LET me move slowly through the street,

Filled with an ever-shifting train,
Amid the sound of steps that beat

The murmuring walks like autumn rain.

How fast the flitting figures come!

The mild, the fierce, the stony face;
Some bright with thoughtless smiles, and some

Where secret tears have left their trace.

They pass — to toil, to strife, to rest;

To halls in which the feast is spread;
To chambers where the funeral guest

In silence sits beside the dead.

And some to happy homes repair,

Where children, pressing cheek to cheek,
With mute caresses 2 shall declare

The tenderness they can not speak.

And some, who walk in calmness here,

Shall shudder as they reach the door
Where one who made their dwelling dear,

Its flower, its light, is seen no more.

Youth with pale cheek and slender frame,

And dreams of greatness in thine eye!
Go'st thou to build 3 an early name,

Or early in the task to die?

1

steps that beat...rain. Show (through French caresse); hence, the appositeness of this simile. literally, a mark of endearment.

caress: from Latin carus, dear 3 build. What is the figure?

2

Keen son of trade, with eager brow!

Who is now fluttering in thy snare? 2
Thy golden fortunes — tower they now,

Or melt the glittering spires in air?

Who of this crowd to-night shall tread

The dance till daylight gleam again?
Who sorrow o'er the untimely dead?

Who writhe in throes of mortal pain ?

Some, famine-struck, shall think how long

The cold dark hours, how slow the light;
And some who flaunt amid the throng

Shall hide in dens of shame to-night.

Each, where his tasks or pleasures call,

They pass, and heed each other not.
There is who heeds, who holds them all 4

In His large love and boundless thought.

These struggling tides of life, that seem

In wayward, aimless course to tend,
Are eddies of the mighty stream

That rolls to its appointed end.5

1 son of trade. Explain.

4 There is ... all. Supply the 2 Who ... snare? On what is ellipsis. Point out an alliteration. this metaphor founded ?

5 struggling tides... end. Point 3 Each. What is the grammati-out the particulars in this fine cal construction of this word ? metaphor.

3. – THE ANTIQUITY OF FREEDOM.

[In this lofty hymn we find the poet in still another mood, striking his lyre to the theme of Liberty The poem is written in blank verse. Define.] HERE are 1 old trees, tall oaks and gnarléd 2 pines, That stream with gray-green mosses ; here the ground Was never trenched 3 by spade, and flowers spring up Unsown, and die ungathered. It is sweet To linger here, among the flitting birds And leaping squirrels, wandering brooks, and winds That shake the leaves, and scatter, as they pass, A fragrance from the cedars thickly set With pale-blue berries. In these peaceful shades, Peaceful, unpruned, immeasurably old, — My thoughts go up the long dim path of years, Back to the earliest days of liberty.

O Freedom !4 thou art not, as poets dream, A fair young girl, with light and delicate limbs, And wavy tresses gushing from the cap With which the Roman master crowned his slave 7

1 Here are, etc. in this intro 4 Freedom. What is the figure ductory stanza the poet outlines a of speech ? sweet bit of still life in the “peace 5 fair young girl, etc. The charful shades" of the forest, as a back-acter in which the Goddess of Libground from which the moving and erty is usually represented in art. wrestling forms he introduces stand 6 gushing, etc. Substitute a prose out with admirable distinctness. expression.

2 gnarléd=knarlei: from Ger ? cap... slave. A Roman masman knorre, a knot in wood. ter, on freeing a slave, placed on lis,

3. trenched: from Latin truncare head a Phrygian cap in token of (through French trancher, to cut), his freedom. Hence the cap on:

our liberty-poles.

dug 11p.

When he took off the gyves. A bearded man, Armed to the teeth, art thou: one mailéd hand Grasps the broad shield, and one the sword; thy

brow, Glorious in beauty though it be, is scarred With tokens of old wars ;3 thy massive limbs Are strong with struggling. Power at thee has

launched His bolts,4 and with his lightnings smitten thee: They could not quench the life thou hast from

heaven.
Merciless Power has dug thy dungeon deep,
And his swart 6 armorers, by a thousand fires,
Have forged thy chain : yet, while he deems thee

bound,
The links are shivered, and the prison-walls
Fall outward; terribly thou springest forth -
As springs the flame above a burning pile,
And shoutest to the nations, who return
Thy shoutings, while the pale oppressor flies.

Thy birthright; was not given by human hands: Thou wert twin-born with man. In pleasant fields, While yet our race was few, thou sat'st with him

1

gyves, fetters.

5 heaven, that which is heaven 2 Armed to the teeth. Explain or heaved up over our heads. this expression.

To tend the quiet flock, and watch the stars,
And teach the reed' to utter simple airs.
Thou by his side, amid the tangled wood,
Didst war upon the panther and the wolf,
His only foes ; and thou with him didst draw
The earliest furrow on the mountain-side,
Soft with the deluge. Tyranny himself,?
Thy enemy, although of reverend look,
Hoary with many years, and far obeyed,
Is later born than thou ;3 and, as he meets
The grave defiance of thine elder eye,
The usurper trembles in his fastnesses.

Thou shalt wax stronger with the lapse of years; But he shall fade into a feebler age, Feebler, yet subtler. He shall weave his snares, And spring them on thy careless steps, and clap His withered hands, and from their ambush call His hordes to fall upon thee. He shall send Quaint maskers, 4 wearing fair and gallant forms To catch thy gaze, and uttering graceful words To charm thy ear; while his sly imps, by stealth, Twine round thee threads of steel, light thread on

thread That grow to fetters; or bind down thy arms