And yet, unwittingly, in truth,

They made his careless words their law.

They knew not how he learned at all,

For idly, hour by hour,

He sat and watched the dead leaves fall,

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Or mused upon a common flower.

It seemed the loveliness of things
Did teach him all their use,

For in mere weeds, and stones, and springs,
He found a healing power profuse.

Men granted that his speech was wise,

But when a glance they caught

Of his slim grace and woman's eyes,

They laughed and called him good-for-naught.

Yet after he was dead and gone,

And e'en his memory dim,

Earth seemed more sweet to live upon,

More full of love, because of him.

And day by day more holy grew

Each spot where he had trod,

Till after-poets only knew

Their first-born brother as a god.

- JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL.

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di vine', belonging to the gods (kings were supposed to rule by divine right, that is, by power given to them by the gods); de creed', ordered; vice'roy, one who rules as representing a king (vice means "in the place of "); mused, thought dreamily; pro fuse', widespread.

1. Read the whole poem carefully. What shape is the empty tortoise shell? What musical instruments have we made by stretching cords over wood shaped something like this shell? 2. How would you express in prose the line, "brimmed their eyes with dew"? 3. Explain the last line of the third stanza. 4. Why was the youth called "good-for-naught"? Read the stanzas that show he did not deserve the name. 5. What does viceroy mean? What, then, does vice president mean? Substitute another word for mused in the seventh stanza. 6. In what way was he wiser than most of us? Who was his teacher? (See the seventh and eighth stanzas.) 7. Read the poem all through once more and see if you can find what lesson it teaches.

Word Study: Words that have the same form in the singular and the plural.

1. The sheep is being sheared. 2. The sheep are under the trees. 3. I see the sheep.

In the first sentence how many sheep are spoken of? In the second? In the third? What form has the word sheep when only one is meant? When more are meant? How can you tell whether one or more than one is referred to?

Some words have the same form in singular and plural: sheep, deer, trout, cannon.

Some words have only a plural form: scissors, shears, trousers spectacles, clothes.

Written Exercise.

- Write a sentence using deer in the singular, one using sheep, one using cannon. Write sentences using these words in the plural.

Punctuation. -Notice the word o'er in the fourth stanza of King Admetus. Write the word out in full, supplying the letter

that is omitted. How is the omission shown? Find another instance of this same kind in the poem. What letter is omitted here? How is the omission shown?

Rule. When words are shortened by the omission of letters, an apostrophe (") marks the omission.

Written Exercise. Write the following sentences out in full, supplying the letters that are omitted:

1. There's no dew left on the daisies and clover,

There's no rain left in heaven;
I've said my 66 seven times

Seven times one is seven.

2. Howe'er it be, it seems to me
'Tis only noble to be good.

over and over,

3. O velvet bee! you're a dusty fellow,

You've powdered your legs with gold.

4. Where the pools are bright and deep,
Where the gray trout lies asleep,
Up the river and o'er the lea,

That's the way for Billy and me.

Study these verses, notice how they are punctuated, especially where the apostrophe is used, and write them from dictation.

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MARCO BOZZARIS

AT midnight, in his guarded tent,

The Turk was dreaming of the hour
When Greece, her knee in suppliance bent,
Should tremble at his power:

H

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In dreams, through camp and court, he bore
The trophies of a conqueror;

In dreams his song of triumph heard;
Then wore his monarch's signet ring:
Then pressed that monarch's throne — a king;
As wild his thoughts, and gay of wing,
As Eden's garden bird.

At midnight, in the forest shades,
Bozzaris ranged his Suliote band,
True as the steel of their tried blades,
Heroes in heart and hand.

There had the Persian's thousands stood,
There had the glad earth drunk their blood
On old Platæa's day;

And now there breathed that haunted air
The sons of sires who conquered there,

With arm to strike and soul to dare,

As quick, as far as they.

An hour passed on-the Turk awoke;
That bright dream was his last;

He woke to hear his sentries shriek,

"To arms! they come! the Greek! the Greek!"

He woke to die midst flame and smoke,
And shout, and groan, and saber-stroke,
And death-shots falling thick and fast

As lightnings from the mountain-cloud;
And heard, with voice as trumpet loud,
Bozzaris cheer his band:

"Strike- till the last armed foe expires;
Strike-for your altars and your fires ;
Strike for the green graves of your sires,
God, and your native land!"

They fought, like brave men, long and well;
They piled the ground with Moslem slain;
They conquered-but Bozzaris fell,
Bleeding at every vein.

His few surviving comrades saw

His smile, when rang their proud hurrah,

And the red field was won;

They saw in death his eyelids close
Calmly as to a night's repose,

Like flowers at set of sun.