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.
3. Here at length was born
Upon the southern slopes the baby spring, etc.
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.
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