the war. These wounds were fresh and bleeding. Think of Lowell's own bereavement in the death of his three nephews. Then read the poem aloud, as you think it was read on the twenty-first of July, 1865. healed of their infirmity by their love of country. Line 376: See line 349. We have a right to patriotic pride. Lines 381ff. Signs of rejoicing that the result of the war has been re-union and not dis-union. Line 383: Let the flags dip and signal. Line 385: A line of joyful signal fires to be kindled across the country, from Maine, New Hampshire, and New York to the Pacific. Line 392: See strophe X, and our democratic principles. Line 393: She has a welcome for the poor of all nations. Line 395: As it was during the war the fire of battle. Line 396: Front means "forehead." Line 397: Sends the soldiers home to their ordinary work. Line 401: See the explanation for the indignation of Lowell shown in strophe X. How were our differences with England settled at the close of the Civil War? Line 404: The "children" are the states, some of which had tried to wander away. Line 406: See line 410. "Release" from the sufferings of war; see also "these distempered days." Line 409: Accomplished the abolition of slavery, which had caused so much dissension for many years. Lines 411, 412: The liberated slaves. Line 413: Emphasize "ours." The nation is, as in the eleventh strophe, personified as a woman. Line 416: "Set" lips show little or no red color (see "pale eclipse"). As they are relaxed, the "rosy" color appears. Line 421 describes our country. Line 424: Reck means "care." V. Find out from the Rhetorical Introduction what an ode is, and make a statement about its meter, rime, and stanza-structure. Study the last strophe of this Ode for its poetic form. Study the sixth. VI. Read Underwood's account of the delivery of the poem. Imagine the deep feeling of all the auditors, many of whom were soldiers, and all of whom had lost dear friends in the war. These wounds were fresh and bleeding. Think of Lowell's own bereavement in the death of his three nephews. Then read the poem aloud, as you think it was read on the twenty-first of July, 1865. CHAPTER XVII OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES REFERENCE BIOGRAPHIES Life and Letters, 2 Vol., by John T. Morse, Jr.; Boston, 1896. Life, by Walter Jerrold; New York, 1893. An Appreciation, by Wm. L. Schroeder; London, 1909. SUPPLEMENTARY READING Old Ironsides, The Height of the Ridiculous, The Last Leaf, To an Insect, The Ballad of the Oysterman, The Deacon's Masterpiece, Parson Turell's Legacy, Dorothy Q, Grandmother's Story of Bunker Hill, Memorial Verses for Harvard Commemoration Services, The Iron Gate. The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table. See Appendix I, titles 76 to 78 inclusive. THE CHAMBERED NAUTILUS I. The Autocrat discoursed thus one morning at the Breakfast-Table: Did I not say to you a little while ago that the universe swam in an ocean of similitudes and analogies? I will not quote Cowley, or Burns, or Wordsworth, just now, to show you what thoughts were suggested to them by the simplest natural objects, such as a flower or a leaf; but I will read you a few lines, if you do not object, suggested by looking at a section of one of those chambered shells to which is given the name of Pearly Nautilus. We need not trouble ourselves about the distinction between this and the Paper Nautilus, the Argonauta of the ancients. The name applied to both shows that each has been compared to a ship, as you may see more fully in Webster's Dictionary or the Encyclopedia, to which he refers. If you will look into Roget's Bridgewater Treatise, you will find a figure of one of those shells, and a section of it. The last will show you the series of enlarging compartments successively dwelt in by the animal that inhabits the shell, which is built in a widening spiral. Can you find no lesson in this? And then the Autocrat read them the poem of five stanzas which he had composed to show one of the "similitudes and analogies" that helps to make up the ocean in which "the universe swims." Read the poem and study the drawings. II. Since Holmes has told us so clearly that he wishes to show us how a spiritual thought may be expressed in a metaphor relating to the physical world, we should first study his figures, and develop through them his meaning. We will use the following outline: Stanza topics 1. The living nautilus. 2. The broken, abandoned shell. Metaphors shell =ship. shell = dwelling. See 3. |