ON Leven's banks, while free to rove, Pure stream, in whose transparent wave The silver eel, and mottled par. SMOLLET. Leven.-A small stream in Dumbartonshire, which drains the waters of Loch Lomond. It falls into the Clyde at Dumbarton. Smollet was born on its banks, near the modern village of Renton, in the year 1721. The valley through which the Leven flows is now one of the chief industrial seats in the West of Scotland, and the lines of the poet are no longer applicable. Tune the rural pipe to love.-Warble love-songs in a rude, simple style. Arcadian plain.-Arcadia was a country in the middle of Peloponnesus, or Morea, surrounded on all sides by mountains-the Switzerland of Greece. The natives regarded themselves as the most ancient people of Greece, and employed themselves chiefly in hunting and the tending of cattle. From their isolated position, they experienced fewer changes than any of the other tribes of Greece. Hence the poets took Arcadia as the type of rural peace and contentment. No torrents stain thy limpid source, &c.—The elevation of Loch Lomond above the Clyde is so small that boats can be rowed up the Leven into the loch. So smoothly does the stream issue from the lake that it is difficult to tell where the one begins and the other ends. The scaly brood.-Fish, several kinds of which are mentioned. The salmon, monarch of the tide, not only on account of his size, but for the place he occupies among fish; the ruthless pike—the pike is noted for his voracity, and is a notorious fighter. Devolving from thy parent lake.--Issuing from Loch Lomond. Lasses chanting o'er the pail.- Milkmaids. Compare L'Allegro, "And the milkmaid singeth blithe;" The Deserted Village, "The swain responsive as the milkmaid sung;" Grahame's Sabbath, "Hushed is the plough-boy's whistle, and the milkmaid's song." Shepherds piping in the dale.—It is a favourite poetical theory that shepherds always carry with them pipes made of reeds-Pan's pipes-on which they play when attending their flocks. EXERCISES. 1. Give the meaning of these phrases-(a) I envied not the happiest swain that ever trod the Arcadian plain; (b) No rocks impede thy dimpling course; (c) The scaly brood in myriads cleave thy crystal flood; (d) Devolving from thy parent lake, a charming maze thy waters make. 2. Explain all the allusions in the poem. 3. Explain the meaning and force of the portions of the following words that are in italics-rural, happiest, transparent, youthful, impede, monarch, ruthless, devolving, numerous, embrown'd, resolved. 4. Give the derivation of these words-rural, transparent, torrent, impede, intent, devolving, chanting, resolved. 5. Connect the meaning of the following words with volvo, I roll -revolve, revolution (e.g., the revolution of the heavenly bodies; the French Revolution), involve, evolve, volume, convolvulus, devolve. 6. Point out all the strictly poetical expressions in the ode (e.g., thy dimpling course). Be sure of your curb and rein; For I scorn the power of your puny hands As the tempest scorns a chain. How I laughed, as I lay concealed from sight At the childish boast of human might, When I saw an army upon the land, Or waiting the wayward breeze; When I measured the panting courser's speed, As they bore the law a king decreed, Or the lines of impatient love; I could not but think how the world would feel, As these were out-stripp'd afar, When I should be bound to the rushing keel, Or chain'd to the flying car. In the darksome depths of the fathomless mine, Where the rock never saw the sun decline, I blow the bellows, I forge the steel, I hammer the ore and turn the wheel Where my arms of strength are made: And all my doings I put into print I've no muscle to weary, no breast to decay, For I scorn the strength of your puny hands G. W. CUTTER. |