"tingling hits and rollicking fun" that recall Sydney Smith, mirthful satire unequaled except by Hood, and simple pathos drawn from the same inner fountains that bubbled up in Burns and Béranger. In an interesting letter to the school-children of Cincinnati, written in November, 1880 (on the occasion of their celebration of his seventy-first birthday), the poet tells us how he would be judged. "You are doing me great honor by committing some of my lines to memory, and bringing me so kindly into remembrance. I began writing and printing my poems at an age when many are far advanced in wisdom, but I was boyish and immature. And so it happens that some productions of mine got established in my books which I look upon now as green fruit, which had better been left ungathered. After all, it sometimes happens that youthful readers find a certain pleasure in writings which their authors find themselves to have outgrown, and shake their gray heads over as if they ought to have written like old men when they were boys. So, if any of you can laugh over any of my early verses, unbutton your small jackets, and indulge in that pleasing convulsion to your hearts' content. But I sincerely hope that you will find something better in my pages; and if you will remember me by The Chambered Nautilus, or The Promise, or The Living Temple, your memories will be a monument I shall think more of than of any of bronze or marble." Taking the poet at his word, we begin our Holmes extracts with the three poems named. 1. THE CHAMBERED NAUTILUS. ["The Chambered Nautilus" is one of the charming lyrics introduced by Holmes into The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table. "I will read you a few lines," says the Autocrat, "suggested by looking at a section of one of those chambered shells to which is given the name of Pearly Nautilus. We need not trouble ourselves about the distinction be tween this and the Paper Nautilus, the Argonauta of the ancients. The name applied to both shows that each has long been compared to a ship; as you may see more fully in Webster's Dictionary, or the 'Encyclopedia,' to which he refers. If you will look into Roget's Bridgewater Treatise, you will find a figure of one of these shells, and a section of it. The last will show you the series of enlarging compartments successively dwelt in by the animal that inhabits the shell, which is built in a widening spiral. Can you find no lesson in this?"] THIS is the ship of pearl, which, poets feign,1 The venturous bark that flings On the sweet summer wind its purpled wings Where the cold sea-maids rise to sun their streaming Its webs of living gauze no more unfurl; 1 feign, make believe. 2 In gulfs enchanted, etc. The nautilus is found in the warm waters of the Mediterranean Sea, the Indian Ocean, and the Gulf of Mexico. 3 Siren, one of three (or two) damsels fabled by the classic poets to have dwelt near the island of Capreæ in the Mediterranean, and to have sung with such sweetness that they who sailed by forgot their country, and died in an ecstasy of delight. 4 sea-maids, in Grecian mythology, the nereides, or sea-nymphs. Where its dim dreaming life was wont to dwell, Before thee lies revealed, 1 Its irised ceiling rent, its sunless crypt unsealed! 1 Year after year beheld the silent toil That spread his lustrous coil; 2 Still, as the spiral grew, He left the past year's dwelling for the new, Stretched in his last-found home, and knew the old no more. Thanks for the heavenly message brought by thee, Child of the wandering sea, Cast from her lap, forlorn! From thy dead lips a clearer note is born 4 Than ever Triton blew from wreathéd horn! While on mine ear it rings, Through the deep caves of thought I hear a voice that sings: unsealed. To | is, the lesson taught by the habits of this animal. The lesson is found in the last stanza. 1 Its webs . . understand this stanza, it should be borne in mind that the poet "has before him a specimen of the nautilus, cut into sections and so revealing its inner structure. 2 coil, the convolutions of the shell, the "spiral" spoken of in the next line. 8 the heavenly message: that 4 Triton, a fabled sea demigod, the son of Neptune and Venus, and the trumpeter of Neptune. Holmes has here in mind a line of Wordsworth's, — "Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn." Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul, Leave thy low-vaulted past!1 Let each new temple, nobler than the last, Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea! [This poem was written on the occasion of a fair held for some benevolent purpose.] 3 NoT charity we ask, Nor yet thy gift refuse;" Please thy light fancy with the easy task Only to look and choose. The little-heeded toy That wins thy treasured gold Heaven rains on every heart, 1 thy low-vaulted past. plain the metaphor. Ex-New Testament the words in which 2 The promise. The "promise" here referred to is that spoken of in the last stanza. Quote from the 8 charity, literally love, but here meaning alms-giving. 4 refuse. See Glossary. The drops of mercy choosing as they part One kindly deed may turn The fountain of thy soul To love's sweet day-star, that shall o'er thee burn Long as its currents roll! The pleasures thou hast planned, Where shall their memory be When the white angel with the freezing hand 2 Living, thou dost not live, If mercy's spring run dry; What Heaven has lent thee wilt thou freely give,3 Dying, thou shalt not die! He promised even so! To thee His lips repeat, Behold, the tears that soothed thy sister's woe 3. THE LIVING TEMPLE. NoT in the world of light alone, ... 1 Heaven rains press in your own words. side. Ex 2 the white angel, etc. What is meant by this figurative expression? 8 wilt thou freely give if thou wilt freely give. Transpose this stanza into the prose order. 4 soothed. Give a synonym. |