Chapter XXXIII: Introduction (7)

I have been the more anxious to delineate fully the person and habits of the renowned Van Twiller, from the consideration that he was not only the first, but also the best governor that ever presided over this ancient and respectable province; and so tranquil and benevolent was his reign, that I do not find throughout the whole of it, a single instance of any offender being brought to punishment—a most indubitable sign of a merciful governor, and a case unparalleled, excepting in the reign of the illustrious King Log, from whom, it is hinted, the renowned Van Twiller was a lineal descendant.

The very outset of the career of this excellent magistrate was distinguished by an example of legal acumen, that gave flattering presage of a wise and equitable administration. The morning after he had been solemnly installed in office, and at the moment that he was making his breakfast, from a prodigious earthen dish, filled with milk and Indian pudding, he was suddenly interrupted by the appearance of one Wandle Schoonhoven, a very important old burgher of New-Amsterdam, who complained bitterly of one Barent Bleecker, inasmuch as he fraudulently refused to come to a settlement of accounts, seeing that there was a heavy balance in favor of the said Wandle. Governor Van Twiller, as I have already observed, was a man of few words; he was likewise a mortal enemy to multiplying writings—or being disturbed at his breakfast. Having listened attentively to the statement of Wandle Schoonhoven, giving an occasional grunt, as he shoveled a spoonful of Indian pudding into his mouth—either as a sign that he relished the dish, or comprehended the story—he called unto him his constable, and pulling out of his breeches pocket a huge jack-knife, despatched it after the defendant as a summons, accompanied by his tobacco-box as a warrant.

This summary process was as effectual in those simple days as was the seal ring of the great Haroun Alraschid among the true believers. The two parties being confronted before him, each produced a book of accounts written in a language and character that would have puzzled any but a High Dutch commentator, or a learned decipherer of Egyptian obelisks, to understand. The sage Wouter took them one after the other, and having poised them in his hands, and attentively counted over the number of leaves, fell straightway into a very great doubt, and smoked for half an hour without saying a word; at length, laying his finger beside his nose, and shutting his eyes for a moment, with the air of a man who has just caught a subtle idea by the tail, he slowly took his pipe from his mouth, puffed forth a column of tobacco-smoke, and with marvelous gravity and solemnity pronounced—that having carefully counted over the leaves and weighed the books, it was found, that one was just as thick and as heavy as the other—therefore it was the final opinion of the court that the accounts were equally balanced—therefore Wandle should give Barent a receipt, and Barent should give Wandle a receipt—and the constable should pay the costs.

This decision being straightway made known, diffused general joy throughout New-Amsterdam, for the people immediately perceived that they had a very wise and equitable magistrate to rule over them. But its happiest effect was, that not another law-suit took place throughout the whole of his administration—and the office of constable fell into such decay that there was not one of those losel scouts known in the province for many years. I am the more particular in dwelling on this transaction, not only because I deem it one of the most sage and righteous judgments on record, and well worthy the attention of modern magistrates, but because it was a miraculous event in the history of the renowned Wouter—being the only time he was ever known to come to a decision in the whole course of his life.

NOTES AND QUESTIONS

For Biography, see page 424.

=Discussion.= 1. Does Irving describe Wouter Van Twiller directly or
indirectly? 2. What conclusion are you led to concerning Wouter’s
mentality, despite the author’s statements to the contrary? 3.
Describe Wouter’s appearance in your own words. 4. Do you think the
author is more inclined to state facts, or to imply them? Prove your
point through the paragraphs dealing with the Dutchman’s behavior
during the council meetings. 5. What was the only decision that
Wouter ever reached? 6. Do you think Irving uses any of the following
methods for developing the humor of the tale: exaggeration, sarcasm,
irony? Or do you think the humor lies in the way he relates with
great seriousness facts that are obviously ridiculous? 7. What do you
think is the most amusing incident or description in the sketch?

=Phrases=

under the commission and control, 547, 3
transparent firmament, 548, 1
amorous ditties, 548, 3
successively dozed away, 548, 10
vaporing, superficial pretender, 548, 19
nobly proportioned, 549, 1
stupendous dimensions, 549, 5
infallible index, 549, 15
lesser magnitude, 549, 20
fabricated by an experienced timmerman, 550, 2
deliberation of extraordinary length, 550, 18
point of authenticity, 550, 23
example of legal acumen, 551, 1
losel scouts, 552, 9

AMERICAN WORKERS AND THEIR WORK

MAKERS OF THE FLAG

FRANKLIN K. LANE

This morning as I passed into the Land Office, the Flag dropped me a most cordial salutation, and from its rippling folds I heard it say: “Good morning, Mr. Flag Maker.”

“I beg your pardon, Old Glory,” I said; “aren’t you mistaken? I am not the President of the United States, nor a member of Congress, nor even a general in the army. I am only a Government clerk.”

“I greet you again, Mr. Flag Maker,” replied the gay voice; “I know you well. You are the man who worked in the swelter of yesterday straightening out the tangle of that farmer’s homestead in Idaho, or perhaps you found the mistake in the Indian contract in Oklahoma, or helped to clear that patent for the hopeful inventor in New York, or pushed the opening of that new ditch in Colorado, or made that mine in Illinois more safe, or brought relief to the old soldier in Wyoming. No matter, whichever one of these beneficent individuals you may happen to be, I give you greeting, Mr. Flag Maker.”

I was about to pass on, when the Flag stopped me with these words:

“Yesterday the President spoke a word that made happier the future of ten million peons in Mexico; but that act looms no larger on the flag than the struggle which the boy in Georgia is making to win the Corn Club prize this summer.

“Yesterday the Congress spoke a word which will open the door of Alaska; but a mother in Michigan worked from sunrise until far into the night, to give her boy an education. She, too, is making the flag.

“Yesterday we made a new law to prevent financial panics, and yesterday, maybe, a school teacher in Ohio taught his first letters to a boy who will one day write a song that will give cheer to the millions of our race. We are all making the flag.”

“But,” I said impatiently, “these people were only working!” Then came a great shout from the Flag:

“The work that we do is the making of the Flag.

“I am not the flag; not at all. I am nothing more than its shadow.

“I am whatever you make me, nothing more.

“I am your belief in yourself, your dream of what a People may become.

“I live a changing life, a life of moods and passions, of heartbreaks and tired muscles.

“Sometimes I am strong with pride, when workmen do an honest piece of work, fitting rails together truly.

“Sometimes I droop, for then purpose has gone from me, and cynically I play the coward.

“Sometimes I am loud, garish, and full of that ego that blasts judgment.

“But always, I am all that you hope to be, and have the courage to try for.

“I am song and fear, struggle and panic, and ennobling hope.

“I am the day’s work of the weakest man, and the largest dream of the most daring.

“I am the Constitution and the courts, the statutes and the statute makers, soldier and dreadnaught, drayman and street sweep, cook, counselor, and clerk.

“I am the battle of yesterday, and the mistake of tomorrow.

“I am the mystery of the men who do without knowing why.

“I am the clutch of an idea, and the reasoned purpose of resolution.

“I am no more than what you believe me to be, and I am all that you believe I can be.

“I am what you make me, nothing more.

“I swing before your eyes as a bright gleam of color, a symbol of yourself, the pictured suggestion of that big thing which makes this nation. My stars and my stripes are your dream and your labors. They are bright with cheer, brilliant with courage, firm with faith, because you have made them so out of your hearts. For you are the makers of the flag and it is well that you glory in the making.”

NOTES AND QUESTIONS

=Biography.= Franklin Knight Lane (1864-⸺) was born near
Charlottetown, Canada. While he was yet a small boy his parents moved
to California, where he attended the State University at Berkeley,
being graduated in 1886. Then he entered the newspaper field and
became New York correspondent for a number of papers in the West.
He was admitted to the bar at the age of twenty-five and practiced
law in San Francisco. In 1913 he was appointed Secretary of the
Interior in the Cabinet of President Wilson. “Makers of the Flag” is
an address made by Secretary Lane, in June, 1914, before the five
thousand officers and employees of the Department of the Interior.

=Discussion.= 1. Why did the Flag greet the author as “Mr. Flag
Maker”? 2. Why are the Georgia boy, the mother in Michigan, and the
school teacher in Ohio, Makers of the Flag? 3. Tell in your own words
some of the things that Mr. Lane says the Flag is. 4. What does the
Flag mean by saying, “I am all that you hope to be and have the
courage to try for”? 5. How is the Flag a “symbol of yourself”? 6. Do
you think that you are a Maker of the Flag? 7. In your opinion, what
class of people are the greatest Makers of the Flag? 8. Pronounce the
following: cordial; government; garish; ego.

=Phrases=

cordial salutation, 553, 2
swelter of yesterday, 553, 9
Indian contract, 553, 11
beneficent individuals, 553, 16
financial panics, 554, 8
cynically I play the coward, 554, 25
ego that blasts judgment, 554, 26
mistake of tomorrow, 554, 37
clutch of an idea, 555, 2
purpose of resolution, 555, 2

I HEAR AMERICA SINGING

WALT WHITMAN

I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear,
Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be, blithe and
strong,
The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam,
The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work,
The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat, the deckhand singing
on the steamboat deck,
The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, the hatter singing as he
stands,
The wood-cutters’ song, the plowboy’s on his way in the morning, or at
noon intermission, or at sundown,
The delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife at work, or of
the girl sewing or washing,
Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else,
The day what belongs to the day—at night the party of young fellows,
robust, friendly,
Singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs.

NOTES AND QUESTIONS

=Biography.= Walt Whitman (1819-1892) was born in Huntington, Long
Island, and educated in the public schools of Brooklyn. He left
school at the early age of thirteen to make his own way in life.
At different times he was school teacher, carpenter, builder,
journalist, and poet. During the Civil War he became a volunteer
nurse in and about Washington, D. C., and the story of his unselfish
hospital service is one of the most inspiring that has come down
to us from that war. Lincoln said of him, “Well, _he_ looks like a
_man_!”

Two points about Whitman are worthy of notice. The first is that
he was a man of intensely democratic sympathies. He wrote of “the
dear love of comrades” as the real means for bringing about a better
understanding among men of every nation, a better government, and the
end of war. He loved every part of America, and all America’s sons
and daughters.

The word “democracy” constantly occurs in his poetry and his prose,
and by it he means the cultivation of love and coöperation among men.
He had a vision of the time when autocratic government, and all forms
of selfishness, should cease among men; like Burns, he dwelt on the
time when men all over the world should be brothers.

The second point is closely related to the first. In his dislike
for conventional and exclusive life he objected even to the _form_
developed for poetry through centuries. He was a lover of freedom,
even in writing. So he rarely uses rimes and stanzas. He calls his
form “chants,” and so they are, chants of human brotherhood and
sympathy.

=Discussion.= 1. Who is it that the poet hears singing? 2. In stanza
1, what “varied carols” does he hear? 3. What do you think was the
poet’s underlying idea in writing this poem? 4. Do you think that he
meant to point out that the road to happiness is the road to work?

=Phrases=

varied carols, 556, 1
noon intermission, 556, 12

PIONEERS! O PIONEERS!

WALT WHITMAN

Come my tan-faced children,
Follow well in order, get your weapons ready,
Have you your pistols? Have you your sharp-edged axes?
Pioneers! O pioneers!

For we cannot tarry here,
We must march my darlings, we must bear the brunt of danger,
We the youthful sinewy races, all the rest on us depend,
Pioneers! O pioneers!

O you youths, Western youths,
So impatient, full of action, full of manly pride and friendship,
Plain I see you Western youths, see you tramping with the foremost,
Pioneers! O pioneers!

Have the elder races halted?
Do they droop and end their lesson, wearied over there beyond the seas?
We take up the task eternal, and the burden and the lesson,
Pioneers! O pioneers!

All the past we leave behind,
We debouch upon a newer mightier world, varied world,
Fresh and strong the world we seize, world of labor and the march,
Pioneers! O pioneers!

We detachments steady throwing,
Down the edges, through the passes, up the mountains steep,
Conquering, holding, daring, venturing as we go the unknown ways,
Pioneers! O pioneers!

We primeval forests felling,
We the rivers stemming, vexing we and piercing deep the mines within,
We the surface broad surveying, we the virgin soil upheaving,
Pioneers! O pioneers!

Colorado men are we,
From the peaks gigantic, from the great sierras and the high plateaus,
From the mine and from the gully, from the hunting trail we come,
Pioneers! O pioneers!

From Nebraska, from Arkansas,
Central inland race are we, from Missouri, with the continental blood
intervein’d,
All the hands of comrades clasping, all the Southern, all the Northern,
Pioneers! O pioneers!

O resistless restless race!
O beloved race in all! O my breast aches with tender love for all!
O I mourn and yet exult, I am rapt with love for all,
Pioneers! O pioneers!

NOTES AND QUESTIONS

=Discussion.= 1. Whom does the poet address in stanza 1? 2. What does
he ask them if they have ready? 3. Why cannot they “tarry here”? 4.
How does the poet characterize the “western youths”? 5. Why must the
Pioneers “take up the task eternal”? 6. What new world do they enter
upon? 7. Mention some of the tasks that the Pioneers must do. 8.
Where do these pioneers come from? 9. Why does the poet mourn and yet
exult?

=Phrases=

bear the brunt, 557, 6
sinewy races, 557, 7
task eternal, 558, 3
we debouch, 558, 6
surface broad surveying, 558, 15
continental blood intervein’d, 558, 22

THE BEANFIELD

HENRY D. THOREAU

Before I finished my house, wishing to earn ten or twelve dollars by some honest and agreeable method, in order to meet my unusual expenses, I planted about two acres and a half chiefly with beans, but a small part with potatoes, corn, peas, and turnips.

Meanwhile my beans, the length of whose rows, added together, was seven miles, were impatient to be hoed, for the earliest had grown considerably before the latest were in the ground; indeed they were not easily to be put off. What was the meaning of this so steady and self-respecting, this small Herculean labor, I knew not. I came to love my rows, my beans, though so many more than I wanted. They attached me to the earth, and so I got strength like Antaeus. But why should I raise them? Only Heaven knows. This was my curious labor all summer—to make this portion of the earth’s surface, which had yielded only cinquefoil, blackberries, johnswort, and the like, before, sweet wild fruits and pleasant flowers, produce instead this pulse. What shall I learn of beans or beans of me? I cherish them, I hoe them, early and late I have an eye to them; and this is my day’s work. It is a fine broad leaf to look on. My auxiliaries are the dews and rains which water this dry soil, and what fertility is in the soil itself, which for the most part is lean and effete. My enemies are worms, cool days and, most of all, woodchucks. The last have nibbled for me a quarter of an acre clean. But what right had I to oust johnswort and the rest, and break up their ancient herb garden? Soon, however, the remaining beans will be too tough for them, and go forward to meet new foes.

I planted about two acres and a half of upland. Before any woodchuck or squirrel had run across the road, or the sun had gotten above the shrub-oaks, while all the dew was on—I would advise you to do all your work if possible while the dew is on—I began to level the ranks of haughty weeds in my beanfield and to throw dust upon their heads. Early in the morning I worked barefooted, dabbling like a plastic artist in the dewy and crumbling sand, but later in the day the sun blistered my feet. The sun lighted me to hoe beans, pacing slowly backward and forward over that yellow gravelly upland, between the long green rows, fifteen rods, the one end terminating in a shrub-oak copse where I could rest in the shade the other in a blackberry field where the green berries deepened their tints by the time I had made another round. Removing the weeds putting fresh soil about the bean stems and encouraging this weed which I had sown, making the yellow soil express its summer thought in bean leaves and blossoms rather than in wormwood and piper and millet grass, making the earth say beans instead of grass—this was my daily work. As I had little aid from horses or cattle, or hired men or boys, or improved implements of husbandry, I was much slower, and became much more intimate with my beans than usual.

It was a singular experience, that long acquaintance which I cultivated with beans, what with planting, and hoeing, and harvesting, and threshing, and picking over and selling them—the last was the hardest of all—I might add eating for I did taste. I was determined to know beans. When they were growing, I used to hoe from five o’clock in the morning till noon, and commonly spent the rest of the day about other affairs. Consider the intimate and curious acquaintance one makes with various kinds of weeds. That’s Roman wormwood—that’s pigweed—that’s sorrel—that’s piper-grass—have at him, chop him up, turn his roots upward to the sun, don’t let him have a fiber in the shade; if you do he’ll turn himself t’other side up and be as green as a leek in two days. A long war, not with cranes, but with weeds, those Trojans who had sun and rain and dews on their side. Daily the beans saw me come to their rescue armed with a hoe, and thin the ranks of their enemies, filling up the trenches with weedy dead. Many a lusty crest-waving Hector, that towered a whole foot above his crowding comrades, fell before my weapon and rolled in the dust.

My farm outgoes for the season were, for implements, seed, work, etc., $14.72½. I got twelve bushels of beans and eighteen bushels of potatoes, besides some peas and sweet corn. The yellow corn and turnips were too late to come to anything. My whole income from the farm was—

$23.44
Deducting the outgoes 14.72½
-------
There are left $ 8.71½

This is the result of my experience in raising beans. Plant the common small white bush bean about the first of June, in rows three feet by eighteen inches apart, being careful to select fresh, round, and unmixed seed. First look out for worms, and supply vacancies by planting anew. Then look out for woodchucks, if it is an exposed place, for they will nibble off the earliest tender leaves almost clean as they go; and again, when the young tendrils make their appearance, they have notice of it, and will shear them off with both buds and young pods, sitting erect like a squirrel. But above all, harvest as early as possible, if you would escape frosts and have a fair and salable crop; you may save much loss by this means.

NOTES AND QUESTIONS

=Biography.= Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) was born in Concord,
Massachusetts, and was educated in the village schools and later at
Harvard University. He was an intimate friend of Emerson, Hawthorne,
and the Alcotts. With the help of Emerson, he built a cottage beside
a pond in Walden Woods near Concord where he lived alone, planted
beans, caught fish, and for the most part lived on the products of
the soil, cultivated by his own hands. In his book, _Walden, or Life
in the Woods_, he gives a detailed account of his observations and
experiences. Other books by Thoreau are _A Week on the Concord and
the Merrimack Rivers_, _The Maine Woods_, etc.

=Discussion.= 1. Why did Thoreau wish to earn some extra money? 2.
What seeds did he plant? 3. The author likens the hoeing of the
beans to a “Herculean labor”; explain this reference. 4. What were
Thoreau’s auxiliaries? His enemies? 5. According to the author, what
is the best time to work in the garden? 6. How did he come “to know
beans” so well? 7. Explain the metaphor referring to the weeds as
Trojans. 8. How much did the author clear on his garden? 9. Do you
think the amount made was worth the labor put into it? 10. Tell one
of your experiences with a garden.

=Phrases=

Herculean labor, 559, 9
strength like Antaeus, 559, 12
auxiliaries are the dews, 560, 5
lean and effete, 560, 7
level the ranks, 560, 17
plastic artist, 560, 19
express its summer thought, 560, 28
implements of husbandry, 560, 32
intimate and curious acquaintance, 561, 3
crest-waving Hector, 561, 13
supply vacancies, 561, 29

THE SHIP-BUILDERS

JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER

The sky is ruddy in the east,
The earth is gray below,
And, spectral in the river-mist,
The ship’s white timbers show.
Then let the sounds of measured stroke
And grating saw begin;
The broad-axe to the gnarléd oak,
The mallet to the pin!

Hark!—roars the bellows, blast on blast,
The sooty smithy jars,
And fire-sparks, rising far and fast,
Are fading with the stars.
All day for us the smith shall stand
Beside that flashing forge;
All day for us his heavy hand
The groaning anvil scourge.

From far-off hills, the panting team
For us is toiling near;
For us the raftsmen down the stream
Their island barges steer.
Rings out for us the ax-man’s stroke
In forests old and still—
For us the century-circled oak
Falls crashing down his hill.

Up!—up!—in nobler toil than ours
No craftsmen bear a part;
We make of Nature’s giant powers
The slaves of human Art.
Lay rib to rib and beam to beam,
And drive the treenails free;
Nor faithless joint nor yawning seam
Shall tempt the searching sea!

Where’er the keel of our good ship
The sea’s rough field shall plow,
Where’er her tossing spars shall drip
With salt-spray caught below,
That ship must heed her master’s beck,
Her helm obey his hand,
And seamen tread her reeling deck
As if they trod the land.

Her oaken ribs the vulture-beak
Of Northern ice may peel;
The sunken rock and coral peak
May grate along her keel;
And know we well the painted shell
We give to wind and wave,
Must float, the sailor’s citadel,
Or sink, the sailor’s grave!

Ho!—strike away the bars and blocks,
And set the good ship free!
Why lingers on these dusty rocks
The young bride of the sea?
Look! how she moves adown the grooves,
In graceful beauty now!
How lowly on the breast she loves
Sinks down her virgin prow!

God bless her! wheresoe’er the breeze
Her snowy wing shall fan,
Aside the frozen Hebrides,
Or sultry Hindostan!
Where’er, in mart or on the main,
With peaceful flag unfurled,
She helps to wind the silken chain
Of commerce round the world!

Be hers the Prairie’s golden grain,
The Desert’s golden sand,
The clustered fruits of sunny Spain,
The spice of Morning-land!
Her pathway on the open main
May blessings follow free,
And glad hearts welcome back again.
Her white sails from the sea!

NOTES AND QUESTIONS

For Biography, see page 60.

=Discussion.= 1. What does the title tell us? 2. Make an outline
which shows what each stanza tells us of the ship-builders, for
example:

Stanza 1—Morning; time for work.

Stanza 2—The smithy; work of the smith, etc.

3. What do the first four lines tell us of the time? 4. Note how much
more they tell; what pictures do they give? What comparison do they
suggest? 5. What line in the second stanza adds to the picture in
stanza one? 6. In what sense is the smith working “for us”? 7. What
does the “panting team” bring from the “far-off hills”? 8. With whose
labor does the work of ship-building really begin? Read the lines
which tell this. 9. Which line in the third stanza do you like best?
10. What comparison does the poet make between ship-building and
other kinds of labor? 11. Is the “master” the only one responsible
for making the ship obey the helm? 12. What is the subject of the
verb “may feel”? 13. What dangers to the ship are pointed out? How
may the ship-builders guard against these dangers? 14. Read the
stanzas which urge honest workmanship. 15. At what point in the
building of a ship are the “bars and blocks” struck away? 16. In
what sense does this “set the good ship free”? 17. Read lines which
tell of the ship’s work. 18. In what sense can the “Prairie’s golden
grain” “be hers”? 19. What is meant by the “Desert’s golden sand”?
20. What poetic name is given to the Far East? 21. Read the lines
that express the poet’s wish for the ship. 22. Select the lines in
this poem that give the most vivid pictures. 23. Can you think of
anything of which this ship may be the symbol? 24. Compare the poem
with Longfellow’s “The Builders” (page 566) for a suggestion as to
what the ship may represent. 25. Pronounce the following: sooty;
scourge; helm; coral.

=Phrases=

spectral in the river-mist, 562, 3
measured stroke, 562, 5
sooty smithy jars, 563, 2
groaning anvil scourge, 563, 8
century-circled oak, 563, 15
drive the treenails free, 563, 22
vulture-beak of Northern ice, 564, 1
sailor’s citadel, 564, 7

THE BUILDERS

HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW

All are architects of Fate,
Working in these walls of Time;
Some with massive deeds and great,
Some with ornaments of rime.

Nothing useless is, or low;
Each thing in its place is best;
And what seems but idle show
Strengthens and supports the rest.

For the structure that we raise
Time is with materials filled;
Our todays and yesterdays
Are the blocks with which we build.

Truly shape and fashion these;
Leave no yawning gaps between;
Think not, because no man sees,
Such things will remain unseen.

In the elder days of Art,
Builders wrought with greatest care
Each minute and unseen part;
For the gods see everywhere.

Let us do our work as well,
Both the unseen and the seen;
Make the house, where gods may dwell,
Beautiful, entire, and clean.

Else our lives are incomplete,
Standing in these walls of Time,
Broken stairways, where the feet
Stumble as they seek to climb.

Build today, then, strong and sure,
With a firm and ample base;
And ascending and secure
Shall tomorrow find its place.

Thus alone can we attain
To those turrets, where the eye
Sees the world as one vast plain,
And one boundless reach of sky.

NOTES AND QUESTIONS

For Biography, see page 80.

=Discussion.= 1. Tell in your own words what the first stanza means
to you. 2. Find the line which tells that we must build whether we
wish to do so or not. 3. Which lines show that we choose the kind of
structure that we raise? 4. Upon what does the beauty of the “blocks”
depend? 5. Mention something that could cause a “yawning gap.” 6.
By whom are “massive deeds” performed? 7. By whom are “ornaments
of rime” made? 8. Explain the meaning of the “elder days of Art”
and mention some works that belong to that time. 9. Tell in your
own words the meaning of the last stanza. 10. What do you think was
Longfellow’s purpose in writing this poem?

=Phrases=

architects of Fate, 566, 1
massive deeds, 566, 3
yawning gaps, 566, 14
ample base, 567, 6
ascending and secure, 567, 7
boundless reach, 567, 12

LOVE OF COUNTRY

THE FLOWER OF LIBERTY

OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES

What flower is this that greets the morn,
Its hues from Heaven so freshly born?
With burning star and flaming band
It kindles all the sunset land;
O tell us what its name may be—
Is this the Flower of Liberty?
It is the banner of the free,
The starry Flower of Liberty.

In savage Nature’s far abode
Its tender seed our fathers sowed;
The storm-winds rocked its swelling bud,
Its opening leaves were streaked with blood,
Till lo! earth’s tyrants shook to see
The full-blown Flower of Liberty!
Then hail the banner of the free,
The starry Flower of Liberty.

Behold its streaming rays unite,
One mingling flood of braided light—
The red that fires the Southern rose,
With spotless white from Northern snows,
And, spangled o’er its azure, see
The sister Stars of Liberty!
Then hail the banner of the free,
The starry Flower of Liberty!

The blades of heroes fence it round,
Where’er it springs is holy ground;
From tower and dome its glories spread;
It waves where lonely sentries tread;
It makes the land as ocean free,
And plants an empire on the sea!
Then hail the banner of the free,
The starry Flower of Liberty.

Thy sacred leaves, fair Freedom’s flower,
Shall ever float on dome and tower,
To all their heavenly colors true,
In blackening frost or crimson dew—
And God love us as we love thee,
Thrice holy Flower of Liberty!
Then hail the banner of the free,
The starry Flower of Liberty.

NOTES AND QUESTIONS

For Biography, see page 539.

=Discussion.= 1. Read the line in the first stanza answering the
question with which the poem opens. 2. Explain the metaphor of the
“burning star” and the “flaming band,” etc. 3. How many “burning
stars” does our flag contain? How many “flaming bands”? 4. Why does
the poet call America the “sunset land”? 5. How far back in history
must we go to find the seed time of the Flower of Liberty? 6. Did the
Flower of Liberty come to full-bloom in a time of strife or a time
of peace? 7. What were the “storm-winds”? What blood streaked its
opening leaves? 8. How does the poet show that the North and South
unite as one in the flag? 9. How do the “blades of heroes fence” the
flag? 10. In the fourth stanza the poet says that the flag makes our
land as free as the ocean; what do you know about a recent struggle
over the freedom of the seas? 11. Why is the Flower of Liberty thrice
holy?

=Phrases=

freshly born, 568, 2
flaming band, 568, 3
far abode, 568, 9
swelling bud, 568, 11
streaming rays unite, 569, 1
braided light, 569, 2

OLD IRONSIDES

OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES

Ay, tear her tattered ensign down!
Long has it waved on high,
And many an eye has danced to see
That banner in the sky.
Beneath it rung the battle shout,
And burst the cannon’s roar;
The meteor of the ocean air
Shall sweep the clouds no more!

Her deck, once red with heroes’ blood,
Where knelt the vanquished foe,
When winds were hurrying o’er the flood,
And waves were white below,
No more shall feel the victor’s tread,
Or know the conquered knee;
The harpies of the shore shall pluck
The eagle of the sea!

O better that her shattered hulk
Should sink beneath the wave;
Her thunders shook the mighty deep,
And there should be her grave.
Nail to the mast her holy flag,
Set every threadbare sail,
And give her to the god of storms,
The lightning and the gale!

NOTES AND QUESTIONS

For Biography, see page 539.

=Historical Note.= Old Ironsides was the popular name given the U. S.
frigate _Constitution_. It was proposed by the Secretary of the Navy
to dispose of the ship, as it had become unfit for service. Popular
sentiment did not approve of this; it was felt that a ship which
had been the pride of the nation should continue to be the property
of the Navy and that it should be rebuilt for service when needed.
Holmes wrote this poem at the time when the matter was being widely
discussed.

=Discussion.= 1. In what spirit was this poem written? 2. What was
the motive which inspired it? 3. Do you think the poet really means
it when he cries, “Ay, tear her tattered ensign down!”? Can you give
some other instance of irony? 4. As you read this poem, do you think
of the frigate as an inanimate object or does it seem personified?
5. What is meant by “meteor of the ocean wave”? 6. Who are the
“harpies of the shore”? The “eagle of the sea”? 7. What does the
poet say would be better than to have the ship dismantled? 8. Do you
think this a fitting end for a ship of war? 9. Read the story of the
fight between the _Constitution_ and the _Guerriére_ given in your
history and be prepared to tell it in class. Why did the nation have
particular pride in this achievement? 10. Pronounce the following:
ensign; beneath.

=Phrases=

tattered ensign, 570, 1
meteor of the ocean air, 570, 7
harpies of the shore, 570, 15
shattered hulk, 571, 1

THE AMERICAN FLAG

HENRY WARD BEECHER

A thoughtful mind, when it sees a nation’s flag, sees not the flag only, but the nation itself; and whatever may be its symbols, its insignia, he reads chiefly in the flag the government, the principles, the truths, the history, which belong to the nation which sets it forth.

When the French tricolor rolls out to the wind, we see France. When the new-found Italian flag is unfurled, we see resurrected Italy. When the other three-cornered Hungarian flag shall be lifted to the wind, we shall see in it the long buried but never dead principles of Hungarian liberty. When the united crosses of St. Andrew and St. George on a fiery ground set forth the banner of Old England, we see not the cloth merely; there rises up before the mind the noble aspect of that monarchy, which, more than any other on the globe, has advanced its banner for liberty, law, and national prosperity.

This nation has a banner, too; and wherever it streamed abroad, men saw daybreak bursting on their eyes, for the American flag has been the symbol of liberty, and men rejoiced in it. Not another flag on the globe had such an errand, or went forth upon the sea, carrying everywhere, the world around, such hope for the captive, and such glorious tidings. The stars upon it were to the pining nations like the morning stars of God, and the stripes upon it were beams of morning light.

As at early dawn the stars stand first, and then it grows light, and then as the sun advances, that light breaks into banks and streaming lines of color, the glowing red and intense white striving together and ribbing the horizon with bars effulgent, so on the American flag, stars and beams of many-colored light shine out together. And wherever the flag comes, and men behold it, they see in its sacred emblazonry no rampant lion and fierce eagle, but only LIGHT, and every fold significant of liberty.

The history of this banner is all on one side. Under it rode Washington and his armies; before it Burgoyne laid down his arms. It waved on the highlands at West Point; it floated over old Fort Montgomery. When Arnold would have surrendered these valuable fortresses and precious legacies, his night was turned into day, and his treachery was driven away by the beams of light from this starry banner.

It cheered our army, driven from New York, in their solitary pilgrimage through New Jersey. It streamed in light over Valley Forge and Morristown. It crossed the waters rolling with ice at Trenton; and when its stars gleamed in the cold morning with victory, a new day of hope dawned on the despondency of the nation. And when, at length, the long years of war were drawing to a close, underneath the folds of this immortal banner sat Washington while Yorktown surrendered its hosts, and our Revolutionary struggles ended with victory.

Let us then twine each thread of the glorious tissue of our country’s flag about our heartstrings; and looking upon our homes and catching the spirit that breathes upon us from the battlefields of our fathers, let us resolve, come weal or woe, we will, in life and in death, now and forever, stand by the Stars and Stripes. They have been unfurled from the snows of Canada to the plains of New Orleans, in the halls of the Montezumas and amid the solitude of every sea; and everywhere, as the luminous symbol of resistless and beneficent power, they have led the brave to victory and to glory. They have floated over our cradles; let it be our prayer and our struggle that they shall float over our graves.

NOTES AND QUESTIONS

=Biography.= Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887) was a native of
Connecticut and a son of the famous Lyman Beecher. He was a graduate
of Amherst College and of Lane Theological Seminary. For forty years
Beecher was the pastor of Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, discussing from
the pulpit the issues of the time and championing the rights of men
everywhere, particularly the rights of oppressed men. His lectures
and sermons breathed a spirit of intense patriotism.

=Discussion.= 1. What may be seen in a nation’s flag by a thoughtful
mind? 2. Of what is the American flag a symbol? 3. What are the stars
of the flag compared to? The stripes? 4. What do people see in the
“sacred emblazonry” of the flag? 5. Tell something of the history
of this banner. 6. What is it to “stand by the stars and stripes”?
7. Do you think the men who fought for us in the Great War lived up
to the ideals given to us in this poem? 8. Pronounce the following:
insignia; horizon; rampant.

=Phrases=

resurrected Italy, 572, 7
glorious tidings, 572, 21
ribbing the horizon, 572, 27
bars effulgent, 572, 27
sacred emblazonry, 572, 30
precious legacies, 573, 5
glorious tissue, 573, 17
weal or woe, 573, 20
luminous symbol, 573, 24
beneficent power, 573, 24

THE AMERICAN FLAG

JOSEPH RODMAN DRAKE

When Freedom, from her mountain height,
Unfurled her standard to the air,
She tore the azure robe of night,
And set the stars of glory there;
She mingled with its gorgeous dyes
The milky baldric of the skies,
And striped its pure celestial white
With streakings of the morning light;
Then, from his mansion in the sun,
She called her eagle-bearer down,
And gave into his mighty hand
The symbol of her chosen land!

Majestic monarch of the cloud,
Who rear’st aloft thy regal form,
To hear the tempest-trumpings loud,
And see the lightning lances driven,
When strive the warriors of the storm,
And rolls the thunder-drum of heaven—

Child of the sun! to thee ’tis given
To guard the banner of the free,
To hover in the sulphur smoke,
To ward away the battle-stroke,
And bid its blendings shine afar,
Like rainbows on the cloud of war,
The harbingers of victory!

Flag of the brave! thy folds shall fly,
The sign of hope and triumph high,
When speaks the signal trumpet tone,
And the long line comes gleaming on,
Ere yet the life-blood, warm and wet,
Has dimmed the glistening bayonet,
Each soldier’s eye shall brightly turn
To where thy sky-born glories burn;
And as his springing steps advance,
Catch war and vengeance from the glance.
And when the cannon’s mouthings loud,
Heave in wild wreaths the battle shroud,
And gory sabers rise and fall,
Like shoots of flame on midnight’s pall;
Then shall thy meteor glances glow,
And cowering foes shall sink below
Each gallant arm that strikes beneath
That awful messenger of death.

Flag of the seas! on ocean’s wave
Thy stars shall glitter o’er the brave;
When death, careering on the gale,
Sweeps darkly round the bellied sail,
And frighted waves rush wildly back
Before the broadside’s reeling rack,
Each dying wanderer of the sea
Shall look at once to heaven and thee,
And smile to see thy splendors fly
In triumph o’er his closing eye.

Flag of the free heart’s hope and home!
By angel hands to valor given;
Thy stars have lit the welkin dome,
And all thy hues were born in heaven.
Forever float that standard sheet!
Where breathes the foe but falls before us,
With Freedom’s soil beneath our feet,
And Freedom’s banner streaming o’er us?

NOTES AND QUESTIONS

=Biography.= Joseph Rodman Drake (1795-1820), whose name is
inseparably associated with that of his friend, Fitz-Greene Halleck,
was an American poet. These two able poets together contributed a
series of forty poems to the _New York Evening Post_. Among these was
“The American Flag,” the last four lines of which were written by
Halleck, to replace those written by Drake:

“As fixed as yonder orb divine,
That saw thy bannered blaze unfurled,
Shall thy proud stars resplendent shine,
The guard and glory of the world.”

Drake was a youth of many graces of both mind and body, who wrote
verses as a bird sings—for the pure joy of it. His career was cut
short by death when he was only twenty-five years old. Of him Halleck
wrote:

“None knew thee but to love thee,
Nor named thee but to praise.”

=Discussion.= 1. Who is represented as making a flag? 2. How is it
made? 3. What flag is it? 4. What reasons can you see for choosing
the eagle as bearer of this flag? 5. What events are pictured in
which the flag has a part? 6. Note all the names the poet gives to
the flag; which of these do you like best? 7. Can you give other
names that are applied to our flag? 8. What feeling caused this poem
to be written? 9. What lines are the most stirring? 10. Which stanza
do you like best?

=Phrases=

unfurled her standard, 574, 2
azure robe, 574, 3
milky baldric, 574, 6
celestial white, 574, 7
majestic monarch, 574, 13
regal form, 574, 14
tempest-trumpings, 574, 15
sulphur smoke, 575, 3
harbingers of victory, 575, 7
sky-born glories, 575, 15
cannon’s mouthings loud, 575, 18
welkin dome, 576, 3

THE FLAG GOES BY

HENRY H. BENNETT

Hats off!
Along the street there comes
A blare of bugles, a ruffle of drums,
A flash of color beneath the sky.
Hats off!
The flag is passing by!

Blue and crimson and white it shines,
Over the steel-tipped, ordered lines.
Hats off!
The colors before us fly;
But more than the flag is passing by.

Sea fights and land fights, grim and great,
Fought to make and to save the State;
Weary marches and sinking ships;
Cheers of victory on dying lips;

Days of plenty and years of peace;
March of a strong land’s swift increase;
Equal justice, right and law,
Stately honor and reverend awe;

Sign of a nation, great and strong
To ward her people from foreign wrong;
Pride and glory and honor—all
Live in the colors to stand or fall.

Hats off!
Along the street there comes
A blare of bugles, a ruffle of drums;
And loyal hearts are beating high:
Hats off!
The flag is passing by!

NOTES AND QUESTIONS

=Biography.= 1. Henry Holcomb Bennett (1863-⸺), an American newspaper
writer, was born in Chillicothe, Ohio. He is not only a journalist,
but also a magazine writer and a landscape painter. He has been a
frequent contributor to the _Youth’s Companion_, and to the New York
_Independent_. “The Flag Goes By” is his most popular poem.

=Discussion.= 1. What feeling inspires the cry “Hats off!”? 2.
What does the poet mean by “more than a flag is passing”? 3. Name
historical events which illustrate the different references in the
third stanza. 4. Explain the meaning of “march of a strong land’s
swift increase.” 5. How could the flag “ward her people from foreign
wrong”? 6. How many of the things mentioned by the poet do you see
when the flag goes by? 7. Do you think the poem will help you to see
more?

=Phrases=

ruffle of drums, 577, 3
steel-tipped, ordered lines, 577, 8
strong land’s swift increase, 577, 17
reverend awe, 577, 19

THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER

FRANCIS SCOTT KEY

O say, can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hailed, at the twilight’s last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming;
And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
O say, does that Star-Spangled Banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On that shore, dimly seen through the mist of the deep,
Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, now conceals, now discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream;
’Tis the Star-Spangled Banner; O long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where are the foes who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war, and the battle’s confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps’ pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave;
And the Star-Spangled Banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

O thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war’s desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heaven-rescued land
Praise the power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, for our cause it is just,
And this be our motto—“In God is our trust.”
And the Star-Spangled Banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free, and the home of the brave.

NOTES AND QUESTIONS

=Biographical and Historical Note.= Francis Scott Key (1780-1843),
an American lawyer and poet, was a native of Maryland. “The
Star-Spangled Banner” made him famous.

The incidents referred to in this poem occurred during the war of
1812. In August, 1814, a strong force of British entered Washington
and burned the Capitol, the White House, and many other public
buildings. On September 13 the British admiral moved his fleet into
position to attack Fort McHenry, near Baltimore. The bombardment
lasted all night, but the fort was so bravely defended that the
flag was still floating over it when morning came. Just before the
bombardment began, Francis Scott Key was sent to the admiral’s
frigate to arrange for an exchange of prisoners and was told to
wait until the bombardment was over. All night he watched the fort
and by the first rays of morning light he saw the Stars and Stripes
still waving. Then, in his joy and pride, he wrote the stirring
words of the song which is now known and loved by all Americans—“The
Star-Spangled Banner.”

=Discussion.= 1. Relate the incident that called forth the poem. 2.
What “perilous fight” had taken place? 3. Where was the author during
the fight? 4. What had he seen at the “twilight’s last gleaming”? 5.
Over what ramparts was the flag streaming? 6. Which lines suggest why
the poet could not be sure that the flag was still there? 7. What
sometimes “gave proof” to him? 8. What finally disclosed the flag “in
full glory”? 9. What feelings do you think this certainty aroused
in the watcher? 10. Who made up “the foe’s haughty host”? 11. Find
words that tell where the foe was and that he had ceased firing. 12.
What “war’s desolation” is named in the third stanza? 13. What other
war songs do you know? 14. What other country’s national hymn do you
know? 15. What purposes does such a song serve?

=Phrases=

perilous fight, 578, 3
o’er the ramparts, 578, 4
mist of the deep, 578, 9
dread silence reposes, 578, 10
towering steep, 578, 11
vauntingly swore, 579, 5
foul footsteps’ pollution, 579, 8
war’s desolation, 579, 14

CITIZENSHIP

WILLIAM P. FRYE

Citizenship! What is citizenship? It has a broader signification than you and I are apt to give it. Citizenship does not mean alone that the man who possesses it shall be obedient to the law, shall be kindly to his neighbors, shall regard the rights of others, shall perform his duties as juror, shall, if the hour of peril come, yield his time, his property, and his life to his country. It means more than that. It means that his country shall protect him in every right which the Constitution gives him. What right has the Republic to demand his life, his property, in the hour of peril, if, when his hour of peril comes, it fails him? A man died in England a few years ago, Lord Napier of Magdala, whose death reminded me of an incident which illustrates this, an incident which gave that great lord his name. A few years ago King Theodore of Abyssinia seized Captain Cameron, a British citizen, and incarcerated him in a dungeon on the top of a mountain nine thousand feet high. England demanded his release, and King Theodore refused. England fitted out and sent on five thousand English soldiers, and ten thousand Sepoys, debarked them on the coast, marched them more than four hundred miles through swamp and morass under a burning sun. Then they marched up the mountain height, they scaled the walls, they broke down the iron gates, they reached down into the dungeon, they took that one British citizen like a brand from the burning and carried him down the mountain side, across the morass, put him on board the white-winged ship, and bore him away to England to safety. That cost Great Britain millions of dollars, and it made General Napier Lord Napier of Magdala.