Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch

About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.

NOTES AND QUESTIONS

1. Name some of the "visible forms" of Nature. What does Bryant say Nature does for those who love her? What does he mean? 2. What is meant by "the last bitter hour," line 9? To what does the poet advise us to listen when the thought of death seems terrible? Who will be able to hear this still voice?

3. In the twelfth chapter of Ecclesiastes we read, "Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return unto God Who gave it." Read lines from "Thanatopsis" which show that the poet was thinking of the first part of this quotation. What lines tell of those lying in that “mighty sepulcher”?

4. To make us understand that death is everywhere, the poet says that the earth is a tomb; what things are the decorations of this tomb? What comparison does the poet make between the number of the living and the number of the dead? Why does he mention the Barcan wilderness and the region of the Oregon River as having their dead?

5. In what lines does the call to action come? To what kind of life does the poet urge us? Why? What kind of action will make such a life?

Class Reading. Bring to class and read "Crossing the Bar," Tennyson; "Requiem," Stevenson.

1. What brings in the seaweed? To what does "he" refer in the first stanza? What words make you feel the power of the stormwind?

2. Do you know the location of the far-off islands and foreign places that the poet mentions? Do you need to know in order to appreciate the poetry? Taken together, what do they represent? Where does the seaweed come to rest?

3. Notice how the second half of the poem repeats both the thought and the form of the first half, substituting for the "ocean" the "poet's soul," and drawing corresponding parallels to the end; point out what is compared to the storm; the seaweed; the far-off isles; the tropic lands; the wreck of ships; the restless sea; the coves and beaches. Which of the comparisons do you like best?

4. Do you like the short lines riming with the long lines? To appreciate this poem you need to read it aloud. Read it so as to get the best effect from the sound of the lines.

Library Reading. "The Secret of the Sea," Longfellow; "The Three Fishers," Kingsley.

NOTES AND QUESTIONS

1. What devices does Byron use to give to this poem its musical quality? Point out examples. Which lines do you think most musical?

2. Byron calls the ocean a "glorious mirror"; what other names does he give to it in this poem? In which stanzas does the poet address the ocean directly? Why do you think he uses direct address?

3. On page 516 you read that Nature brings a message of beauty to us; what beauty inspired Byron in this poem? What characteristic of the ocean does the poet bring out by contrast in the fifth stanza?

4. In the second and third stanzas the poet contrasts the ocean and the earth in their relation to man; what differences are noted? With what is "watery plain" contrasted? How has man extended his control beyond the shore in recent years? What contrast does the poet make in the fourth stanza? What other poems about the ocean have you read?

Library Reading. Bring to class and read "The Sea," Procter (in Home Book of Verse, Burton E. Stevenson); "On the Sea," Keats; "Sea Fever," Masefield (in Salt Water Ballads).

NOTES AND QUESTIONS

1. At what time of day does the poet approach the seashore? Point out the words that tell you this. Describe the view of the sea as he first caught sight of it.

2. What imaginative picture does the poet give you of the mound on which he sat? Was the road which the poet traveled to the seashore such as to make him happy or sad? Read aloud the lines that give the answer.

3. Explain the thought, "I seem like all I see. With this thought in mind, the poet feels that the "mystery" of the future may not hold any great change from the "vastness" of the present; how does he think we may, in the future, look back upon the past?

4. What is the beautiful comparison in the tenth stanza? How does the poet describe the horizon?

5. How does the thirteenth stanza tell that the poet feels himself a part of all he sees? By what name does he call himself in the next to the last stanza?

6. What does he carry away with him from the sea? Is an hour of musing wasted time? What great inventions can you name that began as "dreams"? What other great accomplishments have had their beginnings in thoughtful musings?