Page images
PDF
EPUB
[blocks in formation]

Let others write of battles fought,

Of bloody, ghastly fields,

Where honor greets the man who wins,
And death the man who yields;
But I will write of him who fights
And vanquishes his sins,

Who struggles on through weary years
Against himself, and wins.

He is a hero stanch and brave
Who fights an unseen foe,
And puts at last beneath his feet
His passions base and low;

Who stands erect in manhood's might,
Undaunted, undismayed,-

The bravest man who drew a sword

In foray, or in raid.

It calls for something more than brawn
Or muscle to o'ercome

An enemy who marcheth not

With banner, plume, or drum

A foe forever lurking nigh,

With silent, stealthy tread;

Forever near your board by day,
At night beside your bed.

All honor, then, to that brave heart,
Though poor or rich he be,

Who struggles with his baser part-
Who conquers and is free!

He may not wear a hero's crown,

Or fill a hero's grave;

But truth will place his name among
The bravest of the brave.

Elocution.-The tone of voice used in reading the different portions of this poem must be determined by the feeling indicated in the thoughts expressed. In the first four lines, disgust in a measure rules the manner of expression; in the last four lines of the stanza there is simply determination. Beginning with the second stanza, and continuing throughout the remainder of the poem, the feeling of admiration is exhibited, growing in intensity to the close of the last stanza. As to the manner of reading: the tone used in the first stanza is not what is called conversational, nor does it approach the fullness and roundness necessary to the proper rendering of the last stanza-we will call it therefore a middle tone.

The three tones of voice used in reading will hereafter be spoken of as conversational, middle, and full.

In the lesson, we have an excellent opportunity to note the development of a full tone of voice. Beginning in the first stanza with a middle tone, the roundness or fullness of tone is increased until, in the last stanza, it rises to the intensity of expression suitable for an emotional utterance.

[ocr errors]

'weary years

Language. The expression in the first paragraph means the slow moving years-hence, it serves to show that for the person who struggles along through life, time passes very slowly.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

The name applied to the figure just explained is transferred epithet, as the epithet "weary" is transferred from person to years. Other examples of the same figure are 'happy years," "anxious care," "laughing eyes." It is perhaps as well to class all these expressions as metaphors.

The use of rhetorical figures increases the beauty of language by avoiding the ordinary forms of expression. These figures are peculiarly adapted to poetry. There is scarcely a stanza which does not contain one or more examples.

Select a specimen of good poetry and examine it carefully for examples of metaphor.

53.-SCENES IN THE YELLOWSTONE COUNTRY.N

me ǎn'ders, winds; flows.
brěc'cià (brět'chȧ), rocks made
of fragments and showing a
variety of colors.
abruptly, suddenly.

ae eū’mu lāt ed, gathered.

ǎg'gre gåt ed, collected.

ba salt'ie, formed of a rock
called basalt.

eon çêïve, think of.
ăn tỉ quát ed, ancient.
pre Єā'ri qŭs, uncertain.

That portion of the Yellowstone River lying above Yellowstone Lake meanders through a region of the deepest interest. It flows through a marshy valley three miles wide. Five lesser streams flow into it from the mountains on either side of the head of the valley, and during the month of August the vegetation is fresh, green, and abundant.

The valley is walled in by dark, somber rocks of volcanic origin, which have been weathered into many remarkable architectural forms. Looking up the valley from any high point, one can easily imagine that he is amid the ruins of some gigantic city, so much do these rocks appear like the remains of the old castles and cathedrals of every age and clime.

If there be added to this, the singular vertical furrows which have been cut deep in the sides of the cliffs, their antiquated appearance is rendered all the more striking. At the base of the wall, like ridges along the valley, immense masses of volcanic breccia have fallen from the mountain tops, crushing the pines along their pathway.

About fifteen miles above the lake, the valley terminates abruptly, the mountains rising like

walls and shutting off the country beyond. The river here separates into three main branches, with a few smaller ones, which bring the aggregated waters of the melted snows from the summits of the lofty volcanic peaks above. Just at the head of the valley there is a small lake, not more than two hundred yards in width.

Ascending the mountain from the head of the valley on the west, and from the summit of a high peak you behold the whole basin, with the lofty divide, in one enchanting view. As far as the eye can reach in any direction, bare, bald peaks, domes, and ridges, in almost countless numbers, can be seen. At least a hundred peaks, each worthy of a name, can be located within the radius of vision.

Professor Hayden relates that he encamped one night near a small lake by the side of a huge bank of snow, 10,000 feet above the sea, with the short spring grass and flowers all around him. On these mountain summits there are but two seasons, spring and winter. In August the fresh new grass may be seen springing up where an immense bank of snow has but just disappeared. The little spring flowers, not more than one or two inches high, cover the ground.

N

No more wonderful or attractive region for the explorer can anywhere be found. He can make his way among grand gorges, penetrating every valley and ascending every mountain slope, with an abundance of grass, wood, water, and game, to supply the wants of both man and beast.

From the foot of the lake the Yellowstone flows through a grassy, meadow-like valley, with a calm, steady current, giving no warning, until very near

the falls, that it is about to rush over a precipice one hundred and forty feet deep, and then, within a quarter of a mile, again to leap down a distance of three hundred and fifty feet.

Just above the Upper Falls are two beautiful cascades, twenty to thirty feet high. At the first or east one, the rocks so wall in the channel that it is scarcely more than a hundred feet wide, and the entire volume of water, which must form a mass thirty feet deep, rushes down a vertical descent of one hundred and forty feet.

It is thus hurled from the precipice with the force which it has accumulated in the rapids above, so that the mass is broken into millions of beautiful snow-white, bead-like drops, and, as it strikes the rocky basin below, it shoots forward with a bounding motion for a distance of two hundred feet. In the distance, it presents the appearance of a mass of snow-white foam. On the sides of the basaltic walls there is a thick growth of vegetation, nourished by the spray above, and extending up as far as the moisture can reach.

Language is inadequate to describe the wonderful grandeur and beauty of the cañon below the Lower Falls. The nearly vertical walls, slightly sloping to the water's edge on either side, give to the river the appearance, from the summit, of a thread of silver, foaming over its rocky bottom.

The variegated colors of the sides-yellow, red, brown, and white-all intermixed and shading into each other; the Gothic columns of every form, standing out from the sides of the walls with greater variety and more striking colors than

« PreviousContinue »