Also Shakespeare, Measure for Measure, iv., 2: — 'Look, th' unfolding star calls up the shepherd." No. 14. TO DIANA. Compare this poem with Ben Jonson's To Cynthia (See Six Centuries of English Poetry, p. 209). Diana is the moon. No. 17. SLUMBER-SONG. This song occurs in Valentinian, a drama by Beaumont and Fletcher. Leigh Hunt shows that a portion of it is repeated in the play An Honest Man's Fortune, by Fletcher, and gives other evidence that the lines are Fletcher's own. 1. 2. brother to death. So Shelley, in Queen Mab: "Death and his brother Sleep." No. 19. THE YOUNG MAY MOON. From Irish Melodies. 1. 4. Morna. Morna is the name of a heroine in Ossian's Fingal. She was the daughter of Cormac, an Irish king. 1. 12. Sage. Astrologer. Compare the second stanza with the DawnSong, by Davenant, No. 2, page 1. No. 22. TO THE MOON. This fragment was never completed by the poet. The last two lines were first printed by Rossetti (1870), from Shelley's own manuscript. No. 23. THE Coming of SprinG. This is the oldest English song in existence that has come down to us with its musical setting. It is supposed to have been written about the year 1226, by John of Fonsete, a monk of Reading Abbey. The MS. is now in the Harleian Library, with its accompanying music, which is arranged for six voices. No. 26. A SPRING IDYLL. Written in 1638. "I do easily believe that peace and patience, and a calm content, did cohabit in the cheerful heart of Sir Henry Wotton, because I know that when he was beyond seventy years of age he made this description of a part of the present pleasure that possessed him as he sat quietly, in a summer's evening, on a bank a-fishing." - Izaak Walton. No. 30. THE CUCKOO. "This poem has an exaltation and a glory, joined with an exquisiteness of expression, which place it in the highest rank among the many masterpieces of its illustrious author." Palgrave. It was written in 1804, and published in 1807. No. 31. To THE DAISY. Written in 1802; published in 1807. 1. 3. Sweet Daisy! oft I talk to thee. This is the original reading in the first edition. Later editions have it: — "Daisy, again I talk to thee." Wordsworth had written two other poems addressed to the same flower. No. 35. THE NIGHTINGALE. See note on Philomel, page 65. King Pandion, according to the old Greek legend, related in Ovid's Metamorphoses, was the father of Philomel and Procne. He gave the latter in marriage to Tereus, king of Daulis, in return for military aid rendered him in time of need. No. 39. ODE TO AUTUMN. 1. 21. Proserpine. Persephone. See Classical Dictionary; also the poem The Garden of Proserpine, page 351. 1. 27. Dryad. A wood-nymph. Her life was believed to be coexistent with that of the tree in which she dwelt. No. 41. ODE TO THE WEST WIND. Written in 1819. "This poem was conceived and chiefly written in a wood that skirts the Arno, near Florence, and on a day when that tempestuous wind, whose temperature is at once mild and animating, was collecting the vapors which pour down the autumnal rains. They began, as I foresaw, at sunset, with a violent tempest of hail and rain, attended by that magnificent thunder and lightning peculiar to the Cisalpine regions. The phenomenon alluded to at the conclusion of the third stanza is well known to naturalists. The vegetation at the bottom of the sea, of rivers, and of lakes, sympathizes with that of the land in the change of seasons, and is consequently influenced by the winds which announce it.". Shelley. "Had Shelley left nothing but this magnificent Ode, it would have been enough to vindicate his claim to the rank of a great poet.” — Amelia B. Edwards. No. 42. THE SEA. It is curious to note that the writer of this rapturous eulogy of the sea was never able, during the course of a long life, to cross even the English Channel. The shortest voyages in the most favorable weather were undertaken only with the certainty of the severest attacks of sea-sickness. No. 43. WINTER. From Love's Labour's Lost, v., 2. 1. 2. nail. A cow-horn. 1. 9. keel. To keel the pot is to cool its contents by stirring with a ladle. No. 44. CHRISTMAS CAROL. 1. 21. bent. Shed, rude shelter. 1. 27. teen. Trouble, pain. 1. 47. Nowell. A cry of joy —joy for the birth of the Saviour uttered at Christmas-time. No. 45. DIRGE FOR THE YEAR. Written January 1, 1821. "This lyric must be conceived as spoken by Two Voices,' one of them condoling the death of the year, and the other predicting her return to life." - W. M. Rossetti. Songs of Battle, Bravery, and Patriotism. Patriots have toiled, and in their country's cause WILLIAM COWPER. I. THE BATTLE OF AGINCOURT. FAIR stood the wind for France, Nor now to prove our chance Longer will tarry; But putting to the main, At Caux, the mouth of Seine, And taking many a fort, Marcheth towards Agincourt, Skirmishing day by day With those that stopped his way, Where the French general lay With all his power. Which in his height of pride, His ransom to provide To the king sending. Which he neglects the while, As from a nation vile, Yet with an angry smile Their fall portending. And turning to his men, Yet have we well begun, Have ever to the sun By fame been raised. "And for myself," quoth he, "This my full rest shall be, England ne'er mourn for me, Nor more esteem me. Victor I will remain, Or on this earth lie slain, Never shall she sustain Loss to redeem me. |