NOTES 1. Look up the story of the life of Marion. Look up also the lives of Sumpter, Pickens, and Lee, who carried on similar warfare. 2. Fiery barb. Fiery steed. Barb is a contraction of Barbary, hence means Barbary horse. The Barbary horses were among the choicest of the Arabian stock. 3. The broad Santee. The principal river of South Carolina. See map. 4. Look up carefully the meanings of the following words and expressions: glades, reedy grass, dark morass, release, spoil, grieves, scampering, pathless forest, grave. EXERCISES 1. Who was Francis Marion? 2. Who is speaking as the poem opens? 3. Explain "The British soldier trembles when Marion's name is told." 4. What are the tent and fortress of this band? 5. How intimate are these patriots with their surroundings? 6. Where were the "safe and silent islands"? 7. What is shown of Marion's method of fighting? 8. What is "life" to these men as shown in stanza 4? 9. How is Marion regarded as a leader? 10. When only shall such warfare cease? 11. With what motive does Marion carry on this warfare? ADDITIONAL READINGS BROWNING: An Incident of the French Camp. Hervé Riel. TENNYSON: Charge of the Light Brigade. READ: The Rising in 1776. The Brave at Home. HOLMES: Lexington. HALLECK: Marco Bozzaris. LONGFELLOW: Paul Revere's Ride. EMERSON: The Concord Hymn. W. G. SIMS: The Swamp Fox. THE SLEEP WE so often think lightly of the universal privileges of mankind that many authors have sought to cause serious thought along these lines. It is well to read frequently those things that bring us to value highly all that ministers to the comfort and well-being of the race. It has come to be a matter of common remark that a privilege is appreciated only as it is about to be taken away. Shakespeare shows that the guilty Macbeth's great regret is that he may sleep no more. How precious to him seems this simple privilege when his cringing soul hears the mysterious voice declare in his mad delirium, "Sleep no more! Macbeth doth murder sleep!" In telling of this awful experience, he estimates the value of that which he is about to lose, in the beautiful words, "The innocent sleep, Sleep that knits up the ravell'd sleeve of care, The same thought is frequently repeated throughout the great English bard's work, one of the most notable being the famous soliloquy of the king in King Henry IV. It is small wonder, then, that other and later poets have, from time to time, dealt with this same subject. Elizabeth Barrett Browning was a character admirably fitted to feel and to express in the happiest manner this great thought. In the following poem the loftiest form of faith is breathed into the same line that pours forth the tenderest gratitude for the privilege so commonly overlooked. She sees in it a veritable thought of God that should be an ample reward for all it was hers to suffer, although she suffered more than falls to the ordinary lot. THE SLEEP Of all the thoughts of God that are For gift or grace, surpassing this: "He giveth his beloved-sleep"? What would we give to our beloved? The patriot's voice to teach and rouse, What do we give to our beloved? A little faith all undisproved, A little dust to overweep, And bitter memories to make The whole earth blasted for our sake: He giveth his beloved-sleep. "Sleep soft, beloved!" we sometimes say, Who have no tune to charm away Sad dreams that through the eyelids creep: But never doleful dream again Shall break the happy slumber when He giveth his beloved-sleep. O earth, so full of dreary noises! O strife, O curse, that o'er it fall! His dews drop mutely on the hill, Though on its slope men sow and reap: Ay, men may wonder while they scan But angels say, and through the word For me, my heart that erst did go That sees through tears the mummers leap, Would child-like on his love repose Who giveth his beloved-sleep. |