That was for spokes and floor and sills;

He sent for lancewood to make the thills;

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55

The crossbars were ash, from the straightest trees;

The panels of white-wood, that cuts like cheese,

But lasts like iron for things like these;

The hubs of logs from the "settler's ellum,"
Last of its timber, they couldn't sell 'em;
Never an axe had seen their chips,

And the wedges flew from between their lips,
Their blunt ends frizzled like celery-tips;

Step and prop-iron, bolt and screw,
Spring, tire, axle, and linchpin too,
Steel of the finest, bright and blue;

Thoroughbrace bison-skin, thick and wide;
Boot, top, dasher, from tough old hide,
Found in the pit when the tanner died.
That was the way he "put her through."

"There!" said the Deacon, "naow she'll dew!"

6. Do! I tell you, I rather guess

She was a wonder, and nothing less!
Colts grew horses, beards turned gray,
Deacon and deaconess dropped away,
Children and grandchildren, where were they?
But there stood the stout old one-hoss shay
As fresh as on Lisbon-earthquake day!

7. EIGHTEEN HUNDRED ;-it came and found
The Deacon's masterpiece strong and sound.
Eighteen hundred increased by ten;
"Hahnsum kerridge" they called it then.
Eighteen hundred and twenty came,-
Running as usual,—much the same.
Thirty and forty at last arrive,

And then come fifty and FIFTY-FIVE.

LITERARY ANALYSIS.-58-64. Do... day! In this stanza point out a socalled Yankeeism which is really good Elizabethan English.-What personification is made?-By what details, skilfully introduced, is the lapse of time vividly suggested?

66. strong and sound. Grammatical construction ?

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60

40

45

8. Little of all we value here

Wakes on the morn of its hundredth year
Without both feeling and looking queer.
In fact, there's nothing that keeps its youth,
So far as I know, but a tree and truth.
(This is a moral that runs at large;
Take it. You're welcome.-No extra charge.)

9. FIRST OF NOVEMBER-the earthquake day-
There are traces of age in the one-hoss shay,
A general flavor of mild decay,

But nothing local, as one may say.

There couldn't be, for the Deacon's art

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80

Had made it so like in every part

That there wasn't a chance for one to start.

For the wheels were just as strong as the thills,
And the floor was just as strong as the sills,

And the panels just as strong as the floor,
And the whippletree neither less nor more,
And the back crossbar as strong as the fore,
And spring and axle and hub encore.

And yet, as a whole, it is past a doubt,

In another hour it will be worn out!

10. First of November, fifty-five!

This morning the parson takes a drive.
Now, small boys, get out of the way!
Here comes the wonderful one-hoss shay,
Drawn by a rat-tailed, ewe-necked bay.
"Huddup!" said the parson.-Off went they.

LITERARY ANALYSIS.-73-79. Of the fifty-five words in stanza 8 only six are of other than Anglo-Saxon origin: what are these words?—In this stanza point out a fine aphorism.

80-94. First... out! What expression, reiterated in line 80, begins to grow very significant?-What expression in this stanza finely describes the state of the chaise now?-Point out the examples of polysyndeton: what is the effect of the use of this figure?-Note the rhymes in lines 89-92.

95-118. First... burst. In this stanza point out humorous touches and comical epithets.-Point out an effective simile.

85

90

95

100

The parson was working his Sunday's text,-
Had got to fifthly, and stopped perplexed
At what the-Moses-was coming next.
All at once the horse stood still,
Close by the meet'n'-house on the hill.
First a shiver, and then a thrill,
Then something decidedly like a spill,—
And the parson was sitting upon a rock,

At half-past nine by the meet'n'-house clock,-
Just the hour of the earthquake shock!
What do you think the parson found,
When he got up and stared around?
The poor old chaise in a heap or mound,
As if it had been to the mill and ground!
You see, of course, if you're not a dunce,
How it went to pieces all at once-
All at once, and nothing first-
Just as bubbles do when they burst.

11. End of the wonderful one-hoss shay.
Logic is logic. That's all I say.

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II. THE CHAMBERED NAUTILUS.

1. This is the ship of pearl, which, poets feign, Sails the unshadowed main

The venturous bark that flings

On the sweet summer wind its purpled wings
In gulfs enchanted, where the siren sings,

And coral reefs lie bare,

Where the cold sea-maids rise to sun their streaming hair.

2. Its webs of living gauze no more unfurl;

Wrecked is the ship of pearl!

And every chambered cell,

Where its dim dreaming life was wont to dwell,
As the frail tenant shaped its growing shell,

Before thee lies revealed

Its irised ceiling rent, its sunless crypt unsealed!

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10

That spread his lustrous coil;

Still, as the spiral grew,

He left the past year's dwelling for the new,

Stole with soft step its shining archway through,
Built up its idle door,

Stretched in his last-found home, and knew the old no more.

4. Thanks for the heavenly message brought by thee,

Child of the wandering sea,

Cast from her lap forlorn!

From thy dead lips a clearer note is born

Than ever Triton blew from wreathéd horn!

While on mine ear it rings,

Through the deep caves of thought I hear a voice that sings

5. Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul,

As the swift seasons roll!

Leave thy low-vaulted past!

Let each new temple, nobler than the last,
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,

Till thou at length art free,

Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea!

III. THE LAST LEAF.

1. I saw him once before,

As he passed by the door,
And again

The pavement stones resound,
As he totters o'er the ground
With his cane.

2. They say that in his prime,
Ere the pruning-knife of Time
Cut him down,

Not a better man was found

By the crier on his round

Through the town.

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25

30

5

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512