Part 16 (2/2)

To him who, deadly hurt, agen Flashed on afore the charge's thunder, Tippin' with fire the bolt of men Thet rived the Rebel line asunder?”

243. When Moses sent men to ”spy out” the Promised Land, they reported a land that ”floweth with milk and honey,” and they ”came unto the brook of Eshcol, and cut down from thence a branch with one cl.u.s.ter of grapes, and they bare it between two upon a staff; and they brought of the pomegranates and of the figs” (Numbers xiii.)

245. Compare the familiar line in Gray's _Elegy_:

”The paths of glory lead but to the grave.”

and Tennyson's line, in the _Ode to the Duke of Wellington_:

”The path of duty was the way of glory.”

In a letter to T.W. Higginson, who was editing the _Harvard Memorial Biographies_, in which he was to print the ode, Lowell asked to have the following pa.s.sage inserted at this point:

”Virtue treads paths that end not in the grave, But through those constellations go That shed celestial influence on the brave.

If life were but to draw this dusty breath That doth our wits enslave, And with the crowd to hurry to and fro, Seeking we know not what, and finding death, These did unwisely; but if living be, As some are born to know, The power to enn.o.ble, and inspire In other souls our brave desire For fruit, not leaves, of Time's immortal tree, These truly live, our thought's essential fire, And to the saner,” etc.

Lowell's remark in _The Cathedral_, that ”second thoughts are prose,”

might be fairly applied to this emendation. Fortunately, the pa.s.sage was never inserted in the ode.

255. Orient: The east, morning; hence youth, aspiration, hope. The figure is continued in l. 271.

262. Who now shall sneer? In a letter to Mr. J.B. Thayer, who had criticized this strophe, Lowell admits ”that there is a certain narrowness in it as an expression of the popular feeling as well as my own. I confess I have never got over the feeling of wrath with which (just after the death of my nephew Willie) I read in an English paper that nothing was to be hoped of an army officered by tailors'

apprentices and butcher boys.” But Lowell asks his critic to observe that this strophe ”leads naturally” to the next, and ”that I there justify” the sentiment.

265. Roundhead and Cavalier: In a general way, it is said that New England was settled by the Roundheads, or Puritans, of England, and the South by the Cavaliers or Royalists.

272-273. Plantagenets: A line of English kings, founded by Henry II, called also the House of Anjou, from their French origin. The _House of Hapsburg_ is the Imperial family of Austria. The _Guelfs_ were one of the great political parties in Italy in the Middle Ages, at long and bitter enmity with the _Ghibelines_.

323. With this pa.s.sage read the last two stanzas of _Mr. Hosea Biglow to the Editor of the Atlantic Monthly_, beginning:

”Come, Peace! not like a mourner bowed For honor lost and dear ones wasted, But proud, to meet a people proud, With eyes that tell of triumphs tasted!”

328. Helm: The helmet, the part of ancient armor for protecting the head, used here as the symbol of war.

343. Upon receiving the news that the war was ended, Lowell wrote to his friend, Charles Eliot Norton: ”The news, my dear Charles, is from Heaven. I felt a strange and tender exaltation. I wanted to laugh and I wanted to cry, and ended by holding my peace and feeling devoutly thankful. There is something magnificent in having a country to love.”

EXAMINATION QUESTIONS

The following questions are taken from recent examination papers of the Examination Board established by the a.s.sociation of Schools and Colleges in the Middle States and Maryland, and of the Regents of the State of New York. Generally only one question on _The Vision of Sir Launfal_ is included in the examination paper for each year.

Under what circ.u.mstances did the ”vision” come to Sir Launfal? What was the vision? What was the effect upon him?

What connection have the preludes in the _Vision of Sir Launfal_ with the main divisions which they precede? What is their part in the poem as a whole?

Contrast Sir Launfal's treatment of the leper at their first meeting with his treatment at their second.

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