gained by sense or reason. Line 210: Life will, in the end, triumph over death, and our "own" will be restored to us. This expression of grief and hope is one of the eloquent passages of the poem.

Line 212: Sped means "made it go fast." Notice the simple home-amusements. 214: The name of the "schoolbook" was The American Preceptor (see Pickard, I, 39, 40); and the poem was Mrs. Morton's The African Chief. In those days of few books, children knew their readers by heart. Lines 220-223 are quoted from this poem. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are, to an American, three of the first and natural, as well as the inalienable, rights. Lines 216219 refer to Whittier's intense interest in the Anti-slavery cause. The Abolitionists complained that Congress favored the slave states (line 217). Telling puzzles and riddles, and "speaking pieces" was the entertainment furnished by the children, perhaps by the boys, since they are not otherwise mentioned.

Line 224: The father tells stories of his youthful days. He had made trips to Canada, riding on horse-back along Lake Memphremagog (see map). He had visited St. François in the province of Quebec, whither the French settlers had brought their old customs and costumes from Normandy. “Idyllic ease” (line 228) — the sort one reads of in old idyls, or pastoral poems. Line 236: Some of the father's stories · were about home life. How wide are the sea-marshes at Salisbury Beach? What do we mean by "a bee-line"? From these salt marshes the farmers gathered hay (line 251). They seem to have made of the haying season a holiday; they picnicked on the beach, and, as they drifted home on the great boat-loads of hay, told tales of witchcraft and the supernatural.

Line 256: The mother was never idle. As she spun or knitted, she told of the "narrow escape of her ancestors," who lived "in the Indian-haunted region" of southern New Hampshire. Find Cocheco and the Piscataqua on the map. Was she a good story-teller (lines 262-265)? The "Gray Wizard" was Bantam the sorcerer, and his "book," which he opened and consulted when asked to "conjure," was Cornelius Agrippa's Occult Philosophy, from which Whittier quotes to preface his poem. Do you think Mrs. Whittier loved nature? Line 286: Sewel wrote a "painful" history of the persecutions and martyrdoms among the early Quakers. See Pickard II, 500. Line 289: Chalkley was a seacaptain, and a very pious man. His adventure belonged, of course, to the day of sailing-vessels. Becalmed crews and castaways were sometimes obliged to eat one of their own number. Line 306: See Genesis 22.

Line 307: Whittier's Uncle Moses lived with them at the old home. See Pickard's Life I, 32, 33. His mind and character are clearly described here. Had he been much at school? What did he know? Lyceum means "school;" Aristotle taught his disciples in the lyceum, or gymnasium. The French and the Germans call a certain kind of school a "lycée" and a "gymnasium." Lines 311-316: Do you know any out-of-door weather signs? Will the weather be fair or rainy if you see spider-webs on the grass in the morning? Line 320: Apollonius could converse with birds. Line 322: "Hermes Trismegistus," Greek name for Egyptian Dhouth, or Thouth, a theologian-philosopher-magician. See Longfellow's poem to him, and Milton's "thrice great Hermes" (Il Penseroso, line 88), where "thrice great" is a translation of the name "Trismegistus." Lines 325ff.: The uncle was not a traveller; hence the region about Haverhill

seemed to him the center of the universe. Gilbert White (1720-1793) wrote The Natural History of Selborne, Selborne being a parish in south England. Being intensely interested in the locality, he magnified greatly the charms of the county of Surrey (lines 333ff.). What did the uncle tell stories about? Was he a good story-teller?

Line 350: For Whittier's "Aunt Mercy" see Pickard's Life I, 33. What character did she develop (line 360)? What stories did she tell? Do not miss the fine metaphor in "homespun warp" and "golden woof-thread" (lines 368-371). Explain the beautiful figure in which Whittier tells us that his aunt was always young at heart. Lines 376, 377: "Who thinks, not of her lovely character, but, in a slighting manner, of her lonely lot."

Line 378: The older sister, like the mother, must be busy. What was her character? Pickard's Life I, 29. Do you judge that she had an easy life? She died five years before this poem was written. Notice the metaphor in lines 390, 391.

Lines 392ff.: Elizabeth, Whittier's younger sister, was his housekeeper and life-companion. She died a year before the poem was written. Her poems are sometimes printed with her brother's. Pickard's Life I, 29–31; II, 481, 482; Whittierland, 74. How much he missed her, lines 418-421 tell us. From line 423 to line 427 the diction is governed by a metaphor comparing his memory of her to wealth. Find the words that belong to this metaphor; do not overlook the expression "in trust." Lines 428-437: Follow carefully the metaphor comparing the close of life to the close of day. Read Whittier's poems To my Sister and The Last Eve of Summer.

Line 438: For the schoolmaster, see Pickard, Life I, 33, 41. He was George Haskell, from Waterford, Maine. What does the poem tell of his life and character? What do you know of

the early custom of "boarding-round"? Explain lines 470479. Arachthus was a Greek river that rose in the Pindus Mountains; Olympus was the mountain of the gods.

Lines 481-484: Explain. Lines 485ff.: Whittier thinks that the South should have, after the Civil War (1865), a number of young men like the schoolmaster as immigrants from the North, who might encourage education and the national spirit, and organize industry. They would "reconstruct" not only legally but also socially. Explain the allusions and figures. What was the history of reconstruction after the Civil War? If such Northerners as this young man had gone South in 1865, might conditions have been different? Line 495: To the Quaker poet, war was murder.

Line 510: For an account of Miss Harriet Livermore, see Pickard, Life I, 35; Whittier-land, 30. She was the daughter of a Judge and Member of Congress, and had spent much time with her father in Washington, hence her "cultured phrase." "She was equally ready," says Whittier, "to exhort in schoolhouse prayer-meetings and to dance in a Washington ball-room." In lines 510-545 Whittier brings out the strange mingling in her nature of "the vixen and the devotee." Kate (line 536), in Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, was a lady of very bad temper, who was subdued by her husband, Petruchio. Saint Catherine of Sienna (1348-1380) was a noted mystic.

Lines 446-562: Miss Livermore became interested in the doctrine of the Second Advent, and crossed the Atlantic with the message of the Lord's "quick coming." She travelled over a large part of Europe and Asia, and, at the time SnowBound was written, was living with a tribe of Arabs, who accepted her as a prophetess, believing that insanity was divine inspiration. The "Queen of Lebanon" was Lady

Hester Stanhope, with whom Miss Livermore quarrelled concerning their relative importance in the kingdom to be established by the Lord. Lady Hester expected to ride with the Lord into Jerusalem, on a white horse with saddle-markings of red.

Lines 563-569: Whittier expresses his sympathy for this poor, ill-balanced soul. We cannot tell how much of her unfortunate disposition was due to heredity; we cannot tell how much was will and how much fate; which of her faults she was morally responsible for, and which she was not. With this thought in mind, explain the passage, word by word. For "the fatal sisters" refer to your mythology. With lines 585ff. compare Psalms 103: 14.

Line 592: Describe a "bull's-eye watch." Line 601: Why were they so careful to keep the fire? With "wishes' (line 608) connect lines 612, 613. What does the parenthesis tell you of the mother's practical charity? Compare her with the elder sister (line 383).

Lines 614-628: Observe particularly the harmony between sound and thought. The last four lines are very melodious; why is this appropriate? What devices are used to produce melody? For the exposed chamber of the boys, see Pickard I, 43.

Lines 629ff.: Breaking the roads. See Pickard II, 495.

Lines 657ff.: "Once more" relates back to line 630; line 658 refers to line 631. For the doctor see Pickard, Life I, 38. Why had the doctor a right to be autocratic (lines 662, 663)? Line 666 refers to the doctor and Mrs. Whittier. He was an orthodox New England Calvinist, professing to believe the hard, iron creed of that sect. (See The Eternal Goodness.) She was a Quaker, very liberal in judgment and creed, believing that every person is, or may be, directed by an