Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-05-19
america" AND "sNow-BoUND. ,,
Blades of Grass for Literary Worms-The
Phrasing of Standard Poets

Blades of Grass for Literary Worms-The
Phrasing of Standard Poets.
EDS. SUNDAY UNION Interpretation oil
the phrasings of standard poets forms a
good part of the study of English in our
grammar and high schools, if one may
judge from the anxious questionings at
home by the lads and misses who attend
them.
" Father, what does tempted hills mean
when the writer of our national hymn
says,
4 love thy rocks and ri Is,
Thy woods and tempted hillsT"
Inquired my daughter from the grammar
school one evening as came in from work.
| studied awhile and said to myself
Rocks and rills and woods are plain .
what is left to love that could possibly be
described by tempted hills p" Then ]
thought, The author has said nothing of
the cities OF his country" and remem-
bered that Boston, at that time the seat OF
the American universe to the New England
writer of this hymn. stands on four hills.
and | concluded it possible that the writer
had referred to the cities of his country
that were built on elevated sites. Nv
looked upon the phrase merely as de.
scriptive of the hills, the word tempted u
implying only that the hills were like tenn.
pies. A letter to the author brought the
following reply, dated Oakland, March II.
1887: The phrase tempted hills grew
out OF the fact thatin earlier New England
the people often had a taste for building
their churches on the top or high up on
the slope of hills"
So we came down to the simple state.
ment that the author loved the hills that
had meeting houses on them, and
which were confined to little far-away
corner of our even then great land But
his happy phrase had expanded his mean.
ing, so that as his country stretched her
broad arms from shore to Shore" it still
! applied, though somewhat obscurely, to the
whole vast extent, and the poet had
builded better than he knew"
The grammar school passed and the
high school reached, my daughter and
two of her classmates are now seated
around the library table to look through
Snow Bound at a New England winter
Charming glass How it reveals each deli.
cate line of light and shade that touched
those days of Imprisonment, 1t is well
chosen as an English classic for study by
the American boy and girl. At night the
| three girls would have me look with them
and while we were peeping through the
windows of the old farm house at the fam.
| lily circle gathered around the blazing fire
| listening to the stories the Quaker mother
is telling, we come across these lines:
Then happy, with a look more grave,
And soberer tone, some tale she gave
From painful Sewell's ancient tome,
Beloved in every Quaker home.
of faith fire-winged by martyrdom.'
What does painful Sewells ancient
tome mean" comes in chorus from the
girls. Doesn't it mean that the tome is
| painful to read, because it tells of the suf
| ferings and martyrdom of the Quakers ~
asked Katy. detect in Katy's voice some
indication of a controversy, and ask, "Whai
else could ii mean ~ 1.-The teacher SAYS il
means that Sewell was very painstakine
and laborious in preparing the book" re.
piled Katy. The aged poet was at once
consulted, the two interpretations submit.
ted to him and the true one requested
Here is the quaint answer:
OAKKSoLL DASyERs, May s, 1889.
| DEAR FRIEND: must say as Browning did
when questioned in a similar way " had q
meaning, but l don't know what II was"
think il meant the painful impression of the
4 book ITSELF but am not sure | must let the
reader take his choice of the man or tome In
| the application of the word painful" / an
| truly thy friend, JOHN g. WHITTIER
Perhaps there are enough reader of the
SUNDAY UNION curious in such questions
| to make these lines worth printing.
PATER FAMILIAs.