home on the shore there is a woman waiting for the touch of a vanished hand and the sound of a voice that is still.

In these first three stanzas the tragedy of the sea-the story of its awful sacrifice of life is told with marvelous effect.

The thought in the fourth stanza grows out of the thought in the other three. "The tender grace of a day that is dead,” means some love or joy or happiness of a former time which can never return. As the sailor comes not back from the sea, so the lost joy comes not back from the past. And as the sea breaks on its cold gray stones, so the heart breaks on the crags of grief. Thus the closing stanza widens the scope of the meaning of the poem to include all those who lament the tender grace of a day that is dead; and its pathos appeals to all mankind.

The death of Tennyson's friend, Arthur Hallam, inspired this poem as well as In Memoriam and other tributes.

TUBAL CAIN

Tubal Cain is the Biblical and legendary father of "all such as forge copper and iron." He was of the seventh generation in descent from Cain. Genesis, Chapter 4, verse 22, says:

"And Zillah, she also bare Tubal-Cain, an instructor of every artificer in brass and iron."

Ezekiel, Chapter 27, verse 13, uses the name Tubal in connection with the trading of vessels of brass. Josephus, in The Antiquities of the Jews, says:

*

"But Tubal exceeded all men in strength, and was very expert and famous in martial performances and first of all invented the art of working brass."

Charles Mackay's poem is an epitome of the history of civilization. In the ages of savagery and barbarism the man who could best wield the spear and the sword was actually king and lord, or chief. As civilization progressed the arts of peace were recognized and war became less honorable. Agriculture was the first of the arts of peace to receive attention, and so the plowshare was invented. To-day civilization has so far advanced that war is no longer honorable except when a people's rights are invaded or "oppression lifts its head."

Tubal Cain in this poem typifies humanity in its progress towards civilization.

TUBAL CAIN

1

Old Tubal Cain was a man of might,
In days when earth was young;
By the fierce red light of his furnace bright,
The strokes of his hammer rung:

And he lifted high his brawny hand

On the iron glowing clear,

Till the sparks rushed out in scarlet showers,
As he fashioned the sword and the spear.
And he sang: "Hurrah for my handiwork!
Hurrah for the spear and the sword!
Hurrah for the hand that shall wield them well,
For he shall be king and lord!"

2

To Tubal Cain came many a one,
As he wrought by his roaring fire,

And each one prayed for a strong steel blade
As the crown of his desire,

And he made them weapons sharp and strong,
Till they shouted loud for glee,

And gave him gifts of pearls and gold,
And spoils of the forest free.

And they sang: "Hurrah for Tubal Cain,
Who hath given us strength anew!
Hurrah for the smith, hurrah for the fire,
And hurrah for the metal true!"

3

But a sudden change came o'er his heart,
Ere the setting of the sun,

And Tubal Cain was filled with pain

For the evil he had done;

He saw that men, with rage and hate,

Made war upon their kind;

That the land was red with the blood they shed,

In their lust for carnage blind;

And he said, "Alas! that ever I made,

Or that skill of mine should plan,

The spear and the sword for men whose joy Is to slay their fellowman!"

4

And for many a day old Tubal Cain
Sat brooding o'er his woe;

And his hand forbore to smite the ore,
And his furnace smoldered low.
But he rose at last with a cheerful face,
And a bright, courageous eye,

And bared his strong right arm for work,
While the quick flames mounted high.

And he sang, "Hurrah for my handiwork!"

As the red sparks lit the air;

"Not alone for the blade was the bright steel made," And he fashioned the first plowshare.

5

And men, taught wisdom from the past,

In friendship joined their hands,

Hung the sword in the hall, the spear on the wall,

And plowed the willing lands;

And sang, "Hurrah for Tubal Cain!

Our staunch good friend is he;
And for the plowshare and the plow,
To him our praise shall be.
But while oppression lifts its head,

Or a tyrant would be lord,

Though we may thank him for the plow,

We'll not forget the sword."

-

-Charles Mackay.

THE RAVEN

There have been all sorts of curious and fantastic interpretations of The Raven. It has been called a poem of remorse, the ebony bird being the personification of Poe's regret for a misspent life; it has been called a prophecy of evil for the future, springing out of reflections upon his way of living; and various other curious meanings have been read into the verses.

There does not seem to be any reason for going so far to seek its interpretation. Poe himself, in his Philosophy of Composition, gives the meaning and method of The Raven. He says:

"The death of a beautiful woman is, unquestionably, the most poetical topic in the world-and equally it is beyond doubt that the lips best suited for such topic are those of a bereaved lover. . . . I had now to combine the two ideas of a lover lamenting his deceased mistress and a raven continuously repeating the word 'Nevermore"" the raven, as he says, being generally considered a bird of ill omen, and the word involving "the utmost conceivable amount of sorrow and despair."

"I determined then to place the lover in his chamber -in a chamber rendered sacred to him by memories of her who had frequented it.

"I made the night tempestuous, first to account for a raven's seeking admission, and secondly, for the effect of contrast with the (physical) serenity within the