PAGE 85
11. Then set about to view an empty camp
12. As once before, etc.
PAGE 86
1. Among the ash-heaps; and the lean dogs ran
2. And barked about him, for the love of man etc.
Some one has said that the dog was a candidate for humanity and just missed it.
8. For ‘tis the little gifts of grudging Chance,
9. Well husbanded, make victors.
This is a principle of economy often illustrated.
18. Scarce more of marvel and the sense of might, etc.
Tennyson makes poetry out of a miraculous sword, Neihardt out of a man-made knife. One is romanticism, the other realism.
Which is more poetic?
PAGE 87
1. Not having, but the measure of desire etc.
“A man’s riches consist of what he can do without.” Socrates taught this philosophy.
2. Who gaining more, seek most, etc.
Explain.
7. That twain wherewith Time put the brute to school,
Who was the “brute”? How “put to school”?
6. What gage of mastery in fire and tool!—
The control of fire was the first great step in civilization and someone has said that the invention of the bow and arrow wrought greater changes in human life than any other invention. By enabling man to kill at a greater range it increased his supply of meat and so made it possible to live in larger groups.
PAGE 88
Why didn’t Hugh roast the dog instead of boiling? Note details of preparation. Hugh ate the entire dog. Two starved Indian hunters have been known to eat the whole carcass of a deer at one sitting.
13. Hugh slept. And then—as divers, mounting, sunder etc.
A vivid expression of a common experience on waking from especially profound sleep.
Define: bulimic, gage.
PAGE 89
3. And was the friendlike fire a Jamie too? etc.
The natural return of a monomania.
12. The sting of that antiquity of pain
After a long rest, his former suffering seemed ancient.
14. That yielding victor, fleet in being slow
Always more space to be conquered, hence slow and certain to win over Hugh.
16. So readily the tentacles of sense, etc.
Thinkers are just beginning to realize something of the hypnotic power of habit and custom in the individual and in society. The loss of the accustomed may disintegrate the life. Our author shows keen understanding when he likens the effect upon Hugh of the loss of fire to that of the loss of a dear one by death. A moment ago he was here, vital, real. Now he is gone. How strange is the world without him!
PAGE 90
7. A yelping of the dogs among the bluffs, etc.
The one sound in the desolate night, the yelping of the dogs, starts a train of ideas. The power of abstraction has made man able to survive where less intelligent forms have perished.
Flint can be used to skin a dog, so can steel, the two smitten together make fire, so Hugh found his “unlocked door to life.”
22. Spilled on it from the smitten stone a shower
23. Of ruddy seed; and saw the mystic flower
24. That genders its own summer, bloom anew!
Explain the metaphor.
An absolutely new figure regarding fire.
PAGE 91
10. Set laggard singers snatching at the tune.
What “laggard singers”?
13. And, pitching voices to the timeless woe,
Life fundamentally sad.
14. Outwailed the lilting. So the Chorus sings etc.
In the Greek theater the Chorus sang after the actor had spoken, always taking an opposite tone. So Hugh’s joyous song is drowned in the wailing of the dogs.
PAGE 92
8. He hobbled now along a withered rill etc.
Note the quiet of the autumn spell over the secluded place, and the onomatopœia indicating the falling of the plums and whispering leaves; also the crying of the lonesome dog that makes the stillness more intense and sad.
10. A cyclopean portal yawning sheer.
“Cyclopean portal,” Homer’s Odyssey.
25. Above the sunset like a stygian boat,
The boat of Charon on the Styx, the river of the underworld.
PAGE 93
1. The new moon bore the spectre of the old,
Explain.
3. The valley of the tortuous Cheyenne.
Locate the Cheyenne.
4. And ere the half moon sailed the night again, etc.
How long since Hugh left the forks of the Grand?
17. Grown Atlantean in the wrestler’s craft.
Explain “Atlantean.”
Read “The River and I,” Chapter I, by the same author, to get his feeling for the Missouri.
The Return of the Ghost
PAGE 94
1. Not long Hugh let the lust of vengeance gnaw
Note that the first line of the division of the poem rhymes with the last line of the former. How often does this happen in the poem? This device keeps the mind on a stretch and so keeps interest alive. The same device is often used by the author in passing from one paragraph to the next.
5. I can not rest; for I am but the ghost etc.
The old obsession that he actually died by the Grand, though here used less seriously than in other places.
12. With such a blizzard of a face for me!
The epithet reveals how Hugh’s gray “ruined face” impressed men.
13. For he went grayer like a poplar tree, etc.
The simile of the face of Glass in mentioning Jamie’s treachery and the poplar tree shaken by the first wind of a storm is true to nature, for a poplar turns the gray side of its leaves when shaken.
Define: fend, kenneled.
PAGE 95
1. From where the year’s last keelboat hove in view
The keelboat, shaped with keel and hence so called, from forty to sixty feet long, carrying as much as sixty tons and pulled by fifteen to twenty-five men, was used on the Missouri and other navigable rivers before the day of the steamboat.
10. Until the tipsy Bourgeois bawled for Glass
The head of a trading post in the fur trading period was called Bourgeois, a French word meaning tradesman.
12. The graybeard, sitting where the light was blear, etc.
The whole account of Hugh’s telling of this great tragedy is of the highest excellence. We already know that Hugh is a story teller; we have seen him composing this very tale (page 58), and we know how his imagination sometimes carries him beyond the actual, as when he saw Jamie dead (page 60). The effect of his face, with its changing expressions suiting all the moods associated with love and betrayal, his chanting songlike tones, is shown in the muscular responses of the listeners and their shudders when the story ends. The supreme touch comes when Hugh tells of the slaying of Jamie as if already done.
19. And his the purpose that is art’s, etc.
To centre attention on human experience at the crucial moment and so render it immortal.
20. Whereby men make a vintage of their hearts etc.
Turn sorrow into beauty. Is there comfort in a sad story well told?
PAGE 97
Select the lines on this page that convey a sense of monotony.
16. Past where the tawny Titan gulps the cup
Titan, the Missouri.
22. And there old times came mightily on Hugh, etc.
Do you believe Hugh capable now of killing Jamie?
24. Some troubled glory of that wind-tossed hair
Hugh’s memory of Jamie is sad, not bitter.
Define: cutbank, wry, tawny.
PAGE 98
2. So haunted with the blue of Jamie’s eyes, etc.
The blue is sad but not treacherous as once.
8. Past where the Cannon Ball and Heart come in
Locate the Cannon Ball and the Heart.
18. The chaining of the Titan. Drift ice ran.
The story of the freezing of the river is worth noting for its vividness, its alliterations and onomatopœia.
19. The wingéd hounds of Winter ceased to bay.
What were the “wingéd hounds”?
PAGE 99
5. To wait the far-off Heraclean thaw,
Heraclean—Hercules. What chained Titan did Hercules release?
12. His purpose called him at the Big Horn’s mouth—
Locate the Big Horn. What purpose? Who was there?
18. And took the bare, foot-sounding solitude
Why “foot-sounding”?
22. He seemed indeed a fugitive from Death etc.
Another reference to Hugh’s fancy that he had actually died.
It gives added force to that fancy to make his frosted breath suggest a shroud.
24. Now the moon was young
Note the phase of the moon for later reference.
PAGE 100
6. With Spring’s wild rage, the snow-born Titan girl, etc.
The Yellowstone is larger at the junction than is the Missouri.
Hence the Missouri is the Titan girl rushing into the arms of her lover. But in the winter with snow covering the ice, “A winding sheet was on the marriage bed.” Why “snow-born”?
15. Gray void seemed suddenly astir with wings etc.
Note onomatopœia in the lines indicating that snow begins to fall.
PAGE 101
1. The bluffs loomed eerie, and the scanty trees
Describe the appearance of the trees.
15. The tumbling snowflakes sighing all around,
What associations brought Hugh a dream of boyhood?
18. The Southwind in the tousled apple trees
19. And slumber flowing from their leafy gloom.
These lines are an intentional “literary echoing” of one of the most beautiful of the Sapphic fragments,—fragment 4 in Bergk’s text.
Define: penumbral, susurrant.
PAGE 102
The blizzard is a storm characteristic of the plains. It generally lasts three days, is terribly cold, and the whirling snow is blinding.
4. Black blindness grew white blindness
Indicating the slight difference between night and day.
Note in how few lines the poet pictures the passing of the day.
5. All being now seemed narrowed to a span, etc.
All else was shut from sight and to a degree from the mind.
PAGE 103
7. As with the waning day the great wind fell.
The sudden cessation of the wind at the close of the third day of the storm is characteristic, as is also the intense cold. Forty degrees below zero is not unusual, often even fifty degrees.
10. When, heifer-horned, the maiden moon lies down
A reference to the maiden Diana, goddess of the moon.
How long was Hugh on this journey?
PAGE 104
3. Yon sprawling shadow, pied with candle-glow etc.
Another of the gripping memory pictures. Can a man who dreams such a waking dream kill another, even one who has betrayed him, in cold blood?
21. Or was this but the fretted wraith of Hugh etc.
The feeling that he is a ghost comes to Hugh twice in this incident of finding the fort. His long journey, his weakened physical condition and his exhausted emotions combine to make life seem unreal.
PAGE 105
14. Joy filled a hush twixt heart-beats like a bird; etc.
Joy rather than anger comes first in his feeling about Jamie.
That is significant.
PAGE 106
7. “My God! I saw the Old Man’s ghost out there!”
Belief in ghosts was common among the trappers.
12–21. “Hugh strove to shout,” etc.
For the last time we see Hugh with the feeling that he is dead.
PAGE 108
Are you surprised that Hugh does not kill Le Bon? Would you excuse the deed if he had?
Jamie
PAGE 109
Locate the Country of the Crows (Absaroka), the Big Horn, the Powder, Fort Atkinson.
PAGE 110
16. Now up the Powder, etc.
Trace the journey on the map.
Locate the Laramie.
PAGE 111
2. The Niobrara races for the morn—
Locate the Niobrara. It is a very swift stream. Note the entire description of the coming of spring on the prairie. It is a lyric and includes a description of both late and early-coming of spring.
A slow spring.
6. Not such as when announced by thunder-claps etc.
A description of a swiftly coming spring.
9. Clad splendidly as never Sheba’s Queen,
Sheba’s Queen—The Bible, 1st Kings.
15. And no root dreamed what Triumph-over-Death
16. Was nurtured now in some bleak Nazareth, etc.
The coming of spring suggests the resurrection.
19. And everywhere the Odic Presence dwelt.
“Odic”: from “od,” an arbitrary scientific term signifying the mysterious vital force in nature.
21. And when they reached the valley of the Snake,
Locate the Snake.
22. The Niobrara’s ice began to break,
The next step in the coming of spring.
PAGE 112
4. The geese went over,
A sure sign that spring is almost come.
6. The little river of Keyapaha
Locate the Keyapaha.
10. To where the headlong Niobrara etc.
Locate the mouth of the Niobrara. A student in one of my classes once wrote an interesting essay telling how her father’s farm had been swept away by the rushing of the Niobrara into the Missouri at the spring flood. At such times the smaller river hurls the Missouri as much as a mile beyond its normal course.
13. A giant staggered by a pigmy’s sling.
What Bible story is here referred to?
18. There all the vernal wonder-work was done: etc.
From here on select the color words that give the picture of the progress of spring. Another lyric.
PAGE 113
14. Of wizard-timber and of wonder-stuff etc.
Are day dreams built of “wizard-timber and of wonder-stuff”?
Note the alliteration.
PAGE 114
1. Into the North, a devil-ridden man.
The first picture of Jamie since he deserted Hugh. Will it arouse Hugh’s pity?
13. Up the long watery stairway to the Horn,
What is the “watery stairway to the Horn”? Horn—Big Horn River.
14. And the year was shorn etc.
How long is it since the story opened?
Note the entire description of the coming of autumn.
19. That withered in the endless martyrdom
Why “martyrdom”?
20. The scarlet quickened on the plum etc.
Note the steps of the coming of autumn at the Heart, among the Mandans, at the Yellowstone, the Powder.
PAGE 115
1. Was spattered with the blood of Summer slain.
A remarkable figure.
8. Aye, one who seemed to stare upon a ghost etc.
A second picture of Jamie’s suffering.
14. And to forgive and to forget were sweet: etc.
There will be no murder; our interest now is that the men may meet and in the manner of reconciliation.
15. ‘Tis for its nurse etc.
Explain. Is this not true?
20. But at the crossing of the Rosebud’s mouth
Locate the Rosebud.
PAGE 116
3. Alas, the journey back to yesterwhiles! etc.
There is no going back to the old days.
13. He came with those to where the Poplar joins etc.
Locate the Poplar.
22. From Mississippi to the Great Divide
Locate the Great Divide.
PAGE 117
5. Upon Milk River valley,
Locate Milk River.
7. Above the Piegan lodges,
Piegans—one of the principal divisions of the Blackfoot tribe of Indians. Locate the Piegan village.
PAGE 118
7. Lest on the sunset trail slow feet should err.
What is the “sunset trail”?
16. You saw no Black Robe?
Black Robe, priest, so-called by all Indians.
18. “Heaped snow—sharp stars—a kiote on the rise.”
The answer is true to the laconic Indian speech, but it is beautiful.
PAGE 122
2. By their own weakness are the feeble sped; etc.
Three paradoxes—“He that loseth his life shall find it.”
PAGE 123
The vision of Hugh as seen by Jamie corresponds to the description of Hugh on pages 59 and 60. May we say that Jamie may indeed have seen Hugh? The Society for Psychic Research records such phenomena.
15. O, Father, I had paid too much for breath!
For what will a man give his life? What higher values than life are there? It is Satan who says in Job, “All that a man hath will he give for his life.”
Show that the principle of Katharsis is illustrated in this poem.
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
- Silently corrected typographical errors.
- Retained anachronistic and non-standard spellings as printed.