wrote about the sea. ("The Sound of the Sea," "Seaweed," "The Lighthouse," "The Building of the Ship," "The Secret of the Sea," and many others.) When you read his longer poems and his prose works, you will find many fine passages about it, and you will understand why a famous critic has called him "Our Poet of the Sea.'

In "The Secret of the Sea" Longfellow says:

"Till my soul is full of longing

For the secret of the sea,

And the heart of the great ocean

Sends a thrilling pulse through me;

and this must have been true of him all through his life. What is meant by the Hesperides? (Read the story about the Hesperides in the "Wonder-Book," by Hawthorne, a classmate of Longfellow.) What do you think his boyish dreams were about?

3. The Commerce of Portland.

Find out from books referred to in this Chapter, and from other sources, all you can about the town of Portland as it was when Longfellow was a boy. Tell about its industries, its busy trade with the West Indies, the tumult during working hours along the water-front; you will be able then to explain the following lines:

"I remember the black wharves and the slips,
And the sea-tides tossing free;

And the Spanish sailors with bearded lips,
And the beauty and mystery of the ships,
And the magic of the sea."

How does this passage confirm what you have already noticed about the fascination which the sea had for him? Try to picture the scenes at the wharves as this boy saw them.

4. The Poet and the War of 1812.

How old was Longfellow when the War of 1812 broke out? Why did the people of Portland have reason to fear its effect upon their commerce and their city? Can you tell about the talked-of invasion of Canada. from Maine? See in Samuel Longfellow's account of the boyhood of Longfellow what his aunt says of "little Henry's" eagerness to join the soldiers. Find an account of the sea fight in Casco Bay. Which were victorious, the British or the Americans?

After giving these explanations, tell in your own words what the poet himself says of his childish memories of this war.

"I remember the bulwarks by the shore,
And the fort upon the hill ;

The sunrise gun, with its hollow roar,
The drum-beat repeated o'er and o'er,
And the bugle wild and shrill.

"I remember the sea-fight far away,
How it thundered o'er the tide!
And the dead captains, as they lay

In their graves, o'erlooking the tranquil bay,
Where they in battle died."

5. The Thoughts of his Youth Revealed in his Poem. What do you think is the meaning of the lines with which each of the stanzas closes "A boy's will is the wind's will," etc.? Think, too, of this passage:

66

"I remember the gleams and glooms that dart
Across the schoolboy's brain;

The song and the silence in the heart,
That in part are prophecies, and in part
Are longings wild and vain."

What are prophecies? Can you think of instances of thoughts that dart across a schoolboy's brain" being prophecies of what he is to make his life afterward?

6. His Early School Life.

What schools in Portland did Longfellow attend? Find in accounts referred to on pages 72 and 73 what his teachers thought of him. "Full of boy life, fresh and bright, all activity, earnest, impulsive, and rather impatient; never a mean thought or action," says a friend who knew him well. His first poem was published when he was fourteen. What was it about? When did he enter college?

7. Concluding Paragraph.

What thoughts come to you for a concluding paragraph?

II. POEMS FOR STUDY.

Study and write about the following poems as you did the poem "My Lost Youth."

1. "The Village Blacksmith."

2. "The Wreck of the Hesperus."

3. "Legend of the Crossbill."

4. "The Discoverer of the North Cape."

5.

"The Emperor's Bird's-Nest.”

6. "The Legend Beautiful."

III. HIAWATHA'S CHILDHOOD.

TO THE TEACHER. - For the following exercise, read to the pupils from “Hiawatha's Childhood,” beginning

"There the wrinkled old Nokomis

Nursed the little Hiawatha,

Rocked him in his linden cradle."

Selections may be written upon the blackboard and made subjects for oral language work.

Tell in your own words the things that old Nokomis told the little Hiawatha about the heavenly bodies. Quote, if you can, the six lines of the song the little Indian children sang to the firefly. What pretty fancies came to Hiawatha's mind about the trees, the birds, and the beasts of the great forest around him?

"the little Hiawatha

Learned of every bird its language,

Learned their names and all their secrets."

Tell about his friend Iagoo, the marvelous story-teller. Tell about his first bow and arrows, and his adventures when first

"into the forest straightway,

All alone walked Hiawatha."

IV. LONGFELLOW AND THE CHILDREN.

TO THE TEACHER.

- Treat "Longfellow and the Children"

as you did “The Boyhood of Longfellow.”

The following exercises may be made the subjects for conversation lessons, for separate written exercises, or be made the framework for a composition.

A friend to children - who hath told so well

The story of fair childhood's wondrous time?
Or, who on child-life cast such mystic spell,
In such poetic and such charming rhyme ?

J. Q. A. JOHNSON, in The Cambridge Tribune.

1. Longfellow's Own Children.

Read "The Children's Hour." Picture to yourself the "blue-eyed banditti," his three little daughters, waiting eagerly for the moment when they will "rush from the stairway" into their father's study. Why were they sure of a welcome? What does he say they remind him of? What does he mean by putting them "down into the dungeon in the round-tower of my heart"? [The famous picture of the three little girls, by Thomas Buchanan Read, poet and artist, has been copied many times.]

See in the volume of Wide Awake, referred to on page 73, Samuel Longfellow's account of the poet's grief for the little daughter who died. The same account tells of references to his sons in various poems.

2. The Poem "Children."

The poet's tenderness for all children may be seen in this poem.

Explain what the poet means by saying