Зображення сторінки
PDF
ePub

2. Ring out the old, ring in the new ;
Ring, happy bells, across the snow :
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.

3. Ring out the grief that saps the mind,
For those that here we see no more;
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.

4. Ring out a slowly dying cause,

And ancient forms of party strife;
Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.

5. Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
The faithless coldness of the times;

Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes,
But ring the fuller minstrel in.

6. Ring out false pride in place and blood,
The civic scandal and the spite;

Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.

7. Ring out old shapes of foul disease;

Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.

8. Ring in the valiant man and free,

The larger heart, the kindlier hand;
Ring out the darkness of the land,—
Ring in the Christ that is to be.

ALFRED TENNYSON.9

[blocks in formation]

Summary:-In many English churches the church-bells are rung from a few minutes before twelve till a few minutes after twelve on the last night of the year. This is called ringing out the Old Year and ringing in the New Year The poet here addresses the bells, and bids them ring out all that is false, and sad, and oppressive, and faithless, and foul; and ring in that which is true, and peaceful, and noble, and pure, and brave, and Christ-like.

Exercises: 1. Write an essay on Christmas and the New Year.

2. Explain-" Ring out the feud of rich and poor,

Ring in redress to all mankind."

3. Affixes denoting of, or belonging to—ac, demoniac; al, paternal; an, ane, human, humane; ar, circular; ary, military; en, woollen; ic, public; id, florid; ile, juvenile; ine, feminine; ish, British. Make sentences containing these

words.

POETRY, STANDARD VI.-To recite 150 lines from Shakespeare or Milton, or some other standard author, and to explain the words and allusions.

POETRY FOR RECITATION.*

THE LADY OF THE LAKE.

THE POEM.-The Lady of the Lake is a story of love and adventure. It is intended to illustrate the disturbed state of the Highlands of Scotland in the sixteenth century, as The Lay of the Last Minstrel" was designed to set forth that of the Borders. It also illustrates many of the customs of the time and the people. Fitz-James, the chief character in the poem, was intended to represent King James the Fifth, who was fond of roaming in disguise among the peasantry, and in the least frequented parts of the country. The splendid descriptions of Highland scenery-especially of the Trossachs and Loch Katrine -and the romantic interest with which the poem invested these scenes, have made them famous all over the world, and attracted to them crowds of visitors. THE AUTHOR.-Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832), a great Scottish novelist and poet. The poet Wordsworth calls Scott the "Border Minstrel," because he wrote ballads or stories in verse about Border life. The Border country and its wild history were the source of some of his finest poems and tales. On the banks of the Tweed is his well-known mansion, Abbotsford, near Melrose. The country of the Tweed and the Teviot-in the south of Scotland-is called "The Land of Scott." Scott is also called the "Wizard of the North," in allusion to the extraordinary charm and descriptive power of his writings, which "reproduced old Scotland, refought its battles, remounted its steel-harnessed warriors, and reenacted its Border feuds." He wrote the Waverley Novels (Waverley, Ivanhoe, The Heart of Midlothian, etc.); a number of poems (The Lay of the Last Minstrel, The Lady of the Lake, Marmion, etc.); Tales of a Grandfather (being the History of Scotland in the form of stories), etc.

*These pieces have been marked for expressive reading or for recitation by Dr. Moxey, M.R.C.P., London, Lecturer on Elocution.

EXPLANATION.-rising inflection; falling inflection; pause.

FITZ-JAMES AND RODERICK DHU.

Pictorial descrip. At length they came | where, | stern and stéep, |
The hill sinks down | upon the deep.

tion, with indicatory gesture.

Hére Vennachar | in silver | flows |
Thère, ridge on ridge, | Ben-lédi | rose.
Ever the hollow path | twined ón, |
Beneath steep bank | and threatening stòne: |
An húndred men | might hold the post |
With hardihood | against a hòst.

So toilsome was the road to tráce, |

The guide, abating of his pace, |

With determined Led | slowly | through the pass's jáws, |

air.

Quiet but undaunted.

Sarcastically.

And asked Fitz-Jámes, | by what strange caúse |
He sought these wilds, | traversed by few,
Without a páss | from Róderick Dhù.
"Brave Gáel, | mý pass, | in danger tried, |
Hangs in my bélt, | and by my side; |
Yet, sooth to tell," the Saxon said, |

"I dreamt not | nów | to clàim its aid.
When here, but three days since, | I cáme, |
Bewildered in pursuit of gáme, |

66

66

All seemed as peaceful and as stíll |
As the mist slumbering on yon hill; |
Thy dangerous Chief was then afàr, |
Nor soon expected back | from wàr.

Thus said, at least, | my mountain guide, |
Though deep, perchance, the villain líed."
'But, | stranger, | péaceful since you came,
Bewildered in the mountain gáme, |

Whence the bold boast | by which | you show!
Vich-Alpine's vowed and mortal fóe?"— |

Interrupting, Enough, | I am | by prómise | tied
To match me with this man of pride.

and sternly.

[blocks in formation]

Line 3. Ven'nachar, a lake in Scot- | 15 My pass, meaning his sword. land, east of Loch Katrine, the 17 Sooth, truth.-The Saxon, Fitzwater of which it receives through James. The Gaels called the English Sassenachs, or Saxons.

Loch Achray.

4 Ben-ledi, a mountain on the north 20 Bewildered, having lost his way. side of Loch Vennachar.

8 Hardihood, bravery and firmness.

10 Abating of, slackening.

23 Thy dangerous chief, Roderick Dhu: Fitz-James does not yet know that he is his guide.

14 Roderick Dhu, the Highland robber- 30 Vich-Alpine, the son of Alpine; the

chief who held sway in that region.

family name of Roderick Dhu.

Quick, and sharply.

Quick monotone

Monotone concluded.

Slow.

Twice have I sought Clan-Alpine's glen |
In peace; but when I come agén, |
I come with banner, | brànd, | and bów, |
As leader seeks his mortal fòe.
For love-lorn swáin, | in lady's bower, |
Ne'er panted for the appointed hour, |
As Ì, until before me | stand |

This rebel Chieftain | and his bànd!"

"Have, then, thy wish!"--| he whistled | shrill, |
And he was answered from the hill; |
Wild as the scream of the curléw, |
From crag to crag | the signal flèw.
Instant, through copse and heath, | aróse
Bonnets and spears and bended bòws; |
On right, on left, | abòve, | belów, |
Sprang up at once | the lurking fòe; |
From shingles gray | their lánces start, |
The bracken bush | sends forth the dart, |
The rushes and the willow-wánd |
Are bristling into axe | and brànd, |
And every tuft of broom | gives lífe |
To plaided warrior | armed for strife!
That whistle | garrisoned the glen |
At once with full | five | húndred mèn, |
As if the yawning hill | to heaven |
A subterranean host | had given.

Watching their leader's | beck and will, |
All silent there they stood, and still: |
Like the loose cràgs | whose threatening máss |
Lay tottering o'er the hollow pass, |

40

50

60

[blocks in formation]
« НазадПродовжити »