1757. His scientific researches into the laws of electricity
are embodied in various letters and papers. He wrote
also numerous essays and an autohiography of great
interest and value, ltis style was consciously modelled
upon that of Addison. In 1776, as Minister Plenipoten-
tiary, he visited the court of France and secured for the
revolted colonies the sympathy and support of the French.
Froude, James Anthony (1804-1894), English his-
torian and man of letters, was born at Darlington in
Devonshire. He was educated at Merton and at Oriel
College, Oxford. There he came under the influence of
the Tractarian movement, but his later scepticism and
heterodoxy are shown in his Shado,'. of the ('louds
(1847), and The Nemesis of Faith (1848). In 1869, he
was chosen Lord Rector of the University of St. Andrew's,
AUTHORS 421
Harte, Francis lBret (1839-1902), American novelist
and humorist, was born at Albany, New York. In 1,q51,
he went to California, where be became in turn a school-
master, a miner, and a compositor. In 1857, he obtained
an engagement on The Golden Era in San Francisco, and
later, with S. L. Clemens, became a contributor to The
Californian. IIe founded The O'crland Monthly and
contributed to it many of the stories whi.h have made him
famous; amongst others The Luck of Roaring (__'amp,
Tennessee's Partner, and The Idyll of Red Gulch. lie
held consular appointments in Germany and Scotland.
He died in London.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel (1.qft-186t), American
novelist, was born in Salem, Mass. Here be was prepared
for entrance to Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine, 1821.
At college he was dreamy, sensitive, and diffident. After
his marriage with Miss Sophie Peabody, he took up resi-
dence in the Old Manse at Concord and received an
appointment in the Custom House at Salem, a position
which he lost in 1849. Before this time he had published
Tu'ice Told Tales, Mosses from a Old Manse, Grand-
father's Chair, and The b'now Image. The Scarlet Letter
appeared in 185, and then successively, The llou.,e of
The Seven Gables, The Blilhedale Romance, The Wonder
Book, and Tanglewood Tales, all within the next three
years.
In 1853, Hawthorne was appointed American Consul
at Liverpool. Before the expiration of his term, he
resigned the office and made a visit to France and Italy.
Returning to England in 1859, he wrote his romance,
The Marble Faun. In 1860, he settled at " The Wayside ",
in Concord. The leading characteristics of his writings
are a sle of classic purity of expression, a lively fancy,
422
THE ONTARIO READERS
a dainty humour, and a romantic imagination, hic.h,
while it casts an atmosphere of unreality over his whole
work, imparts to it a peculiar elegance.
Hemans, Felicia Dorothea Browne (1793-1835),
English poet, was born at Liverpool. In 180, her father,
on account of some business.reverses, removed his family
into North Wales. Here beside the sea, inspired with
the love of nature, Felicia was brought up. Her England
and ,_'pain (18fig) attracted some favourable attention.
In 1,12, she published The Dome.tic Affections and was
married in the same year to ('aptaiu Ilemans, who had
served in Spain. Among her other works are the Forest
Sanctuary (1,q?6), Songs of the Affections (1830), Hymns
for Childhood, and Scenes and Hymns of Life (1834).
Her poems are marked by grace, sweetness, and tender-
hess.
Henley, William Ernest (1849-]903), English critic
and poet, was born at Gloucester, England. lie was an
intimate friend of Bobert Louis Stevenson, and collab-
orated with him in the production of a series of plays.
]Icnley edited several serials, two or three anthologies of
lyrics, and an edition of Burns. The London Voluntaries,
published with The Song of the ,','t'ord (197). For Eng-
land's Sa/cc (l 90 }, and Ha,'lh oru and Larender (19nl ),
arc perhaps his most notable productions, llis poetry i:_."
vigorous and vivid in expression, rapid in movement, and
shows a f.ndness for odd words and curious locations.
Hogg, James (177o-1835), Scottish poet, song-writer,
and essasist , known as " The Ettrick Shepherd," was
born in the parish of Ettrick, Selkirksbire. In 1801, he
published a small volume of verse, and heinz introduced
to Sir Walter Scott, assisted him in the preparation of
424
THE ONTARIO READERS
and Kingsley in their work among the London poor. In
1.qso, he asst.,ted in founding a settlement in Tennessee.
His principal works are Tom Brou'n at Rugby, and Tom
Brown at Oxford. A statue of him was erected at Rugby
in 1899.
Hunt, James Henry Leigh (178-i-1859), English
essayist, critic, and poet, was born at Southgate in Middle-
sex. He was educated at Christ's IIospital till his fifteenth
year. In The Examiner, a paper started by himself and
his hrother, he ridiculed the Prince Regent as a "fat
Adonis of forty", and for his vivacity was sentenced to
two years' imprisonment. On leaving prison, he published
Rimini. in 1;16. and two small volumes of poetry, The
Feast of the Poets (114}. and Foliage (118). In 1822,
he went with his wife and children to Italy to reside with
Lord Byron. In 1825, Hunt returned to England, and
for twenty years eked out an existence by precarious
journalism. During the last ten years of his life, he
enjoyed pensions from the Shelley family and the civil
list. Hunt's fame rests principally upon his work as an
essayist and critic. S-me of the titles of his works not
before mentioned arc: Imagination and Faacy, Wit and
Humour, Stories from the Italian Poets (1_46). Men,
Women, and Books (1847), A Jar of Honey from Mount
Hybla, and The Town (18-;).
Ingelow. Jean (1830-1897), English poet and
novelist, was born in Lincolnshire. Miss Inffelow was a
very popular writer of poems and novels and also of short
stories for children.
Jackson, Helen Hunt (131-1885), American
writer, was born at Amherst, Mass. Her first husband was
Captain Edward Hunt of the American Army. Twelve
456 THE ONTARIO READERS
bridge University. In 1869, he resigned and was ap-
pointed a ('anon of Chester and afterwards of Westmin-
ster. In 187], he made hi. voyage to the tropics, lie
became editor of (ood l|'ordx in |72, made a lecturing
tour in America in ]83-4, and was appointed Chaplain
to the Queen. His mst importat works are Ih.lpat;a
(1,q53}, l|'estcard I[o (1,q55), Tu'o ]'ears Alo (1857),
Tle Heroes (1q58}, and ll'ater Babies (1863).
Kipling, Rudyard (1865- ), English journalist,
writer of short stories, poet. and novelist, was horn at
Bombay, India. He was educated at the United Services
College, Westward IIo, North Devon. P,t'turning to India,
he acted as assistant editor on Tle ('icil and Militarj
Gazette, and The Pioeer. He has travelled extensively
in ('hina, Japan, Africa, Australia, and America. He
stories are renarkable for vigor and directness of expres-
sion and the accuracy with which they represent the sol-
dier's life in India: his verse, for metrical dexterity, and
in The Recessional and some of his ballads, for nobility
of sentiment and descriptive vividness. Some f 3It.
Kipling's publicaticns are Departmental Dillies, ,%ldiers
Tltree. Tle Phantom Ric'slau', T]e Li.llt float Failed.
Barrac1'-room Ballads, .lIan!! In'entions, T]e .lungle
Boo's, ('aptains Courageot, and The Day's ll'ork.
Lamlaman, Archibald (1861-1899), Canadian poet,
son of the late Rev. Archihald Lampman, was born at
]lorpeth, in Kent County. Ontario. He was of U. E.
Loyalist stork on both sides. He was educated at Trinity
College School, Port Hope, and at Trinity University,
Toronto, from which, in 1882, he was graduated with
honours. He entered the Canadian Civil Service at
Ottawa in 1883 as a clerk in the Post-office Department.
436
THE ONTARIO READERS
187t, he issued Moorland Rhymes and, in 1891, Poems,
Songs, and Sonnets.
Richardson, John (1796-1852), Canadian soldier and
author, was born near the Falls of Niagara, Ontario. His
father, Dr. Robert Richardson, afterwards became surgeon
to the Governor and garrison at Fort Amherstburg; and
it is to the vivid impressions made upon his young mind
by the frontier scenes enacted there, that we owe the thrill-
ing dramas in his tales of Canadian and Indian life. He
served in the 41st Regiment in the war of 1812 and, at its
conclusion, he went to Europe to serve under Wellington;
but arriving after the Battle of Waterloo, he remained for
some tilue in London. In Spain he fought with the
British Legion. He returned to Canada in 1838 as corres-
pondent of The Times, and shortly after published news-
papers in Bror'kville and Kingston. About 1848, he went
to New York, where he died in extreme poverty in 1852.
The best of ,Major Richardson's works is Wacouxla, or The
Prophecy; other works are The Canadian Brothers, or The
Prophecy Fulfilled, and Eight Years in Canada.
Roberts, Charles Gordon Douglas (1860- ),
Canadian novelist and poet, was born at Douglas, near
Fredericton. N.B. He was graduated at the University of
New Brunswick in 1879. He was principal of the Gram-
mar School, Chatham, N.B., 1879-1882, and afterwards of
York treet School, Fredericton, until the fall of 1883,
when he removed to Toronto to Iecome editor of The lVeek.
Later, he held the chair of English Literature and Econ-
omics in King'.* College, Wind.-:or, N.S., until 895, when
he resigned to devote himself exclusively to literary work.
Mr. Roberts is now engaged in literary and journalistic
work in New York. As a poet he specially excels in his
AUTHORS 437
descriptions of nature. These, and his stories of the forest,
are distinctively Canadian. Among his best kno.wn con-
tributions to literature arc: gongs of tle Common Day,
Earth's Enigmas, The Forge in tle Forest, A History of
Canada, and The Heart of the .lncient Wood.
Robertson, Frederick William (1816-1853), Eng-
lish preacher, was born in London and educated at the
:New Academy, Edinburgh, and at Oxford University.
After occupying various subordinate clerical posts and
spending some time in travel on the continent, he hecame,
in 1847, incumbent of Trinity College, Brighton, and re-
tained this position until his death. He was very popular
both as a preacher and lecturer, but his real fame was
posthumous. His Sermons and Addresses, published after
his death, are widely and favourably known.
Robertson, William (1721-1793), Scottish historian
and popular preacher, was horn at Borthwick, Midlothian.
He became, in 1762, principal of Edinhurgh University.
His chief works are a llistor!l of Scotland, a History of
Charles V, and a History of America. His style is marked
by a classical dignity of expression.
Rossetti Christina G. (1830-1894), an English poet,
was the daughter of Gabriele Rossetti, the Italian patriot,
and sister of Dante Rossetti. She was horn in London,
where she spent the greater part of her life, devoting her-
self to the care of her mother, her religious duties, and her
literary work. The series of sonnets, entitled Monna
Innominata, are supposed to be suggested by incidents in
her life. " She has that rarest of gifts, the gift of express-
ing deep feeling in quiet speech and perfect musical
cadence. Iter poems are full of that beautiful redundance
29
AUTHORS 443
important work is The Life and Correspondence of Dr.
Arnold (1844).
Steel, Flora Annie (1847- ), was born at
Harrow and educated at home. In 1867 she married a
Bengal civilian. Her stories of Indian life bare a wide
popularity. The principal of these are The Potter's
Thumb (1894), On the Face of the Waters (189-6), The
Hosts of the Lord (1900), A ,','overeign Remedy (1906).
Stevenson, Robert Louis (1850-1891), the essayist
and romance writer, was the grandson of Robert Steven-
son, the builder of the Bell lock Lighthouse. His mother
was Margaret Balfour, of the old Scottish family of the
Balfours of Pilrig. He was born in Edinburgh. IIis
education was much interrupted on account of the delicacy
of his health, and much of his time was spent in travel.
He studied engineering at Edinburgh University, but in
1871 abandoned it to read law. He teJ[Jk every oppor-
tunity for the study of human nature in its wild, adven-
turous, and perhaps its sordid aspects, both as revealed in
books and as presented in his rambles in the Lowlands
and lIghlands. In 1880, he married a Californian lady,
Mrs. 0sbourne, his future critic and collaborateur. In
1889, he made his voyage to the Southern Seas and settled
in Samoa, where he died. His best known works are Will
o" the Mill, Treasure I.sland, The Master of Ballantrae,
Kidnapped, and The Child's Garden of Verse.
Taylor, Bayard (1825-1878), was born in Chester
County, Pennsylvania. His first volume, Ximena and
Other Poems, was published in 1844. His experiences
while upon his pedestrian tour in Europe, and his journeys
to various parts of Asia Minor, China, India, and Japan,
AUTHORS 445
Thaxter, Celia (1836-1894), was born at Ports-
mouth, New Hampshire. She was a daughter of Thomas
B. Leighton, keeper of the White Island Lighthou.e, and
was married in 1851 to Levi L. Thaxter, of Watertown,
Mass. She died ou the Island of Appledore, off the coast
of Maine. Her principal works are ,4thong the Isles of
S]oals, Driftwood, and Poems for Cldldren.
Thomson. James (1700-1748), poet and dramatist,
was born at Ednam-in-loxburgh. At eighteen he entered
Edinburgh College as a student of Divinity, but aban-
doned his course and went to London in the spring of
125. The publication of Winter (1726), though it
brought in little money, gave him many friends. Tle
Season, s (1730) was received with much favour. By the
death of a patron in 1737, he was reduced to great pov-
erty, but later receiving an appointment which enabled
him to live in easy, indolent enjoyment, he wrote his great-
est work, The Castle of Indolence (1748). lie produced
his most successful tragedy, Tancred and Sigisnund, ill
1745, with Garrick and Mrs. Cibber in the leading roles.
Twain, Mark (1835-1910). "Mark Twain" was
the pseudonym of Samuel Langhorne Clemens. He was
born in Florida, Missouri. He learned the trade of a
printer, became a pilot on the Mississippi River in 1855
and, in 1861, accompanied his brother to Nevada as his
private secretary. He took up newspaper work in Vir-
ginia. Nevada, and afterward in San Francisco and
Buffalo. In 1867, he took up his residence in Hartford.
spending much of his time abroad. His principal works
are Roughing It, Tle Inocents Abroad. Tom Sawyer, A
Tramp Abroad, Old Times on the Mississippi, and The
Prince and the Pauper. His racy and original humour.
450 THE ONTARIO READERS
Winchester. Her Heir of Redcli]e was very popular.
Within forty-four years (1848-1892) she published over
one hundred volumes. Her novels display dramatic skill
and inculcate a high morality. The considerable profits
of her early novels were devoted to charitable and religious
purposes. Heartsease, Golden Deeds, and her books on
military commanders and good women constitute her most
notable works.
