9. What might be hidden behind the apple blossoms, among the golden corn, or under the boughs of the wood, without his knowing of it or dreaming of it?

10. Why is it no wonder that man's religion has much of sorrow in it, and that he needs a suffering Savior?

REMARKS. This little extract is a cutting rebuke to those who take a pessimistic view of life; and yet it is all done in a playful and delightful manner. There are exquisite touches in it that can be enjoyed, but never described. Notice one in the introductory lines, and another in the questions near the close. The description of an English landscape is all included in fifteen short lines; yet where can a more true, a more vivid, or a more comprehensive panorama be found? It affords a fine study for those who need to learn the art of putting much in little.

THE HUMMING-BIRD.

JOHN JAMES AUDUBON.

1. What effect should the beauty and grace of the hummingbird have upon every one who beholds him?

2. When does the humming-bird appear in our climate?

3. What friendly office does the humming-bird perform for the flowers which he visits?

4. Describe the movements of the bird as he examines the flowers.

5. What are all visited by him in their turn?

6. What does he meet with everywhere?

The upper part of his body?

7. How is his throat described?

His flight?

8. How does he move from one flower to another?

9. How far north does he extend his journeyings?

10. How does he avoid being caught by the severe cold of a northern climate?

THE CLOUD.

PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY.

1. What does the cloud do for the flowers?

The buds?

2. Where are the buds rocked?

3. How does the cloud laugh?

For the leaves?

4. Point out the rhetorical figures in the first stanza, and explain their literal meaning, showing why they are appropriate. 5. What suggests the idea that the pines groan aghast ? How does the cloud sleep?

6. Who is the cloud's pilot?

Where does he sit?

How does it behave?

7. Where is the thunder imprisoned?

8. Where does the lightning pilot guide the cloud?

9. In what does the upper cloud bask, even when rain is falling

on the earth beneath?

10. How is the sunrise described? What does it do

11. By what simile is this action illustrated?

12. Describe the evening scene. Explain the metaphor in the last part of the stanza.

The simile.

13. Paraphrase the fourth stanza.

Note and literalize the eight

rhetorical figures which it contains.

14. How does the cloud embellish the sun and the moon?

15. When are the volcanoes dimmed and the stars made to reel

and swim?

16. How is the cloud represented as bridging the sea?

17. What are the columns, or abutments, of the bridge ?

18. Describe the rainbow scene.

19. Paraphrase the sixth stanza.

20. Note and explain its rhetorical figures.

ANALYSIS. 1. Useful offices of the cloud. 2. Journeyings. 3. Sunrise and sunset effects. 4. Moonlight scenes. 5. The bridge of cloud, and the triumphal arch of the rainbow. 6. Origin and evanescent character of the cloud.

REMARKS. The most striking characteristics of this poem are its profusion of figures and luxuriance of imagination. To the casual reader the subject may seem hidden under extravagant ornamentation; but careful examination will show that the figures

nearly

all of them at least are not only delicate and beautiful, but well-founded. The flights of imagination, though bordering on the fanciful, are not affected. They traverse the natural air of the writer; though it must be confessed that he inhabits an atmosphere too rare for ordinary beings to sustain themselves in for any great length of time, and that he is sometimes hard to follow.

AN APOSTROPHE TO WINTER.

WILLIAM COWPER.

1. How is personified winter described?

2. How is winter commonly regarded?

3. Why is it dreaded ?

4. How does the poet regard winter, notwithstanding its unloveliness to others?

5. What does the poet mean by saying that the sun is held a prisoner in the undawning east?

6. Why is winter said to be impatient of the sun's stay, hurrying him down to the rosy west ?

7. How does winter compensate for the loss of these hours of daylight?

8. What is as much dispersed during the busy cares of daylight as the members of the family may have been?

ANALYSIS. I. Personification and portraiture of winter. 2. Affection for the gloomy season. 3. Shortened days and lengthened evenings.

--

REMARKS. This selection includes much in little. Its imagery is strong and vivid, without a trace of obscurity. It is crystallized thought; hence it is true poetry.

A WINTER MORNING.

COWPER.

1. What fires the horizon this winter morning?

2. When do the clouds appear more ardent to flee from the fiery orb of the sun?

3. What do they most resemble ?

4.

Describe the effect of the sun's slanting rays upon the land

scape.

5. How is the poet amused at his own shadow ?

6. By what is the verdure of the plain deeply buried?

7. What effect have these early rays of sunlight upon weeds and coarse grass that are usually so unsightly?

8. Give the poet's description of the unsheltered cattle.

9. How does he picture the carving of the haystack to obtain food for the cattle?

10. Give his portrait of the woodman, and of the dog that fol lows him.

11. How does the woodman regale himself, as he strides onward to his work ?

12. Describe the actions of the domestic fowls that come at the housewife's call.

13. Write a paraphrase of this selection.

14. Point out the rhetorical figures.

ANALYSIS.

I. The rising sun and its effect upon the landscape. 2. The patient cattle and the swain who feeds them. 3. The woodman with his dog and pipe. 4. The housewife and her fowls.

REMARKS. This poem is remarkably realistic. Each scene is accurately and minutely drawn. Nothing is omitted, yet every detail is interesting. Those who paraphrase the selection will soon be convinced that the poet has wasted no words, and that he has chosen them with consummate skill. Nothing could be more simple than the subjects here presented; yet one needs but to yield himself to the influences of the lines, in order to find that they are genuinely poetic. What a contrast between this and the artificial style of Pope, who had been so popular !

THE ICE-PALACE.

COWPER.

1. With what rhetorical figure does the selection begin?

2. How is the building of the palace poetically described?

3.

What might poetry, in imagination, place in such a palace?

4. What are winter's troops, and what his weapons?

5. How silently did the fabric rise?

6. How was it made one solid whole?

7. How was it lighted?

8. How was it furnished?

9. What was the origin, and what was the destiny, of this scene of evanescent glory?

10. How was it a fit emblem of human grandeur and the court of

kings?

11. How do great princes, like children, try to delight themselves

in play?

12. How do some of them amuse the dull, sad years of an indo

lent life?