NOTES
By Julius T. House, Ph.D.(Chicago)Head of the Department of English at the State Normal School, Wayne, Nebraska
By Julius T. House, Ph.D.(Chicago)Head of the Department of English at the State Normal School, Wayne, Nebraska
By Julius T. House, Ph.D.(Chicago)
Head of the Department of English at the State Normal School, Wayne, Nebraska
Map showing the route of Hugh Glass in his search for Jamie. The “first trail,” running northward from Fort Kiowa, traces the hero’s wanderings up to his arrival at Fort Atkinson (page112). The “second trail” indicates Hugh’s journey from that point to his meeting with the boy among the Piegans. Fort Atkinson was situated on the west bank of the Missouri River sixteen miles up-stream from where Omaha now stands.
Map showing the route of Hugh Glass in his search for Jamie. The “first trail,” running northward from Fort Kiowa, traces the hero’s wanderings up to his arrival at Fort Atkinson (page112). The “second trail” indicates Hugh’s journey from that point to his meeting with the boy among the Piegans. Fort Atkinson was situated on the west bank of the Missouri River sixteen miles up-stream from where Omaha now stands.
Map showing the route of Hugh Glass in his search for Jamie. The “first trail,” running northward from Fort Kiowa, traces the hero’s wanderings up to his arrival at Fort Atkinson (page112). The “second trail” indicates Hugh’s journey from that point to his meeting with the boy among the Piegans. Fort Atkinson was situated on the west bank of the Missouri River sixteen miles up-stream from where Omaha now stands.
NOTES
NOTES
NOTES
NOTES
Before beginning the poem carefully read the Introduction.
In the study of this poem it is necessary to learn the geography and topography of the country. Define “topography.” Tell about Leavenworth Campaign; Major Henry.
The story of Hugh Glass is historical and may be found in the following works: Chittenden’s History of the American Fur Trade, New York, 1902; Sage’s Scenes in the Rocky Mountains, Boston, 1857; Ruxton’s Adventures in Mexico, London, 1847; Howe’s Historical Collections of the Great West, Cincinnati, 1857; Cooke’s Scenes and Adventures in the U. S. Army, Philadelphia, 1857; The Missouri Intelligencer for June 18, 1825. Accounts of the death of Hugh Glass, in 1832, are given in The Life and Adventures of James P. Beckwourth, London, 1892, and in Maximilian’s Travels, London, 1843.
2.‘Twas when the guns that blustered at the Ree
Ree—Aricara or Rickaree Indians. Locate them in 1823.
Where are they now?
3.Had ceased to brag, and ten score martial clowns
Why “clowns”? See Introduction.
6.A withering blast the arid South still blew,
What is “South”? Why capitalized? Did Homer and Vergil personify the winds?
9.Southward before the Great White Hunter’s face:
Who is the Great White Hunter? What is the time of year?
13.With eighty trappers up the dwindling Grand,
Why “dwindling”?
14.Bound through the weird, unfriending barren-land
“Unfriending” whom?
15.For where the Big Horn meets the Yellowstone;
Locate the junction of the streams.
1.Deep-chested, that his great heart might have play,
Describe Hugh Glass. Hugh’s physical characteristics are drawn in large lines. Compare this with the more elaborate descriptions of persons in other books. Which is more effective?
2.Gray-bearded, gray of eye and crowned with gray
Our author’s descriptions leave much room for the play of the reader’s imagination. Is this method effective with you?
4.And, for the grudging habit of his tongue,
“For”—by reason of.
8.And hate in him was like a still, white hell,
Why “white”?
9.A thing of doom not lightly reconciled.
What does “reconciled” modify? What is this figure called?
14.Old Hugh stared long upon the pictured blaze,
What were the pictures Hugh saw in the blaze? Would you like to know more of Hugh’s past? Why does not the author tell us more concerning it?
17.The veil was rent, and briefly men discerned
What “veil”?
19.Beneath the still gray smoldering of him.
What figure in “still gray smoldering”? Was Hugh a good fighter? A man whose anger was to be feared?
PAGE3
2.So, tardily, outflowered the wild blond strain
Whence the “wild blond strain”?
4.A Ganymedes haunted by a Goth
Who was Ganymedes? The Goths?
5.When the restive ghost was laid,
What was the “restive ghost”? How old was Jamie?
17.When Ashley stormed a bluff town of the Ree,
Who was Ashley? See Introduction.
20.Yet, hardly courage, but blind rage agrope
What is courage?
23.Tore off the gray mask, and the heart shone through.
What was the “gray mask”?
24.For, halting in a dry, flood-guttered draw,
Define “draw” as here used. How does it differ from “ravine”? from “gully”?
24.As though spring-fire should waken out of snow.
Explain the figure.
4.So with their sons are women brought to bed,
Of whom is Hugh thinking when he uses these words?
13.Nor could these know what mocking ghost of Spring
Express in other words the idea contained in “mocking ghost of Spring.”
16.So might a dawn-struck digit of the moon
Explain the figure and interpret it in terms of Hugh’s feelings for Jamie.
18.And ache through all its craters to be green.
What is the present condition of the surface of the moon?
21.Pang dwelling in a puckered cicatrice
Define “cicatrice.” Explain the figure.
23.Yet very precious was the hurt thereof,
24.Grievous to bear, too dear to cast away.
These lines constitute a paradox. Define “paradox.” Explain the meaning of the lines. Can pain be “precious”?
What lines in this page forecast an approaching disaster? Can you recall such forecasts in other pieces of literature?
10.A phantom April over melting snow,
Why “phantom” April?
11.Deep in the North some new white wrath is brewed.
Express the meaning of this line in other language. How does it apply to the story?
16.Tales jaggéd with the bleak unstudied word,
Was the language of Hugh’s stories polished? Effective? Are men natural story tellers? Answer from your own experience.
What does the life of primitive man tell us with regard to the matter?
17.Stark saga-stuff.
Define “saga.” What is meant by the words: “stark saga-stuff”?
19.A mere pelt merchant, as it seemed to him;
Define: pelt, epic, whist. Is “Hugh Glass” epic in material and form?
PAGE7
Which of these men loves the other more? In case of severe trial will each be true to the other? Is either likely to be vengeful? unforgiving? fickle?
3.That myth that somehow had to be the truth,
What is “that myth”? What feeling is expressed in “had to be the truth”?
4.Yet could not be convincing any more.
Why could it not “be convincing any more”?
17.And so with merry jest the old man went;
Note in the passage the second forecast of disaster.
9.The dusty progress of the cavalcade
10.The journey of a snail flock to the moon;
What feeling in Jamie is made clear in this figure?
11.Until the shadow-weaving afternoon
Explain the figure “shadow-weaving afternoon,” etc.
17.Hoofbeats of ghostly steeds on every hill,
18.Mysterious, muffled hoofs on every bluff!
19.Spurred echo horses clattering up the rough, etc.
Explain “hoofbeats of ghostly steeds,” “muffled hoofs,” “echo horses.”
21.The lagging air droned like the drowsy word
Why “drowsy” word? The transfer of an epithet is called a “trope,” from a Greek word meaningto turn.
1.Lean galloper in a wind of splendid deeds,
Note the vivid imagery and the effect of the broken meter.
4.The horse stopped short—then Jamie was aware, etc.
What gives the effect of loneliness in these lines?
Note the effect of vast stretches of space in the use of the names of heavenly bodies to denote the points of the compass. A sense of the infinity of space arises often in the reader of this poem.
Any imaginative person feels this sense ever deepening upon him on looking long at the prairies.
11.Save for a welter of cawing crows,
What is the effect of the cawing of the crows in the general stillness?
Note that the meter is intentionally changed. What effect?
13.One faint star, set above the fading blush, etc.
What is the effect of the mention of the star and its growing from faint to clear?
16.For answer, the horse neighed.
What is the effect of the neighing of the horse?
17.Some vague mistrust now made him half afraid, etc.
Mistrust of what? Is disaster near?
1.“Somewhere about the forks as like as not;
2.And there’ll be hunks of fresh meat steaming hot,
3.And fighting stories by a dying fire!”
Why does Jamie talk to himself?
4.The sunset reared a luminous phantom spire
5.That, crumbling, sifted ashes down the sky.
What is the effect of these two lines?
8.And in the vast denial of the hush
9.The champing of the snaffled horse seemed loud.
What is the effect of these two lines? What is the “vast denial”?
Why mention “the champing of the horse”? Pages9and10are used to induce in the reader a sense of extreme loneliness.
Where is the climax? What devices have been employed for the purpose?
17.The laggard air was like a voice that sang,
Why is the air now as a voice that sings rather than drowsy and weird?
18.And Jamie half believed he sniffed the tang
19.Of woodsmoke and the smell of flesh a-roast;
These lines indicate the lad’s eagerness.
2.And in the whirlwind of a moment there, etc.
Could Jamie perceive so much in so brief a time under such circumstances? Does the picture in “huddled, broken thing” seem realistic?
11.A landscape stares with every circumstance etc.
Jamie’s experience in the preceding lines is here explained. Did you ever notice how plainly things stand out in a flare of lightning?
14.Then before his eyes, etc.
Is this consistent with the part of Jamie in the fight with the Rees?
22.Heard the brush crash etc.
Onomatopœia. Define “rubble.”
1.A swift thought swept the mind of Jamie clear, etc.
Is the change in Jamie from anger to coolness good psychology?
Why?
8.Swerved sharply streamward. Sliddering in the sand,
Note onomatopœia. How did Jamie elude the bear?
17.Like some vague shape of fury in a dream,
Why did the sight of the bear seem thus to Jamie?
4.Would think of such a “trick of getting game”!
For a moment Jamie feels as if Hugh were still living and he can now triumph in his skill. Was that natural in a boy?
6.Like a dull blade thrust back into a wound.
Memory of sorrow “like a dull blade,” etc. Is that true to life?
10.Like some familiar face gone strange at last.
Meaning of “gone strange at last”?
In this and the next three pages note the sincerity and the boyishness of Jamie’s affection and grief. It is necessary to understand Jamie now that the reader may interpret his later conduct.
Define: eld, blear.
6.Had wiped the pictured features from a slate! etc.
Note two powerful similes in these lines. Do they convey adequately the horror of the spectator? This “ruined face” of Hugh’s has much in the remainder of the story. The lines are not pleasant to read, but life is not always pleasant. Homer and Shakespeare often wrote lines that shock by their naked truth.
15.Still painted upon black that alien stare
Why “alien stare”?
16.To make the lad more terribly alone.
Why “more terribly alone”?
21.Pale vagrants from the legendry of death
Pale vagrants,i.e.ghosts.
Define: funereal, alien, legendry, potential.
6.For, though the graybeard fought with sobbing breath, etc.
A wrestling match in which death has a “strangling grip” on Hugh. Note the vividness of physical imagery, “neck veins like a purple thong tangled with knots.” What biblical allusion in “break upon the hip”?
11.There where the trail forked outward far and dim;
What “trail forked outward”?
13.His moan went treble like a song of pain,
Does the voice become like a shrill song under such circumstances?
20.For dying is a game of solitaire, etc.
A grim epigram.
Define: treble, solitaire.
The rest of this division of the poem develops the catastrophe of cowardice and treachery. The elements of it are (1) Jamie’s youthfulness and unsettled character, (2) Le Bon’s ability to play upon his weakness, (3) the actual nearness of the Rees, (4) the apparently hopeless condition of Hugh prolonged over several days.
12.That mercenary motives prompted him.
Do you believe the protestations of Jules that mercenary motives do not prompt him? Does he “protest too much”?
16.The Rickarees were scattered to the West:
Why mention the Indians so early?
19.Three days a southwest wind may blow
A southwest wind on the plains is always warm, and seldom carries rain.
Explain the application.
Why does Jules talk always as though the death of Hugh were certain?
10.Unnumbered tales accordant with the case,
Do you think Le Bon knew these tales?
18.A bear’s hug—ugh!’ And Jamie winced etc.
What was the effect on Jamie?
Define: dialectic, colophon.
8.So summoning a mood etc.
How do Le Bon’s stories change as night comes on? Is his psychology effective? Note the increase in the fears of Jamie.
11.Of men outnumbered: and like him of old, etc.
“Him of old”—Æneas in Æneid, Book II.
23.Gray-souled, he wakened to a dawn of gray,
“Gray-souled”—meaning? “A poet is known by his epithets.”
Define: lugubriously, garrulous.
1.And felt that something strong had gone away.
What strong thing had gone away?
5.Jules, snug and snoring in his blanket there, etc.
Is it natural that the conscious living Jules should seem more real to the boy than his unconscious friend?
6.Just so, pain etc.
Note the epigram. Is it a true one?
14.But grappled with the angel.
Jacob in Genesis.
18.Many men May tower, etc.
Would such a statement be peculiarly true of a boy like Jamie?
Recall his conduct in the Ree fight.
24.Nor might a fire be lit,
Note the shrewdness of Jules in failing to light a fire.
What shows that Jamie is at the breaking point?
4.And with it lulled the fight, as on a field, etc.
The crisis of the disease.
9.It would soon be o’er, etc.
Jules talks in sentimental vein. Sentimental people are very often cruel.
17.To dig a hole that might conceal a man;
Would Jamie have resented the digging of a grave four days earlier?
Jules easily weeps. So do many insincere people.
Define: beleaguered, mutability, immemorial, funerary.
The last stage of Jamie’s breakdown.
Had you any doubt that Jules would beget panic in Jamie? How much do you blame Jamie? Why did Le Bon take Hugh’s gun, blanket, and knife?
Note that the last line of the first division of the poem rhymes with the first line of the second division. Have you noticed that many times the rhyming lines close one paragraph and open the next? The effectof this device is to keep the mind of the reader in strain for what is to follow.
What is a couplet? Is the poem written in couplets? How is the cæsura handled in this poem? Compare with Pope’s method in “Essay on Man.”
3.But some globose immensity of blue
Note epithets in this line. How comprehensive!
7.So one late plunged into the lethal sleep, etc.
The sensation of the awakening is likened to the possible experience of one in death. The author is much interested in such matters.
Define “lethal.” What literary associations with this word?
12.The quiet steep-arched splendor of the day.
At what time of day did Hugh awake?
2.But when he would obey, the hollow skies etc.
Note the suddenness of the loss of consciousness as expressed in the metaphor: “the hollow skies,” etc.
5.Remote unto his horizontal gaze
6.He saw the world’s end kindle to a blaze etc.
At what time did Hugh re-awaken?
What is the effect upon the reader of the expression “world’s end” rather than “east”?
9.Dawn found the darkling reaches of his mind, etc.
A figure from archæology. Explain.
13.Men school the dream to build the past anew
What part of speech is “school”?
17.Wherein men talked as ghosts above a grave.
This is the second suggestion that Hugh was vaguely conscious of what happened before his awakening.
Define: shards, torsos, rubble, sag.
PAGE28
5.Sickened with torture he lay huddled there.
Note the vividness of such words as, “sickened,” “torture,” “huddled,” which appeal both to muscular sense and to sight.
7.Proportioned to the might that felt the chain.
Explain.
10.That vacancy about him like a wall, etc.
The power of that which yields and yet restrains suggests the sense of helplessness that came to Hugh. This feeling is often brought out in the later portions of the poem.
20.Grimly amused, he raised his head, etc.
What was the effect of “the empty distance” and “the twitter of a lonely bird” on Hugh? Why question whether there was something wrong?
Define: collusive, bleak.
On this and the following page we have the stages by which Hugh learns that he has been deserted. Note the steps: (1) Major Henry is prompt, (2) many hoof prints of horses, (3) the grave known for a grave by its shape, (4) ash heap and litter of a camp, (5) the trail.
8.Of course the horse had bolted
That is, run away.
17.A grave—a grave, etc.
Does Hugh really wonder if he has been dead and has arisen?
For the third time it is stated that Hugh heard the talk of his comrades while he was prostrate from the bear’s attack.
25.Suspicion, like a little smoky lamp etc.
Note simile. Is it effective?
PAGE30
1.That daubs the murk but cannot fathom it,
Hugh’s suspicions are vague as yet.
6.The smoky glow flared wildly,
What “smoky glow”?
10.A gloom-devouring ecstasy of flame,
11.A dazing conflagration of belief!
Suspicion passes to certainty. Explain the whole figure from the beginning.
12.Plunged deeper than the seats of hate and grief, etc.
Does nature sometimes seem to mock our moods? The older literatures seem unconscious of this psychology. Note Bryant’s “Death of the Flowers.”
Define: daub, grotesque, ecstasy, apathetic, complacence, connivance.
2.His manifest betrayal by a friend
Why does the desertion of Jamie make that of others seem nothing?
13.Yet not as they for whom tears fall like dew etc.
Hugh’s tears are not shallow; they indicate a lasting sorrow.
Those who weep easily, easily forget.
18.He lay, a gray old ruin of a man, etc.
Both physically and emotionally, a remarkable metaphor.
20.And then at length, as from the long ago, etc.
His suffering makes the time of friendship seem long ago. A song may be both sweet and sad, as may also love.
25.... as in a foggy night
1.The witchery of semilunar light, etc.
A fine comparison of the spiritual to the material.
Define: zany, retrospective.
6.As under snow the dæmon of the Spring.
“Dæmon,” spirit.
8.Nor might treachery recall, etc.
He had been loved, nothing could change that; he could go on loving and nothing could change that either. This is the high note in devotion. “If ye love them that love you, what thank have ye?”
16.Upon the vessel of a hope so great, etc.
The lover is only the vessel of the great passion.
21.Now, as before, collusive sky and plain etc.
Sky and plain have conspired to take Hugh’s life, so it seems to him. They represent distance that yields but still is unconquered. This idea haunts the “Crawl.”
1.For, after all, what thing do men desire, etc.
Food and shelter are necessary to any life; all values rest upon them. This idea is fundamental in modern thinking.
20.Jamie was a thief!
Why Jamie more than others?
Define “gage.”
5.And through his veins regenerating fire etc.
Anger made him strong, while grief made him weak. Is that not true to nature?
7.Now once again he scanned the yellow plain, etc.
Hugh projects his subjective condition on nature. This idea occurs often in the poem. Is it a true conception?
14.Alas for those who fondly place above, etc.
A continuation of the philosophy found on page32. Love is the supreme thing, not the person who is loved. The way is itself the goal.
19.A bitter-sweet narcotic to the will, etc.
Note how Hugh’s hate arouses his energies. For his purposes it is stronger than love.
Define: bellowsed, regenerating, lethargy, conspirant, merging, vulnerable, narcotic.
11.Leaning to the spring, etc.
The final horror, his face, fixes Hugh’s hate to a steady, burning purpose, seeming equal to his task.
5.That waste to be surmounted as a wall,
6.Sky-rims and yet more sky-rims steep to climb—
In gazing across a vast space to the horizon, one seems to be looking uphill. This is especially noticeable on the ocean.
7.That simulacrum of enduring Time—
One traveling long distances by his own power, and having no means of measurement, conceives space not in miles, but in duration of effort.
8.The hundred empty miles ‘twixt him and where
Why “empty” miles?
11.One hairsbreadth farther from the earth and sky
He was as remote from all things as it was possible to be, so why not try!
Define “simulacrum.”
The Crawl
The Crawl is the most detailed account of physical suffering and endurance extant in poetry. Note the large number of words that make direct appeal to the sensations of thirst, weariness, chronic pain, fever, delirium. Again the sense of loneliness, of betrayal, of a conspiracy to destroy him appears everywhere in Hugh’s experience. The monotony of the journey appears in its slowness, which is indicated in many ways.
Before describing the Crawl, Neihardt first found out what vegetable growths would be found on the trail, the character of the soil, how the streams would erode, etc. The poet is true to all nature, even natural science.
3.And through it ran the short trail to the goal.
What was the “goal”? Ree villages lay nearly directly east.
4.Thereon a grim turnpikeman waited toll:
Who is the “grim turnpikeman”?
7.Should make their foe the haunter of a tale.
Hugh was killed on the Yellowstone by the Rees in 1832.
9.The scoriac region of a hell burned black
The bad lands of the Little Missouri, so made to appear by spontaneous combustion of lignite deposits.
13.Should bid for pity at the Big Horn’s mouth.
Locate the Big Horn’s mouth, where Henry and his men spent the winter of 1823–1824.
2.Whereon the feeders of the Moreau head—
Head waters of the Moreau. Locate the Moreau.
3.Scarce more than deep-carved runes of vernal rain.
The rune was a character in the ancient alphabet and ultimately came to stand for poetry. Here the original meaning as a deep cut is restored.
6.Defiant clumps of thirst embittered grass, etc.
Note how exactly the characteristics of an arid landscape are set forth in such phrases as “thirst embittered grass,” “parched earth,” “bared and fang-like roots,” “dwarf thickets,” “stunted fruits.” The poet is shown by exactness, not inaccuracy.
15.And made the scabrous gulch appear to shake
The very sound of the word “scabrous” suggests dryness.
20.And where the mottled shadow dripped as ink etc.
The shadow of leaves on the yellow earth is black. The description is absolutely accurate. “A poet is known by his epithets.”
3.Amid ironic heavens in the West—
Why “ironic heavens”?
6.A purpling panorama swept away.
Why “purpling”?
7.Scarce farther than a shout might carry
How far had Hugh traveled in the day?
16.Into the quiet house of no false friend.
What “quiet house”?
17–20.Alas for those who seek a journey’s end—etc.
The philosophy of these lines is that the way is the important thing, not the end. This is a part of Neihardt’s life-philosophy.
21.Now swoopingly the world of dream broke through
Note that no two of Hugh’s dreams are alike. In this dream his revenge is futile. Is that the nature of revenge, to defeat itself?
How many lines are taken to tell this dream? How much in little space!