Higher still and higher

From the cloud thou springest
Like a cloud of fire,

The blue deep thou wingest,

And singing still dost soar, and soaring ever singest.

HINTS. I. (1) Blithe spirit (numen), thou scarcely singest like (line 2) a bird, (2) I salute (thee), who from thy heart, (3) either as a guest of heaven or near-it (vicinus) (4) unpremeditating dost sing thy lay.

II. (1) Lo! borne higher (magis) and higher, the fields (2) thou dost ever desert like a fiery cloud, (3) and while seeking (gerund) the blue (deep) thou dost sing, (4) nor does thy swift flight (ala) restrain thy song.

Exercise 111

To a Skylark, Continued

In the golden lightning

Of the sunken sun,

O'er which clouds are brightening,

Thou dost float and run

Like an unbodied joy whose race is just begun.

The pale purple even

Melts around thy flight:

Like a star of heaven

In the broad daylight,

Thou art unseen, but yet I hear thy shrill delight;

HINTS. I. (1) Through the golden light, when Phoebus is declining, (2) when the clouds have already begun to be tinged (use poetic form tingier) (with color) (3) thou dost sport exulting as a shade (4) in flight, when its body has been laid aside.

II. (1) Pale Vesper (line 2) with its purple robe covers (2) thy song (i.e. (thee) singing); as in the heavens (3) a star in the broad (plenus) daylight, thou art hidden, (4) but I drink in the charms of thy joy.

Exercise 112

To a Skylark, Continued

Keen as are the arrows

Of that silver sphere,
Whose intense lamp narrows

In the white dawn clear,

Until we hardly see, we feel that it is there.

All the earth and air
With thy voice is loud
As, when night is bare,

From one lonely cloud

The moon rains out her beams and heaven is overflowed.

HINTS. I. (1) Keen (masc. pl. agreeing with “delight” of previous stanza) as the arrows of the silver moon (2) whose vivid torch, narrowed by the new (3) sun rising, is scarcely seen, (4) though felt within (sub) our inmost soul.

II. (1) Both the entire heaven and earth with thy song (2) are filled as when the moon comes forth (pateo) on (sub) a darksome night from out a lonely (relictus) (4) cloud, heaven is overflowed (redundo).

Exercise 113

Hohenlinden, Campbell

On Linden when the sun was low,
All bloodless lay the untrodden snow;
And dark as winter was the flow
Of Iser rolling rapidly.

But Linden saw another sight,

When the drum beat at dead of night,
Commanding fires of death to light

The darkness of her scenery.

HINTS. I. (1, 2) The woods of Linden (adj., Līndiněūm) at the setting sun still stood white with the unbloody snow, (3) and like (instar) the darkening winter, (4) ran (no, nare) the swift river rolling (agens) its waters—

But night

II. (1) Through the solitude (tesca, n. pl.). changes the picture, (2, 3) when the beat (clangor) of the noisy drums (tympanum) summons the deadly flames to radiate through its clear (illimes) depths.

Exercise 114

Hohenlinden, Continued

By torch and trumpet fast arrayed,
Each horseman drew his battle-blade,
And furious every charger neighed
To join the dreadful revelry.

Then shook the hills with thunder riven;
Then rushed the steeds to battle driven;
And louder than the bolts of heaven

Far flashed the red artillery.

HINTS. I. (1) Through the light (signum, pl.) of the torch together with the sound of the trumpets (iituum, gen. pl. found in poetry) (2) the warrior draws his brazen sword, (3, 4) and furious neighs the steed of raging (gradivus) Mars longing for the revelry (orgia).

II. (1) Then the mountain trembles, then rushes the steed (2) headlong into battle, and brighter than the torch (3) that rends the tumult of the clouds, (4) the ruddy anger of the battle thunders far.

Exercise 115

Hohenlinden, Continued

But redder yet that light shall glow
On Linden's hills of stained snow;
And bloodier yet the torrent flow
Of Iser, rolling rapidly.

'Tis morn; but scarce yon level sun
Can pierce the war-clouds rolling dun,
Where furious Frank and fiery Hun

Shout in their sulphurous canopy.

HINTS. I. (1) But a ruddier light shall gleam upon the snow (2) stained along the heights of the hills, (3, 4) and increased by the bloody streams the impetuous river shall roll on.

II. (1) 'Tis morning; scarcely does yonder (iste, line 2) sun (line 2) penetrate with returning (supinus) torch (2) the leaden clouds of the battle (3) where the frenzied Gaul, where beneath the sulphurous (line 4) canopy (umbra) (4) shouts the impetuous Hun.

Exercise 116

Hohenlinden, Continued

The combat deepens. On, ye brave,
Who rush to glory, or the grave!
Wave, Munich, all thy banners wave,
And charge with all thy chivalry.

Few, few shall part where many meet!
The snow shall be their winding sheet,
And every turf beneath their feet

Shall be a soldier's sepulchre.

HINTS. I. (1) On (ite), on, the battles swell. (Ye) to whom (quīs, dative plural for quibus) glory (2) or death is due: now, Munich (Nōricūm), thy (3) banners now bring on! Now against the enemy (4) let thy quickening courage send (stanza II, line 1) thy horse (pl.) and horsemen.

II. (1) ("Send" (immitto) goes in the first line.) Alas! how many, what (quota) part of the soldiers (2) will return safe? The snow (line 3) will cover with its winding (funereus) (3,4) sheet the slain, and each sod will lie (premo) upon the bones of a buried hero.

Exercise 117

Hymn to the Nativity, Milton

The Oracles are dumb,

No voice or hideous hum

Runs through the arched roof in words deceiving.
Apollo from his shrine

Can no more divine,

With hollow shriek the steep of Delphos leaving:
No nightly trance or breathéd spell

Inspires the pale-eyed priest from the prophetic cell.

HINTS. I. (1) Whatsoever there was of the oracles is silent; (2, 3) nor does the priest with hideous murmur pour forth deceitful enigmas (ambages) (4) through the ceiling of the magic temple.

II. (1, 2) Apollo, who dwelt-there (adj. incola) taught in the sacred arts (acc.) is silent in his holy shrines at last; (3, 4) finally he himself has left with sighs (gemebundus) the sloping citadel of Delphi.

III. (1) Neither fabled shadows of the night, (2) nor murmurs, when Apollo has spoken, 3, (4) arouse from his prophetic cell the mind of the timid priest.

Exercise 118

Hymn to the Nativity, Continued

The lonely mountain o’er,

And the resounding shore,

A voice of weeping heard and loud lament;

From haunted spring and vale,

Edged with poplar pale,

The parting genius is with sighing sent;

With flower-inwoven tresses torn,

The nymphs in twilight shades of tangled thickets mourn.