BAYARD TAYLOR 216. Bedouin Song. The Bedouins are children of the desert. They are of Arabian stock, and their wanderings cover the wild desert lands east of Palestine. They roam about in bands, carrying with them their wives and children and substance. They own no man as lord, and pay allegiance to no government. They are wanderers by instinct and by long habit. -some Bayard Taylor has put into this poem the atmosphere of the desert, thing of its heat, freedom, and passion,—and he has done it with a lyric grace that is wholly effective. 218. America (from the National Ode, July 4, 1876). The simplicity, heartiness, and dignity of this ode, its generous spirit of democracy, and its confidence and hopefulness for the future, mark it apart as a poem of unusual strength and poise. RICHARD HENRY STODDARD 219. Abraham Lincoln. President Lincoln was shot and killed in Ford's Theater, Washington, on April 14, 1865, by John Wilkes Booth, an actor. This ode of Stoddard's is one of the best of the many laments written since Lincoln's death. It has sustained dignity, aptness of phrase, and a true appreciation of Lincoln's character. It is lacking, perhaps, in intensity of feeling. 220 18. Lares. These were the gods of Roman mythology charged with the care of the home and of the state. FRANCIS MILES FINCH 225. The Blue and the Gray. The healing of the scars made by the Civil War has been greatly helped along by such verse as this kindly and melodious poem. JOHN TOWNSEND TROWBRIDGE 227. The Vagabonds. As a picture of real life, on one particular side, this poem is vivid and dramatic, and full of humane feeling. MARGARET JUNKIN PRESTON 231. A Grave in Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond (J. R. T.). This poem was written in memory of John Randolph Thompson, poet and journalist, who was born in Richmond, Virginia, and lived there many years. His last years, however, were spent in New York city as literary editor of the Evening Post, where he died. His body was brought to Richmond for burial in Hollywood Cemetery, where James Madison, Jefferson Davis, J. E. B. Stuart, and A. P. Hill are also buried. 231:11. Dante. Dante, the greatest of Italian poets, was exiled, for political reasons, from his native city, Florence. He died at Ravenna, but his body was brought back to Florence for burial. Thompson, however, was not an exile from Richmond, except by a stretch of the imagination. He went to New York because it offered a better field for the employment of his literary abilities. 232: 10. The mystic cable. The ocean telegraph cable. 232: 18. Provençal-like. Provence is a district in southern France, noted for music and poetry. In early days many of its poets were strolling minstrels. The reference here is to Thompson's literary career in Richmond, London, and New York. 232: 24. Stuart. General J. E. B. Stuart, a brilliant Confederate cavalry leader, who was killed while defending Richmond against General Sheridan, in 1864. He was the theme of one of Thompson's stirring ballads. STEPHEN COLLINS FOSTER 233. My Old Kentucky Home. "Idealized negro melody" is a term that aptly fits such charming verse as this. It shows the old-time negro at his best, and it takes as a background the civilization of the old South when it was mellowest. Change and time have invested that age with delicate sentiment and pensive grace. WILLIAM HAINES LYTLE 234. Antony to Cleopatra. After the assassination of Julius Cæsar, B.C. 44, Mark Antony, a friend of Cæsar's, and Octavius Cæsar, Cæsar's adopted son, joined forces and utterly defeated the party of the assassins, chief among whom were Brutus and Cassius. Later on Antony became bewitched with the charms of Cleopatra, queen of Egypt, a woman of wondrous charm, who was the last of the ancient dynasty of the Ptolemies. Antony joined forces with Cleopatra and made war on Octavius Cæsar, who had become the head of the Roman government. A decisive battle at sea resulted in the defeat of Antony and Cleopatra, who sailed away together to Egypt, where both committed suicide. Egypt was then made a Roman province. 234 1. Egypt stands here for Cleopatra. 234: 3. Plutonian. Pluto was, in ancient mythology, the god of the lower regions. 224: 12. Actium's fatal shore. Actium was a promontory in Greece, near which was fought the battle in which Antony and Cleopatra were defeated by Octavius Cæsar. 234 16. Triumvir. After the death of Julius Cæsar, Octavius Cæsar, Antony, and Lepidus banded themselves together in a triumvirate. For a time they were the rulers of Rome. 235 3. Octavia, the divorced wife of Antony. She was a sister of Octavius Cæsar. 235: 11. Stygian horrors. In ancient mythology, the Styx was a river in Hades. 235 23. Isis and Osiris, chief divinities in Egyptian mythology. 235 24. Cleopatra — Rome — farewell. When Antony saw that he was likely to be killed by the Roman soldiers who were invading Egypt, he slew himself with his own sword. Cleopatra also killed herself when she heard of his death. HENRY TIMROD 236. Charleston. Timrod wrote this poem in 1863, when the cause of the Confederacy was waning. A few months later the city fell into the hands of the Federal forces. Charleston had enjoyed a breathing spell since the early days of the war, when Fort Sumter, then commanded by United States troops, was fired upon and captured. At the time this poem was written, Fort Sumter was in command of the Confederates, and, with Fort Moultrie, formed the main defenses of Charleston Harbor, an unusually beautiful sheet of water. 236 3. In the broad sunlight of heroic deeds. Early in the Revolutionary War, in 1776, the British attacked the fortifications on Sullivan's Island, near the entrance of the harbor, but were repulsed by Colonel Moultrie. These fortifications were afterward called Fort Moultrie, the name which they bore in the Civil War. In 1780 the city was captured by the British. There are still in Charleston houses which bear the marks of shells thrown into the city by the British during the Revolutionary War, and by the Federals in the Civil War. : 236 9. Calpe is another name for Gibraltar. The fortifications of Charleston are situated, not on hills, but on sand dunes. 237 At Magnolia Cemetery. These lines were warmly praised by Whittier for their beauty, simplicity, and sincerity. 238 1. behalf, in behalf of. PAUL HAMILTON HAYNE Although lacking in 238. A Little While I fain would linger Yet. strength of feeling and vigor of imagination, Hayne has great refinement of mind and heart, and his verse is generally graceful and pleasing. 240. The Mocking Bird (at night). The light, graceful play of Hayne's imagination appears to advantage in these lines. And no one has caught and put into verse so well the charm of the mocking bird's song at night. EDMUND CLARENCE STEDMAN 241. Kearny at Seven Pines. Few war lyrics surpass this in its spirited appeal to men of chivalrous instincts. General Philip Kearny was an intrepid Federal cavalry leader who was greatly admired by his soldiers, and his death at Chantilly, Virginia, in 1862, was greatly deplored. General R. E. Lee, who knew him in old army days, expressed great personal regret. The battle referred to in this poem, Seven Pines, was fought near Richmond during General McClellan's campaign in 1862. General Kearny came from New Jersey, and an oil portrait of him hangs in the capitol at Trenton. THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH 242. Unguarded Gates. In this poem Mr. Aldrich has taken a vital but everyday theme and handled it with deep patriotic feeling and unusual imaginative power. There are lines in it that make the blood beat faster, Have a care Lest from thy brow the clustered stars be torn 244. Palabras Cariñosas. No American poet has surpassed Mr. Aldrich as a writer of vers de société. His verses are well-nigh perfect in form, highly finished, and he has the lightness of touch and the quick, graceful turn of the imagination so essential to a master of the beautiful art of writing occasional verse, the short, sprightly verse of wit, satire, grace, or sentiment. Men who write this sort of verse are those who see things beneath the froth of society. The title of this poem is Spanish, and means "Affectionate Words." 244. Batuschka. The title of this poem is a Russian word meaning "Little Father," a term of endearing loyalty often applied in folk-songs to the Czar, or Tsar. Mr. Aldrich has, with his usual imaginative vigor, put into these lines the tragedy that lies underneath the surface of Russian life. JOHN HAY 246. Jim Bludso of the Prairie Belle is taken from Hay's first volume of verse, Pike County Ballads, the scenes of which are laid in Arkansas. It is the story of an uncouth engineer who saw his plain duty before him and sacrificed his life to it. The rude but often heroic qualities of the early Mississippi boatmen have also been admirably set forth in prose by Mark Twain. These early poems of Hay's and the stories of Mark Twain make very plain the virile stuff that went into the making of the Great West. JAMES RYDER RANDALL 248. My Maryland. Every lover of peace and good feeling will deplore the strong sectional tone of the poem, but every lover of poetry must concede its artistic merit as a spirited martial lyric. The lyrical feeling is so real and so glowing that it kindles from stanza to stanza and is sustained until the end. It was struck off at white heat, and gives voice to the excited state of feeling inevitable at the beginning of a great conflict. The song was written in 1861, when the Massachusetts troops, on their way South, were fired upon in the streets of Baltimore. Mr. Randall, who was then living in New Orleans, read the report in a newspaper, and immediately sat down and wrote these lines. 248 21. Carroll's sacred trust. The reference is to Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence from Maryland. 248 22. Howard's warlike thrust. This refers to General John Eagcr Howard, who was a Maryland soldier of distinction in the Revolution. 249 : 5, 6, 7. Ringgold, Watson, Lowe, and May were Marylanders who fought in the Mexican War. 249 14. Sic semper! This is a shortened form of Sic semper tyrannis, the motto on the coat of arms of Virginia. It may be freely translated — Down with tyrants! 250 4. Vandal. The Vandals, to whom the Federal soldiers are here compared, were a barbaric northern tribe who fell upon Rome in the days of her decay and despoiled her. The comparison is, of course, far-fetched and absurd. The extravagant language may be set down to the heated feeling of the time. The same may be said of line 17. ABRAM JOSEPH RYAN 251. The Conquered Banner. Perhaps no poem of the war expresses so musically and so exactly the feeling at the South at the close of the Civil War as do these lines on the Confederate flag. With sincerity and with real emotion the poem gives voice to tender and hopeless regret. ANONYMOUS 252. The Confederate Flag. Although lacking both the passionate and the musical qualities of Father Ryan's poem, this anonymous lament has more dignity and restraint; but the feeling shown is none the less sincere. Both |