SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY
This poem is somewhat like the Road-Hymn for the Start, on page [184]. It is about those people who go forward eagerly into the work of the world, without fearing, and without shrinking from difficulties. Read it through completely, trying to get its meaning. Regard the lines in italic as a kind of chorus, and study the meaning of the other stanzas first. Who are the galloping legions? A stirrup-cup was a draught of wine, taken just before a rider began his journey; it was usually drunk to some one's health. Is dolour a common word? Is it good here? Try to put into your own words the ideas in the "land of no name," and "the infinite dark," remembering what is said above about the general meaning of the poem. What picture and what idea do you get from "like sparks from the anvil"? Now go back to the lines in italic, and look for their meaning.
What do you notice about the length of the words in this poem? Why has the author used this kind of words? Notice carefully how the sound and the sense are made harmonious. Look for the rhyme. How does the poem differ from most short poems?
Bead the verses aloud, trying to make your reading suggest "the hoofs of invisible horses."
OTHER POEMS TO READ
| A Troop of the Guard | Hermann Hagedorn |
| How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix | Robert Browning |
| Through the Metidja to Abd-el-Kadr | " " |
| Reveille | Bret Harte |
| A Song of the Road | Richard Watson Gilder |
| The House and the Road | J.P. Peabody |
| The Mystic | Cale Young Rice |
| (In The Little Book of Modern Verse, Ed. by J.B. Rittenhouse.) | |
| A Winter Ride | Amy Lowell |
| (In The Little Book of Modern Verse.) | |
| The Ride | Clinton Scollard |
| (In Songs of Sunrise Lands.) |