* "The next, with dirges* due, in sad array,* 115 Approach and read (for thou canst read) the 120 lay * * Here rests his head upon the lap of Earth, He gained from Heaven ('twas all he wished), 125 No further seek his merits * to disclose, (There they alike in trembling hope repose),- Melancholy, a gloomy state of mind. Bounty, what he gave away. Merits, goodness. nesses. Dread abode, the grave. 5 LOVE OF COUNTRY.-Scott. BREATHES there the man, with soul so dead, * "This is my own, my native land!" * 15 To the vile dust, from whence he sprung, Unwept, unhonoured, and unsung. Foreign strand, countries other than one's own native land. Pelf, riches. Concentred, &c., thinking of no one but himself, being selfish. Renown, respect, honour, fame. LYCIDAS.*-John Milton. JOHN MILTON (1608-1674) among English poets ranks next to Shakspeare. His youth was spent in long and very earnest study; and to what he thus acquired, he added still more by travelling in foreign countries. He was Latin Secretary to Oliver Cromwell, and for the last twenty-two years of his life was totally blind. Chief poems: L'Allegro and Il Penseroso, Comus, Lycidas, Samson Agonistes; Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained, in which he has discarded rhyme, and given us the most splendid specimen of blank verse in the language. Laurel is a symbol Myrtle, dedicated to cal of love. Ivy, represented last ing friendship. season, before the Welter, roll to and fro. Meed, reward. the classical abode of omen do the same Sable shroud, my dark tomb or grave. break. Afield to the fields. Battening, feeding or fattening. * YET once more, O ye laurels,* and once more, * * Shatter your leaves before the mellowing year. * With lucky words* favour my destined urn; And bid fair peace be to my sable shroud.* For we were nursed upon the selfsame hill, Oft till the star, that rose at evening bright, wards the west. wheel. *Lycidas: in this poem Milton bewails a learned friend, Edward King, unfortunately drowned in his passage from Chester, on the Irish Sea, 1637. The name Lycidas was adopted from the Greek poet Theocritus. * * [heel Meanwhile the rural ditties were not mute, But, O the heavy change, now thou art gone, The willows, and the hazel copses green, Fanning their joyous leaves to thy soft lays. 45 As killing as the canker to the rose, 50 Canker, something Or taint-worm to the weanling* herds that graze, Closed o'er the head of your loved Lycidas? For neither were ye playing on the steep, * Where your old bards, the famous Druids, lie, 55 Nor yet where Deva* spreads her wizard stream: Had ye been there: for what could that have done? 60 Whom universal nature did lament, When, by the rout that made the hideous roar, 70 Fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise · 75 To scorn delights and live laborious days; -But the fair guerdon * when we hope to find, who watched over different places. Bards, the Druid Mona, the Isle of Deva, the river Dee, to have been the haunt of magicians. Orpheus was the son of Calliope, the Muse of Epic poetry. Hebrus (the Maritza), a river in the south of Turkey. Guerdon, reward. Comes the blind Fury* with the abhorred shears, Fury, Atropos, one And slits the thin - spun life. praise," of the three Fates. "But not the Phoebus, Apollo, the Phoebus* replied, and touch'd my trembling god of poetry. Jove, was king of the gods on Mount Olympus. Pronounces lastly, gives a final decision, Arethuse, a celebrated fountain near Syracuse, on the east coast of Sicily. Mincius, the river Mincio, near Mantua, where Virgil was born. Neptune, the god of the sea. Felon, wicked, cruel. Mishap, ill-luck, misfortune. Doomed, condemned to punishment. Swain, a young man. His story, what had happened to him. Hippotades, Eolus, ruler of the winds. Dungeon, a close, fifty sea-nymphs. ears: of so much fame in heaven expect thy meed.” 80 O fountain Arethuse,* and thou honour'd flood, 85 Smooth-sliding Mincius,* crown'd with vocal reeds! That strain I heard was of a higher mood: And listens to the herald of the sea He ask'd the waves, and ask'd the felon* winds, And question'd every gust of rugged wings * And sage Hippotades* their answer brings, 66 Last came, and last did go. The pilot *of the Galilean lake; 66 swain, Blind mouths! that scarce themselves know how to hold 120 A sheep-hook, or have learn'd aught* else the Aught, anything. least That to the faithful herdsman's art belongs! What recks it them?* What need they? They What recks, &c., what are sped; * * songs straw; And, when they list, their lean and flashy Rot inwardly, and foul contagion * spread : Stands ready to smite once, and smite no more." * does it matter them. to Sped, provided for. Flashy, showy, without any real value. Scrannel, producing weak screeching sound. a Alpheus, a stream in be connected with That shrunk thy streams; return, Sicilian Muse, Arcadia, supposed to And call the vales, and bid them hither cast 135 Their bells and flowerets of a thousand hues. Ye valleys low, where the mild whispers use Of shades, and wanton* winds, and gushing brooks, On whose fresh lap the swart star* sparely looks; eyes, * Throw hither all your quaint* enamell'd * The white pink, and the pansy freak'd* with jet, Freaked, spotted or 145 The glowing violet, The musk-rose, and the well-attired woodbine, * streaked. With cowslips wan that hang the pensive head, Wan, pale. 150 And daffodillies fill their cups with tears, Let our frail* thoughts dally* with false surmise; Where thou perhaps, under the whelming tide, Laureat hearse, anciently a monument to the memory of the dead, the laurel-cov ered bier. Dally, delay, linger. Hebrides, two groups anciently called Bel- |