"Who dares?"--this was the patriot's cry, As striding from the desk he came,-- "Come out with me, in Freedom's name, For her to live, for her to die?" 15 A hundred hands flung up reply, A hundred voices answered, "I."
1. Explain the following references in the first stanza: "the North"; "wild news"; "boreal light"; "first oath of Freedom's gun"; "Concord . . . forgot her old baptismal name."
2. Where does this story begin? What is the purpose of the first stanza? Where is the scene laid? What is the date of the action? Who was Berkeley? What occurs?
3. What other dramatic Revolutionary War episodes do you know? Name three other Revolutionary War poems.
4. Thomas Buchanan Read (1822-1872) was a Pennsylvanian by birth. His interests in art and literature took him abroad, and he spent several years in Italy. A number of his poems and paintings are highly esteemed.
There is a land of every land the pride, Beloved of Heaven o'er all the world beside, There brighter suns dispense serener light And milder moons imparadise the night. O land of beauty, virtue, valor, truth, 5 Time-tutored age, and love-exalted youth! There is a spot of earth supremely blest, A dearer, sweeter spot than all the rest, Where man, creation's tyrant, casts aside His sword and scepter, pageantry and pride, 10 While in his softened looks benignly blend The sire, the son, the husband, brother, friend. Where shall that land, that spot of earth, be found? Art thou a man, a patriot? Look around! O thou shalt find, howe'er thy footsteps roam, 15 That land thy country and that spot thy home.
1. Make a list of songs whose theme is love of country. Name the national hymns of the chief countries of the world. What songs have love of home as their theme?
2. Write the meaning of the above poem in a few short sentences.
3. Select five unusual words from the poem, give a brief definition of each, and use each in a sentence.
4. Find out the following facts about the life of Montgomery: dates of birth and death; nationality; business or profession; chief writings.
In March, 1775, a month before Lexington, Patrick Henry electrified the Virginia convention with the speech that here follows. A resolution was before the convention "that the colony be immediately put in a state of defence." Speaking to that resolution, Henry thrilled the delegates with his review of British mistreatment and his climax of "give me liberty or give me death."