Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

Like fiery serpents to the sun,
Upon their gleaming track!

And, in the distance far apart,
As if to shame man's proudest art,
Cathedral arches spread;

While yonder ancient elm has caught
A glory, 'yond the reach of thought,
Upon his hoary head.
But every object, far and wide
The very air is glorified

A perfect dream of bliss!
Earth's greatest painters never could,
Nor poet in inspired mood,

Imagine aught like this.

O what are all ambition's gains!
What matters it who rules or reigns
While I have standing here!
Gleams of unutterable things,

The work of the great King of kings!
God of the full-crowned year!
October, thou'rt a marvelous sight,
And with a rapture of delight
We hail thy gorgeous pinion;
To elevate our hearts thou'rt here,
To bind us with a tie more dear
To our beloved Dominion!

Măr věl to be filled with wonder and surprise. Măr'věl oùs: pertaining to the wonderful that is like to a miracle.

REVIEW.

What is meant by folk-lore?

Tell the story about the "Faithful Cat."

To what country does this story belong?

Name another story belonging to the same country.
How do these stories teach the lesson of gratitude?
Where did the Grimm brothers live?

Tell the story of the "Frog Prince."

When the fathers and mothers tell the story of the "Frog Prince" to their children, what lessons do they wish to teach?

Who wrote the article, "Behind Time"?

Name' some dangers that may result from having a habit of being behind time.

What are some of the beautiful thoughts in the poem, "A Little Brown Seed in the Furrow"?

What caused the "strange unrest"?

How did the little brown seed send up a plant?
When did the "beautiful leaves unfold"?

Who wrote "October”?

What other poets have written about October?

Read Andrew McLachlan's poem, "October," and select two beautiful thoughts.

Fōlk-lōre: tales, legends, or superstitions long known and told among the people of a nation or a race.

You are known by the company you keep.

TO A MOUNTAIN DAISY.

ROBERT BURNS.

ROBERT BURNS (1759-1796) was born in Clay Cottage, a mile and a half from the town of Ayr, near the famous Alloway Kirk. His father was a poor man, unable to give the boy the advantages of a good education. Many of Burns' poems were suggested to him by his work in the fields. This poem was written after he had been plowing a field in which were daisies.

Wee, modest, crimson-tipped flower,
Thou'st met me in an evil hour;
For I must crush 'mong the stoure1
Thy slender stem:

To spare thee now is past my power,
Thou bonnie2 gem.

Alas! it's no thy neebor sweet,
The bonnie Lark, companion meet!
Bending thee mang the dewy weet,
Wi' spreckled breast,

When upward-springing, blythe, to greet
The purpling east.

Cold blew the bitter-biting north
Upon thy early, humble birth;
Yet cheerfully thou glinted forth
Amid the storm,

Scarce reared above the parent earth
Thy tender form,

The flaunting flowers our gardens yield,
High sheltering woods and walls must shield;
But thou, beneath the random bield 3

[blocks in formation]

Such is the fate of simple bard,
On life's rough ocean luckless starr'd!
Unskillful he to note the card
Of prudent lore,

Till billows rage, and gales blow hard,
And whelm him o'er!

Such fate to suffering worth is given,
Who long with wants and woes has striven,
By human pride or cunning driven

To misery's brink,

Till wrenched of every stay but Heaven,
He, ruined, sink!

Ev'n thou who mournest the Daisy's fate,
That fate is thine -no distant date;
Stern Ruin's plowshare drives, elate,
Full on thy bloom,

Till crushed beneath the furrow's weight,
Shall be thy doom!

Istoure: dust; 2 bonnie: beautiful; 3 bield: shelter; 4 histie: dry; 5 stibble: stubble.

THE MAGIC SWAN.

ANDREW LANG.

ANDREW LANG (1844- ), born in Scotland, writer of prose and verse. His "Green Fairy Book," from which this selection is taken, is a favorite.

Once upon a time there was a youth named Peter. He had two elder brothers, who were very unkind to him, so unkind that often he wished he had never been born. One day, when he was in the wood gathering sticks and crying bitterly, a little old woman came up to him, and asked him what was the matter; and he told her all his troubles.

"Come, my good youth," said the old dame, "is not the world wide enough? Why do you not set out and try your fortune somewhere else? I will tell you what you must do, for I have taken a fancy to you, and I am sure you will not forget me when you are rich and great.'

Peter said that he would not forget her, and the old woman went on with her talk. "This evening at sunset go to yonder pear tree. Under it you will find a

« AnteriorContinuar »