PART I

PATRIOTIC SELECTIONS AND

NATURE POEMS.

WHAT CONSTITUTES A STATE?

SIR WILLIAM JONES.

1

What constitutes a state?

fors

Not high-raised battlements or labored mound,

Thick wall or moated gate;

Not cities proud, with spires and turrets crowned;
Not bays and broad-armed ports,

Where, laughing at the storm, rich navies ride;
Not starred and spangled courts,

Where low-born baseness wafts perfume to pride.

2

No! Men-high-minded men

With powers as far above dull brutes endued,
In forest, brake, or den,

As beasts excel cold rocks and brambles rude;
Men, who their duties know,

But know their rights, and, knowing, dare maintain;
Prevent the long-aimed blow,

And crush the tyrant while they rend the chain.

C

3

These constitute a state;

And sovereign Law, that state's collected will,
O'er thrones and globes elate

Sits empress, crowning good, repressing ill.
Smit by her sacred frown,

The fiend Dissension like a vapor sinks;

And e'en the all-dazzling crown

Hides his faint rays, and at her bidding shrinks.

4

Such was this heaven-loved isle;

Than Lesbos fairer, and the Cretan shore!

No more shall Freedom smile?

Shall Britons languish and be men no more?
Since all must life resign,

Those sweet rewards which decorate the brave
'Tis folly to decline,

And steal inglorious to the silent grave.

HELPS TO STUDY.

Biographical and Historical: Sir William Jones, 1746-1794, was
an English author who was born at Westminster. He was a noted
linguist and the son of the mathematician William Jones.
He was
knighted in 1783 and went to Calcutta as judge of the high court,
where he died.

Crete, an island in the Mediterranean Sea, south of Greece, famed
in the legends of Zeus and Minos and celebrated in antiquity for its
laws. Lesbos, an island in the Aegean Sea, was celebrated as the seat
of music and learning.

Notes and Questions.

What things does the poet say

do not constitute a state? What does the poet say constitutes a state?

Explain line four, stanza one.

What comparison is made in lines
two to four, stanza two?
What tyrant is mentioned in line
eight, stanza two?

T

4

They lay along the battery's side

Below the smoking cannon;

Brave hearts from Severn and from Clyde And from the banks of Shannon.

5

They sang of love and not of fame,
Forgot was Britain's glory,
Each heart recalled a different name,
But all sang "Annie Laurie."

6

Voice after voice caught up the song

Until its tender passion

Rose like an anthem rich and strong

Their battle-eve confession.

7

Dear girl, her name he dared not speak, But as the song grew louder, Something upon the soldier's cheek Washed off the stains of powder.

8

Beyond the darkening ocean burned
The bloody sunset's embers,
While the Crimean valleys learned
How English love remembers.

9

And once again a fire of Hell

Rained on the Russian quarters,

With scream of shot and burst of shell

And bellowing of the mortars!

10

And Irish Nora's eyes are dim
For the singer dumb and gory;
And English Mary mourns for him
Who cans of "Annie Laurie."

11

Sleep, soldiers! still in honored rest,
Your truth and valor wearing;
The bravest are the tenderest-
The loving are the daring.

HELPS TO STUDY.

Biographical and Historical: Bayard Taylor, 1825-1878, an American poet of high rank, was a Pennsylvania Quaker, who formed the central figure in the group of authors who gathered in New York City. He traveled extensively in Europe, making his first trip at eighteen years of age. During a stay of two years he "traveled on foot" more than three thousand miles in Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and France, and upon his return gave an account of his travels in "Views Afoot." He and Richard Henry Stoddard were warm personal friends.

In 1854 the Peninsula of Crimea was the scene of a war waged by England, France and Turkey against Russia. The incident related in this poem doubtless occurred during the siege of Sebastopol, which continued from October, 1854, to September, 1855, when the important fortresses known as the Malakoff and the Redan were stormed by the French and English and the Russians evacuated the city. Peace was proclaimed in April, 1856. It was in this war that the Light Brigade made their famous charge at Balaklava.