Selections from American poetry Part 48

14. Our years of wandering o'er. The Pilgrim fathers sought refuge in Holland, but found life there unsatisfactory, as they were not entirely free. They then set out for Virginia and almost by chance settled in New England.

RALPH WALDO EMERSON (1803-1882)

"He shaped an ideal for the commonest life, he proposed an object to the humblest seeker after truth. Look for beauty in the world around you, he said, and you shall see it everywhere. Look within, with pure eyes and simple trust, and you shall find the Deity mirrored in your own soul.

Trust yourself because you trust the voice of G.o.d in your inmost consciousness."

--OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES.

Born in Boston, Ma.s.s., of a family with some literary attainments, he showed little promise of unusual ability during his years at Harvard. He became pastor of the Second Church in Boston for a time and later settled in Concord. He lectured extensively and wrote much, living a quiet, isolated life.

The poems by Emerson are used by permission of, and by special arrangement with, Houghton Mifflin Company, authorized publishers of his works.

GOOD-BYE

"Good-Bye" was written in 1823 when Emerson, a young boy, was teaching in Boston. It does not refer to his retirement to the country twelve years later, but seems a kind of prophecy.

27. lore: learning.

28. sophist: a professed teacher of wisdom.

EACH AND ALL

26. noisome offensive.

THE PROBLEM

18. canticles: hymns belonging to church service.

19. The dome of St. Peter's was the largest in the world at the time of its construction and was a great architectural achievement. Emerson feels that it, like every other work that is worth-while, was the result of a sincere heart.

20. groined: made the roofs inside the churches according to a complicated, intersecting pattern.

28. Notice the figure of speech here. Is it effective?

39-40. All the mighty buildings of the world were made first in the minds of the builder or architect, and then took form.

44. The Andes and Mt. Ararat are very ancient formations and belong to Nature at her beginning on the earth. These great buildings are so in keeping with Nature that she accepts them and forgets how modern they are.

51. Pentecost: Whitsunday, when the descent of the Holy Spirit is celebrated. Emerson says here that this spirit animates all beautiful music and sincere preaching, as it does we do at our n.o.blest.

65. Chrysostom, Augustine, and the more modern Taylor are all great religious teachers of the world, and all urged men enter the service of the church. Augustine: Saint Augustine, the great African bishop (354- 430). He was influential mainly through his numerous writings, which are still read. His greatest work was his Confessions.

68. Taylor: Dr. Jeremy Taylor, English bishop and author (1613-1667).

One writer a.s.signs to him "the good humour of gentleman, the eloquence of an orator, the fancy of a poet, acuteness of a schoolman, the profoundness of a philosopher, the wisdom of a chancellor, the sagacity of a prophet, reason of an angel, and the piety of a saint." Why should a man so endowed be compared to Shakespeare?

THE HUMBLE-BEE

6. What characteristics of the b.u.mblebee make animated torrid-zone applicable? Why doesn't he need to seek a milder climate in Porto Rico?

16. Epicurean: one addicted to pleasure of senses, specially eating and drinking. How does it apply to the bee?

THE SNOW-STORM

Emerson called this poem "a lecture on G.o.d's architecture, one of his beautiful works, a Day."

9. This picture is strikingly like Whittier's description of a similar day in "Snow-Bound."

13. bastions: sections of fortifications.

18. Parian wreaths were very white because the marble of Paros was pure.

21. Maugre: in spite of.

FABLE

This fable was written some years before its merits were recognized.

Since then it has steadily grown in popularity.

BOSTON HYMN

16. fend: defend.

24. boreal: northern.

80. behemoth: very large beast.

THE t.i.tMOUSE

76. impregnably: so that it can resist attack.

97. wold: Rood, forest.

JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL (1819-1891)

"As political reformer, as editor, as teacher, above all as an example of the type of scholarly gentleman that the new world was able to produce, he perhaps did more than any of his contemporaries to dignify American literature at home and to win for it respect abroad."

--W. B. CAIRNS.