endence_ is a poem in every respect characteristic of its
author. In it Arnold exhorts mankind to seek refuge from human
troubles in the example of nature.

Picture the situation in the poem. What is the poet's mood as shown
in the opening stanzas? From what source does he seek aid? Why? What
answer does he receive? What is the source of nature's repose? Where
and how must the human soul find its contentment?

[191]
GEIST'S GRAVE

This poem appeared in the January number of the _Fortnightly Review_
for 1881.

=12. homily.= Sermon.

=15. the Virgilian cry.= _Sunt lacrimae rerum!_ These words are
interpreted in the following line.

=42. On lips that rarely form them now.= Arnold wrote but little
poetry after 1867.

=55-56. thine absent master.= Richard Penrose Arnold, the poet's only
surviving son.

EPILOGUE TO LESSING'S LAOCOOeN

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729-1781) was a celebrated German dramatist
and critic. For a time he studied theology at Leipsic, then turned his
attention to the stage, and later to criticism. His greatest critical
work (1766) is a treatise on Art, the famous Greek statuary group,
the Laocooen, which gives the work its name, forming the basis for a
comparative discussion of Sculpture, Poetry, Painting, and Music.

=1. Hyde Park.= The largest park in London, and the principal
recreation ground of that city.

=15. Phoebus-guarded ground.= Greece. Phoebus, a name often given
Apollo, the sun god.

=16. Pausanias.= A noted Greek geographer and writer on art who lived
in the second century. "His work, _The Gazetteer of Hellas_, is our
best repertory of information for the topography, local history,
religious observances, architecture, and sculpture of the different
states of Greece."--K.O. MUeLLER, _History of the Literature of Ancient
Greece_.
[192]
=21-22. Dante= (1265-1321), =Petrarch= (1304-1374), =Tasso= (1544-;
1595), =Ariosto= (1475-1533). Celebrated Italian poets.

=25. Raphael= (1483-1520). The famous Italian painter.

=29. Goethe= (1749-1832). The greatest name in German literature.
His works include poetry, dramas, and criticisms. =Wordsworth=
(1770-1850). See the poem, _Memorial Verses_, of this volume.

=35. Mozart= (1766-1791), =Beethoven= (1770-1827), =Mendelssohn=
(1809-1847). Noted musicians and composers.

=42. south.=