(The common unrhymed poetry 1
Of simple life and country ways),
The story of her early days,
She made us welcome to her home;2
Old hearths grew wide to give us room;
We stole with her a frightened look
At the gray wizard's conjuring-book,3
The fame whereof went far and wide
Through all the simple country-side;
We heard the hawks at twilight play,
The boat-horn on Piscataqua,1
The loon's weird laughter 5 far away;
We fished her little trout-brook, knew
What flowers in wood and meadow grew,
What sunny hillsides autumn-brown
She climbed to shake the ripe nuts down,
Saw where in sheltered cove and bay
The ducks' black squadron anchored lay.
And heard the wild-geese calling loud
Beneath the gray November cloud.

UNCLE.

Our uncle, innocent of books,7

Was rich in lore of fields and brooks,

1 unrhymed poetry. Explain. With what noun is "poetry" in apposition?

2 welcome to her home: that is, the mother introduced the children to her own girlhood home.

3 wizard's conjuring-book. Probably a well-thumbed "fortuneteller."

4 Piscataqua. Locate. 5 weird laughter. What felicity in the epithet "weird"?

6 ducks'... lay. Show the picturesqueness of this expression. 7 innocent of books. Explain. 8 lore (from the same root as learn), learning, knowledge, wis

dom.

The ancient teachers, never dumb,
Of Nature's unhoused lyceum.1

In moons and tides and weather wise,
He read the clouds as prophecies,
And foul or fair could well divine,2
By many an occult hint and sign,
Holding the cunning-warded keys
To all the woodcraft mysteries;
Himself to Nature's heart so near
That all her voices in his ear,

Of beast or bird, had meanings clear,
Like Apollonius 5 of old,

Who knew the tales the sparrows told,
Or Hermes, who interpreted

What the sage cranes of Nilus said;
A simple, guileless, childlike man,
Content to live where life began;
Strong only on his native grounds,
The little world of sights and sounds
Whose girdle was the parish bounds,

1 lyceum. For rhythm's sake the poet places the accent on the first syllable, but properly it is on the penult.

2 divine, foretell.

8 occult (from Latin oc for ob, and calere, to hide), hidden, secret. 4 warded. A "ward" is a projecting ridge of metal in the interior of a lock, to prevent the use of any key which has not a corresponding notch for passing it. Explain the metaphor "cunning-warded keys."

5 Apollonius: that is, Apollonius of Tyana, in Cappadocia, who lived in the time of Christ, and was a follower of the mystical philosopher Pythagoras. He was versed in all Oriental lore, and the people believed him to have the power of working miracles.

6 Hermes: that is, Hermes Trismegistus, a celebrated Egyptian priest and philosopher, of the first century A.D.

7 Nilus, the Nile.

Whereof his fondly partial pride
The common features magnified,
As Surrey hills to mountains grew
In White of Selborne's loving view,-
He told how teal and loon he shot,
And how the eagle's eggs he got,
The feats on pond and river done,
The prodigies 2 of rod and gun;
Till, warming with the tales he told,
Forgotten was the outside cold,
The bitter wind unheeded blew,
From ripening corn the pigeons flew,
The partridge drummed i' the wood, the mink
Went fishing down the river-brink.
In fields with bean or clover gay,
The woodchuck, like a hermit gray,
Peered from the doorway of his cell;3
The muskrat plied the mason's trade,
And tier by tier his mud-walls laid;
And from the shagbark overhead
The grizzled squirrel dropped his shell.

SISTER.

As one who held herself a part
Of all she saw, and let her heart

1 White of Selborne: that is, Gilbert White (1720-1793), the author of a famous book entitled Natural History of Selborne, England

-in which are many minute and charming descriptions of the birds

and beasts of the district in which he lived.

2 prodigies, wonderful exploits. 8 hermit gray... cell. Show the felicity of this simile.

4 held, deemed, considered.

Against the household bosom lean,1
Upon the motley-braided mat2
Our youngest and our dearest sat,
Lifting her large, sweet, asking eyes,
Now bathed within the fadeless green
And holy peace of Paradise.3

Oh, looking from some heavenly hill,
Or from the shade of saintly palms,
Or silver reach of river calms,

4

Do those large eyes behold me still?
With me one little year ago :·

The chill weight of the winter snow

For months upon her grave has lain;
And now, when summer south-winds blow,
And brier and harebell bloom again,
I tread the pleasant paths we trod,
I see the violet-sprinkled sod

Whereon she leaned, too frail and weak
The hillside flowers she loved to seek,5
Yet following me where'er I went,
With dark eyes full of love's content.
The birds are glad; the brier-rose fills
The air with sweetness; all the hills
Stretch green to June's unclouded sky;
But still I wait with ear and eye

For something gone which should be nigh, 1 and let ... lean. Explain.

4 reach, a straight portion of a stream, as from one bend to another.

5 too frail . . . to seek: that is, "too frail and weak to seek for the hillside flowers which she loved."

A loss in all familiar things,

In flower that blooms, and bird that sings.
And yet, dear heart! remembering thee,
Am I not richer than of old?

Safe in thy immortality,

What change can reach the wealth1 I hold?
What chance can mar the pearl and gold
Thy love hath left in trust with me?
And while in life's late afternoon,2

Where cool and long the shadows grow,
I walk to meet the night that soon
Shall shape and shadow overflow,
I can not feel that thou art far,
Since near at need the angels are;
And when the sunset gates unbar,3
Shall I not see thee waiting stand,
And, white against the evening star,
The welcome of thy beckoning hand?

2. THE GENIUS OF THE WEST.

[Whittier wrote this fine poem on the occasion of "receiving an eagle's quill from Lake Superior." Its general purpose is to celebrate the breadth, freedom, and opportunity afforded by the Great West.]

ALL day the darkness and the cold.
Upon my heart have lain,1

1 the wealth: that is, the wealth of his sister's remembered affection.

2 life's late afternoon. What idea underlies this metaphor?

3 when the sunset gates unbar. Explain this beautifully tender expression.

4 All day... lain. Change this couplet to the prose order.