V. And you, ye five wild torrents fiercely glad! From dark and icy caverns called you forth, 40 Your strength, your speed, your fury, and your joy 45 And who commanded,—and the silence came,— "Here let the billows stiffen and have rest"? VI. Ye ice-falls! ye that from the mountain's brow 50 Who made you glorious as the gates of heaven 55 VII. "God!" let the torrents, like a shout of nations, Answer! and let the ice-plain echo, "God!" 'God," sing, ye meadow-streams, with gladsome voice NOTE.-39. five wild torrents. In addition to the rivers other torrents rush madly down the sides of Mont Blanc. ANALYSIS.—40. Grammatical construction of forth? 44. you. Give grammatical construction. 47. Give the syntax of commanded. 48. let the billows stiffen. Explain the figure. 51. Give the syntax of torrents and methinks. 56. Dispose of the word clothe. 58. Give the grammatical construction of the word God. 60 Ye pine-groves, with your soft and soul-like sounds! VIII. Ye living flowers that skirt the eternal frost! 35 IX. Thou, too, hoar mount! with thy sky-pointing peaks, 70 Shoots downward, glittering through the pure serene Thou too, again, stupendous mountain! thou 75 In adoration, upward from thy base Slow traveling, with dim eyes suffused with tears, To rise before me,-rise, oh ever rise! Rise, like a cloud of incense, from the earth! 80 85 ANALYSIS.-62, 63. Explain the figure. 64. skirt the eternal frost. What figure? 69. Name the subject of utter. Give the syntax of forth. 70-85. Point out the figures occurring in these lines. 71. Name the modifiers of avalanche. 72 shoots downward. Name the modifiers of shoots. 75. l'arse the word awhile. 77. Justify the use of slow. 78. What does solemnly modify? Give the syntax of like and cloud 83-85. Give the modifiers of tell. 17. THOMAS MOORE, 1779-1852. THOMAS MOORE, the great Irish writer of lyrics and the personal friend of Byron, was born in Dublin on the 28th of May, 1779. He was educated mostly in the University of Dublin, and having won distinction here he went to London to study law. He, however, soon. gave more attention to poetry than to law. His first literary venture was a translation of the Odes of Anacreon, published in 1800. This was dedicated to the Prince Regent, and it secured Moore's immediate introduction. into that gay and fashionable society of London of which he was a frequenter to the time of his death. In 1804 he was appointed to a government post in the Bermudas. This gave him an opportunity to visit America, but he left the work to be performed by a subordinate, who proved dishonest and caused Moore to lose a considerable sum of public money, which the poet afterward paid by the product of his literary labors. The works for which Moore is chiefly remembered are his Irish Melodies, about a hundred and twenty-five in number, and his Lalla Rookh, a brilliant picture of Eastern life and thought. It is said that while writing this poem Moore shut himself up in a Derbyshire cottage wit a number of books on Oriental history and travel; and so faithfully did he portray Eastern life that he was asked on one occasion by one well acquainted with Asia as to when he had traveled in that portion of the world. The Fudge Family in Paris is his most sparkling satire. Many of his melodies have been repeated and sung wherever the English language is spoken. Many of them, as The Canadian Boat-Song, Those Evening Bells, The Last Rose of Summer, and Come, ye Disconsolate, are known to every lover of poetry and music. Many of Moore's writings, however, are neither profound nor of a high moral tone. His most elaborate poem, Lalla Rookh, was published in 1817. In addition to his poems, he wrote also a large number of political squibs and the biographies of Sheridan, Byron, and Lord Fitzgerald. After having lived a brilliant and fashionable life in London for half a century, Moore died in 1852. CRITICISM BY ROBERT CHAMBERS. WHEN time shall have destroyed the attractive charm of Moore's personal qualities, and removed his works to a distance, to be judged of by their fruit alone, the want most deeply felt will be that of simplicity and genuine passion. He has worked little in the durable and permanent materials of poetry, but has spent his prime in enriching the stately structure with exquisite ornaments, foliage, flowers, and gems. He has preferred the myrtle to the olive or the oak. His longer poems want human interest. Tenderness and pathos he undoubtedly possesses, but they are fleeting and evanescent-not embodied in his verse in any tale of melancholy grandeur or strain of affecting morality or sentiment. He often throws into his gay and festive verses and ris fanciful descriptions touches of pensive and mournful reflection, which strike by their truth and beauty and by the force of contrast. The Irish Melodies are full of true feeling and delicacy. By universal consent, and by the sure test of memory, these national strains are the most popular and the most likely to be immortal of all Moore's works. They are musical almost beyond parallel in words-graceful in thought and sentiment, often tender, pathetic, and heroic-and they blend poetical and romantic feelings with the objects and sympathies of common life in language chastened and refined, yet apparently so simple that every trace of art has disappeared. THE TURF SHALL BE MY FRAGRANT SHRINE. THE turf shall be my fragrant shrine; My choir shall be the moonlight waves E'en more than music, breathes of Thee. I'll seek, by day, some glade unknown, 10 Thy heaven, on which 'tis bliss to look, Shall be my pure and shining book, Where I shall read, in words of flame, 18 The glories of Thy wondrous name. ANALYSIS.-2. Parse Lord, arch, and Thine. What figure in line 2? 3, 4. Name the subject of each clause. 6. When murmuring, etc. What does this phrase modify? 8. Give the syntax of e'en and more. 9. The meaning of glade? 10 All light and silence; that is, “which is all light and silence." Dispose of All, like, and throne. 11, 12. Point out the figure. What does the phrase at night modify? 13. Dispose of the word look. 15. What are the modifiers of shall read? |