My limbs are bowed, though not with toil,
But rusted with a vile repose;

For they have been a dungeon's spoil,
And mine has been the fate of those
To whom the goodly earth and air
Are banned and barred-forbidden fare.
But this was for my father's faith
I suffered chains and courted death.
That father perished at the stake
For tenets he would not forsake;
And for the same his lineal race
In darkness found a dwelling-place.
We were seven who now are one-

Six in youth, and one in age,
Finished as they had begun,

Proud of persecution's rage;
One in fire, and two in field,

Their belief with blood have sealed

10. Are banned, are prohibited or in

terdicted-an unusual but legiti-
mate use of the word.-barred,
prohibited.

II. this was, etc. The meaning is it
was, etc. The real prisoner,
Bonnivard, was not confined for
religious reasons ("my father's
faith"), but for political reasons.
"Bonnivard, prior of St. Victor,
in his endeavors to free the
Genoese from the tyranny of
Charles V. of Savoy, became
very obnoxious to that monarch,

LITERARY ANALYSIS.—7. a dungeon's spoil.

who had him seized secretly and conveyed to the Castle of Chillon, where for six long years he was confined in a dungeon. In 1536, when the cantons of Vaud and Geneva had obtained their independence, the castle resisted for a long time, but it was eventually captured by the Bernese, and Bonnivard and the other prisoners obtained their liberty." FETRIDGE: Handbook for Travellers (Switzerland).

Translate into plain language.

10. banned and barred. What effect is gained by the use of this brace of alliterative synonyms?-fare. Explain this use of the word.

14. tenets. Etymology of the word?

17. We were seven who now are one. Analyze this sentence.

19. had begun. The imperfect would be a more fitting tense; but rhyme controls the author's choice.

21. in fire... in field. Explain these expressions.

Dying as their father died,

For the God their foes denied ;
Three were in a dungeon cast,

Of whom this wreck is left the last.

II.

There are seven pillars of Gothic mould
In Chillon's dungeons deep and old;
There are seven columns, massy and gray,
Dim with a dull imprisoned ray—
A sunbeam which has lost its way,
And through the crevice and the cleft
Of the thick wall is fallen and left,
Creeping o'er the floor so damp,
Like a marsh's meteor lamp;
And in each pillar there is a ring,
And in each ring there is a chain;
That iron is a cankering thing,

For in these limbs its teeth remain,

According to Murray (Hand-book of Switzerland), “it is lighted by several windows, through which the sun's light passes by reflection from the surface of the lake up to the roof, transmitting also the blue color of the waters."

28. In Chillon's dungeons. The Castle | 30. Dim, etc.
of Chillon, with its massive
walls and towers, one and a half
miles from Montreux, Switzer-
land, stands on an isolated rock
in Lake Leman, twenty-two
yards from the bank, with which
it is connected by a bridge.

LITERARY ANALYSIS.-26. By what forcible expression does the prisoner designate himself?

27. of Gothic mould. Explain this phrase.

29. seven columns.

in line 27?

31. sunbeam.

This expression denotes the same as what expression

Grammatical construction? What clauses and what phrase

are adjuncts to this word?

34. so. What is the force of the word here?

35. Point out and explain the simile. Compare with L'Allegro, page 54

line 96, of this book.

36, 37. Point out the corresponding parts in the balanced sentence.

38. That iron.

What is the peculiar force of "that" as here used?

39, 40. its teeth remain, With marks, etc.

What is the figure of speech?

LITERARY ANALYSIS.—41. day, for the light of day: what is the figure of speech?

48-68. Make a paraphrase of stanza iii.

48. each. Grammatical construction?

49. And we... alone. Point out the antithesis, and state what constitutes the impressiveness of the thought.

52. But. What part of speech as here used?

53. That made us strangers, etc. Compare with Milton, Paradise Lost, book i., lines 61-64:

"A dungeon horrible on all sides round

As one great furnace flamed; yet from these flames
No light, but rather darkness visible,

Served only to discover sights of woe."

54, 55. What figure of speech in each of these lines?
57. the pure elements of earth. Explain this expression.

With some new hope, or legend old,
Or song heroically bold;

But even these at length grew cold.
Our voices took a dreary tone,
An echo of the dungeon stone,

A grating sound-not full and free,
As they of yore were wont to be;
It might be fancy, but to me
They never sounded like our own.

IV.

I was the eldest of the three,

And to uphold and cheer the rest.
I ought to do, and did, my best;
And each did well in his degree.

The youngest, whom my father loved
Because our mother's brow was given
To him, with eyes as blue as heaven-
For him my soul was sorely moved;
And truly might it be distrest
To see such bird in such a nest;
For he was beautiful as day

(When day was beautiful to me
As to young eagles being free),
A polar day which will not see

71. ought. The word has here its original past sense=owed. It is now

commonly used in the present

tense.

LITERARY ANALYSIS.-62. But... cold.-Express the thought in your own words.

64. echo.

With what noun is "echo" in apposition?

69-72. I was... .degree. What kind of sentence grammatically and rhetorically?

73-106. In your own language, draw a portrait of each of the two brothers (see stanzas iv. and v.).

76. For him. For whom? Is this a justifiable pleonasm?

78. such bird, etc. What is the figure of speech?

82-85. A polar day... sun. Give your judgment on this image.-Explain line 85.

97. to pine must be connected with "formed" in line 93.

LITERARY ANALYSIS.-86. Supply the ellipsis in this line. 92. Supply the ellipsis in this line.

93. But.

Substitute another conjunction, so as to remove the awkwardness of the double but-in lines 93 and 97.-combat with his kind. Change the phraseology.

95, 96. had stood, And perished. Supply the full form of the past perfect potential.

97-99. Select three synonymous verbs in these lines, and discriminate the special signification of each.

IOI. forced it on. He speaks of his spirit as of a drooping soldier: what is the figure of speech?

102. relics of a home. Explain.

100