Keen son of trade, with eager brow!
Who is now fluttering in thy snare??
Thy golden fortunes-tower they now,
Or melt the glittering spires in air?

Who of this crowd to-night shall tread
The dance till daylight gleam again?
Who sorrow o'er the untimely dead?
Who writhe in throes of mortal pain?

Some, famine-struck, shall think how long
The cold dark hours, how slow the light;
And some who flaunt amid the throng
Shall hide in dens of shame to-night.

Each, where his tasks or pleasures call,
They pass, and heed each other not.
There is who heeds, who holds them all 4

In His large love and boundless thought.

These struggling tides of life, that seem
In wayward, aimless course to tend,
Are eddies of the mighty stream

That rolls to its appointed end.5

1 son of trade. Explain.

4 There is . . . all. Supply the

2 Who.. ... snare? On what is ellipsis. Point out an alliteration.

this metaphor founded?

3 Each. What is the grammatical construction of this word?

5

struggling tides... end. Point out the particulars in this fine metaphor.

3. THE ANTIQUITY OF FREEDOM.

[In this lofty hymn we find the poet in still another mood, striking his lyre to the high theme of Liberty. The poem is written in blank verse. Define.]

HERE are1 old trees, tall oaks and gnarléd2 pines, That stream with gray-green mosses; here the ground Was never trenched by spade, and flowers spring up Unsown, and die ungathered. It is sweet

To linger here, among the flitting birds

And leaping squirrels, wandering brooks, and winds That shake the leaves, and scatter, as they pass,

A fragrance from the cedars thickly set

With pale-blue berries. In these peaceful shades, —
Peaceful, unpruned, immeasurably old,

My thoughts go up the long dim path of years,
Back to the earliest days of liberty.

O Freedom! thou art not, as poets dream,
A fair young girl, with light and delicate limbs,
And wavy tresses gushing from the cap

6

With which the Roman master crowned his slave⋅

1 Here are, etc. In this intro- 4 Freedom. What is the figure ductory stanza the poet outlines a of speech?

sweet bit of still life in the " peace- 5 fair young girl, etc. The charful shades" of the forest, as a back-acter in which the Goddess of Libground from which the moving and erty is usually represented in art. wrestling forms he introduces stand out with admirable distinctness. 2 gnarléd knarled: from German knorre, a knot in wood.

8 trenched: from Latin truncare (through French trancher, to cut), dug up.

6 gushing, etc. Substitute a prose expression.

7 cap... slave. A Roman master, on freeing a slave, placed on his head a Phrygian cap in token of his freedom. Hence the cap on our liberty-poles.

When he took off the gyves.1 A bearded man, Armed to the teeth,2 art thou: one mailéd hand Grasps the broad shield, and one the sword; thy

brow,

Glorious in beauty though it be, is scarred

3

With tokens of old wars; thy massive limbs
Are strong with struggling.

launched

Power at thee has

His bolts, and with his lightnings smitten thee: They could not quench the life thou hast from heaven.5

Merciless Power has dug thy dungeon deep,

And his swart 6 armorers, by a thousand fires,
Have forged thy chain: yet, while he déems thee
bound,

The links are shivered, and the prison-walls
Fall outward; terribly thou springest forth
As springs the flame above a burning pile,
And shoutest to the nations, who return
Thy shoutings, while the pale oppressor flies.

Thy birthright was not given by human hands: Thou wert twin-born with man. In pleasant fields, While yet our race was few, thou sat'st with him

1 gyves, fetters.

5 heaven, that which is heaven

2 Armed to the teeth. Explain or heaved up over our heads. this expression.

6 swart swarth and swarthy (An

8 old wars, the struggles for lib-glo-Saxon sweart, German.schwarz, erty which history records.

4 launched his bolts: i.e., put forth all his efforts to crush. What is the figure?

black) of a dark or blackish hue. 7 Thy birthright: that is, the quality that makes freedom what it is.

To tend the quiet flock, and watch the stars,
And teach the reed to utter simple airs.
Thou by his side, amid the tangled wood,
Didst war upon the panther and the wolf,
His only foes; and thou with him didst draw
The earliest furrow on the mountain-side,
Soft with the deluge. Tyranny himself,2
Thy enemy, although of reverend look,
Hoary with many years, and far obeyed,
Is later born than thou; and, as he meets
The grave defiance of thine elder eye,
The usurper trembles in his fastnesses.

3

Thou shalt wax stronger with the lapse of years; But he shall fade into a feebler age, Feebler, yet subtler. He shall weave his snares, And spring them on thy careless steps, and clap His withered hands, and from their ambush call His hordes to fall upon thee. He shall send Quaint maskers, wearing fair and gallant forms To catch thy gaze, and uttering graceful words To charm thy ear; while his sly imps, by stealth, Twine round thee threads of steel, light thread on thread

That grow to fetters; or bind down thy arms

1 reed, a pastoral pipe or musical instrument made of the hollow joint of some plant.

+ Quaint maskers. By the "quaint maskers" and "sly imps" are meant the wiles, snares, and

2 Tyranny himself. What is the subtleties used by despots in the figure of speech?

more advanced stages of civiliza

3 Is later born than thou. Ex- tion, to deprive the people of their plain. political rights.

With chains concealed in chaplets. O! not yet
Mayst thou unbrace thy corselet, nor lay by
Thy sword; nor yet, O Freedom! close thy lids
In slumber: for thine enemy never sleeps,

And thou must watch and combat till the day
Of the new earth and heaven. But, wouldst thou

rest

A while from tumult and the frauds of men,
These old and friendly solitudes invite
Thy visit. They, while yet the forest trees
Were young upon the unviolated earth,
And yet the moss-stains on the rock were new,
Beheld thy glorious childhood, and rejoiced.

4. HYMN TO THE NORTH STAR.

THE sad and solemn night

Hath yet her multitude of cheerful fires:
The glorious host of light

Walk the dark hemisphere till she retires;

All through her silent watches, gliding slow,
Her constellations come, and climb the heavens, and

go.5

4

1 chaplets. See Webster for the interesting derivation of this word. 2 corselet. See Glossary.

3 solitudes invite, etc. By a skillful return the poet brings us back again to the opening scene of the poem.

+ constellation (from Latin stella, a star), a cluster or group of fixed stars, situated near each other in the heavens.

5 The sad . . . go. Express in your own words the meaning of this stanza.