Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 10: The GuideSylvester, Charles Herbert
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Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 10: The Guide
Sylvester, Charles Herbert
Children's literature; Literature -- Collections
_Fourth Stanza._ "Orbed" means "round" like the moon. The woof is the
thread that in weaving is carried by the shuttle through the threads of
the "warp"--here it means the "filling." The ancients considered Diana,
goddess of the moon and of hunting, to be a beautiful girl, haughty and
modest. In pictures she was clothed as a huntress, carried a bow and
arrows and wore a crescent in her hair. Is the moon's light white? Is
that phrase a beautiful one which speaks of the moon as "with white
fire laden"? What is the position of the cloud in this stanza? Is it
between the moon and the earth? Is the cloud the "fleece-like floor" of
the sky? If so, when the cloud speaks of its "tent's thin roof," what is
meant? (Perhaps when the moon looks down the cloud looks like a floor
and when the earth looks up it sees the cloud like a tent.) Whose are
the "unseen feet"? At what do the stars "peer"? What do they see first?
Why do they "turn and flee like a swarm of golden bees"? What do the
stars see when the rent is widened? With what are the rivers, lakes and
seas paved? How can they be paved with moon and stars? Did you ever see
the moon and stars reflected in a lake, the former perhaps making a
broad glittering pavement across the waters? To what does "these" in the
last line refer? Why did not Shelley write "stars" instead of "these"?
Can you see the exquisite night pictures described in these lines?
_Fifth Stanza._ This stanza is characterized by force and intensity of
action; the words and phrases are as apt and beautiful as can be
written.
Have you not seen the west when the clouds appeared a fiery red around
the setting sun? Have you not seen the moon surrounded by bright pearly
clouds? When the winds blow strong and whirl the fleecy clouds through
the sky do not the latter make the mountain tops dim and do not the
stars seem to dash across the heavens in a maddening race? Ever
changing, the clouds constantly rearrange themselves, sometimes bridging
the entire heavens, resting at the horizon upon the mountains as upon
columns.
What is the "triumphal arch"? What are the powers of the air? What is
meant by saying they are "chained to the chair" of the cloud? Is the
"triumphal arch" the "million-colored bow"? What is the "bow" that is
said to be "million-colored"? What wove the soft colors of the
million-colored bow? What is the "sphere fire"? What did it do? Whose
soft colors did it weave? What was the earth doing while the colors were
being woven? Why should the earth be laughing? Why is it spoken of as
the moist earth?
_Sixth Stanza._ A cenotaph in an empty ornamental tomb. The body of the
person to whom the monument has been erected is buried elsewhere.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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