sometimes represented in art as hearing torches (l. 274).

=275. Maenad.= A bacchante,--a priestess or votary of Bacchus.

=276. Faun with torches.= See note, l. 261.

What is the situation at the beginning of the poem? What effect does
the "liquor" have upon the youth? Why is the presence of Ulysses so
much in harmony with the situation? How does he greet Circe; how the
youth? What does his presence suggest to the latter? Why? Note the
vividness of the pictures he describes; also the swiftness with which
he changes from one to another. What power is ascribed to the poet?
Why his "pain"? What effect is gained by closing the poem with the
same words with which it is opened? Why the irregular verse used?

DOVER BEACH

In this poem is expressed the peculiar turn of Arnold's mind, at once
religious and sceptical, philosophical and emotional. It is one of his
most passionate interpretations of life.

=15. Sophocles= (495-406 B.C.). One of the three great tragic poets of
Greece. His rivals were AEschylus (526-456 B.C.) and Euripides (486-406
B.C.).

=16. AEgean Sea.= See note, l. 236, _The Scholar-Gipsy_.

* * * * *

Image the scene in the opening stanzas. What is the author's mood?
Why does he call some one to look on the scene with him? What is the
"eternal note of sadness"? Why connect it in thought with the sea? Why
does this thought suggest Sophocles? What thought next presents itself
to the author's mind? From what source must one's help and comfort
then be drawn? Why so? Why the irregular versification? State the
theme of the poem. [184]

PHILOMELA

"Philomela unites the sensibilities and intellectual experience of
modern Englishmen with the luminousness and simplicity of Greek
poetry."--SAINTSBURY.

The myth of the nightingale has long been a favorite with the poets,
who have variously interpreted the bird's song. See Coleridge's,
Keats's, and Wordsworth's poems on the subject. The most common
version of the myth, the one followed by Arnold, is as follows:--

"Pandion (son of Erichthonius, special ward to Minerva) had two
daughters, Procne and Philomela, of whom he gave the former in
marriage to Tereus, king of Thrace (or of Daulis in Phocis). This
ruler, after his wife had borne him a son, Itys (or Itylus), wearied
of her, plucked out her tongue by the roots to insure her silence,
and, pretending that she wa