Sail forth into the sea of life, O gentle, loving, trusting wife, And safe from all adversity Upon the bosom of that sea Thy comings and thy goings be! For gentleness and love and trust Prevail o'er angry wave and gust; And in the wreck of noble lives Something immortal still survives! Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of State! Sail on, O UNION, strong and great! Humanity with all its fears, With all the hopes of future years, Is hanging breathless on thy fate! We know what Master laid thy keel, What Workmen wrought thy ribs of steel, Who made each mast, and sail, and rope, What anvils rang, what hammers beat, In what a forge and what a heat Were shaped the anchors of thy hope! Fear not each sudden sound and shock, 'T is of the wave and not the rock; 'T is but the flapping of the sail, And not a rent made by the gale! In spite of rock and tempest's roar, In spite of false lights on the shore, Sail on, nor fear to breast the sea! Our hearts, our hopes, are all with thee, Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears, Our faith triumphant o'er our fears, Are all with thee,--are all with thee! HELPS TO STUDY. Notes and Questions. Quote the lines that tell the kind of ship the Master is to build. What comparison does the Master use in speaking of the model? What does Longfellow say that one thought can do? Explain lines 84 to 93. Account for the name given the ship by the Master. Describe the daughter in your own words. Explain: "It is the heart, and not the brain, That to the highest doth attain." Quote the song of the Master and his men. What uses are assigned to each of the following: "the rudder," "the anchor," "the image at the bows." Read the description of "those lordly pines." What does Longfellow say the flag of the ship will be to the wanderer? Longfellow comments on the marriage of the ship with the sea. Explain the figure of speech. Memorize the pastor's words. Describe the launching in your own words. Have you ever seen a ship launched? What does the building of the ship symbolize? Memorize the apostrophe to the ship of state and explain the symbol in detail. Find examples of alliteration. Words and Phrases for Discussion. "airy argosy" "heir of his dexterity" "slip" "scarfed" "Like a beauteous barge was she" "moat" "knarred" * * * * * JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER The year 1807 was the birth year of both Whittier and Longfellow--two poets in whom the love of human nature is a marked trait. Little of the scholar, however, is to be found in the New England Quaker whose lot it was to pass from plow to politics, and from politics to literature. John Greenleaf Whittier was born in East Haverhill, a rugged, hilly section of Essex County, Massachusetts. In the southern part of this same county lies Salem, where three years earlier Hawthorne was born.