Pleasantly murmured the brook, as they crossed the ford in the forest, Pleased with the image that passed, like a dream of love through its bosom, Tremulous, floating in air, o'er the depths of the azure abysses. 1010 Down through the golden leaves the sun was pouring his splendors, Gleaming on purple grapes, that, from branches above them suspended, Mingled their odorous breath with the balm of the pine and the fir-tree, Wild and sweet as the clusters that grew in the valley of Eschol. Like a picture it seemed of the primitive, pastoral ages, 1015 Fresh with the youth of the world, and recalling Rebecca and Isaac, Old and yet ever new, and simple and beautiful always, Love immortal and young in the endless succes sion of lovers. So through the Plymouth woods passed onward the bridal procession. Miles Standish was not inconsolable. In the Fortune came a certain Barbara, whose last name is unknown, whom Standish married. He had six children, and many of his descendants are living. III. THE BUILDING OF THE SHIP. [THE form of this poem was perhaps suggested by Schiller's Song of the Bell, which, tracing the history of a bell from the first finding of the metal to the hanging of the bell in the tower, so mingles the history of human life with it that the Bell becomes the symbol of humanity. Schiller's poem introduced a new artistic form which has since been copied more than once, but nowhere so successfully as in The Building of the Ship. The changes in the measure mark the quickening or retarding of the thought. The reader will be interested in watching these changes and observing the fitness with which the short lines express the quicker, more sudden, or hurried action, while the longer ones indicate lingering, moderate action or reflection. The Building of the Ship is the first in a series of poems collected under the general title, By the Seaside, and published in a volume entitled, The Seaside and the Fireside, Boston, 1850.] "BUILD me straight, O worthy Master! That shall laugh at all disaster, And with wave and whirlwind wrestle!" 5 The merchant's word Delighted the Master heard; For his heart was in his work, and the heart A quiet smile played round his lips, That steadily at anchor ride. And with a voice that was full of glee, And first with nicest skill and art, Its counterpart in miniature; That with a hand more swift and sure Towered the Great Harry, crank and tall, 29. The Great Harry was a famous ship built for the English navy in the reign of King Henry VII. Henry found the small navy left by Edward IV. in a very weak condition and he undertook to reconstruct it. The most famous ship in Edward's navy was named Grace à Dieu, and Henry named his Harry Grace à Dieu, but she was more generally named as the Great Harry. On the accession of Henry VIII, her name was hanged to the Regent, but when a few years afterward she was burnt in an engagement with the French, the ship built in her place resumed the old name and became a second Great Harry. 30 Whose picture was hanging on the wall, And eight round towers, like those that frown And he said with a smile, "Our ship, I wis, It was of another form, indeed; 40 Built for freight, and yet for speed, A beautiful and gallant craft; Broad in the beam, that the stress of the blast, Pressing down upon sail and mast, Might not the sharp bows overwhelm; 45 Broad in the beam, but sloping aft With graceful curve and slow degrees, That she might be docile to the helm, And that the currents of parted seas, Closing behind, with mighty force, 50 Might aid and not impede her course. In the ship-yard stood the Master, And with wave and whirlwind wrestle! It was this ship that the poet describes. She was a thousand tons burden, which was regarded as an immense size in those days, and her crew and armament were out of all proportion, as we should think now. She carried seven hundred men, and a hundred and twenty-two guns, but of these most were very small. Thirty-four were eighteen pounders, and were called culverins. There were also demi-culverins, or nine pounders, while the rest only carried one or two pounds and were variously aamed falcons, falconets, serpentines, sabinets. 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 Seed-time and harvest, weeping sires shall tell 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 |