of distinguished career? On the contrary, the finest human spirit may have been represented among them,--the tyranthating courage of a Hampden, the imagination of a Milton, the zeal and energy of a Cromwell. But circumstances, which forbade the development of their powers in a world of action, put a limit too on the exercises of their faults. Yet the desire to be remembered after death, a natural desire common to us all, has caused these stones to be erected and inscribed, inviting a sympathetic tribute from those who are later to view them. He too, who is writing these very lines, will one day pass away, and others, recalling his quiet habits, will point out to the inquirer his tombstone, inscribed with an epitaph setting forth the quality of his life.

But whether this larger development of ideas appears readily or not, the beauty of phrase and stanza brings instant recognition, and needs not to be remarked. Yet even

here there is an interesting observation to be made, that would be likely to escape one unless pointed out: the value of the passages lies not in the originality of their ideas, but in the perfectness of expression that Gray supplied for ideas that had long been current in earlier poetry. We know that Gray took great pains with the phrasing of his poems, and that he had this one in his possession about seven years before circumstances forced him to publish it. The result is that for ideas which other men had expressed more or less well, he supplied the finally perfect phrase, the phrase that we recognize and remember. One example will serve for all. Perhaps the most frequently quoted stanza of the Elegy is that beginning "Full many a gem." In his edition of selections from Gray, Professor W. L. Phelps has gathered the following forms in which the thought had appeared from the time of Milton down to that of Gray himself:

That, like to rich and various gems, inlay
The unadorned bosom of the deep.-Milton.

Like woodland flowers, that paint the desert glades, And waste their sweets in unfrequented shades.-Philips.

Like beauteous flowers which vainly waste the scent
Of odors in unhaunted desarts.-Chamberlayne.

There is many a rich stone laid up in the bowels of the earth, many a fair pearl laid up in the bosom of the sea, that never was seen nor never shall be.-Hall.

There kept my charms conceal'd from mortal eye,
Like roses, that in deserts bloom and die.-Pope.

Since Gray's time the idea has always been associated with his expression of it, and it is unthinkable that any later poet should try to improve on what is so widely recognized as perfect.

In so far as it depends on its polished phrase and unerring line rather than on striking individuality of thought, the Elegy bears interesting resemblance to Il Penseroso and other poems of its kind. This is emphasized by a feature that Milton's poem and Gray's have in common: both were written by men who were close students of Latin poetry, and both make occasional use of words in their original Latin sense rather than in their commonly accepted English meaning. An example has been pointed out in Milton's line

Over her decent shoulders drawn.

Similar instances from Gray are as follows:

...

provoke the silent dust,

in the Latin sense of "call forth";

in the sense of "natural to one's genius or individuality";

Some pious drops.

in the sense of "owed affection or duty," as of a child to its parents;

Fair science frowned not.

in the sense of “knowledge in general." To the influence of Latin poetry may be ascribed as well Gray's tendency to personify abstractions, like penury and pride, and to concentrate into such a phrase as "storied urn and animated bust a meaning which prose could express only by laborious explanation. But in this latter respect the Elegy stands between the highly concentrated phrasing of Milton's earlier poems and the simpler diction of the nineteenth century; in fact, the lines that are generally most loved and quoted

are those in which the phrasing is most natural and direct.

A few points in detail call for passing consideration. In the first stanza, the plural form "wind" suggests the plurality of the cattle, and avoids an unpleasant juxtaposition of sibilants. In the ninth stanza, it is the "hour" that is the subject of "awaits," not “ 'the boast of heraldry" and all that accompany it; so the verb is singular. The reference to Milton in a later stanza is plain enough; the words about Cromwell show that Gray, like many of his age, did the great general scant justice; the mention of Hampden, however, the man who refused to pay the ship-money tax levied by Charles I, is wholly appreciative. The inverted structure of the following stanza is clear when we pass to the words "Their lot forbade." "Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife" modifies "wishes," of course, not " stray." It seems best to read the third stanza beyond in the sense of “For who e'er resigned this pleasing, anxious being, to become a prey to dumb forgetfulness? The following stanza answers the question. The two stanzas beginning, "Hard by yon wood" are inscribed on the memorial to Gray erected near the famous churchyard at Stoke Poges, the scene of the poem.

The Elegy is the most famous of English poems written in the so-called "heroic quatrain,"- iambic pentameter lines rhyming a ba b. The characteristic stanza is a complete unit in itself, as can be seen, for example, in the one beginning "The boast of heraldry." It is noteworthy, however, that in some cases the sense is carried from one stanza into the next. Oral reading discloses the metrical delicacy of the poem, as well as such occasional instances of sound echoing sense as we find in the last lines of the second stanza.

HESTER (Page 208)

The "Hester" of the poem was a Quaker girl, Hester Savory, who died in her youth, shortly after her marriage. Though she was for a time a neighbor of Lamb's, and he was in the habit of seeing her frequently, he writes that he had never met her.

ELEGY ON THYRZA

(Page 209)

The name Thyrza appears in several of Byron's poems written about the time of this one. From the evidence of the poet's conversations and letters there is reason to believe that this is a fanciful name applied to a real, but unidentified person.

EVELYN HOPE
(Page 211)

We are not to understand this poem as in any sense autobiographic; yet we cannot fail to note in it that strong sense of personal immortality that is characteristic of Browning's utterances on the subject of death. There is a strong tendency to conclude, from the evidence of other poems, that Browning knew the secret only of vigorous, rude, and sometimes careless metrical effects; but a truer view appears when the tender delicacy of such poems as this becomes a part of the general impression.

GLEN-ALMAIN, THE NARROW GLEN

(Page 214)

Composed during a trip to Scotland on which the poet was accompanied by his sister Dorothy and, for a part of the way, by Coleridge. Ossian was a hero of early Scottish poetry, and it was on hearing of the legend that associated him with this glen that Wordsworth wrote the poem.

O CAPTAIN! MY CAPTAIN!

(Page 215)

This whole poem is a sustained figure of speech, for it was written after Lincoln's assassination, just as he had brought the Ship of State to port at the close of the Civil War. The note of personal grief is especially significant in view of the fact that Whitman, although an intense admirer of Lincoln, had never met him personally. It is when we read the poem aloud that we realize the effective contrast between the strong movement of the first long lines and the solemn tenderness of the short closing ones.

CORONACH

(Page 216)

The Coronach of the Highlanders is explained in the Cambridge edition of Scott's poems as "a wild expression of lamentation poured forth by the mourners over the body of a departed friend. When the words of it were articulate, they expressed the praises of the deceased, and the loss the clan would sustain by his death."

THE TWO APRIL MORNINGS

(Page 221)

One of those poems which, written while Wordsworth was in Germany, show where his thoughts were during the period.

ODE WRITTEN IN 1746
(Page 223)

The date in the title is of no importance: the poem might be associated with any soldiers' burying-ground. The interesting feature of the poem is its diction, typical of that which was highly in favor in the eighteenth century and has been much admired since.

POEMS ON THE WORLD OF NATURE

THE DAFFODILS
(Page 230)

It is pleasant to associate this poem with the following extract from the journal kept by Wordsworth's sister: "When we were in the woods beyond Gowbarrow Park we saw a few daffodils close to the water-side. We fancied that the sea had floated the seeds ashore, and that the little colony had so sprung up. But as we went along there were more, and yet more; and at last under the boughs of the trees we saw that there was a long belt of them along the shore.. I never saw daffodils so beautiful . they