3. Against the windows the storm comes dashing; Through tattered foliage the hail tears crashing; The blue lightning flashes; The rapid hail clashes; The white waves are tumbling; Like the toothless sea mumbling The thunder is rumbling, And crashing, and crumbling- 21. HYMN TO THE NORTH STAR. LOWELL. [The reading of this poem will be characterized by slow movement, median stress, orotund quality, and middle key.] 1. The sad and solemn night Hath yet her multitude of cheerful fires; Walk the dark atmosphere | till she retires; 2. Dáy, too, hath many a str To grace his gorgeous réign, as bright as thèy: Unséen, they follow in his flaming wày: Many a bright lingerer, as the eve grows dím, 3. And thou dost see them ríse, Star of the Póle! and thou dost see them sèt. Alóne, in thy cold skies, Thou keep'st thy old unmoving station yét, Nor join'st the dances of that glittering tráin, Nor dipp'st thy virgin órb| in the blue western màin. 4. Thére, at morn's rosy bírth, Thou lookest meekly through the kindling áir, Chases the day, beholds thee | watching thère; 5. Alíke, beneath thine eye, The deeds of darkness | and of light | are done; High toward the starlit ský | Towns bláze, the smoke of battle blots the Sún; The night-storm on a thousand hills | is loud, And the strong wind of day | doth mingle sea and cloud. 6. On thy unaltering bláze | The half-wrecked mariner, his compass lóst, Fixes his steady gáze, And stéers, undoubting, to the friendly coast; And they who stray in perilous wastes, by nìght, Are glad when thou dost shíne | to guide their footsteps right. 7. And therefore | bards of old, Ságes and hérmits of the solemn wood, Did in thy beams | behold | A beauteous type of that unchanging good, BRYANT 22. THE AMERICAN FLAG. [To be read with declamatory and dramatic force, radical and 1. When Freedom from her mountain height She tore the azure robe of night, Who rear'st aloft thy regal form, And rolls the thunder-drum of heaven,- 3. Flag of the brave! thy folds shall fly, Each soldier's eye shall brightly turn Like shoots of flame on midnight's pall, 4. Flag of the seas! on ocean's wave Thy stars shall glitter o'er the brave. 5. Flag of the free heart's only home, Where breathes the foe but falls before us, And Freedom's banner waving o'er us! DRAKE 23. THE CHAMBERED NAUTILUS. [The reading of this poem should be characterized by slow movement, median stress, pure tone, and orotund quality. To be marked by the class for emphasis, inflection, and pauses.] 1. This is the ship of pearl, which, poets feign, The venturous bark that flings On the sweet summer wind its purpled wings Where the cold sea-maids rise to sun their streaming hair. 2. Its webs of living gauze no more unfurl; And every chambered cell, Where its dim dreaming life was wont to dwell, Its irised ceiling rent, its sunless crypt unsealed! 3. Year after year beheld the silent toil That spread his lustrous coil; Still, as the spiral grew, He left the past year's dwelling for the new, Stretched in his last found home, and knew the old no more. 4. Thanks for the heavenly message brought by thee, Cast from her lap forlorn! |