When song was natural as breath, And one he made to please the few; And one he made to please himself, No other song has vital breath Through endless time to fight with death, QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 1. Read the first stanza over again. In the early ages of man, nearly all language was poetical because men had so few words that, to express their thoughts, they had to use comparisons. Thus the Indians, who 66 eye eye of night," and the flashes of light from a star were eyelashes of the little eyes of night." 5 10 15 The waterfalls in "Hia-I watha" are called "The Falls of Minnehaha." Now "Minnehaha" simply means Laughing Water." So you see that, "in the rosy prime and blithe and dewy morn of time," song was as "natural as breath," for all such Indian words as those given above are true poetry or song. 2. What is meant by sent forth three songs to fight with death "? 3. For whom did he make the first song? What happened to it? Why did it not live? 4. For whom did he make the second song? How long did it live? Why was it forgotten? 5. For whom did he write the third song? How long did it live? Why did it outlive the others? mean? ("Vital" comes from a Latin word, vita, meaning life.) Now can you explain what the wonderful expression, "vital breath," means? 8. The last stanza tells us the only way that a song can be made to live "through endless time." In what way does it express the same idea as is told in 10. 6. How did this poet become 11. like the old artist in "The Artist's Secret," in the 12. preceding lesson? 7. What does "vital breath " Does it also mean other things that we may do? Name other things that it may mean. Name some great men and women who did things in the same way in which this poet wrote his third song. Consider some great inventor at first. Tell their stories and show how each made " third song." Show how the last two a stanzas apply to them. How can this poem apply to you? THE MAN WITH THE HOE EDWIN MARKHAM Look very carefully at the picture on the next page. It is a very famous painting, and was painted by a great French artist named Millet (mē-lě'). It was this picture that inspired Edwin Markham to write his famous poem, 66 The Man with the Hoe." In the picture you see a man, leaning wearily upon a crude hoe. Look closely at this man. Does he look like an intelligent man? Does he look like a man who understands things, who reads books, who can make a speech, or manage a big business, or lead an army? You will see that he does not. Notice the slope of his forehead, the stupid look on his face, the lack of all that goes with intelligence, with understanding of things, with ability to think, to plan, and to execute, and with the power to love. What do you think this "Man with the Hoe " represents? He represents a European peasant whose ancestors have for centuries labored from early morning till late at night, with only wretched food, without enjoyment, and without opportunity for education. Why have his ancestors had to labor thus? Because a great many people, called nobles and ladies, never labored nor produced what they consumed, but made "the man with the hoe," who was a peasant on their estates, labor for them. Before the French Revolution, which occurred soon after our American Revolution, the poor peasants of France and other European countries had to give the nobles nineteen-twentieths of all they raised on their little patches of ground. Think of it! These men with the hoes and their families had no time for thought nor for enjoyment. They had no opportunity to read, to be educated, or to grow mentally. Thus, you see, they slowly grew less and less like tall, straight, thinking men, and became what you see in the picture, . . . dead to rapture and despair, A thing that grieves not and that never hopes, This peasant cannot read or understand great books; the burst of sunrise or the blossoming of flowers means nothing to him. He sees them not. Centuries of dull labor for others have " slanted back his brow" and dulled his brain. Who made him thus? Those who did not work, those who forced him to work for them instead of for himself. In our own time, most of the people of Russia are men with hoes." The poet asks, "O masters, lords, and rulers in all lands, When whirlwinds of rebellion shake the world?" In the wild, bloody Russian Revolution during the Great World War, these "men with the hoes rose in righteous but ignorant revolution. You have read the story. You know how it was With those who shaped him to the thing he is — America itself was a protest against being a "man with the hoe." Those who founded America would not be 66 men with the hoes," unless they could dig for themselves and their families. |