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ODE FOR WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY

WELCOME to the day returning,
Dearer still as ages flow,

While the torch of Faith is burning,
Long as Freedom's altars glow!
See the hero whom it gave us

Slumbering on a mother's breast;
For the arm he stretched to save us,
Be its morn forever blest!
Hear the tale of youthful glory,

While of Britain's rescued band

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Friend and foe repeat the story,

Spread his fame o'er sea and land,
Where the red cross, proudly streaming,
Flaps above the frigate's deck,
Where the golden lilies, gleaming,
Star the watch-towers of Quebec.

All her baffled tyrants yield;

Through his arm the Lord hath freed her;

Crown him on the tented field!

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15

20

5

10

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Vain is Empire's mad temptation!
Not for him an earthly crown!
He whose sword hath freed a nation
Strikes the offered scepter down.
See the throneless Conqueror seated,
Ruler by a people's choice;
See the Patriot's task completed;
Hear the Father's dying voice!

"By the name that you inherit,
By the sufferings you recall,
Cherish the fraternal spirit;
Love your country first of all!
Listen not to idle questions

If its bands may be untied;
Doubt the patriot whose suggestions
Strive a nation to divide!"

Father! We, whose ears have tingled
With the discord notes of shame,
We, whose sires their blood have mingled
In the battle's thunder-flame,
Gathering, while this holy morning
Lights the land from sea to sea,
Hear thy counsel, heed thy warning;
Trust us while we honor thee!

- OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES.

red cross, flag of Great Britain; golden lilies, flag of France; tyrants, cruel or unjust rulers; fraternal, brotherly.

In order to understand this poem, you must be familiar with the most important events in the life of Washington. Go through the poem, and see if you can select the topic of each stanza; each one, except the last, refers to an important time in his life. To what does verse 2 in the last stanza refer?

Spelling.

Tyrants, fraternal, suggestions, counsel, patriot, sires.

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Word Study. Find, in the poem, synonyms for the following words: extended, sleeping, ship, coronet, finished. Do they convey exactly the same shade of meaning?

Fill blanks below with words from the following groups of synonyms: little, small, tiny, minute, diminutive. You may repeat a word if you think well to do so.

Wordsworth met a

cottage girl. Hawthorne was so care

details. Tennyson for goose.

ful a writer that he did not neglect even the
plucked a flower. The word gosling is the

Grammar: Irregular Comparison. Some adjectives are compared irregularly. The most important of these are:

It is a very common error to use the superlative form of the adjective when only two things are compared. Try to avoid this. This is the best boy of the two, This is the better boy of the two.

Not

but

You have learned that many adjectives may be compared either by the use of er and est or more and most. Do not use both ways at one time.

[Daniel Webster, one of the very greatest American orators and statesmen, who died about fifty years ago, was called upon to deliver an oration in memory of two great Americans, both signers of the Declaration of Independence, John Adams and Thomas Jef ferson, who, by a singular coincidence, both died on the fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the Declaration.

Webster, in the course of his oration, delivered the following speech, which he imagined might have been spoken by John Adams at the time of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. This has been commonly accepted as a real speech by Adams.]

SINK or swim, live or die, survive or perish, I give my hand and my heart to this vote. It is true, indeed, that in the beginning we aimed not at independence. But there is a divinity which shapes our ends. The injustice of 5 England has driven us to arms; and, blinded to her own interest, she has obstinately persisted, till independence is now within our grasp. We have but to reach forth

to it, and it is ours. Why, then, should we defer the declaration?

If we postpone independence, do we mean to carry on or to give up the war? Do we mean to submit, and consent that we shall be ground to powder, and our country 5 and its rights trodden down in the dust? I know we do not mean to submit. We never shall submit !

The war, then, must go on; we must fight it through. And if the war must go on, why put off the declaration of independence? That measure will strengthen us. It 10 will give us character abroad. Nations will then treat with us, which they never can do while we acknowledge ourselves subjects in arms against our sovereign.

If we fail, it can be no worse for us. But we shall not fail. The cause will raise up armies; the cause will 15 create navies. The people-the people, if we are true to them, will carry us, and will carry themselves, gloriously through this struggle. I care not how fickle other people have been found. I know the people of these colonies; and I know that resistance to British aggression is deep 20 and settled in their hearts, and cannot be eradicated.

Sir, the declaration of independence will inspire the people with increased courage. Instead of a long and bloody war for the restoration of privileges, for redress of grievances, set before them the glorious object of en-25 tire independence, and it will breathe into them anew the spirit of life.