1

By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April's breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood,

And fired the shot heard round the world.2

The foe long since in silence slept;

Alike the conqueror silent sleeps;

And Time the ruined bridge has swept

Down the dark stream which seaward creeps.

On this green bank, by this soft stream,
We set to-day a votive stone;

That memory may their deed redeem,3
When, like our sires, our sons are gone.

Spirit, that made those heroes dare

To die, and leave their children free,
Bid Time and Nature gently spare
The shaft we raise to them and thee.

5. THE PROBLEM.

I LIKE a church; I like a cowl;5
I love a prophet of the soul;

1 rude bridge. The pupil will find, in the historical account, that part of the Concord engagement was a brisk skirmish at the "rude bridge" over the Concord River. The house in which Emerson was born stands hard by the bridge, and his father, the village pastor, witnessed the combat from his study-windows.

2 here once world: this couplet has had a great popularity, and is one of the most familiar of familiar quotations."

3 redeem, call back.

4 the shaft: that is, the monument.

5 cowl (from Latin cucullus, a cap or hood), a monk's hood or habit. It is used by metonymy for monk.

And on my heart monastic1 aisles

Fall like sweet strains, or pensive smiles:
Yet not for all his faith can see
Would I that cowléd churchman be.

Why should the vest 2 on him allure
Which I could not on me endure?

3

Not from a vain or shallow thought
His awful Jove young Phidias 3 wrought;
Never from lips of cunning fell

The thrilling Delphic oracle; 4

Out from the heart of nature rolled
The burdens of the Bible old;
The litanies of nations came,
Like the volcano's tongue of flame,
Up from the burning core below, —
The canticles of love and woe;

The hand that rounded Peter's dome,
And groined the aisles of Christian Rome,

Wrought in a sad sincerity;

Himself from God he could not free;
He builded better than he knew;1.
The conscious stone to beauty grew.

3

Know'st thou what wove yon wood bird's nest
Of leaves, and feathers from her breast?
Or how the fish outbuilt her shell,
Painting with morn2 each annual 3 cell?
Or how the sacred pine-tree adds
To her old leaves new myriads?
Such and so grew these holy piles,
Whilst love and terror laid the tiles.
Earth proudly wears the Parthenon,
As the best gem upon her zone;
And Morning opes 5 with haste her lids,
To gaze upon the Pyramids;

O'er England's abbeys bends the sky,
As on its friends, with kindred eye;
For, out of Thought's interior sphere,
These wonders rose to upper air;
And Nature gladly gave them place,
Adopted them into her race,
And granted them an equal date
With Andes and with Ararat.

1 he builded. .. knew, now a much-quoted line.

4 Parthenon: the Temple of Minerva at Athens; one of the most

2 with morn. Express the idea celebrated of the Greek temples, and in your own words.

usually regarded as the most perfect

3 annual (from Latin annus, a specimen of Greek architecture. year), yearly.

5

opes, poetic form of opens.

These temples grew as grows the grass;
Art might obey, but not surpass.
The passive Master lent his hand

To the vast soul that o'er him planned;
And the same power that reared the shrine
Bestrode the tribes that knelt within.

Ever the fiery Pentecost1

Girds with one flame the countless host,
Trances the heart through chanting choirs,
And through the priest the mind inspires.
The word unto the prophet spoken,
Was writ on tables yet unbroken;
The word by seers or sibyls told,
In groves of oak, or fanes of gold,
Still floats upon the morning wind,
Still whispers to the willing mind.
One accent of the Holy Ghost
The heedless world hath never lost.
I know what say the fathers wise,-
The Book itself before me lies,
Old Chrysostom,2 best Augustine,3
And he who blent both in his line,5

era.

1 Pentecost (from a Greek word | Fathers" of the Christian Church meaning fiftieth), a solemn festival during the early centuries of our of the Jews, so called because it was celebrated on the fiftieth day after the feast of the passover.

2 Chrysostom (Greek chrusos, golden, and tomos, mouth, so named from the splendor of his eloquence): John, bishop of Antioch, one of the most renowned of the Greek

8 Augustine: that is, St. Augustine (354-430 A.D.), the greatest of the Latin "Fathers," and renowned for his many great theological works.

4 blent. Give the modern form. 5 in his line. Explain.

The younger Golden Lips or mines,
Taylor, the Shakespeare of divines.
His words are music in my ear,
I see his cowléd portrait dear;
And yet, for all his faith could see,
I would not the good bishop2 be.

[As stated in the introduction, Emerson for many years carried on a correspondence with Thomas Carlyle. The following interesting revelation of Emerson's private life is from a letter dated at Concord, May 10, 1838.]

WHY should you not embark in the Victoria steamer, and come in a fortnight to New York, and in twentyfour hours more to Concord? Your study arm-chair, fireplace, and bed, long vacant, auguring, expect you. Then you shall revise your proofs, and dictate wit and learning to the New World. Think of it in good earnest. In aid of your friendliest purpose, I will set down some of the facts.

I occupy, or improve as we Yankees say, two acres only of God's earth; on which is my house, my kitchengarden, my orchard of thirty young trees, my empty

1 Taylor: that is, Jeremy Tay-his imagery; and the "younger lay (1613-1667): the most eloquent Chrysostom," because, like the of Anglican divines. He was born elder, he taught divine things in three years before Shakespeare's golden words. death. Emerson styles him the "Shakespeare of divines,” on account of the prodigal richness of

2 good bishop: that is, Taylor, who was bishop of Down and Connor.