A Marsh Island " " "
The Tory Lover " " "
A Native of Winby and Other Tales " " "
Betty Leicester’s Christmas " " "
Betty Leicester " " "
Country By-ways " " "
Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett Mrs. James T. Fields (Ed.)

For Biographies and criticisms of Miss Jewett, see:  Atlantic Monthly, 94:485; Critic, 39:292, October, 1901 (Portrait); New England Magazine, 22:737, August, 1900; Outlook, 69:423; Bookman, 34:221 (Portrait).

ON THE LIFE-MASK OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

RICHARD WATSON GILDER

    This bronze doth keep the very form and mold
      Of our great martyr’s face.  Yes, this is he: 
      That brow all wisdom, all benignity;
      That human, humorous mouth; those cheeks that hold
    Like some harsh landscape all the summer’s gold;
      That spirit fit for sorrow, as the sea
      For storms to beat on; the lone agony
      Those silent, patient lips too well foretold. 
    Yes, this is he who ruled a world of men
      As might some prophet of the elder day—­
      Brooding above the tempest and the fray
    With deep-eyed thought and more than mortal ken. 
      A power was his beyond the touch of art
      Or armed strength—­his pure and mighty heart.

NOTES

=the life-mask=:—­The life-mask of Abraham Lincoln was made by Leonard W. Volk, in Chicago, in April, 1860.  A good picture of it is given as the frontispiece to Volume 4 of Nicolay and Hay’s Abraham Lincoln, A History.

=this bronze=:—­A life-mask is made of plaster first; then usually it is cast in bronze.

SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY

This is not difficult to understand.  Read it over slowly, trying first to get the meaning of each sentence as if it were prose.  You may have to read it several times before you see the exact meaning of each part.  When you have mastered it, read it through consecutively, thinking of what it tells about Lincoln.

This poem is, as you may know, a sonnet.  Notice the number of lines, the meter, and the rhyme-scheme, referring to page 139 for a review of the sonnet form.  Notice how the thought changes at the ninth line.  Find a sonnet in one of the good current magazines.  How can you recognize it?  Read it carefully.  If it is appropriate, bring it to class, and read and explain it to your classmates.  Why has the sonnet form been used so much by poets?

If you can find it, read the sonnet on The Sonnet, by Richard Watson Gilder.

COLLATERAL READINGS