English Narrative Poems Part 35

[283] 211. =Shrift=; the confession made to a priest.

[284] 214. =Winchester=; a cathedral city in southern England, the ancient capital of the country.

[285] 233. =Pleasaunce=; pleasure.

[286] 236. =Pardie=; certainly or surely. It was originally an oath from the French _par Dieu_.

[287] 260. =Dais=; the platform on which was the king's throne.

[288] 268. =Rede=; story.

WILLIAM MORRIS

William Morris was born in 1834 in Walthamstead, Ess.e.x, England, and died in London in 1896. He went to Exeter College, Oxford, in 1853, where he formed a close friendship with Edward Burne-Jones, the future artist. A little later he came under the influence of Rossetti, who induced him to attempt painting, an art which he followed with no great success. In 1858 he published _The Defence of Guinevere, and Other Poems_. This volume was followed by _The Life and Death of Jason_ (1867), _The Earthly Paradise_ (finished 1872), and _Sigurd the Volsung_ (1876). In 1863 he became a manufacturer of wall paper and artistic furniture, branching out afterwards into weaving, dyeing, and other crafts. After 1885 he was a confirmed Socialist, speaking frequently at laborers' meetings and pouring forth a steady stream of leaflets and pamphlets in support of his radical beliefs. His death was probably due to overwork.

Morris was by instinct a lover of the beautiful and harmonious. A fluent versifier, he delighted especially in the composition of narrative poetry, which he adorned with ornate description and superb decoration.

This very richness sometimes cloys the taste and tends to arouse a feeling of monotony. His longest work, _The Earthly Paradise_, is modelled somewhat on Chaucer's _Canterbury Tales_, and contains twenty-four stories, twelve mediaeval and twelve cla.s.sic in origin.

A satisfactory short life is that by Alfred Noyes in the English Men of Letters Series.

ATALANTA'S RACE (Page 187)

Published in 1868 as the first story in the collection called _The Earthly Paradise_. The episode was a favorite with Greek and Latin writers, and has been used occasionally in modern times. The metre in this version is the antiquated Rime Royal.

[289] 1. =Arcadia= was a province of the Grecian peninsula.

[290] 14. =Cornel= is a kind of wood of great hardness used for making bows.

[291] 28. =King Schoenus=; a Boeotian king, the son of Athamas. Most other versions of the story name Iasius as Atalanta's father.

[292] 62. =Image of the sun=; a statue of Phoebus Apollo, the sun-G.o.d.

[293] 63. =The Fleet-foot One=; Mercury (Hermes), the messenger of the G.o.ds.

[294] 79. =Diana=; the daughter of Jupiter and Latona, and the sister of Apollo. She was the G.o.ddess of the moon and of the hunt. She was also the protector of chast.i.ty. See Guerber, _Myths of Greece and Rome_, Chapter VI.

[295] 80. =Lists=; desires.

[296] 177. =Saffron gown=; the orange-yellow dress indicative of the bride.

[297] 184. =The sea-born one=; Aphrodite (Venus). See page 266.

[298] 206. The =Dryads= were wood-nymphs who were supposed to watch over vegetation.

[299] 208. =Adonis' bane=; the wild boar. Adonis was a beautiful youth who was pa.s.sionately loved by Venus, though he did not return her affection. He was mortally wounded at a hunt by a wild boar, and died in the arms of the G.o.ddess.

[300] 211. =Argive=; Grecian.

[301] 224. =Must=; the juice of the grape before fermentation.

[302] 353. =Argos=; a city in Argolis, a province in the northeast part of the Peloponnesian peninsula in Greece.

[303] 373. =Queen Venus.= It was to Venus, the G.o.ddess of love, that unhappy lovers were accustomed to turn for aid.

[304] 391. =Holpen=; the old past participle of the word help.

[305] 516. =Damascus=; the chief city of Syria.

[306] 535. =Saturn= (Cronus or Time) was the father of Jupiter. Under his rule came the so-called Golden Age of the world.

[307] 671. =Phoenician.= The Phoenicians lived on the eastern sh.o.r.e of the Mediterranean Sea, and were famous for their commerce and trade.

HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born in Portland, Maine, on February 27, 1807. He entered Bowdoin College at the early age of fifteen, graduating there in 1825. He then spent about three years abroad preparing himself for a position, as Professor of Modern Languages at Bowdoin, which he took on his return. There he remained six years, leaving in 1834 to become a professor in Harvard College. His first book of poems, _Voices of the Night_, appeared in 1839, and two years later he published _Ballads and other Poems_. Both volumes were received cordially and had a wide circulation. Other important later works were _Evangeline_ (1847), _Hiawatha_ (1855), _The Courtship of Miles Standish_ (1858), and _Tales of a Wayside Inn_ (finished 1873). In 1854 he left off teaching and settled down to a quiet literary life. During a trip to Europe in 1868 he was given honorary degrees by both Oxford and Cambridge. He died in Boston in 1882. It is a testimonial to his popularity in England that his bust was placed in the Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey, the only memorial to an American author there.

Longfellow was a scholarly and cultured poet, influenced much by foreign literatures and proficient in translation. His verse is rarely impa.s.sioned, but is usually simple, smooth, and polished. America has had no finer narrative poet; and it is unquestionable that this form of poetry was well adapted to his genius, which was fluent, but not often strongly emotional.

THE WRECK OF THE HESPERUS (Page 211)

Longfellow's diary for the date December 17, 1839, contains the following entry: "News of shipwrecks horrible on the coast. Twenty bodies washed ash.o.r.e near Gloucester, one lashed to a piece of wreck.

There is a reef called Norman's Woe, where many of these took place; among others the schooner Hesperus--I must write a ballad upon this."

Two weeks later he wrote: "I sat last evening till twelve o'clock by my fire, smoking, when suddenly it came into my mind to write the 'Ballad of the Schooner Hesperus,' which I accordingly did. Then I went to bed, but I could not sleep. New thoughts were running in my mind, and I got up to add them to the ballad. It was three by the clock. I then went to bed and fell asleep. I feel pleased with the ballad. It hardly cost me an effort. It did not come into my mind by lines, but by stanzas."

Published first in 1841 in _Ballads and Other Poems_.

PAUL REVERE'S RIDE (Page 214)

Published in 1863 as _The Landlord's Tale_ in the first series of _Tales of a Wayside Inn_.

General Gage, commander of the British forces in Boston and vicinity, despatched, on the night of April 18, 1775, a body of troops to seize stores said to be concealed at Concord. According to the story, Paul Revere spread the warning throughout the surrounding country, and when the British arrived at Lexington they found a small body of militia lined up to oppose them. A skirmish ensued in which the first blood of the war was spilled, several being killed and others wounded.

[308] 2. =Paul Revere= (1735-1818) was a goldsmith and engraver who became one of the most active of the colonial patriots.

[309] 9. =North Church.= There is some dispute as to what church is referred to here. A tablet on the front of Christ Church, Salem Street, Boston, points that out as the church from which the lanterns were hung.

Other good authorities, however, support the claims of the North Church, formerly standing in North Square, but now torn down.

[310] 88. =Medford= is on the Mystic River about five miles northwest of Boston.

[311] 102. =Concord= is about nineteen miles northwest of Boston.

JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER