at Concord? 16. Tell what you can of how the "British Regulars fired and fled." (See any good American history.) 17. Why shall the call of Paul Revere "echo forevermore"? 18. Put into simpler language the last six lines. 19. Memorize the poem, or at least such portions of it as you like best. Of the different pictures contained in it, which do you think is the finest ? Verses of other poets describing famous rides are Adelaide Procter's "A A Legend of Bregenz," Browning's Browning's "How they Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix" and "Boot and Saddle," T. B. Read's "Sheridan's Ride," Scott's "Bonnie Dundee" and "Young Lochinvar," Longfellow's "The Leap of Roushan Beg," Walter Thornbury's "The Cavalier's Escape," and John Boyle O'Reilly's "The Ride of Collins Graves." Other poems by Longfellow suitable for this grade are "The Bell of Atri," "King Robert of Sicily," "Rain in Summer,” "The Skeleton in Armor," and "The Challenge of Thor." Middlesex (Mid'dle sex): a county in Massachusetts. muffled oar: oars wrapped with moorings (moor'ings): anchors or grenadiers (gren à diers'): a special stealthy (stealthy): sly, silent. impetuous (Im pět úous): eager, head- saddle-girth: the band or strap aghast (a ghast'): horrified. soldiers belonging to the 5 CONCORD HYMN RALPH WALDO EMERSON [One cannot look at Emerson's picture without feeling that he was not only wise but kind and good. Look at the face thoughtfully. It is a face to love and trust. You will surely want to count this man among your friends. Emerson was born in Boston in 1803. His father, who was a minister, died when the boy Ralph was only eight years old, and left the family very poor. There were six children. It is said that one winter Ralph and the brother who was nearest his own size had to make one coat 10 answer for both of them. One day Ralph would go to school and his brother would stay at home; the next day his brother would go and Ralph would stay at home. But that did not keep them from studying. One who knew Emerson when a boy in school has said: 15 "There he stands, that boy whose image, more than any other, is still deeply stamped upon my mind, as I then saw him and loved him — I knew not why—and thought him so angelic and remarkable, feeling towards him more than a boy's emotion, as if a new spring of brotherly 20 affection had suddenly broken loose in my heart." He was ready for college at fourteen and earned his way by waiting on the tables in the college dining hall and doing errands for the president. He won a prize of five dollars for public speaking, and sent it home to his mother to buy a shawl, but she had to use it instead to pay a debt. He was always doing something for others. After graduating he taught school for a time in Boston 5 and earned money to help his younger brothers through college. Then he became a minister and preached in the Old North Church. After several years he gave up his church work and spent his time wholly in writing and lecturing; but his 10 lecturing was really preaching, and he did great good by it. Some of the wise things which he said were: "They can conquer who believe they can." He has not learned the lesson of life who does not every day surmount a fear." ९९ 15 Write it in your heart that every day is the best day in the year." "Hitch your wagon to a star." Don't hang a dismal picture on the wall. Never name sickness." 20 "The only way to have a friend is to be one." "Life is not so short but that there is always time for courtesy." Emerson spent some time in England and made many friends there among them Carlyle and Coleridge and Wordsworth. When he returned to this country he settled in Concord, Massachusetts, and occupied for a time the Old Manse, where his grandfather had lived before him and where Hawthorne afterwards made his home. Here he wrote his lectures and his first book, "Nature." 5 He loved the woods about Concord and often went out alone to do his writing there. A little later he moved into another house, brighter and more cheerful, with tall horse-chestnut trees in front of it and a garden and a brook behind it. Here he lived 10 a happy life. Mrs. Emerson was a woman of culture and good sense, and their four children made the old home gay enough. Emerson wrote to a friend: "Life is all preface until we have children. Then it is deep and solid." 15 During Emerson's life at Concord he published several volumes of essays and the books "Representative Men," The Conduct of Life," and "Society and Solitude," also a book of poems. The Hawthornes and the Alcotts were his neighbors; and many unknown friends came from 20 near and far to talk with him, or even simply to shake his hand. He lived to be nearly eighty years old, and died only a few months after he had attended the funeral of Longfellow. Emerson was one of the greatest thinkers that America 25 has given to the world, and he had the rare gift of being able to put a great deal into a few words. |