= 3. Cimbric pertaining to the Cimbri, an ancient people of central Europe. The peninsula of Jutland was named from them, the Cimbric Chersonese. 4. Teocalli = a structure of earth and stone or brick, used as a temple or place of worship by the Aztecs and other aborigines of America. It was generally a solid, four-sided, truncated pyramid, built terrace-wise, with the temple proper on the platform at the summit. 5. Curse of Cain. See Gen. iv. 11-15. 6. Peace. See Mark iv. 39. THE BUILDING OF THE SHIP As already indicated, the form of this poem is borrowed from Schiller's "Song of the Bell"; and it is scarcely inferior to the work of the great German. The poet's heart was in his work; and the metre and rhythm are in excellent keeping with the thought and sentiment. He had probably learned something of ship-building in Portland. The successive pictures presented by the poem have been compared to instantaneous photographs. The felling of the giant pines and the terrors and mysteries of the sea are admirably described. The human element is no less interesting. The ship-builder, with his conscious skill and integrity, is a fine portrait. The love-story interwoven with the main narrative gives the poem an air of tenderness. The name of the vessel suggests the American Union, and the poem concludes with a noble burst of patriotic feeling. It has been pronounced "the freshest and most stirring of our national poems." 2. Great Harry the first war-ship of the British navy, built in 1438. 4. Knarred = liable to careen or be capsized. 5. Pascagoula Bay is in the southeastern part of Mississippi. The river of the same name, which empties into the bay, runs through a sandy region of pine forests. 6. Roanoke = a river of Virginia and North Carolina, emptying into Albemarle Sound. It rises in the Alleghany Mountains, and in its course in Virginia may, with some justice, be characterized as “roaring." 7. Slip ship-building. 8. Keel = an inclined plane on the bank of a river or harbor, intended for = at the bottom. the principal timber in a ship, extending from stem to stern 9. Lascar = a native sailor employed in European vessels in East India. 10. Stemson = a piece of curved timber fixed on the after part of the apron inside. The lower end is scarfed into the keelson, and receives the scarf of the stem, through which it is bolted. - Keelson = a beam running lengthwise above the keel of the ship, and bolted to the middle of the floor-frames, in order to stiffen the vessel. post is bolted. - Sternson = the end of a ship's keelson, to which the stern II. The Fortunate Isles, according to the ancients, were located off the western cost of Africa. Their name is due to their remarkable beauty, and the abundance of all things desirable which they were supposed to contain. By some they are identified with the Canaries. 12. Master = Washington. The workmen referred to in the next line are the statesmen who assisted in organizing our government. XIV SELECTIONS FROM LOWELL WHAT MR. ROBINSON THINKS GUVENER B. is a sensible man; He stays to his home an' looks arter his folks; Sez he wunt vote fer Guvener B. My! aint it terrible? What shall we du? We can't never choose him o' course, - thet's flat; Guess we shall hev to come round, (don't you?) An' go in fer thunder an' guns, an' all that; Fer John P. Robinson he Sez he wunt vote fer Guvener B. Gineral C.2 is a dreffle smart man: He's ben on all sides thet give places or pelf, But consistency still wuz a part of his plan, He's ben true to one party, an' thet is himself; So John P. Robinson he Sez he shall vote fer Gineral C. Gineral C. he goes in fer the war; He don't vally principle more'n an old cud; Sez he shall vote fer Gineral C. We were gittin' on nicely up here to our village,3 With good old idees o' wut's right an' wut aint; Sez this kind o' thing's an exploded idee. The side of our country must ollers be took, An' President Polk, you know, he is our country; Robinson he Sez this is his view o' the thing to a T. Parson Wilbur he calls all these argimunts lies; Sez they're nothin' on airth but jest fee, faw, fum : An' thet all this big talk of our destinies Is half ov it ign'ance, an' t'other half rum; But John P. 5 Sez it aint no sech thing; an', of course, so must we. Parson Wilbur sez he never heerd in his life Thet th' Apostles rigged out in their swaller-tail coats An' marched round in front of a drum an' a fife, To git some on 'em office, an' some on 'em votes; But John P. Robinson he Sez they didn't know everythin' down in Judee. Wal, it's a marcy we've gut folks to tell us The rights an' the wrongs o' these matters, I vow; Fer John P. Sez the world'll go right, ef he hollers out Gee! THE PRESENT CRISIS WHEN a deed is done for Freedom, through the broad earth's aching breast Runs a thrill of joy prophetic, trembling on from east to west, And the slave, where'er he cowers, feels the soul within him climb To the awful verge of manhood, as the energy sublime Of a century bursts full-blossomed on the thorny stem of Time. Through the walls of hut and palace shoots the instantaneous throe, Nation wildly looks at nation, standing with mute lips apart, And glad Truth's yet mightier man-child leaps beneath the Future's heart. So the Evil's triumph sendeth, with a terror and a chill, And the slave, where'er he cowers, feels his sympathies with God 1 For mankind are one in spirit, and an instinct bears along, 2 Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide, Hast thou chosen, O my people, on whose party thou shalt stand, |