Your eyes choked in the bosom of the neighboring sea. rove from the water to the trees that overhang it, with almost a human sympathy, and those trees are figures as lithe and pensive to your imagination as the daughters of 5 Babylon who wept hopelessly by other waters. So leave it singing under trees in your memory forever. And when in after days you sit, on quiet summer Sundays, in the church, and hear the story of the baptism, the forms around you will melt in the warm air; and 10 once more those trees will overlean, once more those waters sing, and the Jordan, a vague name to others, shall be a line of light in your memory. Artoosh turned to the south and away from the river which bends toward the Moab Mountains. We rode for 15 an hour over the soft, floorlike, shrub-dotted plain and to the shore of the Dead Sea. It lay like molten lead, heavily still under the clouds, a stretch of black water gleaming under muttering thunder. Its shores are bare mountain precipices. No tree 20 grows upon the bank; no sail shines upon the sea; no wave or ghostly ripple laps the beach, only dead driftwood is strewn along the shore. No bird flew over; even the wind had died away. Moaning thunder only was the evidence of life in nature. My horse stooped to 25 the clear water, but did not drink. It was a spot accursed. Did Cain skulk along this valley, leaving Abel in the field? We tasted the water; it is inconceivably bitter and salt. Sea water is mild in the comparison. None of us Not only the stickiness and saltness, but a feeling of horror, repelled me. Haply the sins of Sodom and 30 bathed. Gomorrah, shaped as incredible monsters, haunt those depths. I believed the quaint old legend, "And if a man cast iron therein, it will float on the surface; but if men cast a feather therein, it will sink to the bottom." arus. Sheik: the head of an Arab clan or tribe. Běd'ou in: one of the nomadic, or wandering, tribes of the Arabs. They live in tents and have no fixed dwelling place. Pûrs'es: according to Turkish valuation, a sum of money equal to twenty or twenty-five dollars. She lived there: Mary, the sister of LazSee John xii. 1-8. Elisha's brook: Elijah's brook, Cherith? Är'culf: a French priest who explored the Holy Land in the eighth century. Se'wulf. Daughters of Babylon: the reference here is to the Jewish seventy years' captivity in Babylon. See Psalm cxxxvii. Sŏd'ŏm and Gỗ mòr'räh: two ancient cities destroyed on account of the wickedness of their inhabitants. See Genesis xix. 24, 25. The Passionate Shepherd to His Love BY CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593): The greatest of the English dramatists who preceded Shakspere. He was the first to use blank verse in the English drama. His tragedies are characterized by strength and poetic power, and their extravagances are a reflection of his own violent and unhappy life. His chief dramas are "Tamburlane," "The Jew of Malta," "Edward II.," and "Dr. Faustus." love; Come live with me, and be my 5 СТ 110 15 20 And we will sit upon the rocks, And I will make thee beds of roses, A gown made of the finest wool A belt of straw and ivy buds, The shepherd swains shall dance and sing Măd'ri gals: little love poems. Reply to Marlowe's "The Passionate Shepherd to BY SIR WALTER RALEIGH Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1618): An English navigator, commander, and author. He was a favorite with Queen Elizabeth, to whom he is said to have first commended himself by an act of gallantry. On the accession of James I., he was accused of treason and imprisoned for twelve years, during which time he wrote a 66 History of the World." He wrote several short poems. If that the world and love were young, But time drives flocks from field to fold, The flowers do fade, and wanton fields A honey tongue, a heart of gall, 5 To wayward winter reckoning yields; 10 Is fancy's spring but sorrow's fall. Thy gowns, thy shoes, thy beds of roses, Soon break, soon wither, soon forgotten 15 In folly ripe, in reason rotten. Thy belt of straw and ivy buds, Thy coral clasps and amber studs, All those in me no means can move But could youth last, and love still breed; Then those delights my mind might move To live with thee and be thy love. Phil' (fil) o měl philomela, a poetical name for the nightingale. According to the Greek legend, Philomela was an Athenian maiden who was changed into a nightingale. A Brilliant Geographical Contrast BY JOHN RUSKIN John Ruskin (1819-1900): An English writer on art and political economy. Some of the most vivid and picturesque passages of English prose occur in his earlier writings on the subjects of art and nature. During his later life he devoted himself to working for the elevation of the social life of the people and for the rescue of the laboring classes from the evils of the modern industrial system. Extracts from his masterpiece, "Modern Painters," have been given in preceding books of this series. Here is a selection from "The Stones of Venice." The charts of the world which have been drawn up by modern science have thrown into a narrow space the expression of a vast amount of knowledge; but I have never 10 yet seen any one chart pictorial enough to enable the spectator to imagine the kind of contrast in physical character which exists between northern and southern countries. |