They wrong themselves as well as their friends.
I will now present to you a few examples in poetry. Parsing in poetry,
as it brings into requisition a higher degree of mental exertion than
parsing in prose, will be found a more delightful and profitable
exercise. In this kind of analysis, in order to come at the meaning of
the author, you will find it necessary to _transpose_ his language, and
supply what is understood; and then you will have the literal meaning in
prose.
EXERCISES IN PARSING.
APOSTROPHE TO HOPE.--CAMPBELL.
Eternal Hope! when yonder spheres sublime
Pealed their first notes to sound the march of time,
Thy joyous youth began:--but not to fade.--
When all the sister planets have decayed;
When wrapt in flames the realms of ether glow,
And Heaven's last thunder shakes the world below;
Thou, undismay'd, shalt o'er the ruins smile,
And light thy torch at Nature's funeral pile!
TRANSPOSED.
Eternal Hope! thy joyous youth began when yonder sublime spheres pealed
their first notes to sound the march of time:--but it began not to
fade.--Thou, undismayed, shalt smile over the ruins, when all the sister
planets shall have decayed; and thou shalt light thy torch at Nature's
funeral pile, when wrapt in flames, the realms of ether glow, and
Heaven's last thunder shakes the world below.
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