Front matter
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Preface
That this volume of " Readings from American Literature " was made because of a real need is, perhaps, its first and best excuse for being. The editors found in their own classrooms the demand for a compact anthology, ranging in time from colonial days to the present and adapted to the high-school student and the college undergraduate. Because of this they have essayed a task, not simple in itself, but simplified to a degree, in their case, by experience in teaching the material presented here.
It is happily a fact that to-day we are not neglectful in the school curriculum of a historical survey of American literature. Better still, we link such study with history proper in a natural correlation that vitalizes both. But to read about an author is not enough ; we must read his works — all of which is trite, but so true that it may be said safely many times. Not all schools are so fortunate as to have adequate and extensive reference shelves. Nor do home and town libraries meet all requirements. Few collections, however well selected, supply much material prior to Irving. And even when reference reading is practicable, the desirability of a text for classroom study is still obvious. With this by way of explanation, not apology, the editors are content.
Thanks are gratefully extended to all who have helped to make the book — to the boys and girls whose frank expressions of interest or boredom have shown us what appeals to younger readers ; to the fellow teachers who have advised from their experience ; to the publishers who have made adequate selection possible. If there are any lingering regrets, and what compiler ever saw in his book a true compendium of his desires, it is that the number of selections could not be more generous. We are sorry not to be able to include any of Mark Twain, and we wish that our excerpts iv READINGS FROM AMERICAN LITERATURE
from Bret Harte and from Thomas Bailey Aldrich were not so few in number. The book, however, is fairly comprehensive.
Especially do we acknowledge our indebtedness to many publishers for permission to use material still in copyright — to Houghton Mifflin Company for selections from the early New England poets and from Harte, Aldrich, Sill, Warner, and Stedman ; to Charles Scribner's Sons for Sidney Lanier and Eugene Field ; to the B. F. Johnson Publishing Co. for Henry Timrod ; to Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co. for Paul Hamilton Hayne ; to Mr. Horace Traubel for Walt Whitman ; to the Whitaker & Ray-Wiggin Co. for Joaquin Miller ; to Little, Brown, and Company for Emily Dickinson ; and to The Bobbs-Merrill Company for James
Whitcomb Riley.
MARY E. CALHOUN EMMA L. MacALARNEY
Contents
CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH ^^^^
A True Relation of Such Occurrences and Accidents of Note as hath
happened in Virginia etc i
Canto I 147
St. GEORGE TUCKER
OCCASIONAL POEMS OF THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD
The Battle of the Kegs (Francis Hopkinson) 153
The Ballad of Nathan Hale 156
Battle of Trenton 1 58
X READINGS FROM AMERICAN LITERATURE
ROVALL TYLER
PAGE
The Contrast, a Comedy in Five Acts 159
From the "Advertisement" 159
Prologue, in Rebuke of the Prevailing Anglomania 160
Act I, Scene i 161 CHARLES BROCKDEN BROWN
Wieland; or the Transformation 167
Wieland's Defence 167
JOSEPH RODMAN DRAKE
The Culprit Fay 177
The Fay's Sentence 177
The Second Quest 179
The American Flag 180
FITZ-GREENE HALLECK
On the Death of Joseph Rodman Drake 182
Marco Bozzaris 183
WASHINGTON IRVING
A History of New York, by Diedrich Knickerbocker 186
Governor Wouter Van Twiller 186
The Sketch Book 190
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow 190
The Alhambra 219
Interior of the Alhambra 219
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
The Last of the Mohicans 225
Chap. XXIII 225
WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT
Thanatopsis 239
To a Waterfowl 241
To the Fringed Gentian 242
The Death of the Flowers 243
O Fairest of the Rural Maids 244
Song of Marion's Men 245
CONTENTS xi
PAGE
The Yellow Violet 247
The Death of Lincoln 248
Robert of Lincoln 24S
The Planting of the Apple-Tree 251
The May Sun Sheds an Amber Light 253
EDGAR ALLAN POE
The Raven 254
Annabel Lee 258
The Haunted Palace 259
The Bells 260
To Helen 264
To One in Paradise 264
Israfel 265
The Coliseum 267
The Conqueror Worm 268
The Masque of the Red Death 269
THE LATER NATIONAL PERIOD
DANIEL WEBSTER
The Bunker Plill Address (Extracts) 276
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
The Gettysburg Speech 291
The Second Inaugural Address 292
WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT
The Conquest of Mexico (Extracts) 294
Vol. II, Book V, Chap. II 294
JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY
The Rise of the Dutch Republic 301
Vol. I, Chap. I, Par. 1-15 301
FRANCIS PARKMAN
The Jesuits in North America in the Seventeenth Century 312
Vol. I, Chap. XVI (Extract) 312 xii READINGS FROM AMERICAN LITERATURE
RALPH WALDO EMERSON ^^^'^
Concord Hymn 316
The Rhodora 316
The Humble-bee 317
Good-bye 319
Each and All 320
The Snow-storm 321
April 322
Forbearance 323
Fable 323
The Enchanter 324
Woodnotes 324
Selections 324
Voluntaries 327
Self-reliance 328
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE
Twice-Told Tales 352
The Gray Champion 352
A Rill from the Town-Pump 360
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
A Psalm of Life 366
The Light of Stars 367
Footsteps of Angels 368
Hymn to the Night 370
The Skeleton in Armor 371
The Rainy Day 376
Endymion 376
Maidenhood 377
Serenade from "The Spanish Student" 379
Sleep 380
Tales of a Wayside Inn 380
The Birds of Killingworth 380
King Robert of Sicily 388
Evangeline. Selections 394
The Song of Hiawatha 420
Introduction 420
Hiawatha's Childhood 423
The Famine 430
JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER
Proem to the First Edition of his Collected Works 435
The Farewell of a Virginia Slave Mother \}6
CONTENTS xiii
PAGE
Ichabod ^-^g
Skipper Ireson's Ride ^^o
The Barefoot Boy ^_^2
Telling the Bees ^_^c
In School-Days ^^7
The Eternal Goodness Laus Deo ! ....
449 452
My Triumph ac^
My Playmate 456
Snow-bound. A Winter Idyl 4^8
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES
Old Ironsides 4S0
The Last Leaf 481
The Boys 482
The Deacon's Masterpiece, or The Wonderful " One-IIoss Shay " . . . . 484
The Chambered Nautilus 488
A Sun-Day Hymn 489
The Voiceless 490
The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table 490
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