Page:Southern Life in Southern Literature.djvu/510

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RICHARD HENRY WILDE

MY LIFE is LIKE THE SUMMER ROSE (PAGE 192)

This poem is expressive of the gentle melancholy that a perfectly happy, comfortable Southern youth of the earlier part of the nine teenth century was fond of assuming simply because such a Byronic affectation was fashionable. Tampa s desert strand: Florida.

QUESTIONS, i. Which of the three images used to suggest the transi-

toriness of life is the best and why? 2. What is the central thought of the poem? 3. Is the poem distinctively Southern in its scenery?

TO THE MOCKING-BIRD (PAGE 193)

Yorick: a jester at the Danish court whose skull, just dug up, leads Hamlet to moralizing (cf. "Hamlet," V, i). Abbot of Misrule: in olden days the leader of the revels at Christmas, who, in mockery of the Church s absolution of sins, abs olved his followers of all their wisdom. Jacques: one of Shakespeare s characters who morbidly delights in dwelling on the moral discrepancies of the world. Shake speare s spelling of the name is Jaques.

QUESTION. What aspects of the mocking bird s song are dwelt upon?

EDWARD COATE PINKNEY

SONG (PAGE 194)

QUESTIONS, i. What does the first stanza tell of the poet s experi

ence? 2. What does the second add to this? A SERENADE (PAGE 194) This poem was written in honor of Miss Georgiana McCausland, whom the poet afterwards married.

QUESTION. What is the thought of the poem?

A HEALTH (PAGE 195) This poem was written in honor of Mrs. Rebecca Somerville of Balti more. Professor Lounsbury gives this poem high praise in saying, " It