barkations on the lakes of Canada, in the years 1776 and 1777, so great in the labor, so fruitless in the event. (Gibbon.) 457. b. 18. Gabours. Unbelievers. 51. bashaws, dignitaries, here probably generals. 52. Janizaries. Members of the central standing army of the Sultan. 57. oda, the unit of janizary organization. 459. a. 22. sanjaks were, formerly, bashaws of the rank entitled to wear one horse-tail. 47. attaballs, oriental tambours. 460. a. 20. Cantacuzene. Byzantine the fourteenth century. emperors of 50. Chosroes. Khusrau I, a powerful Persian king of the sixth century. the Chagan, the Khan. The Tartar regal title. The reference here is to Jenghiz Khan, who conquered central Asia and threatened Europe early in the thirteenth century. the caliphs. Successors of Mohammed. b. 48. Ducas. A Byzantine historian who was an eye witness of the first siege of Constantinople. His history was first printed at Paris in 1649. 461. b. 40. ducats. The ducat, as a money of account, was about two dollars and thirty cents. 462. b. 35. imam. The officiating priest in Mohammedan worship. 36. namaz. The canonical prayer of the Moslems. 42. the great Constantine. Constantine I (272337) transferred the seat of the Roman Empire in the year 330 to Byzantium, which was thereafter known as Constantinople. 15. Mincio's banks. See below, 18. Casar's bounteous reign. The reign of Augustus. 16. If Tityrus found the Golden Age again. Virgil, in his Eclogues, particularly Eclogue IV. 18. Mantuan song. Mantua, situated on an island in the river Mincio, was the home of Virgil. 481. 27. honest Duck. Possibly Stephen Duck, a poor thresher who was patronized by Queen Caroline, wife of George II. He is mentioned by Joha son in his Life of Savage (Lives, London, 1821, Vol. II, p. 149). 97. Ajax. Homer's 'strong man.' 484. 303.passing rich with forty pounds a year. Goldsmith's Deserted Village, 142. See p. 463. 330. the moping owl. Compare Gray's Elegy, 10, p. 398. ROBERT BURNS: MARY MORISON The subject of this song (written in 1781) was Ellison Begbie. Burns proposed marriage to her and was refused. 490. 5. bide, await, endure. stoure, dust, struggle. 13. braw, fine, handsome. SONG: MY NANIE, O Written in 1782. 491. 1. Lugar, fanciful for Stinchar. 5. shill, shrill, keen. 7. plaid, highland shawl or wrap. 15. gowan, daisy. 21. penny-fee, wages paid in money. 23. gear, stuff, wealth. 25. guidman, master. TAM O' SHANTER Written in 1790. 498. 1. chapman billies, peddler fellows. 4. tak the gate, leave town, take the road, go || home. 5. nappy, ale. 6. unco, very. 7. lang Scots miles. The ancient Scottish mile was 1.976 yards. 8. slaps, openings. 16. bonie, see 497. a. 3, note. 19. skellum, scamp. 20. blellum, 'loud-mouth,' 'blow-hard.' 23. ilka melder, every grist. 24. siller, 497. b. 11, notę. 25. ev'ry naig, etc. Every horse that was shod. ca'd, driven. 28. Kirkton, the village near any church. 30. Doon, a charming little river near Burns's birthplace. Compare Bonie Doon, p. 501. 31. warlocks, see 495. b. 49, note. 33. gars me greet, makes me grieve. 39. ingle, see 492. 23, note. 499. 40. reamin swats, foaming ale. 41. Souter, cobbler. 65. like as. WORDSWORTH: Cannot accomplish that. PREFACE TO LYRICAL BALLADS This preface, in which Wordsworth sets forth his theory of poetry, was prefixed to the second edition of Lyrical Ballads in 1800, and enlarged and modified in subsequent issues to the shape in which it is here given. 504. b. 27-9. Catullus (87-47 B. C.), Terence (c. 195-158 B. C.) and Lucretius (95-55 B. C.) belong to the earlier or classical period of Roman poetry; Statius (61-96 A. D.) and Claudian (fl. c. 400 A. D.) to the later or Silver Age.' 510. b. 26. Shakspere hath said. Hamlet IV, iv, 37. 513. a. 5. Clarissa Harlowe (1748), Richardson's novel. 6. The Gamester (1753). A tragedy by Edward Moore portraying the horrors of gambling. THE PRELUDE As a This poem is so called because it was intended to be introductory to a great philosophical poem Wordsworth planned on retiring to the Lake District in 1799, with the hope of being enabled to construct a literary work that might live.' preliminary it seemed to him a reasonable thing that he should take a review of his own mind, and examine how far Nature and education had qualified him for such an employment. The philosophical poem was to be divided into three parts, and only one of these, The Excursion, was ever finished. the introductory work, in which Wordsworth undertook to record, in verse, the origin and progress of his own powers, as far as he was acquainted with But them,' was completed in 1805, although it was not published till 1850, after the poet's death, when it was given the title, The Prelude, or Growth of a Poet's Mind; an Autobiographical Poem. Our extract is taken from Book I, which was begun at Goslar, in Germany, and finished in the first year .or two of Wordsworth's settlement at Grasmere. Lines 101-163 were published in 1809 in Coleridge's periodical The Friend. The whole poem was addressed to Coleridge as a dear friend, most distinguished for his knowledge and genius, and to whom the author's intellect is deeply indebted.' 516 2-4. Wordsworth was born at Cockermouth, in Cumberland, and in his ninth year was sent to Hawkshead Grammar School in the Vale of Esthwaite. 10. springes, snares. Hamlet I, iii, 115: Ay, springes to catch woodcocks.' 26. the cultured Vale, identified by Professor Knight with the neighbouring valley of Yewdale. 1. object, what we aimed at. end, what actually resulted. 40. Dust as we are, in spite of our mortal bodies. 57. her, Nature. 73. elfin pinnace, fairy bark. The craggy ridge' was probably Ironkeld, the huge peak' behind it Wetherlam; but there are other ridges and peaks about Esthwaite answering to Wordsworth's description. A similar impression may be obtained by rowing out into any lake surrounded by ridges with higher mountains behind them. It is the moral and spiritual interpretation of the impression that is Wordsworth's own. 80. struck with the oars. 517. 101-163. When Wordsworth published these lines in 1809 he gave them the title Growth of Genius from the Influence of Natural Objects on the Imagination in Boyhood and Early Youth. 101-114. The nominative of this whole sentence is 'thou,' referring to the Wisdom and Spirit of the universe,' addressed in the opening lines; the verb isdidst intertwine', and lines 108-114 are an extension of this predicate. By intertwining the passions with Nature, the Divine Spirit purifies and ennobles them, the very emotions of pain and fear, awakened by contact with Nature, gain a touch of Nature's grandeur. 133-7. What is meant exactly by 'shod with steel and games confederate '? 143. an alien sound. The weird echo from the distant hills seemed to come from another world. 150. reflex, the reflection of a star in the ice. 155. spinning still. To the swift skater, aided by the wind, the banks seem to be moving in the contrary direction, and their motion seems to continue for a moment or two even after he has stopped, the mental impression being retained. LINES COMPOSED ABOVE TINTERN ABBEY Wordsworth wrote of this poem, originally pub. lished in Lyrical Ballads: - No poem of mine was composed under circumstances more pleasant for me to remember than this. I began it upon leaving Tintern, after crossing the Wye, and concluded it just as I was entering Bristol in the evening, after a ramble of four or five days with my sister. Not a line of it was altered, and not any part of it written down till I reached Bristol.' The importance of this poem as an illustration of Wordsworth's view of Nature has been already touched on in the Introduction; but it cannot be urged too strongly. Myers says: To compare small things with greator, rather, to compare great things with things vastly greater -the essential spirit of the Lines near Tintern Abbey was for practical purposes as new to mankind as the essential spirit of the Sermon on the Mount. Not the isolated expression of moral ideas, but their fusion into a whole in one memorable personality, is that which connects them for ever with a single name. Therefore it is that Wordsworth is venerated; because to so many men — indifferent, it may be, to literary or poetical effects, as such - he has shown by the subtle intensity of his own emotion how the contemplation of Nature can be made a revealing agency, like Love or Prayer an opening, if indeed there be any opening, into the transcendent world.' 518. 1-2. Wordsworth's earlier visit was made, alone and on foot, in 1793. 3-5. The Wye Valley, above Tintern Abbey, is, perhaps, the most beautiful river scenery in England. Although only a few miles from the sea, the stream is free from the influence of the tide; and rocks, meadows, and wooded cliffs combine to make the scene one of romantic loveliness. 23-50. The memory has been a consolation to the poet amid the noise and loneliness of city life (2331); it has given him, too, feelings of pleasure, which he no longer remembers, but which, he is sure, have had their influence on his moral character (31-36); and, finally, when perplexed by the mysteries of human life, he has been uplifted by the recollection of Nature's loveliness to a mood, in which the soul, endowed with spiritual insight, penetrates beyond material things to the secret of life, and sees with joy the divine harmony underlying the apparent contradictions of the world (3650). 56. Have oppressed my spirits. 66-111. Wordsworth in this passage distinguishes three periods in his relation to Nature. In the first, Nature merely offered opportunity for boyish pleasures, such as bird-nesting, rowing, and skating, described in the extract from The Prelude; in the second he took delight in the forms and colors of the woods and mountains and the sound of the waterfalls -a delight of ey and ear only, for he was as yet insensible to the moods Of time and season, to the moral power, In the third period, Nature had a moral and spiritual significance and helped him to understand the mystery of human life. The best commentary is a passage in The Prelude (Book VIII, 340-356), in which he sets forth the same succession of his delight in Nature-first, animal, second, sensuous; third, moral and contemplative. 519. 90-104. In this, which we have called the moral or contemplative period, Wordsworth sees |