HELPS TO STUDY In this poem Shelley personifies the What does the second stanza mean to you? The third stanza relates to the sun; what comparisons are made? What comparisons are found in the fourth stanza? "sanguine sunrise" "meteor eyes" "burning plumes' "orbed maiden' Read the last stanza and tell what lesson the poem teaches. What line tells you? What pictures do you get from the fifth stanza? Which stanza is most musical and pleasing? Words and Phrases for Discussion "pavilion of heaven" "reel and swim' "million-colored bow" "caverns of rain" 5 10 15 APOSTROPHE TO THE OCEAN LORD BYRON THERE is a pleasure in the pathless woods, Roll on, thou deep and dark blue Ocean-roll! 40 He sinks into thy depths, with bubbling groan— Without a grave, unknelled, uncoffined, and unknown. His steps are not upon thy paths-thy fields And shake him from thee; the vile strength he wields His petty hope in some near port or bay, And dashest him again to earth: there let him lay. The armaments which thunder-strike the walls These are thy toys, and, as the snowy flake, Thy shores are empires changed in all save theeAssyria, Greece, Rome, Carthage, what are they? Thy waters washed them power while they were free, And many a tyrant since; their shores obey The stranger, slave, or savage; their decay Has dried up realms to deserts; not so thou; Unchangeable save to thy wild waves' play. Time writes no wrinkle on thine azure brow: 45 Such as creation's dawn beheld, thou rollest now. 50 Thou glorious mirror, where the Almighty's form Calm or convulsed-in breeze or gale or storm, Dark-heaving; boundless, endless, and sublime 55 60 The image of Eternity-the throne Of the Invisible; even from out thy slime The monsters of the deep are made; each zone Obeys thee; thou goest forth, dread, fathomless, alone. And I have loved thee, Ocean! and my joy Of youthful sports was on thy breast to be And trusted to thy billows far and near, HELPS TO STUDY Biographical and Historical: George Gordon Byron was born in London the year before the outbreak of the French Revolution. At the age of ten, upon the death of his grand-uncle he became Lord Byron. He traveled extensively through Europe, spending much time in Italy. At Pisa he formed a warm friendship for the poet Shelley. So deeply was he moved by his impulses toward liberty and freedom that in the summer of 1823 he left Genoa with a supply of arms, medicines, and money to aid the Greeks in their struggle for independence. In the following year he became commander-in-chief at Missolonghi, but he died of a fever before he had an opportunity to actually engage in battle. Hearing the news, the boy Tennyson, dreaming at Somersby on poetic greatness, crept away to weep and carve upon sandstone the words, "Byron is dead."' Notes and Questions In the first stanza why "pathless Line 13-With what is "watery Line 14-With what is "thy" contrasted? Line 22-What word requires emphasis? In the fourth stanza what contrast What does the fifth stanza tell? Which stanza do you like best? Which lines are the most beauti- "The Invincible Armada"-an immense Spanish fleet consisting of one hundred thirty vessels, sailed from Corunna in 1588 and attacked the English fleet but suffered defeat. This event furnished Southey the inspiration for a poem, "The Spanish Armada.' "Trafalgar❞—one of Lord Nelson's great sea-fights, occurring off Cape Trafalgar on the coast of Spain in 1805. Here he defeated the combined fleets of France and Spain, but was himself killed. THE Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold, 5 Like the leaves of the forest when summer is green, For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast, 10 And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed; And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill, And there lay the steed with his nostril all wide, And there lay the rider distorted and pale, With the dew on his brow and the rust on his mail; And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail, HELPS TO STUDY Historical: Sennacherib was King of Assyria. His army invaded Judea and besieged Jerusalem but was overthrown; 185,000 of his men were destroyed in a single night. Sennacherib returned in haste with the remnant to his own country. For the Bible story of this event read 2 Kings XIX. 6-36. Indicate the rhythm of the four lines of the second stanza by writing them in groups under curves as on page 47. |