2. Ages and climes remote, to thee impart Whose constant vigils chase the chilling damp 3. From thee, sweet Hope, her airy coloring draws; 4. When Joy's bright sun has shed his evening ray, 5. Hail, Memory, hail! in thy exhaustless mine, From age to age unnumber'd treasures shine! Thought, and her shadowy brood, thy call obey, And Place and Time are subject to thy sway! Thy pleasures most we feel when most alone;The only pleasures we can call our own. 6. Lighter than air, Hope's summer visions die, CHARACTER OF APOSTROPHE. [Anclysis.-Apostrophe, as described by the old writers. By modern writers. But little difference between the higher forms of the two.-2. David's lament for his son Absalom. The description by Willis.-3, 4. The nature of man,-closing with an apostrophe.-5, 6. Eulogy on Lafayette. Genuine apostrophe at its close.-7, 8. Ossian's Address to the moon. The clouds and the stars personified.] 1. APOSTROPHE is described by the old writers as a sudden turning aside from the current of thought, to address an absent or deceased person, as if he were alive, or present; but by modern writers that kind of personification in which some great natural object is addressed, is also frequently called by the same name. There is, indeed, but little difference between the apostrophe proper, and a direct address to such inanimate objects as the Sun, the Moon, the Ocean, etc., that are easily conceived of as being persons. 2. One of the most striking examples of genuine apostrophe is that in which King David laments the death of his son Absalom. "And the king was much moved, and went up to the chamber over the gate, and wept; and as he went, thus he said: 'O my son Absalom! my son, my son Absalom! would to God I had died for thee, O Absalom! my son, my son."" The poet Willis has described, with exceeding pathos, the scene in which David is supposed to have taken his last look of his erring but loved son, and the lamentation whieh he there uttered". The following, which presents in striking contrast infidel philosophy and infidel benevolence on the one hand, and Christianity on the other, closes with an apostrophe. 3. "The nature of man is the shoal on which all infidel philosophy, and, if it can be, all infidel benevolence, are a See "David's Lament for Absalom," Fourth Reader, p. 845. wrecked. These can not explain him. They mark contrasts in him which they can not reconcile. The great' and the little', the strong' and the weak', the divine' and the infernal', they can not adjust. His origin they can not deduce. His recovery they can not mediate. They may explore all secrets, and master all difficulties but this. 4. "Christianity alone makes it plain. Man is great', but fallen'; is strong', but sinning'; is divine', but debased'; therefore is he spiritually little, weak, infernal. Christianity brings him back to spiritual greatness, strength, and divinity. It shows him all that he was, is, and shall be. It explains the intermediate stages and processes: it accounts for all. Man! taught by this religion', I can abhor thee, dread thee, reverence thee, bemoan thee, shun thee, flee thee! But oh, fearful, mysterious being, I can not slight thee!”— REV. R. W. HAMILTON. In the following are several distinct apostrophes: II. EULOGY ON LAFAYETTE. 5. You have now assembled within these celebrated walls, to perform the last duties of respect and love, on the birthday of your benefactor, beneath that roof which has resounded of old with the master voices of American renown. Listen, Americans, to the lessons which seem borne to us on the very air we breathe, while we perform these dutiful rites. 6. "Ye winds that wafted the Pilgrims to the land of promise, fan, in their childrens' hearts, the love of freedom! Blood, which our fathers shed, cry from the ground! Echoing arches of this renowned hall, whisper back the voices of other days! Glorious Washington, break the long silence of that votive canvas: speak, speak, marble lips, teach us the love of liberty protected by law."-EDWARD EVERETT. III. OSSIAN'S ADDRESS TO THE MOON. 7. "Daughter of Heaven, fair art thou! the silence of thy face is pleasant. Thou comest forth in loveliness: the stars attend thy blue steps in the east. The clouds rejoice in thy presence, O moon! and brighten their dark brown sides. Who is like thee in heaven, daughter of the night? The stars are ashamed in thy presence, and turn aside their sparkling eyes. 8. Whither dost thou retire from thy course, when the darkness of thy countenance grows'3? Hast thou thy hall like Ossian'1? Dwellest thou in the shadow of grief"1? Have thy sisters fallen from heaven'1? and are they who rejoiced with thee at night no more'1? Yes, they have fallen, fair light; and often dost thou retire to mourn. But thou thyself shalt, one night, fail, and leave thy blue path in heaven. The stars will then lift their heads: they, who in thy presence were ashamed, will rejoice."-MACPHERSON. a For one of the most beautiful of apostrophes, and a good example of the sublime in writing, see "Ossian's Address to the Sun," Intermediate Fourth Reader, p. 239. LESSON LXXXVIII. ODE TO DISAPPOINTMENT. HENRY KIRKE WHITE. [HENRY KIRKE WHITE, born in Nottingham, England, in 1785; died in 1806, in his twenty-first year. To a sincere and ardent piety he added unusual poetic genius, great love of learning, and uncommon ardor in the pursuit of knowledge; but his application to study was so intense that his delicate constitution soon sank under it. See Byron's beautiful tribute to his worth, page 118. The following Ode to Disappointment-the disappointment of all the poet's cher⚫ished earthly hopes-tells with what Christian philosophy and resignation he yielded up his spirit to the fell Destroyer.] 1. COME', Disappointment', come'! Not in thy terrors clad`; Come in thy meekest, saddest guise'; The restless' and the bad. But I recline Beneath thy shrine, And, round my brow resign'd, thy peaceful cypress twine. 2. Though Fancy flies away Yet Meditation, in her cell, Hears, with faint eye, the lingering knell That tells her hopes are dead; K ever onward and upward', to higher facts and bolder theories'. The Inquisition may seal thy lips, but they can no more stop the progress of the great truths propounded by Copernicus, and demonstrated by thee, than they can stop the revolving earth. 2. Close, now, venerable sage, that sightless, tearful eye: it has seen what man never before saw; it has seen enough. Hang up that poor little spy-glass; it has done its work. Not Herschel nor Rosse has, comparatively, done more. Franciscans and Dominicans deride thy discoveries now; but the time will come when, from two hundred observatories in Europe and America, the glorious artillery of science shall nightly assault the skies; but they shall gain no conquests in those glittering fields before which thine shall be forgotten. 3. Rest in peace, great Columbus of the heavens ;-like him, scorned, persecuted, broken-hearted! In other ages, in distant hemispheres', when the votaries of science, with solemn acts of consecration, shall dedicate their stately edifices to the cause of knowledge and truth', thy name shall be mentioned with honor. LESSON XC. ADDITIONAL EXAMPLES OF APOSTROPHE. I. ADDRESS TO THE OCEAN. BYRON. 1. ROLL on, thou deep and dark blue Ocean-roll! Stops with the shore: upon the watery plain When, for a moment, like a drop of rain, Without a grave, unknelled, uncoffined, and unknown. |