"Who dares"-this was the patriot's cry, A hundred voices answered, "I!" -Thomas Buchanan Read Questions: Explain "Concord-forgot her old baptismal name." Why does the poet speak of the graveyard as the "republic of the dead"? Do you think "warrior David's song" was Psalm 20? Read the Psalm and see. Who was Berkeley? Do you think the poet dressed his story a little at this point? Is it perfectly right for poets to draw a little on their imagination? Why do we respect the pastor of this poem? Do you think there is a time to fight as well as to pray? HOW SLEEP THE BRAVE [OW sleep the brave, who sink to rest. HOW By all their country's wishes blessed! By fairy hands their knell is rung; SUPPOSED SPEECH OF JOHN ADAMS (On July 4, 1826, just fifty years to the day after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams both passed away. As Jefferson was honored as the author of the Declaration, and Adams as the clear-sighted statesman whose oratory had secured its acceptance, the American people were profoundly moved by the death of these great men. Public memorial services were held in Faneuil Hall, Boston, a few days later. Daniel Webster delivered an oration, in which he first sets forth the objections urged against the Declaration, and then answers them as Webster imagined John Adams replied. As no record was kept of the speeches of the Continental Congress, we shall never know just what was said. But there can be little doubt that Webster followed the main lines of John Adams's speech.) INK or swim, live or die, survive or perish, I give my hand and my heart to this vote. It is true, indeed, that in the beginning we aimed not at independence. But there's a Divinity which shapes our ends. The injustice of England has driven us to arms; and, blinded to her own interest, she has obstinately persisted till independence is now within our grasp. We have but to reach forth to it, and it is ours. Why, then, should we defer the Declaration? If we postpone independence, do we mean to carry on or to give up the war? Do we mean to submit, and consent that we shall be ground to powder, and our country and its rights trodden down in the dust? I know we do not mean to submit. We never shall submit! The war, then, must go on. We must fight it through. And if the war must go on, why put off longer the Declaration of Independence? That measure will strengthen us. It will give us character abroad. Nations will then treat with us, which they never can do while we acknowledge ourselves subjects in arms against our sovereign. If we fail, it can be no worse for us. But we shall not fail. The cause will raise up armies; the cause will create navies. The people, the people, if we are true to them, will carry us and will carry themselves gloriously through this struggle. I care not how fickle other people have been found. I know the people of these Colonies; and I know that resistance to British aggression is deep and settled in their hearts, and cannot be eradicated. Every colony, indeed, has expressed its willingness to follow, if we but take the lead. Sir, the Declaration will inspire the people with increased courage. Instead of a long and bloody war for restoration of privileges, for redress of grievances, set before them the glorious object of entire independence, and it will breathe into them anew the breath of life. Read this Declaration at the head of the army; every sword will be drawn from its scabbard, and the solemn vow uttered to maintain it, or to perish on the field of honor. Publish it from the pulpit; religion will approve it, and the love of religious liberty will cling round it, resolved to stand with it or fall with it. Send it to the public halls; proclaim it there; let them hear it who heard the first roar of the enemy's cannon; let them see it who saw their brothers and their sons fall on the field of Bunker Hill and in the streets of Lexington and Concord, and the very walls will cry out in its support. Sir, I know the uncertainty of human affairs, but I see, I see clearly through this day's business. You and I, indeed, may rue it. We may not live to the time when this Declaration shall be made good. We may die; die slaves; die, it may be, ignominiously and on the scaffold. Be it so; be it so! If it be the pleasure of Heaven that my country shall require the poor offering of my life, the victim shall be ready at the appointed hour of sacrifice, come when that hour may. while I do live, let me have a country, or at least the hope of a country, and that a free country. But, whatever may be our fate, be assured that this Declaration will stand. It may cost treasure, and it may cost blood; but it will stand, and it will richly compensate for both. Through the thick gloom of the present, I see the brightness of the future, as the sun in heaven. We shall make this a glorious, an immortal day. When we are in our graves, our children will honor it. They will celebrate it with thanksgiving, with festivity, with bonfires and illuminations. On its annual return they will shed tears, copious, gushing tears, not of subjection and slavery, not of agony and distress, but of exultation, of gratitude, and of joy. Sir, before God, I believe the hour is come. My judgment approves this measure, and my whole heart is in it. All that I have, and all that I am, and all that I hope in this life, I am now ready here to stake upon it; and I leave off, as I began, that live or die, survive or perish, I am for the Declaration. It is my living sentiment, and by the blessing of God it shall be my dying sentiment: Independence now, and Independence forever! -Daniel Webster Words: aggression-tyranny, depriving others of their rights; eradicated-removed; redress-correction, a making right; ruesuffer for. Questions: Do you think it is possible that this speech of Webster's is better than the one Adams actually made? If a truly great speech must appeal to both head and heart, what is the purpose of the appeal to the head? to the heart? To which is the stronger appeal made in this oration? Compare with Patrick Henry's Liberty or Death. Which speech do you prefer? Do you know whom the American people consider the greatest orator our country has produced? WASHINGTON ASHINGTON is the mightiest name on earth, long since mightiest in the cause of civil liberty, still mightiest in moral reformation. On that name a eulogy is expected. It can not be. To add brightness to the sun or glory to the name of Washington is alike impossible. Let none attempt it. In solemn awe pronounce the name, and in its naked, deathless splendor leave it shining on. —Abraham Lincoln THE WATER OUZEL' (Charles Kingsley saw a bird, a tree, a landscape, with the eye of a naturalist; John Ruskin, with the eye of an artist; Oliver Wendell Holmes, with the eye of a poet. Blend naturalist, artist, and poet, and we have John Muir. This great nature-lover explored all the mountain fastnesses from Mexico to northern Alaska. One of the great Alaskan glaciers is named for him. He was greatly interested in our forests and worked untiringly to prevent their destruction. When John Muir died in 1914, Theodore Roosevelt said: "John Muir was a great factor in influencing the thought of California and the thought of the entire country so as to secure the preservation of those great natural phenomena-wonderful canyons, giant trees, slopes of flower-spangled hillsides-which make California a veritable garden of the Lord." This selection is taken from John Muir's delightful book, The Mountains of California.) HE waterfalls of the Sierras are frequented by only one bird, the ouzel, or water thrush. He is a singularly joyous and lovable little fellow, about the size of a robin, clad in a plain waterproof suit of bluish gray, with a tinge of chocolate on his head and shoulders. Among all the countless waterfalls I have met in the course of my exploration in the Sierras, not one was found without its ouzel. No cañon is too cold for this little bird, none too lonely, provided it be rich in falling water. Find a fall or rushing rapid anywhere upon a clear stream, and there you will find an ouzel, flitting about in the spray, diving in foaming eddies; ever vigorous yet self-contained, and neither seeking nor shunning your company. If disturbed while dipping about in the margin shallows, he either sets off with a rapid whir to some other feeding ground, or alights on some half-submerged rock out in the current, and immediately begins to nod and courtesy like a wren, turning his head from side to side, with many other odd, dainty move ments. 'From John Muir's The Mountains of California. Copyrighted by the Century Company. |