Why come you drest like a village maid, 18. "If I come drest like a village maid, 19. "Play me no tricks," said Lord Ronald; "For I am yours in word and deed. Play me no tricks," said Lord Ronald : "Your riddle is hard to read." 20. O and proudly stood she up! Her heart within her did not fail: 21. He laughed a laugh of merry scorn; He turned and kissed her where she stood. "If you are not the heiress born, And I," said he, "the next in blood, 22. "If you are not the heiress born, And I," said he, "the lawful heir,— ALFRED TENNYSON. DEFINITIONS.-2. Trow, think. Be trothed', engaged to be married. 10. Brooch, an ornament usually worn on the breast. 12. Cleave, hold fast. 15. Rus'set, of a reddish color. Dāle, a vale or valley. Down, a tract of level sandy land. NOTE.-21. The next in blood, the nearest relation. 30. THE CHAMBERED NAUTILUS. OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES was born at Cambridge, Massachusetts, August 29, 1809. He graduated at Harvard College in 1829, and entered upon the study of the law, but soon took up the profession of medicine. He studied in Europe, and graduated as physician in 1836. In 1838 he was appointed Professor of Anatomy and Physiology in Dartmouth College, and in 1847 was transferred to a similar chair at Harvard. He is not only a man of science, but also a poet of much ability. His writings combine wit, humor, science, and philosophy. Among his best-known works are Elsie Venner, The Guardian Angel, The Autocrat of the BreakfastTable, and Mechanism in Thought and Morals. .1. 2. 3. THIS is the ship of pearl which, poets feign, The venturous bark that flings On the sweet summer wind its purpled wings Where the cold sea-maids rise to sun their streaming hair, Its webs of living gauze no more unfurl : Wrecked is the ship of pearl! And every chambered cell, Where its dim dreaming life was wont to dwell, Its irised ceiling rent, its sunless crypt unsealed. Year after year beheld the silent toil That spread his lustrous coil; Still, as the spiral grew, He left the past year's dwelling for the new, Stole with soft step its shining archway through, Built up its idle door, Stretched in his last-found home, and knew the old no more. 4. Thanks for the heavenly message brought by thee, Child of the wandering Sea, 5. Cast from her lap, forlorn! From thy dead lips a clearer note is born While on mine ear it rings, Through the deep caves of thought I hear a voice that sings: Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul, Leave thy low-vaulted past: Let each new temple, nobler than the last, Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea. DEFINITIONS.—2. Ī ́rised, colored like the rainbow. Єrypt, a cell; a hiding-place. NOTES.-1. Si'ren, one of three damsels-said to dwell near the island of Caprea, in the Mediterranean Sea-who sang with such sweetness that they who sailed by forgot their country and died in an ecstasy of delight. 4. Tri'ton, a fabled sea demi-god, the trumpeter of Neptune. 31.-OLD IRONSIDES. 1. Ay, tear her tattered ensign down! Beneath it rung the battle-shout And burst the cannon's roar: The meteor of the ocean air Shall sweep the clouds no more. 2. Her deck, once red with heroes' blood, No more shall feel the victor's tread 3. Oh, better that her shattered hulk And give her to the god of storms, The lightning, and the gale. OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. DEFINITIONS.-1. Enʼsign, a flag or standard. Mē ́te or, a bright transient body or appearance seen in the atmosphere. 2. Văn'quished, Här'piëş, vultures; ravenous wretches. overcome. NOTE. "Old Ironsides" was the name given to the frigate Constitution, a forty-four gun ship of the American navy. She achieved a glorious reputation in the war of 1812. Under the command of Cap. tain Isaac Hull she captured the British man-of-war Guerriere; and afterward, under the command of Commodore Bainbridge, she captured and destroyed the Java. At the time the poem was written, orders had been issued to have her broken up, but she was saved through the public sentiment created by its publication. 32. HE GIVETH HIS BELOVED SLEEP. ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING, the most distinguished poet of her day that England has produced, was born in London in 1809. At a very early age she showed poetic talent and a great love of study. She was all her life an invalid. In 1846 she married Mr. Robert Browning, a celebrated poet; and after fifteen years of great happiness she died at Florence in 1861. Though sometimes obscure, her writings exhibit great power of imagination, originality, and beauty of sentiment, and are full of sympathy with suffering in every form. Aurora Leigh is the longest and best known of her poems; while her sonnets are perhaps her finest efforts. 1. Of all the thoughts of God that are Along the Psalmist's music deep, For gift or grace, surpassing this,- 2. What would we give to our beloved,- The poet's star-tuned harp, to sweep; 3. What do we give to our beloved? A little dust to overweep, And bitter memories to make The whole earth blasted for our sake. 4. "Sleep soft, beloved!" we sometimes say, Sad dreams that through the eyelids creep. But never doleful dream again Shall break the happy slumber when 5. O earth, so full of dreary noises! |