Having the graces of speech, and skill in the turning

of phrases."

Taking the hand of his friend, who still was reluctant and doubtful,

Holding it long in his own, and pressing it kindly, he added:

"Though I have spoken thus lightly, yet deep is the feeling that prompts me;

Surely you cannot refuse what I ask in the name of our friendship!"

Then made answer John Alden:

friendship is sacred;

What

180

"The name of

you demand in that name, I have not the power to deny you!"

So the strong will prevailed, subduing and moulding the gentler,

Friendship prevailed over love, and Alden went on his errand.

III

THE LOVER'S ERRAND

So the strong will prevailed, and Alden went on his

errand,

185

Out of the street of the village, and into the paths of

the forest,

Into the tranquil woods, where bluebirds and robins were building

Towns in the populous trees, with hanging gardens of verdure,

Peaceful, aerial cities of joy and affection and freedom.

All around him was calm, but within him commotion and conflict,

190

Love contending with friendship, and self with each generous impulse.

To and fro in his breast his thoughts were heaving and dashing,

As in a foundering ship, with every roll of the vessel,

Washes the bitter sea, the merciless surge of the ocean!

"Must I relinquish it all," he cried with a wild lamentation,—

188 Populous: why are the trees so called?

195

Hanging gardens: the reference is to the famous Hanging Gardens of Babylon which Nebuchadnezzar built for his wife. She was a princess from Media and missed in the flat scenery of Babylon the mountains and valleys of her native land. These gardens were made in terraces supported upon columns and with soil sufficiently deep to sustain life in full-grown trees.

191 What did love prompt him to do? What did friendship urge upon him?

"Must I relinquish it all, the joy, the hope, the illu

sion?

Was it for this I have loved, and waited, and worshipped in silence?

Was it for this I have followed the flying feet and the shadow

Over the wintry sea, to the desolate shores of New England?

Truly the heart is deceitful, and out of its depths of

corruption

200

Rise, like an exhalation, the misty phantoms of passion; Angels of light they seem, but are only delusions of Satan.

All is clear to me now; I feel it, I see it distinctly! This is the hand of the Lord; it is laid upon me in

anger,

For I have followed too much the heart's desires and

devices,

205

Worshipping Astaroth blindly, and impious idols of Baal.

198, 199 Longfellow supposes Alden's attachment to have begun in England. See the sketch of the poem in the preface.

206 Astaroth and Baal: these were Phoenician deities, Astaroth, also spelled Astarte, being about the same as the Roman Venus. Look up Judges ii. 12, 13, and I Samuel xii. 10. What Commandment was broken by such worship?

This is the cross I must bear; the sin and the swift retribution."

So through the Plymouth woods John Alden went on his errand;

Crossing the brook at the ford, where it brawled over pebble and shallow,

Gathering still, as he went, the Mayflowers blooming

around him,

210

Fragrant, filling the air with a strange and wonderful

sweetness,

Children lost in the woods, and covered with leaves in their slumber.

"Puritan flowers," he said, "and the type of Puritan maidens,

Modest and simple and sweet, the very type of Priscilla!

So I will take them to her; to Priscilla the Mayflower of Plymouth,

215

210 Mayflowers: the trailing arbutus. The name is applied in England to the hawthorn. It is said that the Pilgrims called the trailing arbutus thus after the hawthorn of their old home.

208, 209 These lines would seem to indicate that there were other houses in the settlement that winter than the little cluster on Leyden St. Another instance of poetic license.

212 What story is referred to?

Modest and simple and sweet, as a parting gift will I take them;

Breathing their silent farewells, as they fade and wither and perish,

Soon to be thrown away as is the heart of the giver."

So through the Plymouth woods John Alden went on his errand;

Came to an open space, and saw the disk of the

ocean,

220

Sailless, sombre and cold with the comfortless breath of the east-wind;

Saw the new-built house, and people at work in a meadow;

Heard, as he drew near the door, the musical voice of Priscilla

Singing the hundredth Psalm, the grand old Puritan

anthem,

Music that Luther sang to the sacred words of the

Psalmist,

225

Full of the breath of the Lord, consoling and comforting many.

224 Who wrote the words of the hundredth Psalm?

225 Who was Luther? Who was the Psalmist, and why was he so called?

226 Look up Genesis ii. 7.