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So, brief and strong, each mourner gave his best,
How kind he was! how brave! how keen to track;
And, as we laid him by the pines to rest,

A negro spoke with tears: "His heart was black!"

QUESTIONS

Give some account of the life of Emerson. What was the nature of his influence? What was his method? In what sense was he a mystic? What was the form of most of his poems? What defect is there in their expression of thought? What great excellence do they have? State some of the elements of strength and beauty in the poem "Concord Fight." How does the "Rhodora" illustrate his independent management of form? Note a line in which alliteration is effectively used. Note the effect of the irregularity in one of the lines. What special suggestiveness in the poem Days"? What contrast? What message finds expression in the extract from "Voluntaries "? What are some of the more difficult of his poems?

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What writers constitute the "Cambridge Group"? Give some general account of the life of Oliver Wendell Holmes. What are some of the most striking characteristics of his poetry? What was his relation to political and religious movements? With what did his literary career begin, and how long did it continue? Give the order of publication of his most important works. What is the special charm of "The Last Leaf"? What notable quality of the humor? What finely suggestive adjective? What is the effect of the closing stanza? For what difficult kind of verse was Holmes particularly distinguished? Explain the college class feeling illustrated in some of his poems. What feeling pervades the poem "The Boys"? Who are some of the distinguished

men alluded to in this poem? To what class of poems does "The Chambered Nautilus" belong? What lyrical qualities are strong in it? What is the progress of thought? How does the stanza structure accord with the thought? What is the significance of the line arrangement? What fine examples of assonance and alliteration does it contain?

Give the principal events of the life of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. How are some of the supreme crises of his life

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associated with his poems? What were his first publications? What poem first gave him popularity? What was his first volume of poems? What famous ballads were in one of his earlier volumes? What was the origin of "Evangeline"? Describe the plan of "Christus." Give some account of "Hiawatha." what sense is it original? What quality, unusual for Longfellow, is found in "The Courtship of Miles Standish"? What was the plan of "The Tales of a Wayside Inn"? What were his later publications? What is the central incident of "Evangeline"? In the selection, how does the style correspond to the thought? Note the use of alliteration and assonance. Is the hexameter line in this poem successfully used? What are some of the peculiarities of the verse in the selection from "The Golden Legend"? How is character brought out? Is the poem really

dramatic in its effect? What are some of the evidences of artistic skill in the "Hymn to the Night"? What is the rime scheme? What figure prevades the whole? What special characteristics of Longfellow are illustrated by this poem?

Give an outline of the career of James Russell Lowell. Into what two groups may his poetical works be divided? What is his ideal of the poet's mission as expressed in two of his earlier poems? What are some of the more important poems in his earlier volumes? What are some of the characteristic qualities of "Sir Launfal"? In the extracts from that poem what are some of the evidences of real observation of nature? What are examples of his power of expression? How is his ideal illustrated? What is the character of the "Fable for Critics"? What historical events were the occasion of "The Biglow Papers"? What dramatic qualities do they display? What is the effect of the dialect? What evidences of naturę study in the selection? What are some of the qualities, in form and thought, of "The Present Crisis "? What poem probably comes nearest to Lowell's ideal? In the selection from "The Commemoration Ode," what metaphors and similes are notable for freshness and force? What epithets are especially well chosen? Point out some lines of especial strength. What evidence of remarkable insight is there in these lines?

How did Whittier's early life differ from that of the other poets of the "New England Group"? What was his relation to the antislavery movement? How may his poetry be divided?

What qualities are noted by himself in the "Proem " to "Voices of Freedom"? What poems of special interest appeared in the volume called "Songs of Labor "? How are his religious feelings revealed in the poems cited from "The Chapel of the Hermits" volume? What are some of the reasons for the great popularity of "Maud Muller"? What was Whittier's relation to the Civil War of 1861-1865; and what famous ballad belongs to that period? What are some of the more important volumes of his poetry since 1865? To what class of poems does "Snowbound" belong? What sort of life does it reveal? What lines of special descriptive power in the opening passage? In what lines does poetic imagination specially appear? How does the poem show realistic power? What special realistic power is shown in the last selection? In what class of poems has Whittier shown surpassing excellence? What is the story of “Barbara Frietchie"? What special quality of form characterizes it? What special descriptive effects are there, and how are they secured? How is sound fitted to sense? What is the most striking quality? What contrast at the close? power?

What is the secret of this ballad's

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