Part 19 (1/2)

879. By dead Parthenope's dear tomb. Parthenope was one of the Sirens. At Naples her tomb was shown.

880. And fair Ligea's golden comb. Ligea was probably also a siren. In Virgil, Georgics IV 336, we find a nymph of this name, spinning wool with other nymphs, ”their bright locks floating over their snowy necks.” The name Ligea means shrill-voiced.

887. In the reading make in an adverb.

892. My sliding chariot stays. Compare this use of _stay_ with that found in lines 134, 577, 820.

893. the azurn sheen. With _azurn_ compare _cedarn_, line 990.

908-909. Be careful what inflection you give these lines in the reading.

913. of precious cure: of precious power to cure.

921. To wait in Amphitrite's bower. _Amphitrite_ was a daughter of Ocea.n.u.s and Tethys. She was G.o.ddess of the sea, had the care of its creatures, and could stir up the waves in storm.

923. Sprung of old Anchises' line. According to Geoffrey of Monmouth, Brutus the Trojan was the grandson of aeneas and founder of London.

Anchises, in the Homeric story, is the father of aeneas. This fable plays an important part in the ancient British myth.

924. thy brimmed waves. A river is happiest when full to its brim.

930. Of what parts of speech are torrent and flood?

933. It is very curious that our word beryl and the German _Brille_ come directly from the same source.

937. And yet this river is the English Severn!

957. Note the impressive effect of the five-foot line ending the scene.

The shepherds have their dance in rustic fas.h.i.+on. The words describing this dance are the familiar peasant words, jig, duck, nod. The playful tone in which the spirit calls upon the swains to give place to their betters is charming.

964. With the mincing Dryades. ”The _Dryades_ were nymphs of woods and trees, dwelling in groves, ravines, and wooded valleys, and were fond of making merry with Apollo, Mercury, and Pan.”

980. I suck the liquid air: I inhale the upper air,--the _aether_ _liquidus_ of the poets. So Ariel, Tempest V 1 102, ”I drink the air before me.”

981. the gardens fair Of Hesperus and his daughters three. The number of the Hesperides and their parentage are differently given in various legends. The story of their garden in some mysterious place in the far west, where they guarded the tree that bore the golden apples, a.s.sisted by the dragon Ladon, is one of the best known in the cla.s.sic mythology.

984. Along the crisped shades and bowers. Milton applies _crisped_ to brooks, Par. Lost IV 237. Herrick has,--”the crisped yew,” and the American Th.o.r.eau,--”A million crisped waves.”

985. spruce. A very interesting account of the origin of this word is given by Skeat in his Etymological Dictionary.

986. The Graces and the rosy-bosomed Hours. See note on L'Allegro 15.

”The _Graces_ were guardians of the vernal sweetness and beauty of nature, friends and protectors of everything graceful and beautiful.” The _Hours_ were G.o.ddesses of the seasons, daughters of Zeus and Themis. They were the door-keepers of Olympus, whose cloud-gate they open and shut: thus they preside over the weather.

990. About the cedarn alleys: about the pathways through cedar groves.

Coleridge, in Kubla Khan, has the line, ”Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover”; and Tennyson, Geraint and Enid, the line,--”And moving toward a cedarn cabinet.” So also William Barnes, in his Rural Poems, uses the expression, ”stonen jugs.”

992. Iris is the messenger of the G.o.ds: her path is the rainbow.