Modern Prose And Poetry; For Secondary Schools Part 7

=Daphnis=:--In Greek myth, a shepherd who loved music.

=Nais=:--In Greek myth, a happy young girl, a nymph.

=Cyclops=:--One of a race of giants having but one eye--in the middle of the forehead. These giants helped Vulcan at his forge under Aetna.

=Galatea=:--A sea-nymph beloved by the Cyclops Polyphemus.

=Silenus=:--The foster-father and companion of Bacchus, G.o.d of wine. In pictures and sculpture Silenus is usually represented as intoxicated.

=Fauns=:--Fabled beings, half goat and half man.

=Arethusan water=:--Arethusa, in Greek myth, was a wood-nymph, who was pursued by the river Alpheus. She was changed into a fountain, and ran under the sea to Sicily, where she rose near the city of Syracuse.

Sh.e.l.ley has a poem on Arethusa.

=baton=:--A rod or wand; here, of course, a policeman's club.

SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY

The author sees an organ-grinder playing his gay tunes in Wall Street, New York, among the buildings where enormous financial transactions are carried on. He (the author) imagines this wandering minstrel to be Pan himself, a.s.suming a modern form. Read the notes carefully for what is said about Pan. Notice, in the poem, how skillfully the author brings out the contrast between the easy-going days of ancient Greece and the busy, rushing times of modern America. Of what value is the word _serenely_ in the first stanza? What is the "curbstone war"? Do you think the old-fashioned Pan's pipe is common now? Could a man play an organ and a pipe at the same time? Why is the city spoken of as "sordid"? What is the "civic ear"? In the description of the player, how is the idea of his being Pan emphasized? How was it that the bulls and bears drew together? In plain words who were the people whom the author describes under Greek names? Show how aptly the mythological characters are fitted to modern persons. Read carefully what is said about the power of music, in the stanza beginning "O heart of Nature." Who was the man in blue? Why did he interfere? Why is the organ-grinder called a "vagrant demiG.o.d"? What was it that the author doubted? What is meant here by "Great Pan is dead"? Does the author mean more than the mere words seem to express? Do you think that people are any happier in these commercial times than they were in ancient Greece? After you have studied the poem and mastered all the references, read the poem through, thinking of its meaning and its lively measure.

Read Mrs. Browning's poem, _A Musical Instrument_, which is about Pan and his pipe of reeds.

COLLATERAL READINGS

Nooks and Corners of Old New York Charles Hemstreet In Old New York Thomas A. Janvier The Greatest Street in the World: Broadway Stephen Jenkins The G.o.d of Music (poem) Edith M. Thomas A Musical Instrument Elizabeth Barrett Browning Cla.s.sic Myths (See Index) C.M. Gayley The Age of Fable Thomas Bulfinch A b.u.t.terfly in Wall Street (in _Madrigals and Catches_) Frank D. Sherman Come Pan, and Pipe (in _Madrigals and Catches_) " " "

Pan Learns Music (poem) Henry van d.y.k.e Peeps at Great Cities: New York Hildegarde Hawthorne Vignettes of Manhattan Brander Matthews New York Society Ralph Pulitzer In the Cities (poem) R.W. Gilder Up at a Villa--Down in the City Robert Browning The Faun in Wall Street[5] (poem) John Myers O'Hara

THE HAND OF LINCOLN

EDMUND CLARENCE STEDMAN

Look on this cast, and know the hand That bore a nation in its hold; From this mute witness understand What Lincoln was,--how large of mould

The man who sped the woodman's team, And deepest sunk the ploughman's share, And pushed the laden raft astream, Of fate before him unaware.

This was the hand that knew to swing The axe--since thus would Freedom train Her son--and made the forest ring, And drove the wedge, and toiled amain.

Firm hand, that loftier office took, A conscious leader's will obeyed, And, when men sought his word and look, With steadfast might the gathering swayed.

No courtier's, toying with a sword, Nor minstrel's, laid across a lute; A chief's, uplifted to the Lord When all the kings of earth were mute!

The hand of Anak, sinewed strong, The fingers that on greatness clutch; Yet, lo! the marks their lines along Of one who strove and suffered much.

For here in knotted cord and vein I trace the varying chart of years; I know the troubled heart, the strain, The weight of Atlas--and the tears.

Again I see the patient brow That palm erewhile was wont to press; And now 'tis furrowed deep, and now Made smooth with hope and tenderness.

For something of a formless grace This moulded outline plays about; A pitying flame, beyond our trace, Breathes like a spirit, in and out,--

The love that cast an aureole Round one who, longer to endure, Called mirth to ease his ceaseless dole, Yet kept his n.o.bler purpose sure.

Lo, as I gaze, the statured man, Built up from yon large hand, appears; A type that Nature wills to plan But once in all a people's years.

What better than this voiceless cast To tell of such a one as he, Since through its living semblance pa.s.sed The thought that bade a race be free!

NOTES

=this cast=:--A cast of Lincoln's hand was made by Leonard W. Volk, in 1860, on the Sunday following the nomination of Lincoln for the Presidency. The original, in bronze, can be seen at the National Museum in Washington. Various copies have been made in plaster. An anecdote concerning one of these is told on page 107 of William Dean Howells's _Literary Friends and Acquaintances_; facing page 106 of the same book there is an interesting picture. In the _Critic_, volume 44, page 510, there is an article by Isabel Moore, ent.i.tled _Hands that have Done Things_; a picture of Lincoln's hand, in plaster, is given in the course of this article.

=Anak=:--The sons of Anak are spoken of in the Bible as a race of giants. See Numbers, 13:33; Deuteronomy, 9:2.

=Atlas=:--In Greek story, the giant who held the world on his shoulders.

=the thought=:--The Emanc.i.p.ation Proclamation.

SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY

Read the poem through from beginning to end. Then go back to the first and study it more carefully. Notice that there is no pause at the end of the first stanza. In the ninth line, mentally put in _how_ after _know_.

Explain what is said about Freedom's training her son. _Loftier office_: Loftier than what? Note that _might_ is a noun. Mentally insert _hand_ after _courtier's_. Can you tell from the hand of a person whether he has suffered or not? What does the author mean here by "the weight of Atlas"? What is a "formless grace"? Is the expression appropriate here?

What characteristic of Lincoln is referred to in the line beginning "Called mirth"? Are great men so rare as the author seems to think? Why is the cast a good means of telling of "such a one as he"? Look carefully at one of Lincoln's portraits, and then read this poem aloud to yourself.

Compare this poem with the sonnet _On the Life-Mask of Abraham Lincoln_, page 210.

COLLATERAL READINGS

Abraham Lincoln: A Short Life John G. Nicolay The Boys' Life of Lincoln Helen Nicolay Personal Traits of Abraham Lincoln " "

Lincoln the Lawyer F.T. Hill Pa.s.sages from the Speeches and Letters of Abraham Lincoln R.W. Gilder (Ed.) Lincoln's Own Stories Anthony Gross Lincoln Norman Hapgood Abraham Lincoln, the Boy and the Man James Morgan Father Abraham Ida Tarbell He Knew Lincoln[6] " "

Life of Abraham Lincoln " "

Abraham Lincoln Robert G. Ingersoll Abraham Lincoln Noah Brooks Abraham Lincoln for Boys and Girls C.W. Moores The Graysons Edward Eggleston The Perfect Tribute[6] M.R.S. Andrews The Toy Shop[6] M.S. Gerry We Talked of Lincoln (poem)[7] E.W. Thomson Lincoln and the Sleeping Sentinel L.E. Chittenden O Captain, my Captain! Walt Whitman When Lilacs last in the Dooryard Bloomed " "

Poems E.C. Stedman An American Anthology " " "

American Authors and their Homes, pp. 157-172 F.W. Halsey American Authors at Home, pp. 273-291 J.L. and J.B. Gilder

For portraits of E.C. Stedman, see Bookman, 34:592; Current Literature, 42:49.

JEAN VALJEAN