From the streams and founts I have loosed the chain;
They are sweeping on to the silvery main,
They are flashing down from the mountain brows,
They are flinging spray o'er the forest boughs,
They are bursting fresh from their sparry caves,
And the earth resounds with the joy of waves.
FELICIA HEMANS.
THE FORSAKEN MERMAN.
"The Forsaken Merman," by Matthew Arnold (1822-88), is a poem that I do
not expect children to appreciate fully, even when they care enough for
it to learn it. It is too long for most children to commit to memory,
and I generally assign one stanza to one pupil and another to another
pupil until it is divided up among them. The poem is a masterpiece.
Doubtless the poet meant to show that the forsaken merman had a greater
soul to save than the woman who sought to save her soul by deserting
natural duty. Salvation does not come through the faith that builds
itself at the expense of love.
Come, dear children, let us away;
Down and away below!
Now my brothers call from the bay,
Now the great winds shoreward blow,
Now the salt tides seaward flow;
Now the wild white horses play,
Champ and chafe and toss in the spray.
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