GRAMMAR AND POETRY

117

What is the subject substantive of the first sentence in What is the predicate verb of the

the following stanza?

first principal clause?

Ye mariners of England

That guard our native seas!

Whose flag has braved, a thousand years,

The battle and the breeze!

Your glorious standard launch again.

To match another foe;

And sweep through the deep,

While the stormy winds do blow;

While the battle rages loud and long
And the stormy winds do blow.

If we read the above stanza thoughtlessly we might consider standard the subject of launch, but, of course, that would not make sense, for a standard could not launch anything. More careful reading shows that "Ye mariners of England" is the subject, and that the natural order of the sentence is "Ye mariners of England. . . launch your glorious standard," etc.

In the following lines we cannot understand just what the poet is telling us unless we are sure what the subject substantive and the predicate verb are. "I bore the music in my heart" is the natural order, with I as the subject substantive and bore as the predicate verb of the principal clause.

As I mounted up the hill,
The music in my heart I bore

Long after it was heard no more.

There is a great deal more to the appreciation of poetry than merely understanding what it means, but the understanding must come first. Unless a poet is talking sense to us he might just as well not talk at all. If we will apply

what we know about sentence analysis to difficult sentences, both of poetry and prose, we shall often find the meaning clear.

EXERCISE I

Give the subject and the predicate of each sentence in the following paragraph, and tell what modifies each subject and each predicate:

When the little children in Venice want to take a bath, they jump off the front steps of the house and swim about in the streets. Yesterday I met a youngster who was swimming in the street. His mother had tied him to a post by the side of the door. When he tried to swim away to see another boy he couldn't get away.

EXERCISE II

Read the following selections carefully and thoughtfully. Be sure that each word has a meaning for you. Find the topic sentence of each paragraph, and notice how the writer develops this thought in the paragraph:

FARMING

Nature never hurries; atom by atom, little by little, she achieves her work. The lesson one learns in fishing, yachting, hunting, or planting is the manners of Nature - patience with the delays of wind and sun, delays of the seasons, bad weather, excess or lack of water, patience with the slowness of our feet, with the parsimony of our strength, and with the largeness of sea and land we must traverse. The farmer times himself to Nature, and acquires that lifelong patience which belongs to her.

The farmer is a hoarded capital of health, as the farm is the capital of wealth; and it is from him that the health and power, moral and intellectual, of the cities come. The city is always recruited from the country. The men in cities who are the centers of energy, the driving wheels of trade, politics, or practical arts, and the women of beauty and genius are the children or grandchildren of farmers, and are spending the energies which their fathers' hardy, silent life accumulated in frosty furrows, in poverty, necessity, and darkness.

The farmer is a continuous benefactor. He who digs a well, constructs a stone fountain, plants an orchard, builds a durable house, reclaims a swamp, or so much as puts a stone seat by the wayside makes the land so far desirable, makes a fortune which he cannot carry away with him, but which is useful to his country long afterwards. The man that works at home helps society at large with somewhat more of certainty than he who devotes himself to charities.

We cannot enumerate the incidents and agents of the farm without reverting to their influence on the farmer. He carries out the cumulative preparation of means to their last effect. This crust of soil which ages have refined he refines again for the feeding of a civil and instructed people. The great elements with which he deals cannot leave him unaffected or unconscious of his ministry; but their influence somewhat resembles that which the same Nature has on the child-of subduing and silencing him.

We see the farmer with pleasure and respect when we think what powers and utilities are so meekly worn. He knows every secret of labor; he changes the face of the landscape. Put him on a new planet, and he would know where to begin; yet there is no arrogance in his bearing, but a perfect gentleness.

RALPH WALDO EMERSON

THE TYPICAL AMERICAN

It has been said that the typical American has yet to come. Let me tell you that he has already come. Great types, like valuable plants, are slow to flower and fruit. But from the union of these colonies, Puritans and Cavaliers, from the straightening of their purposes and the crossing of their blood, slow perfecting through a century, came he who stands as the first typical American, the first who comprehended within himself all the strength and gentleness, all the majesty and grace, of this Republic Abraham Lincoln.

He was the sum of Puritan and Cavalier, for in his ardent nature were fused the virtues of both, and in the depths of his great soul the faults of both were lost. He was greater than Puritan, greater than Cavalier, in that he was American, and that in his honest form were first gathered the vast and thrilling forces of his ideal government, charging it with such tremendous meaning and elevating it above human suffering that martyrdom, though infamously aimed, came as a fitting

crown to a life consecrated from the cradle to human liberty. Let us, each cherishing the traditions and honoring his fathers, build with reverend hands to the type of this simple but sublime life, in which all types are honored, and in our common glory as Americans there will be plenty and to spare for your forefathers and for mine.

HENRY W. GRADY

STOP

LOOK

LISTEN'

CORRECT USAGE

Myself, Himself, Herself

Myself, himself, herself, and other pronouns to which self or selves is annexed always refer to the subject. It is correct to say "I made myself work"; but it is not correct to say,

"She invited Mary and myself," because in the latter sentence myself does not refer to the subject. The sentence should read: "She invited Mary and me."

EXERCISE

In the following sentences use myself, himself, or herself if you refer to the subject; but use me, him, or her if you refer to a person not the subject. Give the sentences orally.

XXII. USE OF THE DICTIONARY

Help from the Dictionary. One of our best friends when we read, speak, or write is the dictionary. Everyone should have a dictionary of his own, and everyone should know how to refer to a large dictionary. Someone has said, "The smaller the child, the larger the dictionary he needs." There is something in that; the larger dictionaries go more fully into the meaning of a word, and explain it by illustrating its use. However, every child should have a dictionary of his own and should use it freely. Let us consider how the dictionary can help us.

Spelling. -The dictionary is the guide to spelling. If you are uncertain about the spelling of a word, consult the dictionary. True, you may be in the predicament of the man who tried to find "is" in the dictionary and was unable to do so. The trouble with him was that he looked for "iz."