“Snaw” is “snow.”
“Ee” is “eye.”
The “gowan” is the mountain daisy of Scotland.
“Fa’” is “fall.”
Like many another simple lyric of love and devotion this owes much of its popularity to the sweet melody of the music to which it is usually sung.
The Lost Child
(Volume VII, page 409)
1. Where did the poet wander? Is the picture on page 409 a beautiful one? Is it your idea of a sunny glade? On what or on whom was the poet musing? Where his thoughts pleasant? To what does he liken his thoughts? What are guideless thoughts? Do you think his “love” is a person, or is it his work, his calling?
2. What chanced to go astray? Did Lowell sometimes fear for the future? How does he express the fear? Who brought back the wandering thoughts? Where did the thoughts rest? Who had the “snowy arms”? If Lowell feared the future at any time, what was it that brought calm to him again?
3. What is the “soft nest”? Who is the “happy one”? Whose hair “shone golden in the sun”? How could a thought of fear seem like a “heavenly child”? Was it Hope that thus transformed all his thoughts?