55 Covering many a rood of ground, Lay the timber piled around; Timber of chestnut, and elm, and oak, And the banks of the roaring Roanoke! To note how many wheels of toil 65 One thought, one word, can set in motion! Must bring its tribute, great or small, 70 The sun was rising o'er the sea, Of some great, airy argosy, 69. The wooden wall is of course the ship. The reference is to a proverbial expression of very ancient date. When the Greeks sent to Delphi to ask how they were to defend themselves against Xerxes, who had invaded their country, the oracle replied: "Pallas hath urged, and Zeus the sire of all The Greeks interpreted this as a caution to trust in their navy, and the battle at Salamis resulted in the overthrow of the Persian and discomfiture of their fleet. 73. A richly freighted ship. The word is formed from Argo, the name of the fabled ship which brought back the golden fleece from Colchis. Shakspere uses the word: as in the The Taming of the Shrew: "That she shall have; besides an argosy Act II. Scene 1 Framed and launched in a single day. 75 That silent architect, the sun, Had hewn and laid them every one, Beautiful they were, in sooth, The fiery youth, who was to be 90 The heir of his dexterity, The heir of his house, and his daughter's hand, And in The Merchant of Venice : — "He hath an argosy bound to Tripolis, another to the Indies; 1 understand, moreover, upon the Rialto, he hath a third at Mexico, a fourth for England." Act I. Scene 3. 87. The main is the great ocean as distinguished from the bays, gulfs, and inlets. Curiously enough, it means also the main-land, and was used in both senses by Elizabethan writers. In King Lear, Act III. Scene 1: "Bids the wind blow the earth into the sea, Or swell the curled waters 'bove the main " some commentators take main to be the main-land, but a better sense seems to refer it to the open sea when a storm is raging. Yet the name of Spanish Main was given to the northern coast of South America when that country was taken possession of by "Thus," said he, "will we build this ship! And follow well this plan of mine. For only what is sound and strong 100 To this vessel shall belong. Cedar of Maine and Georgia pine A goodly frame, and a goodly fame, 105 For the day that gives her to the sea The Master's word Enraptured the young man heard; 110 With a look of joy and a thrill of pride. Her father's door, He saw the form of his promised bride. 115 And her cheek was glowing fresh and fair, With the breath of morn and the soft sea air. Like a beauteous barge was she, Still at rest on the sandy beach, 95. The slip is the inclined bank on which the ship is built. A similar meaning attaches to the use of the word locally in New York, where Peck Slip, Coenties Slip, Burling Slip, originally denoted the inclined openings between wharves. 104. Here, as was noted in Schiller's Song of the Bell, the poet touches the ship with a special human interest and by his reference to Maine cedar, and Georgia pine, half reveals the larger and wider sense of the building of the ship, which is disclosed at the end of the poem. |