Chapter X: Part I: Stories and Poems of Nature (4)

But cheerily the chickadee
Singeth to me on fence and tree;
The snow sails round him as he sings,
White as the down on angels’ wings.

I watch the snow flakes as they fall
On bank and brier and broken wall;
Over the orchard, waste and brown,
All noiselessly they settle down,
Tipping the apple boughs and each
Light quivering twig of plum and peach.

On turf and curb and bower roof
The snowstorm spreads its ivory woof;
It paves with pearl the garden walk;
And lovingly round tattered stalk
And shivering stem its magic weaves
A mantle fair as lily leaves.
The hooded beehive, small and low,
Stands like a maiden in the snow;
And an old door slab is half hid
Under an alabaster lid.

All day it snows; the sheeted post
Gleams in the dimness like a ghost;
All day the blasted oak has stood
A muffled wizard of the wood;
Garland and airy cap adorn
The sumac and the wayside thorn,
And clustering spangles lodge and shine
In the dark tresses of the pine.

The ragged bramble, dwarfed and old,
Shrinks like a beggar in the cold;
In surplice white the cedar stands,
And blesses him with priestly hands.

Still cheerily the chickadee
Singeth to me on fence and tree;
But in my inmost ear is heard
The music of a holier bird;
And heavenly thoughts as soft and white
As snowflakes on my soul alight,
Clothing with love my lonely heart,
Healing with peace each bruiséd part,
Till all my being seems to be
Transfigured by their purity.

NOTES AND QUESTIONS

=Biography.= John Townsend Trowbridge (1827-1916) was an American
author. His home was in Cambridge, Mass., within the shadow of
Harvard College. At one time he was one of the editors of _Our Young
Folks’ Magazine_. “Midwinter” and “Darius Green and His Flying
Machine” are two of his poems most widely known.

=Discussion.= 1. Compare the picture that the first stanza gives you
with that given you in the first stanza of “Snow-Flakes” and that
given you by the first ten lines of “The Snow Storm.” 2. Compare the
picture that the fourth stanza gives you with that given by lines
17-22 of “The Snow Storm.” 3. In the fourth stanza, what does the
poet say the snowstorm does? 4. What does the poet mean by “muffled
wizard of the wood”? 5. What pictures does the sixth stanza give you?
6. Which of these descriptions seems to you most apt? 7. What does
the poet mean by “inmost ear”? 8. Compare this meaning with that
of “inward eye” in Wordsworth’s “The Daffodils” and with “eyes in
the heart” in Lowell’s “To the Dandelion.” 9. What do the “heavenly
thoughts” suggested by the scene do for the poet?

=Phrases=

flickering curtains, 82, 6
ivory woof, 82, 18
paves with pearl, 82, 19
tattered stalk, 82, 20
shivering stem, 82, 21
alabaster lid, 82, 26
clustering spangles, 83, 7
surplice white, 83, 11

BLOW, BLOW, THOU WINTER WIND

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

Blow, blow, thou winter wind,
Thou art not so unkind
As man’s ingratitude;
Thy tooth is not so keen
Because thou art not seen,
Although thy breath be rude.
Heigh-ho! sing, heigh-ho! unto the green holly;
Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly.
Then heigh-ho! the holly!
This life is most jolly.

Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky,
Thou dost not bite so nigh
As benefits forgot;
Though thou the waters warp,
Thy sting is not so sharp
As friend remembered not.
Heigh-ho! sing, heigh-ho! unto the green holly;
Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly.
Then heigh-ho! the holly!
This life is most jolly.

NOTES AND QUESTIONS

=Biography.= William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was the greatest
English poet, and was one of the greatest poets the world has
ever known. He wrote for all times and all peoples. He was born
at Stratford-on-Avon, where fifty-two years later he died. At the
age of twenty-two he removed to London, where for twenty years he
wrote poems and plays, was an actor, and later a shareholder in the
theater. The last six years of his life he spent quietly at Stratford.

This song is from the comedy _As You Like It_, a story of the
adventures of a group of courtiers and rustics in the forest of
Arden. A charming element in Shakespeare’s romantic comedies is
the introduction of song-poems or lyrics. All the writers of those
days, the days of Good Queen Bess, wrote songs. England was “a nest
of singing birds.” They were real songs, too, filled with joy and
musical language, and all the people sang them to the accompaniment
of the quaint musical instruments of the time. And all the people
took part in games and pageants in “Merrie England,” and listened
to the strange tales of seafarers, and went to the playhouse to see
Shakespeare’s _As You Like It_.

=Discussion.= 1. Why is the thought of green holly appropriate in
connection with the winter wind? 2. What feeling does ingratitude
arouse? 3. Why does the poet say the “tooth” of the wind is not so
keen as man’s ingratitude? 4. What change of feeling do you notice
after line 6? 5. What do you think caused the change? 6. In the
second stanza read lines that show the poet did not really think that
“life is most jolly.” 7. Which lines explain the poet’s distrust
of friendship? 8. Which word in stanza I is explained by line 3 of
stanza 2? 9. Find a word in stanza 1 that gives the same thought as
the second line of the second stanza. 10. Give the meaning of “warp”
in stanza 2 (an old Saxon proverb said, “Winter shall warp water”).

=Phrases=

benefits forgot, 84, 13
friendship is feigning, 84, 18

WHEN ICICLES HANG BY THE WALL

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

When icicles hang by the wall,
And Dick the shepherd blows his nail,
And Tom bears logs into the hall,
And milk comes frozen home in pail,
When blood is nipp’d, and ways be foul,
Then nightly sings the staring owl,
Tu-whit;
Tu-who—a merry note,
While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.

When all aloud the wind doth blow,
And coughing drowns the parson’s saw,
And birds sit brooding in the snow.
And Marian’s nose looks red and raw,
When roasted crabs hiss in the bowl,
Then nightly sings the staring owl,
Tu-whit;
Tu-who—a merry note,
While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.

NOTES AND QUESTIONS

For Biography, see page 85.

This is the second part of a song of four stanzas, found in the
comedy _Love’s Labor’s Lost_. The first two stanzas are descriptive
of spring, and introduce the song of the cuckoo. The last two stanzas
are given here.

=Discussion.= 1. Do these lines describe life in the city or in the
country? 2. What does the use of names, Dick, Tom, Joan, and Marian,
add to the poem? 3. For what use were logs brought into the hall? 4.
Can you see fitness in the use of the word “greasy”? 5. What is the
song of the owl? 6. Explain the second line of stanza 2. 7. Why is
the owl called “staring”?

=Phrases=

blows his nail, 85, 2
ways be foul, 85, 5
staring owl, 86, 1
keel the pot, 86, 4
parson’s saw, 86, 6
brooding in the snow, 86, 7