HELPS TO STUDY.

Historical: The Greeks thought there were twelve great gods and goddesses who lived on Mt. Olympus. Chief among these was Jupiter. Apollo, one of the sons of Jupiter, was lord of the day and was the god of music and poetry. He founded cities and made wise and just laws.

Apollo's son, Esculapius, became so skillful a physician that he could restore the dead to life. Pluto, the god of the under-world, thought this lessened his power over the dead and he persuaded Jupiter to kill Esculapius with a thunderbolt.

Apollo, enraged at the death of his son, killed the men who made the thunderbolt, but as punishment for this act of injustice, Jupiter condemned him to spend a year upon earth, as servant to a mortal. In this poem Lowell pictures the life of Apollo among men.

Notes and Questions.

The poet Tennyson once said of a little flower:

"But if I could understand What you are, root and all, and all in all,

I should know what God and man is.''

Read the lines which tell what

the memory of the shepherd's life did for others when he was gone?

What words in the last stanza

tell you that the shepherd was a poet?

What does the word ""first-born" tell you about him?

He drew his bridle in the shade

the

the
Of the apple-trees, to greet the maid,

For Biography see p. 252.

1

9

And ask a draught from the spring that flowed
Through the meadow across the road.

10

She stooped where the cool spring bubbled up
And filled for him her small tin cup,

11

And blushed as she gave it, looking down
On her feet so bare, and her tattered gown.

12

"Thanks!" said the Judge; "a sweeter draught From a fairer hand was never quaffed."

13

He spoke of the grass and flowers and trees,
Of the singing birds and the humming bees;

14

Then talked of the haying, and wondered whether The cloud in the west would bring foul weather.

15

And Maud forgot her brier-torn gown,

And her graceful ankles bare and brown;

16

And listened, while a pleased surprise
Looked from her long-lashed hazel eyes.

17

At last, like one who for delay

Seeks a vain excuse, he rode away.

18

Maud Muller looked and sighed: “Ah me!
That I the Judge's bride might be!

19

"He would dress me up in silks so fine, And praise and toast me at his wine.

20

"My father should wear a broadcloth coat; My brother should sail a painted boat.

21

"I'd dress my mother so grand and gay,
And the baby should have a new toy each day.

22

"And I'd feed the hungry and clothe the poor, And all should bless me who left our door."

23

The Judge looked back as he climbed the hill,
And saw Maud Muller standing still.

24

"A form more fair, a face more sweet,

Ne'er hath it been my lot to meet.

25

"And her modest answer and graceful air Show her wise and good as she is fair.

26

"Would she were mine, and I to-day, Like her, a harvester of hay:

27

"No doubtful balance of rights and wrongs, Nor weary lawyers with endless tongues,

28

"But low of cattle and song of birds,
And health and quiet and loving words."

29

But he thought of his sisters proud and cold, And his mother vain of her rank and gold.

30

So, closing his heart, the Judge rode on,
And Maud was left in the field alone.

31

But the lawyers smiled that afternoon, When he hummed in court an old love-tune;

32

And the young girl mused beside the well,
Till the rain on the unraked clover fell.

33

He wedded a wife of richest dower,

Who lived for fashion, as he for power.

34

Yet oft, in his marble hearth's bright glow, He watched a picture come and go;

35

And sweet Maud Muller's hazel eyes
Looked out in their innocent surprise.