And the king wondered, and said, “Alack! "Why, sweetheart, do you pace through the hall As though my court was a funeral?" Then lowly knelt the child at the dais, And looked up weeping in the king's face. "O wherefore black, O King, ye may say, For white is the hue of death today. "Your son and all his fellowship Lie low in the sea with the White Ship." King Henry fell as a man struck dead; There's many an hour must needs beguile Full many a lordly hour, full fain Of his realm's rule and pride of his reign: But this king never smiled again. By none but me can the tale be told, 1 Rede, counsel, lesson. 160 165 170 175 180 (Lands are swayed by a king on a throne.) 'Twas a royal train put forth to sea, Yet the tale can be told by none but me, (The sea hath no king but God alone.) DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI. QUESTIONS FOR STUDY Tell the events of the story in order. Do you like the irregular rhymes and "feet as well as if they were regular? As a story how does this poem compare with Whittier's Truce of Piscataqua, page 131? Which is the more vivid? Which the more realistic? Which carries the interest better? Does the interest in this story begin with the first stanza? Does it grow to the end? Which is the real climax, the sinking of the ship, or telling it to the king? What is the effect of bringing in the little boy to inform the king? Explain: "glimmered she," line 73; "a shrill strange sigh" line 85. What is described in lines 125-129? Oliver Wendell Holmes, doctor, professor, essayist, poet, and novelist, was one of the brightest minds that America has produced. While he wrote no single work of extraordinary merit, he produced so many clever, pleasing, and stimulating poems and essays ́ that he has for an audience a far larger number of readers than some who may perhaps justly claim to be greater. Some of his poems are extremely witty, some are truly exquisite, the best known being the Chambered Nautilus. His essays contain wise and witty observations upon life, surpassed by few English essays, if any. Dr. Holmes, like Hawthorne, was a thorough New Englander and of the "Brahman" class. Even before graduating from Harvard he had written verse that attracted notice. Dr. Holmes put much wit and wisdom into a series of short articles, pretending to be conversations at a breakfast table at which he, the "autocrat," did the most of the talking. He gave to the series the name The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table. The The following selections are from this series. scene is laid in a boarding house, several people are seated at the table, including the "landlady," "Benjamin Franklin," her son, her daughter, the "old gentleman,' and various other characters. The "Autocrat" is as usual the principal speaker, and is represented as talking here. 1 Autocrat, absolute ruler. JOHN AND THOMAS It is not easy, at the best, for two persons talking together to make the most of each other's thoughts, there are so many of them. (The company looked as if they wanted an explanation.) When John and Thomas, for instance, are talking together, it is natural enough that among the six there should be more or less confusion and misapprehension. 5 (Our landlady turned pale. No doubt she thought 10 there was a screw loose in my intellect, and that involved the probable loss of a boarder. A severe looking person, who wears a Spanish cloak and a sad cheek, fluted by the passions of the melodrama, whom I understand to be the professional ruffian 15 of the neighboring theater, alluded, with a certain lifting of the brow, drawing down of the corners of the mouth, and somewhat rasping voice, to Falstaff's1 nine men in buckram.2 Everybody looked up; I believe the old gentleman opposite was afraid I 20 should seize the carving knife; at any rate, he slid it to one side, as it were carelessly.) I think, I said, I can make it plain to Benjamin Falstaff, a famous character in several of Shakespeare's plays, especially in King Henry IV. He was a fat, jolly rascal, entertaining and worthless. 2 Nine men in buckram, a story told by Falstaff about his own bravery in overcoming nine assailants. |