JEAN (Page 187) The unfamiliar words in this poem, with their meanings, are as follows: Airts: quarters Row: roll Shaw: small wood SHE WAS A PHANTOM OF DELIGHT (Page 189) "Written at Town-End, Grasmere. The germ of this poem was four lines composed as a part of the verses on the Highland Girl. Though beginning in this way, it was written from my heart, as is sufficiently obvious."-Wordsworth's note. The subject is clearly the poet's wife, Mary. it is a notable thing, thus to compress a whole personality, developing and maturing through a lifetime, into a short poem of thirty lines. Observe the use made of stanza divisions in accomplishing this. THERE BE NONE OF BEAUTY'S DAUGHTERS (Page 192) The name that Byron gave to this song is Stanzas for Music. If we read the poem aloud, we discover the music that already exists in the words themselves,-not alone in the delicate meter, but in the sound of the vowel tones. I TRAVELLED AMONG UNKNOWN MEN (Page 194) This was written in 1799, when Wordsworth was in Germany. It belonged to a series of poems written of one who has never been identified. Three others are given in this volume: She Dwelt Among the Untrodden Ways, The Education of Nature, and A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal. JOHN ANDERSON (Page 195) The words which may give difficulty are: brent: smooth pow: head cantie: cheerful maun: must POEMS ON BEREAVEMENT AND DEATH SHE DWELT AMONG THE UNTRODDEN WAYS (Page 197) As indicated in the note on I Travelled among Unknown Men, this poem belongs to a series written in memory of an unknown "Lucy." It is a poem especially well worth learning by heart. It is characteristic of Wordsworth that his deepest feeling is expressed, not in extreme situation or extravagant diction, but through the implied story, the suggested emotion, and in simple, direct language, such as we find in this poem. THE EDUCATION OF NATURE See note above. This poem contains one of the most direct statements of Wordsworth's belief that daily contact with the beautiful in nature has an important influence in molding character. He expresses it in the poet's way-showing how it applies to a particular situation that affects the human heart. The conception of the fifth stanza, particularly of its last two lines, is especially noteworthy. A SLUMBER DID MY SPIRIT SEAL These stanzas conclude the series of poems addressed to "Lucy." HIGHLAND MARY (Page 200) Burns himself wrote regarding this poem: "The foregoing song pleases myself, I think it is in my happiest manner." It has been pointed out that the "lyric structure" of the song is especially clear-cut. The first stanza is introductory; the second describes the meeting and the aspect of nature corresponding with the emotion. The third stanza passes directly to the next stage of the story, the parting— thought at first to be temporary, but proving in the event final; and the natural setting again reflects the mood. The feeling of pain and bereavement issues at last in repose, gained here by "the thought of her eternal presence in his memory." Drumlie: muddy birk: birch ELEGY (Page 202) This poem, together with She Walks in Beauty Like the Night and a number of others, were written, at the request of a friend of the poet, for a Selection of Hebrew Melodies, and were published with the music. ELEGY, WRITTEN IN A COUNTRY CHURCHYARD (Page 203) It is natural to think of this poem as a series of single lines and stanzas rich with quiet beauty and exquisitely phrased thought, lines here and stanzas there that we like to learn and remember and quote. It is right that this should be so; yet there is pleasure too in following the poem in its larger aspect, the development of the thought that binds the stanzas together into a single whole. After the first few stanzas of description the thought turns on the obscurity of those who lie buried in the humble churchyard, in contrast to those of distinction, whose bodies occupy the elaborate vaults within the church itself. All men, the great as well as the lowly, come to the grave in the end. But does the lack of worldly honor and display mean that these humbler people lacked the nobler emotions that actuated those of distinguished career? On the contrary, the finest human spirit may have been represented among them,--the tyranthating courage of a Hampden, the imagination of a Milton, the zeal and energy of a Cromwell. But circumstances, which forbade the development of their powers in a world of action, put a limit too on the exercises of their faults. Yet the desire to be remembered after death, a natural desire common to us all, has caused these stones to be erected and inscribed, inviting a sympathetic tribute from those who are later to view them. He too, who is writing these very lines, will one day pass away, and others, recalling his quiet habits, will point out to the inquirer his tombstone, inscribed with an epitaph setting forth the quality of his life. But whether this larger development of ideas appears readily or not, the beauty of phrase and stanza brings instant recognition, and needs not to be remarked. Yet even here there is an interesting observation to be made, that would be likely to escape one unless pointed out: the value of the passages lies not in the originality of their ideas, but in the perfectness of expression that Gray supplied for ideas that had long been current in earlier poetry. We know that Gray took great pains with the phrasing of his poems, and that he had this one in his possession about seven years before circumstances forced him to publish it. The result is that for ideas which other men had expressed more or less well, he supplied the finally perfect phrase, the phrase that we recognize and remember. One example will serve for all. Perhaps the most frequently quoted stanza of the Elegy is that beginning "Full many a gem." In his edition of selections from Gray, Professor W. L. Phelps has gathered the following forms in which the thought had appeared from the time of Milton down to that of Gray himself: That, like to rich and various gems, inlay Like woodland flowers, that paint the desert glades, Like beauteous flowers which vainly waste the scent There is many a rich stone laid up in the bowels of the earth, many a fair pearl laid up in the bosom of the sea, that never was seen nor never shall be.-Hall. There kept my charms conceal'd from mortal eye, Since Gray's time the idea has always been associated with his expression of it, and it is unthinkable that any later poet should try to improve on what is so widely recognized as perfect. In so far as it depends on its polished phrase and unerring line rather than on striking individuality of thought, the Elegy bears interesting resemblance to Il Penseroso and other poems of its kind. This is emphasized by a feature that Milton's poem and Gray's have in common: both were written by men who were close students of Latin poetry, and both make occasional use of words in their original Latin sense rather than in their commonly accepted English meaning. An example has been pointed out in Milton's line Over her decent shoulders drawn. Similar instances from Gray are as follows: ... provoke the silent dust, in the Latin sense of "call forth"; the genial current of the soul, in the sense of "natural to one's genius or individuality"; Some pious drops. in the sense of "owed affection or duty," as of a child to its parents; Fair science frowned not. in the sense of "knowledge in general." To the influence of Latin poetry may be ascribed as well Gray's tendency to personify abstractions, like penury and pride, and to concentrate into such a phrase as "storied urn and animated bust a meaning which prose could express only by laborious explanation. But in this latter respect the Elegy stands between the highly concentrated phrasing of Milton's earlier poems and the simpler diction of the nineteenth century; in fact, the lines that are generally most loved and quoted |