For your name-just to hear it,

Repeat it, and cheer it, 's a tang to the spirit
As salt as a tear;-

And seeing you fly, and the boys marching by,
There's a shout in the throat and a blur in the eye
And an aching to live for you always—or die,
If, dying, we still keep you waving on high.
And so, by our love

For you, floating above,

And the scars of all wars and the sorrows thereof,
Who gave you the name of Old Glory, and why
Are we thrilled at the name of Old Glory?

Then the old banner leaped, like a sail in the blast,
And fluttered an audible answer at last.—

III

And it spake, with a shake of the voice, and it said:-
By the driven snow-white and the living blood-red
Of my bars, and their heaven of stars overhead-
By the symbol conjoined of them all, skyward cast,
As I float from the steeple, or flap at the mast,
Or droop o'er the sod where the long grasses nod,-
My name is as old as the glory of God.

So I came by the name of Old Glory.

Abridged.

NOTES

When a word has more than one meaning or is used figuratively, the definition given is the one that will aid in the direct interpretation of the text

TOM AND MAGGIE

Confidentially, privately; stodgy, lumpy; cobnuts, hazelnuts; a game; imploring, begging; toffee, taffy; meditatively, thoughtfully; contemptuously, haughtily; half-crown, about sixty cents; sixpence, about twelve cents; sovereign, about five dollars; shilling, about twenty-four cents; subsiding, settling back; peremptory, positive, short; wench, girl; perspicacity, acute intelligence; reprieve, relieve, suspend; disheveled (dĭ-shěv ́-ld), in disorder; subduer, conqueror; inconsistent, out of harmony.

DAYBREAK

Matin, morning; rook, an English crow.

MOSES GOES TO THE FAIR

Antagonist, opponent; discreet, prudent; higgle, to argue for small advantage; sell his hen on a rainy day, a wet hen would look small; deal, pine; pound, about five dollars; shagreen, a kind of Russian leather; paltry, worthless; murrain (mur'-ān), a disease peculiar to cattle; imposed upon, cheated.

MY ARRIVAL IN PHILADELPHIA

Fatigued (fa-tēg'-ed), tired; singular, peculiar; grotesque, ludicrous or comical; dispersed, separated.

THE CRUISE OF THE DOLPHIN

Dolphin, a fish, that changes color while dying; inspecting, examining; hardtack, a kind of hard biscuit or sea bread; chowder, a fish stew; cunner, a small perch; sour-grape humor, recall Æsop's The Fox and the Grapes; throw a wet blanket, to discourage; expedition, excursion; squally, stormy; lisping, hesitatingly; conjecture, guess; scull, oar.

AFTON WATERS

Braes, hills; stock-dove, a wild pigeon; lapwing, a small bird noted for its rapid, irregular flight; birk, birch; wanton, free, graceful.

SIR WALTER SCOTT

Imbued, dyed; canny, keen; demeanor, behavior; phenomenal, extraordinary; henchman, servant; sedan-chair, a covered chair carried on poles; Constance, mother of Prince Arthur in Shakespeare's King John; repertoire, list of pieces.

THE ARCHERY CONTEST

Baldric, a belt worn over one shoulder and across the breast; provost, superintendent; clout, the center of the target; lists, field of contest; cleave, cut; vindicated, proved.

THE SHIPWRECK

Agitation, disturbance; interminable, never ending; appalling, terrifying; maze, network; inconceivable, impossible to imagine; precautions, care; capstan, an iron contrivance used for moving heavy weights; penetrating, passing into; singular, peculiar; distracted, mad; valiantly, bravely; consternation, horror.

THE SIMPLE OLD MAN

Portmanteau (port-man'-to), leather bag; philosopher, a wise man.

THE DEATH OF SOCRATES

Alien (al' yen), foreign; precepts, instruction; libation, a wine poured as a sacrifice; deem, consider; owe a cock, a sacrifice; Esculapius, the god of health.

THE REVENGE

Nurture, bringing up; "wise in winged things," knew about birds and insects; poet laureate, a poet officially appointed in England whose duty it is to compose odes for state occasions; pinnace, a small coast boat; Inquisition, the Spanish Inquisition, infamous for its torture of heretics; galleon, a large sailing vessel; plight, condition; swarthier, darker.

JOHN HALIFAX

Remorseless, without pity; external, outside; involuntarily, unintentionally; catechism, questioning; serried, compact; groat, about eight cents; aversion, dislike; irrepressible, not to be kept back; respectful deference, modesty; inexorable, unyielding.

CRANFORD

Savored, tasted or suggested; esprit de corps (es-pre de-kōr), the common spirit; gentility, of good birth; pattens, a sole of wood, usually supported by an iron ring; phraseology, words of; ostentatious, showy; alleging, declaring; vehemently, strongly; obnoxious, objectionable; tacitly, silently; tabooed, forbidden; daunted, discouraged; sarcastic compliments, cutting remarks; facility, readiness; devising, planning; expedients, ways; dilemmas, troubles.

AUTUMN (Spenser)

Joyéd, two syllables for the sake of meter; yold, yielded.

THE BELLS

Runic, enchanted; the letters of the old Norse alphabet were

called runes and were supposed to have a magic origin; molten, melted; gloat, look greedily; euphony, sweet sound; voluminously wells, swells in volume; rapture, happiness; turbulency, tumult; expostulation, remonstrance; palpitating, fluttering.

HANDY ANDY GOES TO THE POST-OFFICE Combustible, a substance easily burned; aggression, assault; vouched to, assured; anathemas, curses; contrived, managed.

THE ISLES OF GREECE

Statuaries, sculptors; Sappho, a Greek poet, ranked by Aristotle with Homer; Delos, a small island near Greece; Phœbus, Apollo, the sun god; Marathon, the plain upon which one of the decisive battles of the world was fought in 490 B. C. in which the Greeks kept back the Persian invaders; Salamis, the scene of the great naval battle in 480 B. C. between the Persians under Xerxes, and the Greeks who defeated them.

A BIRDSEYE VIEW OF EUROPE

Sirocco, a hot wind from Africa; chased, engraved; frankincense, fragrant gum; abate, lessen; porphyry, a colored marble; lucent, shining.

THE CAPTAIN OF PLYMOUTH

Cordovan leather, coming from Cordova, Spain; Saxon, the Saxons are fair haired and fair complexioned; Saint Gregory, a monk in the sixth century, who, in passing through the slavemarket at Rome, saw three Anglo-Saxon boys from Britain; arcabucero, a Spanish archer; morass, swamp; howitzer, cannon.

MARMION AND DOUGLAS

'Plain, complain; behest, command; swarthy, dark complexioned; ire, wrath; hoary, white; unscathed, uninjured; rowel, a wheel on a spur; mandate, command.