Journeys Through Bookland Volume X Part 36

_Page 180, line 6._ "Wild white horses"; the breakers, where the waves are beaten into foam and flying spray.

_Line 7._ "Champ"; gnash their bits.

_Page 182, line 4._ "Stream." The ocean currents resemble streams of water on land.

_Line 8._ "Mail"; scales. How could the snakes _dry_ their mail?

_Line 10._ "Unshut." Do fish have eyelids? Is a whale a fish? Does a whale have eyelids? Do most people think of a whale as a fish?

_Line 18._ "Sate" is an old form for "sat." Can you find other old or unusual words or expressions? Why does the poet use them?

_Line 25._ "Merman." The literature of the ancients contained frequent allusions to mermaids, who were strange creatures with heads of beautiful, long-haired maidens, but with scaly bodies and the tails of fish. In pictures they are usually represented as sitting upon reefs holding a mirror in one hand and combing their long locks with the other. Holmes, in _The Chambered Nautilus_, speaks of the "cold sea-maids" who "rise to sun their streaming hair." Mermen were not so often spoken of, but there are some allusions to them. In later times the mermaids were considered more as fairies, and there were many stories of human children being taken to live with the mermaids, and of the latter coming upon land to live like men and women. There was, too, a belief that sea-folk had no souls, and that a person who went to live with them would lose his soul. The beautiful picture on page 181 shows the forsaken family.

_Line 10_, from the bottom. "Leaded panes." The small panes of stained gla.s.s in the church windows are set in narrow leaden frames.

_Page 185, line 4._ "Heaths" and "broom". The English and Scotch heathers are little bushy shrubs that cover the hills and fields. They bear beautiful little bell-like pink or white flowers. The trailing arbutus, the blueberry and the wintergreen are some of our native plants belonging to the same family. The broom plant is another low shrub that bears rather large yellow blossoms, shaped like the flowers of peas and beans. The old-time country-folk used bundles of these shrubs for brooms.

_Line 10._ There have been several allusions to tides. If the children do not understand the subject, be sure to explain how different a sh.o.r.e looks at high and at low tide. The change is most noticeable where the water is shallow, for then long stretches of sea-bottom may be uncovered at low tide.

III. _The Story._ Bring out by questions these facts which const.i.tute the "plot," or incidents:

1. A merman, who has a family of children (five, the artist says, page 181), has been deserted by his human wife.

2. The father and children are on sh.o.r.e trying to persuade the mother to return. The father feels that all must go back.

3. He begs the children to call their mother once more, for he thinks that childish voices, wild with pain, may induce her to come.

4. He feels discouraged.

5. He tells how she became alarmed and left them at Easter time to return to her church and pray, that she might save the soul she feared she was losing.

6. The father and children had come on sh.o.r.e to find their mother. She was seen praying in the church, working at her spinning wheel at home, happy but apparently not wholly forgetful of her family in the sea, for she sighed and dropped a tear as she looked over the sand to the sea.

7. The father feels that his wife is cruel and faithless and that she has deserted, forever, himself and his family, the kings of the sea.

IV. _The Characters._ Question the children till they see clearly the persons.

1. The princ.i.p.al character is the deserted merman, a king of the sea.

Ought he to expect his wife to stay with him?

2. The wife, a human being who has loved a merman, and who has a family of sea children, but who has suddenly become awakened to the danger to her soul. Is she selfish? Ought she to have forsaken her family? Can she really be happy away from her husband and family?

3. The children. How many were there? How old were they? Were there both boys and girls? Do you think Mr. Reese had a clear idea of the family when he drew the picture (page 181)? There must have been at least three, for it is said that the mother tended the youngest well; at least one girl, for the mother sighed for the strange eyes of a little mermaiden.

4. The priest.

V. _Pictures._ Two series of pictures are kept side by side all the time; one of the land, and the other of the sea. Try to create a vivid scene from each.

_First_, on land: We can see a little town, nestling on the side of a bleak, wind-swept hill, an old English town with a white stone wall all around it. On the hill, which is too rough to be cultivated, grow great fields of heather, studded with the golden blossoms of broom-plant. A little gray stone church stands surrounded by its yard, where the village dead are buried, for such was the old custom in England. The stones are at the head of the graves, and the walls of the church are rain- and storm-worn, but bright stained-gla.s.s windows in the building and flowers and trees among the graves make the place very beautiful.

Some of the windows are clear, so that you can look through and gaze along the aisle bordered by high wooden pews and see the priest reading service, and, by one of the stone pillars, the merman's wife, her eyes steadily gazing at the bible in her lap. You are privileged, too, to peep into one of the thatched cottages, and see the mother turning the old-fashioned spinning wheel. From her house there is a wide view down the hill, across the bay and out to sea. At high tide the breakers dash madly against the sh.o.r.e, but at low tide there is a broad strip of silver sand, rocks covered with sea-weed, and in the low places, creeks and pools of salt water. Does the artist's picture represent high or low tide?

_Second_, at sea: Deep beneath the surface of the water where the waves toss and roar, where the surf and spray dash madly about, are great caverns strewn with white sand. It is cool down there in the depths, and the light filtering through the clear green sea is weak and pale. The water streams through caverns, swaying the exquisite sea-weeds that line the walls; and outside, round about, whales, sea-snakes and all manner of water beasts swim in play or struggle for mastery. In one of the caverns stands a great throne of red gold, ornamented with graceful sea fringe, pearls and amber. From without one may gaze up to the amber-colored ceiling, or down to the pavement of l.u.s.trous pearl. It was this wondrous palace that the mermaid abandoned for the sake of her soul.

VI. _Sentiment._ It is, on the whole, a sad poem, though a few cheering thoughts are suggested by it. Without an attempt at cla.s.sification and a.n.a.lysis, here are a few choice ideas taken in order as they occur:

_Page 180._ "Children's voices should be dear to a mother's ear."

_Page 183._ "Long prayers in the world they say."

_Page 183._ "Oh joy, for the blessed light of the sun!"

_Page 185._ The last stanza shows very pleasingly the faithfulness of father and children, in contrast to the inconstancy of the mother.

VII. _Beauty._ Besides its sentiment, the poem gives us other beauties in great number. Here are some of them:

_a. Unity._ The poem has one idea running through it from beginning to end, an idea that is nowhere lacking, though at first it is not seen.

What is the one idea? Grief, but not bitterness nor anger. Each succeeding stanza is seen to add something to this idea, till all our sympathies are enlisted for the forsaken children, more than for the father who does all the talking.

_b. Meter and Rhyme._ Both meter and rhyme are irregular, but that fact gives a pleasing variety to the poem and corresponds to the somewhat abrupt changes in the line of thought that at first make the poem rather hard to read. The children will be interested in comparing the lengths of lines in different stanzas and sometimes in different parts of the same stanza. It is easy to pick out the rhymes, to see how often rhymes are repeated in a stanza, and whether the lines are in couples or alternate.

_c. Phrases._ The following lines are quoted as those perhaps best worth study and remembrance. Let the children determine why they were selected as beautiful lines; that is, determine in what respect the lines are beautiful:

"Now the wild white horses play, Champ and chafe and toss in the spray."

"The far-off sound of a silver bell."

"Where the sea snakes toil and twine, Dry their mail and bask in the brine."

"A long, long sigh For the cold, strange eyes of a little Mermaiden."

"A ceiling of amber, A pavement of pearl."

"Heaths starr'd with broom."

_The Cloud_

(Volume VII, page 257)

This lyric has wonderful beauty. It is one of the most musical of poems, the ideas are fine and the pictures of surpa.s.sing charm. If it lacks the high message it is still an inspiration, for beauty is always enn.o.bling to the appreciative.

The charm of _The Cloud_ will appeal to children but it may be intensified by judicious questioning and comment. As always in trying to give appreciation of real literature, the teacher in the home or at the school must be certain of his purpose and must never carry the instruction too far. He must understand the nature of the reader and shape his questions accordingly. It is impossible to print anything that will be helpful equally to all or that can be used in its entirety in any instance. Do not talk too much about what is evident, and stop at the first signs of a dawning distaste.

_First Stanza._ It is the cloud that is speaking, and as every cloud is ever changing, the song of the cloud varies with its condition. It is now the cloud of the warm summer shower that piles up in snowy billows on the horizon and rolls over the laughing face of flowering nature.

How do the flowers show that they are thirsting? Will they look different when their thirst is satisfied? Do leaves dream? Leaves, you know, are the lungs of plants. May they do more work in the morning, the evening and the night, than at midday? May they be said to be sleeping at times? Is the shade of the cloud a help to the leaves? Did you ever see the leaves of trees turn their glazed upper surfaces toward the ground and twist up their under sides toward the sky, begging for moisture? Did you ever notice that the buds of most flowers open in the night or toward morning? Do the "dews awaken" these? Do clouds cause dews?

Strictly speaking, no "dews" fall from clouds; but light mist may do so.