This is one of the sweetest poems of William Cullen Bryant (17941878), already mentioned as named in the beadroll of the most illus trious American poets. He contrasts with Whittier, who is a student of man, while Bryant was a student of nature.

1.

2.

Come, let us plant the apple tree!

Cleave the tough greensward with the spade;
Wide let its hollow bed be made;
There gently lay the roots, and there
Sift the dark mold with kindly care,
And press it o'er them tenderly,
As round the sleeping infant's feet
We softly fold the cradle sheet.
So plant we the apple tree.

What plant we in this apple tree?

Buds which the breath of summer days

Shall lengthen into leafy sprays;

Boughs where the thrush, with crimson breast,

Shall haunt, and sing, and hide her nest;

We plant upon the sunny lea

A shadow for the noontide hour,
A shelter from the summer shower,
When we plant the apple tree.

And when, above this apple tree,
The winter stars are quivering bright,
And winds go howling through the night,
Girls, whose young eyes o'erflow with mirth
Shall peel its fruit by the cottage hearth;

And guests in prouder homes shall see,
Heaped with the orange and the grape,
As fair as they in tint and shape,

The fruit of the apple tree.

6.

7.

8.

The fruitage of this apple tree
Winds, and our flag of stripe and star,
Shall bear to coasts that lie afar,

Where men shall wonder at the view,
And ask in what fair groves they grew;
And they who roam beyond the sea
Shall think of childhood's careless day,
And long hours passed in summer play,
In the shade of the apple tree.

Each year shall give this apple tree
A broader flush of roseate bloom,
A deeper maze of verdurous gloom,
And loosen, when the frost clouds lower,
The crisp brown leaves in thicker shower.
The years shall come and pass; but we
Shall hear no longer, where we lie,
The summer's songs, the autumn's sigh,
In the boughs of the apple tree.

But time shall waste this apple tree.
O, when its aged branches throw
Thin shadows on the ground below,
Shall fraud and force and iron will
Oppress the weak and helpless still?

What shall the task of mercy be,

Amid the toils, the strifes, the tears,
Of those who live when length of years
Is wasting this apple tree?

9.

Who planted this old apple tree?”
The children of that distant day
Thus to some aged man shall say;
And, gazing on its mossy stem,
The gray-haired man shall answer them:
"A poet of the land was he,

Born in the rude but good old times;
"Tis said he made some quaint old rhymes
On planting the apple tree."

LANGUAGE STUDY.

I. Write the analysis of: tenderly; softly; lengthen; flowery; redden; fruitage; careless; childhood; loosen; helpless; mossy. Note that Bryant's simple, natural style, in this poem, calls for few words of Latin origin.

II. In stanza 1, point out a simple exclamative sentence; a compound imperative sentence; a simple declarative sentence.

Analyze this sentence:

"O, when its aged branches throw
Thin shadows on the ground below,
Shall fraud and force and iron will

Oppress the weak and helpless still?"

III. "As round the sleeping infant's feet" (1): what is the figure of speech? (See Definition 2.) "Our flag of stripe and star shall bear" (6) : what is the figure of speech? (See Definition 4.) "Fraud and force and iron will" (8): what is the figure of speech? (See Definition 7.) Transpose into the prose order,

"Wide let its hollow bed be made."

"A poet of the land was he."

Select beautiful pen pictures. Which are the most touching passages?

This sublime description is taken from the fifth chapter of the Book of Daniel.

(1) Belshazzar was made a participant in the kingdom by his father, and was left in control of the city of Babylon when his father went forth to meet the invading Persian army under Cyrus the Great.(5) Chaldeans: natives of Chaldea who were learned in astrology. (7) Nebuchadnezzar: king of Babylon in the fifth century B.C.. (10) all...languages: i.e., people of all languages. — (11) he was deposed, etc. it is recorded that Nebuchadnezzar was afflicted for several years by a strange form of madness, in which he imagined himself a beast of the field. (See Daniel iv. 32.) (14) In that ... slain: Babylon was taken (538 B.C.) by the Persians, under Cyrus, while Belshazzar and his court were engaged in revelry; and Belshazzar was killed in the confusion of the early morning.

1. Belshazzar, the king, made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand.

2. Belshazzar, whiles he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem.

3. Then they brought the golden vessels that were taken out of the temple of the house of God which was at Jerusalem. They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone.