120 think of getting a farm, turn it thus in your mind, not to buy greedily; nor spare your pains to look at it, and do not think it enough to go around it once. The oftener you go there the more it will please you, if it is good." I think I shall not buy 125 greedily, but go round and round it as long as I live, and be buried in it first, that it may please me the more at last.'

(a), line 24.

(b), line 37.

HENRY DAVID THOREAU.

QUESTIONS FOR STUDY

What does this sentence mean?
What does the author mean?

(c) Compare this with Allen's remark in The Months, page 394, lines 224-228.

(d), line 74.

What does that paragraph mean?

(e), line 103.

What crop did Thoreau want?

(f), line 116.
(g), line 127.

What is the point of this joke? What does this sentence mean? How near really did Thoreau come to owning a farm?

Is he joking or serious in his account of his experience?

Was Thoreau's fondness for lonely and unconventional life natural and wholesome?

Is such life better necessarily than that in cities?

GEORGE GORDON, LORD BYRON

(1788-1824)

Byron is among the most brilliant and fascinating writers of all time; his poems are full of faults and

full of excellen

cies, and in this

they are the re

flection of his own personality, brilliant and erratic, discerning and unmoral. Byron has received the se

verest condem

nation and the

highest praise for

certain notable

features of some of his poems. Among these are

poems which manifest a towering genius, and others which indicate moral degeneracy. His best poems are among the great treasures of literature, and it is by these that in time he will be remembered.

THE EVE OF WATERLOO1

Before the battle of Waterloo, the officers of the allied armies opposed to Napoleon were holding a gay dance in Brussels. While the dance was in progress, the first cannonade announced the opening of the great battle. The poet has seized this incident for the topic of his poem.

There was a sound of revelry by night,
And Belgium's capital' had gathered then
Her beauty and her chivalry, and bright
The lamps shone o'er fair women and brave men;
5 A thousand hearts beat happily; and when
Music arose with its voluptuous swell,

Soft eyes looked love to eyes which spake again,
And all went merry as a marriage bell;

But hush! hark! a deep sound strikes like a rising knell !

10 Did ye not hear it? - No; 'twas but the wind,
Or the car rattling o'er the stony street;

On with the dance! let joy be unconfined!
No sleep till morn, when Youth and Pleasure meet,
To chase the glowing Hours with flying feet,

15 But, hark! — that heavy sound breaks in once more, As if the clouds its echo would repeat;

1 Waterloo, a small town in Belgium, the scene of one of the greatest battles of history, in which Napoleon Bonaparte, the Emperor of the French, was finally overthrown by an army of allied powers, mainly German and English.

2 Belgium's capital, Brussels.

And nearer, clearer, deadlier than before! Arm! arm! it is—it is the cannon's opening roar!

*

Ah! then and there was hurrying to and fro,
And gathering tears, and tremblings of distress,
And cheeks all pale, which but an hour ago
Blushed at the praise of their own loveliness;
And there were sudden partings, such as press
The life from out young hearts, and choking sighs
Which ne'er might be repeated: who would guess
If evermore should meet those mutual eyes
Since upon night so sweet such awful morn could rise!

And there was mounting in hot haste: the steed,
The mustering squadron, and the clattering car
Went pouring forward with impetuous speed,
And swiftly forming in the ranks of war;
And the deep thunder peal on peal afar;
And near, the beat of the alarming drum.
Roused up the soldier ere the morning star;
While thronged the citizens with terror dumb,
Or whispering with white lips, "The foe! they
come! they come!"

And wild and high the "Cameron's gathering" rose, The war note of Lochiel,' which Albyn's2 hills

1 Lochiel, a Scottish chief.

2 Albyn, the Highlands of Scotland.

20

25

30

35

Have heard, and heard, too, have her Saxon 1 foes:

40 How in the noon of night that pibroch2 thrills
Savage and shrill! But with the breath which fills
Their mountain pipe, so fill the mountaineers
With the fierce native daring which instills

The stirring memory of a thousand years,

45 And Evan's, Donald's fame rings in each clansman's ears!

And Ardennes waves above them her green leaves, Dewy with nature's tear drops, as they pass, Grieving, if aught inanimate e'er grieves, Over the unreturning brave, alas! 50 Ere evening to be trodden like the grass Which now beneath them, but above shall grow In its next verdure, when this fiery mass

Of living valor, rolling on the foe,

And burning with high hope, shall molder cold and low.

55 Last noon beheld them full of lusty life,

Last eve in Beauty's circle proudly gay,

1 Saxon foes, referring to the long warfare between the Celtic Scotch and the Saxon English.

2 Pibroch, a tune played on the bagpipe, which was the national musical instrument of Scotland.

3 Sir Evan Cameron and his descendant Donald, Welsh heroes. The Welsh are of the same Celtic blood as the Highland Scotch. 4 Ardennes, a Department of France on the borders of Belgium.