HELPS TO STUDY.
Notes and Questions.
What time of day is indicated in the first and second stanzas?
What tells you this?
How does the smith "scourge" the anvil?
What effect does the poet fancy this has upon the anvil?
Which of these two thoughts do you suppose first occurred to the poet?
What are the "island barges"?
What is a "century-circled oak"? Did you ever see one?
What is Whittier's idea of a shipbuilder's work?