10 15 SNOWFLAKES HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW Out of the bosom of the Air, Out of the cloud-folds of her garments shaken Over the harvest-fields forsaken, Silent, and soft, and slow, Even as our cloudy fancies take Suddenly shape in some divine expression, The grief it feels. This is the poem of the air, Slowly in silent syllables recorded; This is the secret of despair, Long in its cloudy bosom hoarded, NOTES AND QUESTIONS Biography. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) was born in Portland, Maine. In "The Courtship of Miles Standish" he has made us acquainted with his ancestors, John Alden and Priscilla Mullens, passengers on the Mayflower. Longfellow's education was obtained in Portland and at Bowdoin College, where he had for classmates several youths who afterward became famous, notably, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Franklin Pierce. Upon Longfellow's graduation, the trustees of the college, having decided to establish a chair of modern languages, proposed that this young graduate should fit himself for the position. Three years, therefore, he spent in delightful study and travel in France, Spain, Italy, and Germany. Here was laid the foundation for his scholarship, and, as in Irving on his first European trip, there was kindled that passion for romantic lore which followed him through life and which gave direction to much of his work. He mastered the language of each country visited, in a remarkably short time, and many of the choicer poems found in these languages he has given to us in English. After five years at Bowdoin, Longfellow was invited in 1834 to the chair of modern languages in Harvard College. Again he was given an opportunity to prepare himself by a year of study abroad. In 1836 he began his active work at Harvard and took up his residence in the historic Craigie House, overlooking the Charles River—a house in which Washington had been quartered for some months when he came to Cambridge in 1775 to take command of the Continental forces. Longfellow was thenceforth one of the most prominent members of that group of men including Sumner, Hawthorne, Agassiz, Lowell, and Holmes, who gave distinction to the Boston and Cambridge of earlier days. For twenty years Longfellow served as a teacher, introducing hundreds of students to the literature of modern Europe. In his poetry, too, he exerted a powerful influence for bringing about a relationship between America and European civilization. He was thus a poet of culture, rendering a great service at a time when the thought of America was provincial. He was also a poet of the household, writing many poems about the joys and sorrows of home life, poems of aspiration and religious faith, poems about village characters as well as about national heroes. He excels, too, as a writer of tales in verse. "Evangeline," a story of the Acadian exiles and their wanderings; "The Courtship of Miles Standish," a story of early colonial life in Massachusetts; and "Hiawatha," an Indian epic into which he put a vast amount of legendary matter belonging to the first owners of our country, are examples of his power in sustained verse narrative. His ballads, such as "The Skeleton in Armor" and "The Wreck of the Hesperus," show his power to handle a legend in brief and stirring form. He was a writer of almost perfect sonnets, and a writer of prose of distinction. The most loved and most widely known of American poets, Longfellow helped to interpret our common life in terms of beauty. Discussion. 1. What picture does the first stanza give you? 2. Compare this picture with that found in the first ten lines of "The Snow Storm," page 78, and with that given in the third, fourth, and fifth stanzas of "Midwinter," page 82. 3. To what does "her" refer in the second line? 4. Explain how "the troubled heart" makes "confession in the countenance." 5. How does the poet fancy "the troubled sky" reveals its grief? 6. What is "the poem of the air"? 7. What are the "silent syllables" in which “the poem of the air" is recorded? 8. What is "whispered and revealed"? cloud-folds, 80, 2 cloudy fancies, 80, 7 Phrases secret of despair, 80, 15 Biography. John Townsend Trowbridge (1827-1916) was an AmericaL author. His home was in Cambridge, Mass., within the shadow of Harvard College. At one time he was one of the editors of Our Young Folks' Magazine. "Midwinter" and "Darius Green and His Flying Machine" are two of his poems most widely known. Discussion. 1. Compare the picture that the first stanza gives you with that given you in the first stanza of "Snow-Flakes" and that given you by the first ten lines of "The Snow Storm." 2. Compare the picture that the fourth stanza gives you with that given by lines 17-22 of "The Snow Storm." 3. In the fourth stanza, what does the poet say the snowstorm does? 4. What does the poet mean by "muffled wizard of the wood"? 5. What pictures does the sixth stanza give you? 6. Which of these descriptions seems 5 10 15 20 to you most apt? 7. What does the poet mean by "inmost ear"? 8. Compare this meaning with that of "inward eye" in Wordsworth's "The Daffodils" and with "eyes in the heart" in Lowell's "To the Dandelion." 9. What do the "heavenly thoughts" suggested by the scene do for the poet? flickering curtains, 82, 6 ivory woof, 82, 18 paves with pearl, 82, 19 tattered stalk, 82, 20 Phrases shivering stem, 82, 21 surplice white, 83, 11 BLOW, BLOW, THOU WINTER WIND WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE Blow, blow, thou winter wind, Thou art not so unkind As man's ingratitude; Thy tooth is not so keen Although thy breath be rude. Heigh-ho! sing, heigh-ho! unto the green holly; This life is most jolly. Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky, Though thou the waters warp, Thy sting is not so sharp As friend remembered not. Heigh-ho! sing, heigh-ho! unto the green holly; This life is most jolly. |