Chapter V: Introduction (4)

What is a couplet? Is the poem written in couplets? How is the cæsura handled in this poem? Compare with Pope’s method in “Essay on Man.”

=3.= But some globose immensity of blue

Note epithets in this line. How comprehensive!

=7.= So one late plunged into the lethal sleep, etc.

The sensation of the awakening is likened to the possible
experience of one in death. The author is much interested in
such matters.

Define “lethal.” What literary associations with this word?

=12.= The quiet steep-arched splendor of the day.

At what time of day did Hugh awake?

PAGE 27

=2.= But when he would obey, the hollow skies etc.

Note the suddenness of the loss of consciousness as expressed in
the metaphor: “the hollow skies,” etc.

=5.= Remote unto his horizontal gaze

=6.= He saw the world’s end kindle to a blaze etc.

At what time did Hugh re-awaken?

What is the effect upon the reader of the expression “world’s
end” rather than “east”?

=9.= Dawn found the darkling reaches of his mind, etc.

A figure from archæology. Explain.

=13.= Men school the dream to build the past anew

What part of speech is “school”?

=17.= Wherein men talked as ghosts above a grave.

This is the second suggestion that Hugh was vaguely conscious of
what happened before his awakening.

Define: shards, torsos, rubble, sag.

PAGE 28

=5.= Sickened with torture he lay huddled there.

Note the vividness of such words as, “sickened,” “torture,”
“huddled,” which appeal both to muscular sense and to sight.

=7.= Proportioned to the might that felt the chain.

Explain.

=10.= That vacancy about him like a wall, etc.

The power of that which yields and yet restrains suggests the
sense of helplessness that came to Hugh. This feeling is often
brought out in the later portions of the poem.

=20.= Grimly amused, he raised his head, etc.

What was the effect of “the empty distance” and “the twitter of
a lonely bird” on Hugh? Why question whether there was something
wrong?

Define: collusive, bleak.

PAGE 29

On this and the following page we have the stages by which Hugh learns that he has been deserted. Note the steps: (1) Major Henry is prompt, (2) many hoof prints of horses, (3) the grave known for a grave by its shape, (4) ash heap and litter of a camp, (5) the trail.

=8.= Of course the horse had bolted

That is, run away.

=17.= A grave—a grave, etc.

Does Hugh really wonder if he has been dead and has arisen?

For the third time it is stated that Hugh heard the talk of his
comrades while he was prostrate from the bear’s attack.

=25.= Suspicion, like a little smoky lamp etc.

Note simile. Is it effective?

PAGE 30

=1.= That daubs the murk but cannot fathom it,

Hugh’s suspicions are vague as yet.

=6.= The smoky glow flared wildly,

What “smoky glow”?

=10.= A gloom-devouring ecstasy of flame,

=11.= A dazing conflagration of belief!

Suspicion passes to certainty. Explain the whole figure from the
beginning.

=12.= Plunged deeper than the seats of hate and grief, etc.

Does nature sometimes seem to mock our moods? The older
literatures seem unconscious of this psychology. Note Bryant’s
“Death of the Flowers.”

Define: daub, grotesque, ecstasy, apathetic, complacence,
connivance.

PAGE 31

=2.= His manifest betrayal by a friend

Why does the desertion of Jamie make that of others seem
nothing?

=13.= Yet not as they for whom tears fall like dew etc.

Hugh’s tears are not shallow; they indicate a lasting sorrow.

Those who weep easily, easily forget.

=18.= He lay, a gray old ruin of a man, etc.

Both physically and emotionally, a remarkable metaphor.

=20.= And then at length, as from the long ago, etc.

His suffering makes the time of friendship seem long ago. A song
may be both sweet and sad, as may also love.

=25.= ... as in a foggy night

PAGE 32

=1.= The witchery of semilunar light, etc.

A fine comparison of the spiritual to the material.

Define: zany, retrospective.

=6.= As under snow the dæmon of the Spring.

“Dæmon,” spirit.

=8.= Nor might treachery recall, etc.

He had been loved, nothing could change that; he could go on
loving and nothing could change that either. This is the high
note in devotion. “If ye love them that love you, what thank
have ye?”

=16.= Upon the vessel of a hope so great, etc.

The lover is only the vessel of the great passion.

=21.= Now, as before, collusive sky and plain etc.

Sky and plain have conspired to take Hugh’s life, so it seems to
him. They represent distance that yields but still is
unconquered. This idea haunts the “Crawl.”

PAGE 33

=1.= For, after all, what thing do men desire, etc.

Food and shelter are necessary to any life; all values rest upon
them. This idea is fundamental in modern thinking.

=20.= Jamie was a thief!

Why Jamie more than others?

Define “gage.”

PAGE 34

=5.= And through his veins regenerating fire etc.

Anger made him strong, while grief made him weak. Is that not
true to nature?

=7.= Now once again he scanned the yellow plain, etc.

Hugh projects his subjective condition on nature. This idea
occurs often in the poem. Is it a true conception?

=14.= Alas for those who fondly place above, etc.

A continuation of the philosophy found on page 32. Love is the
supreme thing, not the person who is loved. The way is itself
the goal.

=19.= A bitter-sweet narcotic to the will, etc.

Note how Hugh’s hate arouses his energies. For his purposes it
is stronger than love.

Define: bellowsed, regenerating, lethargy, conspirant, merging,
vulnerable, narcotic.

PAGE 35

=11.= Leaning to the spring, etc.

The final horror, his face, fixes Hugh’s hate to a steady,
burning purpose, seeming equal to his task.

PAGE 36

=5.= That waste to be surmounted as a wall,

=6.= Sky-rims and yet more sky-rims steep to climb—

In gazing across a vast space to the horizon, one seems to be
looking uphill. This is especially noticeable on the ocean.

=7.= That simulacrum of enduring Time—

One traveling long distances by his own power, and having no
means of measurement, conceives space not in miles, but in
duration of effort.

=8.= The hundred empty miles ‘twixt him and where

Why “empty” miles?

=11.= One hairsbreadth farther from the earth and sky

He was as remote from all things as it was possible to be, so
why not try!

Define “simulacrum.”

THE CRAWL

PAGE 37

The Crawl is the most detailed account of physical suffering and endurance extant in poetry. Note the large number of words that make direct appeal to the sensations of thirst, weariness, chronic pain, fever, delirium. Again the sense of loneliness, of betrayal, of a conspiracy to destroy him appears everywhere in Hugh’s experience. The monotony of the journey appears in its slowness, which is indicated in many ways.

Before describing the Crawl, Neihardt first found out what vegetable growths would be found on the trail, the character of the soil, how the streams would erode, etc. The poet is true to all nature, even natural science.

=3.= And through it ran the short trail to the goal.

What was the “goal”? Ree villages lay nearly directly east.

=4.= Thereon a grim turnpikeman waited toll:

Who is the “grim turnpikeman”?

=7.= Should make their foe the haunter of a tale.

Hugh was killed on the Yellowstone by the Rees in 1832.

=9.= The scoriac region of a hell burned black

The bad lands of the Little Missouri, so made to appear by
spontaneous combustion of lignite deposits.

=13.= Should bid for pity at the Big Horn’s mouth.

Locate the Big Horn’s mouth, where Henry and his men spent the
winter of 1823–1824.

PAGE 38

=2.= Whereon the feeders of the Moreau head—

Head waters of the Moreau. Locate the Moreau.

=3.= Scarce more than deep-carved runes of vernal rain.

The rune was a character in the ancient alphabet and ultimately
came to stand for poetry. Here the original meaning as a deep
cut is restored.

=6.= Defiant clumps of thirst embittered grass, etc.

Note how exactly the characteristics of an arid landscape are
set forth in such phrases as “thirst embittered grass,” “parched
earth,” “bared and fang-like roots,” “dwarf thickets,” “stunted
fruits.” The poet is shown by exactness, not inaccuracy.

=15.= And made the scabrous gulch appear to shake

The very sound of the word “scabrous” suggests dryness.

=20.= And where the mottled shadow dripped as ink etc.

The shadow of leaves on the yellow earth is black. The
description is absolutely accurate. “A poet is known by his
epithets.”

PAGE 39

=3.= Amid ironic heavens in the West—

Why “ironic heavens”?

=6.= A purpling panorama swept away.

Why “purpling”?

=7.= Scarce farther than a shout might carry

How far had Hugh traveled in the day?

=16.= Into the quiet house of no false friend.

What “quiet house”?

=17–20.= Alas for those who seek a journey’s end—etc.

The philosophy of these lines is that the way is the important
thing, not the end. This is a part of Neihardt’s
life-philosophy.

=21.= Now swoopingly the world of dream broke through

Note that no two of Hugh’s dreams are alike. In this dream his
revenge is futile. Is that the nature of revenge, to defeat
itself?

How many lines are taken to tell this dream? How much in little
space!

PAGE 40

=1.= Gazing far, etc.

Another remarkable description of the sky and prairie and their
effect upon Hugh.

Make a list of epithets descriptive of both sky and prairie as
you find them on pages 26–27–28–29–30–32–34–36–39. Epithets may
be adjectives or verbs or nouns. Such are “globose immensity,”
“smoky steep,” “serene antagonist,” “negativity of might.”

=9.= Seemed that vast negativity of might; etc.

In what sense is the might of distance negative?

What was the “frustrate vision of the night”?

What does the poet mean by saying it came “moonwise”?

What is Hugh’s mood when he feels that the foe is “naught but
yielding air”?

=13.= A vacancy to fill with his intent!

What is the grammatical construction of “to fill”?

=15.= Three-footed; and the vision goaded him.

What vision “goaded him”?

=24.= Served but to brew more venom for his hate,

Why is hate spoken of as venomous? What has modern Physiology to
say of this?

=25.= And nerved him to avail the most with least.

What is meant by “avail the most with least”?

PAGE 41

=10.= Devoured the chance-flung manna of the plains

“Manna”—what is the reference?

=18.= The coulee deepened; yellow walls flung high, etc.

Accurate description of arid conditions by their effect on Hugh.

PAGE 42

=6.= It had the acrid tang of broken trust

=7.= The sweetish, tepid taste of feigning love!

A projection of the subjective into the objective.

=14.= Clear as a friend’s heart, ‘twas, and seeming cool—

The same as above.

=22.= And lo, the tang of that wide insolence

=23.= Of sky and plain was acrid in the draught!

Note again the attitude of nature, as Hugh sees it, in its “wide
insolence.”

=25.= How like fine sentiment the mirrored sky etc.

The cruelty of sentimentalism. Note on this page the steps by
which the sense of thirst is induced in the reader and the
corresponding disappointment increased; “dry as strewn bones
bleaching to a desert sky,” “grateful ooze,” “sucked the mud,”
“sweetish, tepid taste,” “taunted thirst,” “damp spots,” then
the description of the pool and the “famished horses.” Is not
the reader as thirsty as Hugh and nearly as keenly disappointed?

PAGE 43

=8.= Nor did he rise till, vague with stellar light, etc.

Compare with Bryant’s “Forest Hymn.”

At what line does Hugh fall asleep? At what line does he begin
to awake? How many days since “The Crawl” began?

=17.= And Hugh lay gazing till the whole resolved etc.

What is the difference between this dream and that of the
previous night? Why? Does Hugh still love Jamie? Would he kill
him in such a mood? How many lines in the dream?

Define: specious, gulch, buttressing, Host, nave, architrave.

PAGE 44

Hugh has not yet reached the prairie on the divide between the Grand and the Moreau, though he has journeyed two days. How far do you think he has crawled?

=3.= Loath to go, Hugh lay beside the pool and pondered fate, etc.

Why is Hugh less eager to renew his journey than on the previous
morning? Do you suppose his dream had anything to do with the
matter? His weariness?

=11.= Sustaining wrath returning with the toil.

Why does wrath return?

=23.= Of strength that had so very much to buy.

What had his strength “to buy”?

Define: efface, cauldron.

PAGE 45

=11.= Sleep out the glare. With groping hands for sight,

Hugh sleeps on the afternoon of the third day of his journey.

Explain “groping hands for sight.”

=14.= Or sensed—the dusky mystery of plain.

Why dusky mystery? Can you see a prairie by starlight?

=15.= Gazing aloft, he found the capsized Wain

“Capsized Wain,” Bear. What time of night?

=16–17.= Thereto he set his back;

What direction did he take? How much knowledge of the
constellations must have meant to primitive men! To sailors! To
hunters! Read Bryant’s “Hymn to the North Star.”

=19.= The star-blanched summit of a lonely butte

=20.= And thitherward he dragged his heavy limb.

Note the butte used to guide the crawler. Could a plainsman see
a butte by starlight? Could a “tenderfoot”?

=21.= It seemed naught moved, etc.

The movement on a prairie and in the night seems objectless.

It gives a supreme sense of monotony. Time stopped. We measure
time by events; no events, no time.

Define: blanched, incipient.

PAGE 46

=4.= Sheer deep upon unfathomable deep, etc.

A curious but vivid figure, expressing a sense of darkness and
uninterrupted silence.

=8.= So lapsed the drowsy æon of the night—

The monotony makes the hours seem a moment drawn out.

=10.= And then, as quickened to somnambulance, etc.

Note the steps of the dawning, and the suddenness of the coming
of day. The description is not only vivid but accurate.

=20.= Scarce had he munched the hoarded roots, when came etc.

Why the difference between this and previous dreams?

Define “tensile.”

PAGE 47

=8.= It was the hour when cattle straggle home etc.

A fine lyric. This is one of many memory pictures of Hugh’s
travels. Nothing in the poem tells directly of Hugh’s past.

This silence suggests tragedy dimly illumined by the memory
pictures. Is Hugh an imaginative man? Enumerate the evening
sounds. Note the steps marking the transition from evening to
night. How many days has Hugh crawled? Hugh is known to have
been a Pennsylvanian of Scotch descent.

Define “peripheries.”

PAGE 48

=1.= Blank as the face of fate. In listless mood etc.

Fate is associated with the inevitable and unrevealed. “In
listless mood” etc.—the end of a day of feverish dreams finds
Hugh weakened and caring less to live.

=3.= And met the night. The new moon, low and far, etc.

Note the phase of the moon.

=7.= The kiote voiced the universal lack.

Hunger.

=8.= As from a nether fire, the plain gave back

=9.= The swelter of the noon-glare to the gloom.

The heat of the prairie is often very noticeable after sunset.

=12.= Why seek some further nowhere on the plain?

What “nowhere”?

=14.= So spoke some loose-lipped spirit of despair;

Why “loose-lipped”?

=15.= And still Hugh moved, volitionless—a weight, etc.

Volitionless—The power of habit is compared to that of the moon
over the tides.

=18.= Now when the night wore on in middle swoon,

=21.= To breathe became an act of conscious will.

=22.= The starry waste was ominously still.

=24.= As through a tunnel in the atmosphere—

Note the steps of the coming storm: _middle swoon_, a drowsy
night, stifling condition of the air, utter silence with sense
of impending disaster, _as through a tunnel_, etc.

The description of the storm is exact to the minutest detail. It
is not interspersed with more or less sentimental comments as is
Byron’s description of the storm on the Alps (Childe Harold,