I hear the Florentine, who from his palace

Wheels out his battle-bell with dreadful din, And Aztec priests upon their teocallis

Beat the wild war-drums made of serpent's skin;

The tumult of each sacked and burning village;
The shout that every prayer for mercy drowns;
The soldiers' revels in the midst of pillage;
The wail of famine in beleaguered towns;

The bursting shell, the gateway wrenched asunder,
The rattling musketry, the clashing blade;
And ever and anon, in tones of thunder,
The diapason of the cannonade.

Is it, O man, with such discordant noises,
With such accursed instruments as these,

Thou drownest Nature's sweet and kindly voices,
And jarrest the celestial harmonies?

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Were half the power that fills the world with terror,
Were half the wealth bestowed on camps and courts,
Given to redeem the human mind from error,

There were no need of arsenals or forts:

The warrior's name would be a name abhorrèd!
And every nation, that should lift again
Its hand against a brother, on its forehead
Would wear forevermore the curse of Cain!

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Down the dark future, through long generations,
The echoing sounds grow fainter and then cease;
And like a bell, with solemn, sweet vibrations,

I hear once more the voice of Christ say, "Peace!"

Peace! and no longer from its brazen portals

The blast of War's great organ shakes the skies! But beautiful as songs of the immortals,

The holy melodies of love arise.

HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW.

HELPS TO STUDY

1. What is the fancy that suggested to Longfellow the idea of this poem? 2. What kind of music does he, in his imagination, hear the organ bring forth? 3. What is meant by the death-angel, line 6? 4. Show how his memory calls up the scenes and sounds of wars in many lands. 5. Does he see glory in war, or cruelty and suffering? 6. By what means does he think war might be made to end? that express this idea.

Quote the lines

Proper Names: Miserere (Miz e rē're), a hymn of grief; the word means Pity us. Cimbric, a name applied to the Celtic inhabitants of Great Britain before they were invaded by the Saxons. Aztec, the name of the original people of Mexico. Cain, the first murderer, according to the story in Genesis.

For Study with the Glossary: Burnished, anthem, symphonies, reverberation, teocallis, diapason, celestial.

For Oral and Written Composition: 1. Plans for world peace. 2. The destructiveness of war. 3. How can education make for peace?

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THE CHAMBERED NAUTILUS

This is the ship of pearl, which, poets feign,
Sails the unshadowed main,

The venturous bark that flings

On the sweet summer wind its purpled wings,

In gulfs enchanted, where the Siren sings,

And coral reefs lie bare,

Where the cold sea-maids rise to sun their streaming hair.

Its webs of living gauze no more unfurl;

Wrecked is the ship of pearl!

And every chambered cell,

Where its dim dreaming life was wont to dwell,

As the frail tenant shaped his growing shell,
Before thee lies revealed,

Its irised ceiling rent, its sunless crypt unsealed!

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,

Stole with soft step its shining archway through,
Built up its idle door,

Stretched in his last-found home, and knew the old no more.

Thanks for the heavenly message brought by thee,

Child of the wandering sea,

Cast from her lap, forlorn!

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From thy dead lips a clearer note is born

Than ever Triton blew from wreathéd horn!

While on mine ear it rings,

Through the deep caves of thought I hear a voice that sings :

5 Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul, As the swift seasons roll!

Leave thy low-vaulted past!

Let each new temple, nobler than the last,
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,

Till thou at length art free,

Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea!

OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES.

HELPS TO STUDY

The chambered nautilus, called also the "pearly nautilus," is a shellfish, found in the sea, which enlarges its shell by building to it new and larger portions when it has outgrown the old. This habit suggests to the poet the lesson that we, too, should grow into larger and nobler things as the years go on.

1. In the first stanza Holmes refers to the old belief that the nautilus extended its winglike arms as sails. 2. What does the form of the nautilus seem to be? What beautiful colors has it? How does it move? 3. In the third stanza the poet tells how the shell is built. 4. Triton is a Greek name for Neptune, god of the sea. Holmes is quoting from a famous line by Wordsworth: "Or hear old Triton blow his wreathéd horn."

For Study with the Glossary: Siren, irised, crypt, lustrous, forlorn.

FOR A' THAT AND A' THAT

Is there, for honest poverty,

That hangs his head, and a' that?
The coward slave, we pass him by,
We dare be poor for a' that!
For a' that, and a' that,

Our toils obscure, and a' that,"
The rank is but the guinea's stamp;
The man's the gowd for a' that.

What tho' on hamely fare we dine,

Wear hodden-grey, and a' that;

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Gie fools their silks, and knaves their wine,

A man's a man for a' that.

For a' that, and a' that,

Their tinsel show, and a' that;

The honest man, tho' e'er sae poor,
Is King o' men for a' that.

Ye see yon birkie, ca'd a lord,

Wha struts, and stares, and a' that;
Tho' hundreds worship at his word,
He's but a coof for a' that:
For a' that and a' that,

His riband, star, and a' that,
The man of independent mind,
He looks and laughs at a' that.

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