English Narrative Poems Part 36

John Greenleaf Whittier was born in Haverhill, Ma.s.sachusetts, December 17, 1807, and died at Hampton Falls, New Hamps.h.i.+re, September 7, 1892.

Whittier's ancestors for several generations had been New England farmers on the same farm where the original Whittier immigrant had settled. The family was too poor to give Whittier an education, so that two terms at Haverhill Academy, the tuition for which he paid by shoemaking and school teaching, completed his school training. He early became interested in journalism, and was employed in editorial work in Boston and in Hartford. When abolition became an agitation, Whittier became one of the leaders. He was instrumental in bringing the English Abolitionist, George Thompson, to America; and, while on a tour with him, was stoned and shot at by a mob in Concord, New Hamps.h.i.+re. Later, when he was editor of the _Philadelphia Freeman_, his office was burned by a mob. During this period he wrote many anti-slavery poems, such as the _Ballads_, _Anti-Slavery Poems_, etc., of 1838 and the _Voices of Freedom_ of 1841. In spite of his interest in politics, for he was twice elected to the Ma.s.sachusetts legislature, Whittier led a very simple life in accordance with his Quaker beliefs. He never married, partly, it seems, because he had the care of his mother and sister Elizabeth, until the latter's death in 1864. The latter part of his life he lived at Amesbury and Danvers, Ma.s.sachusetts.

Whittier's poetry is of three kinds. He is at times more thoroughly than any other writer the poet of New England country life; again he is essentially an anti-slavery poet; and, finally, he has written many religious poems. His best-known poem is _Snow-Bound_, which gives an admirable picture of a farmer's life in the hard storms of a New England winter.

SKIPPER IRESON'S RIDE (Page 219)

[312] 3. =Apuleius's Golden a.s.s.= Apuleius was a Roman satirist who lived in the first half of the second century. His most celebrated work was _Metamorphoses, or the Golden a.s.s_, a satirical romance to ridicule Christianity.

[313] 4. =Calender's horse of bra.s.s.= See the story in the _Arabian Nights_.

[314] 6. =Islam's prophet on Al-Borak.= Mohammed was believed to make his journeys between heaven and earth upon a creature, which some say was a camel, named Al-Borak. (The word signifies lightning.)

[315] 26. =Bacchus=; the G.o.d of wine and revelry. A Baccha.n.a.lian revel was a common subject for decorations.

[316] 30. =Maenads=; women who attended Bacchus, the G.o.d of wine, waving, as they danced and sang, the thyrsus, a wand entwined with ivy and surmounted by a pine cone.

[317] 35. =Chaleur Bay=; an inlet of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, between Gaspe and New Brunswick. It is a great resort for mackerel fis.h.i.+ng.

BARCLAY OF URY (Page 222)

"Among the earliest converts to the doctrines of the Friends in Scotland was Barclay of Ury, an old and distinguished soldier, who had fought under Gustavus Adolphus, in Germany. As a Quaker, he became the object of persecution and abuse at the hands of the magistrates and populace.

None bore the indignities of the mob with greater patience and n.o.bleness of soul than this once proud gentleman and soldier. One of his friends, on an occasion of uncommon rudeness, lamented that he should be treated so harshly in his old age who had been so honored before. 'I find more satisfaction,' said Barclay, 'as well as honor, in being thus insulted for my religious principles, than when, a few years ago, it was usual for the magistrates, as I pa.s.sed the city of Aberdeen, to meet me on the road and conduct me to public entertainment in their hall, and then escort me out again, to gain my favor.'"--WHITTIER.

[318] 1. =Aberdeen=; a city in northeastern Scotland.

[319] 2. =Kirk=; the Scotch word for church.

[320] 3. =Laird=; lord.

[321] 10. =Carlin=; Scotch word for old woman.

[322] 35. =Lutzen=; a town in Saxony, province of Prussia.

[323] 56. =Tilly.= "The barbarities of Count de Tilly after the siege of Magdeburg made such an impression upon our forefathers that the phrase 'like old Tilly' is still heard sometimes in New England of any piece of special ferocity."--WHITTIER.

[324] 57. =Walloon=; from certain provinces of Belgium.

[325] 81. =Snooded.= The snood was a band which a Scottish maiden wore in her hair as a sign of her maidenhood.

[326] 99. =Tolbooth=; a name commonly applied to a Scottish prison.

[327] 117. =Fallow=; ploughed but unsown land.

BARBARA FRIETCHIE (Page 226)

"This poem was written in strict conformity to the account of the incident as I had it from respectable and trustworthy sources. It has since been the subject of a good deal of conflicting testimony, and the story was probably incorrect in some of its details. It is admitted by all that Barbara Frietchie was no myth, but a worthy and highly esteemed gentlewoman, intensely loyal and a hater of the Slavery Rebellion, holding her Union flag sacred and keeping it with her Bible; that when the Confederates halted before her house, and entered her dooryard, she denounced them in vigorous language, shook her cane in their faces, and drove them out; and when General Burnside's troops followed close upon Jackson's, she waved her flag and cheered them. It is stated that May Quantrell, a brave and loyal lady in another part of the city, did wave her flag in sight of the Confederates. It is possible that there has been a blending of the two incidents."--WHITTIER.

OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES

Oliver Wendell Holmes was born in Cambridge, Ma.s.sachusetts, in 1809. He studied at Phillips Academy, Andover, and later at Harvard College, where he graduated in the famous cla.s.s of 1829. He tried law for a year, but gave this up for medicine. In 1833 he went abroad, returning in 1835 for a medical degree at Harvard. He at once began the active practice of his profession, but accepted a professors.h.i.+p at Dartmouth in 1838. He remained there only a short time, coming back again to Boston, where he married and resumed his work as a physician. In 1847 he became Parkman Professor of Anatomy and Physiology at Harvard, and held this position until 1882. In 1857, through the influence of James Russell Lowell, he began to contribute regularly to the _Atlantic Monthly_. After 1882 he devoted himself almost exclusively to writing and lecturing. He died in 1894 in Boston.

While Holmes is best known as the author of _The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table_ and other prose works, he published numerous poems, most of them humorous in tone. Many of them were written for specific occasions, and as such are distinguished for their wit and cleverness rather than for strong emotion or profound thought.

GRANDMOTHER'S STORY OF BUNKER HILL BATTLE (Page 230)

First published in 1875 at the time of the centennial of the battle of Bunker Hill.

The so-called battle of Bunker Hill was the first important engagement of the Revolutionary War. On June 17, 1775, five thousand British soldiers under Howe, Clinton, and Pigott attacked a smaller number of Americans then stationed on Breed's Hill near Boston, under Colonel William Prescott. They were twice beaten back, but captured the hill on their third charge. The British loss was about twelve hundred men, while the Americans lost only four hundred, among them, however, being the patriot, Dr. Joseph Warren.

[328] 2. =Times that tried men's souls=; a quotation from the first of a series of tracts called _The Crisis_ by Thomas Paine, 1776.

[329] 3. =Whig and Tory.= In the Colonies the Whigs were the Revolutionists, while the Tories were the supporters of the King. The Whigs were also called Rebels.

[330] 5. =April running battle=; the fight at Lexington and Concord, April 19, 1775, when the British forces were led by Lord Percy.

[331] 16. =Mohawks=; one of the tribes of the Six Nations notorious for their cruelty in the French and Indian War.

[332] 42. =Banyan=; a colored morning-gown.

[333] 67. =Dan'l Malcolm=; an allusion to an inscription on a gravestone in Copp's Hill Burial Ground, Boston. The inscription is as follows:--

"Here lies buried in a Stone Grave 10 feet deep Capt. Daniel Malcolm Mercht Who departed this Life October 23, 1769, Aged 44 years, A true son of Liberty, A Friend to the Publick, An Enemy to oppression, And one of the foremost In opposing the Revenue Acts On America."

[334] 147. =J. S. Copley= (1737-1815) was a distinguished American portrait-painter.

Macmillan's

Pocket Series of English Cla.s.sics

Cloth _Uniform In Size and Binding_ 25 cents each

=Addison's Sir Roger de Coverley.= Edited by ZELMA GRAY, East Side High School, Saginaw, Mich.

=Andersen's Fairy Tales.= Translated from the Danish by CAROLINE PEACHEY and Dr. H. W. DULCKEN. With biographical notes and introduction by SARAH C. BROOKS, Training School, Baltimore, Md.

=Arabian Nights.= Edited by CLIFTON JOHNSON.

=Arnold's Sohrab and Rustum and other Poems.= Edited by JUSTUS COLLINS CASTLEMAN, Bloomington High School, Bloomington, Ind.

=Bacon's Essays.= Edited by Professor GEORGE HERBERT CLARKE, Mercer University, Macon, Ga.