70 And the sweet babe, and the gray-headed man, So live, that when thy summons comes to join 75 To that mysterious realm, where each shall take Thou go not, like the quarry slave at night, Scourged to his dungeon, but, sustained and soothed By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave, 80 Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams. WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. QUESTIONS FOR STUDY Line 11. What do you understand by "the stern agony"? Lines 17-30. What is the meaning of this passage? Line 36. Why are seers (prophets) spoken of as hoary? Line 40. In what sense are woods venerable? Line 73. Is summons, a term for an order by a court of justice, appropriate here? Note that "summons," while apparently plural, is in fact singular. Memorize from line 68 to the end. This poem has no rhymes; it is called blank verse. Would rhymes be as well suited to its subject and style, or not? Name other poems written in blank How many accented syllables in a line of blank verse? Are the greatest poems that you know rhyming or in blank verse? verse. JOSEPH ADDISON (1672-1719) Addison is regarded, by many critics, as the greatest English essayist. He wrote with charm and humor, and yet with vigor. He is not excelled by any writer for grace or fitness in the choice of words. Though Addison lived in a time of tumult, especially a time disgraced by religious quarrels, he seems to have kept serenely aloof from the bickerings of his contemporaries. His life was devoted to literature. He was After being gradu sensitive, kindly, and serene. ated from Oxford University he began his literary career. He wrote some poems, none of which have attained permanent fame. His title to recognition among the great English writers is due to his charming essays, written in two periodicals, which he edited, The Tatler and The Spectator. When these essays were first put out in little pamphlets, people eagerly awaited their arrival. They were the forerunners of the modern "magazine." Through these papers he became the founder of the modern English essay. In it he portrays humorously, but with keen analysis, the life and especially the foibles of his time. The character of Sir Roger de Coverley, representing the English country gentleman of the best sort, is Addison's greatest creation, and possibly his chief single contribution to literature. But many of his essays well repay reading. The one here given is among the most suggestive. Thackeray says this of Addison : "A life prosperous and beautiful, a calm death; an immense fame and affection afterwards for his happy and spotless name." 5 ENDEAVORS OF MANKIND TO GET RID OF THEIR BURTHENS-A DREAM This sketch is a parable. Its lesson is very plain. And, with these separate demands, dismiss Each suppliant to enjoy the promised bliss: Don't you believe they'd run? Not one will move, HORACE. It is a celebrated thought of Socrates,1 that if all the misfortunes of mankind were cast into one public stock, in order to be equally distributed among 10 the whole species, those who now think themselves the most unhappy would prefer the share they are already possessed of, before that which would fall to them by such a division. Horace has carried his thought a great deal further in the motto of my 15 paper, which implies that the hardships or misfortunes we lie under are more easy to us than those of any other person could be in the case we could change conditions with him. As I was ruminating 2 on these two remarks, and 1 Socrates, a great Grecian philosopher and moralist. |