When Italy is
calling, no siren song of pleasure must avail to lure him from his
course, nor must his sail be furled until the keel grates upon the
Italian shore. His navigating skill must guide him through the perils of
Scylla and Charybdis and the stout heart of manhood must bear him past
Mount AEtna's fiery menace. His dauntless courage must brave the anger of
the greedy waves and boldly ride them down. Nor must his cup of joy be
full until the wished-for land shall greet his eager eyes.
=Overweening ambition.=--Or, again, the poet may yearn to teach the
wrong of overweening, vaulting ambition and he writes "Paradise Lost"
and "Recessional." He pictures Satan overthrown, like the Giants who
would climb into the throne on Olympus. He pictures Hell as the fitting
place for Satan overthrown, and in his own place he pictures the outcast
and downcast Satan writhing and cursing because he was balked of his
unholy ambition. And, lest mortals sink from their high estate, borne
down by their sins of unsanctified ambition, he prays, and prays again,
"Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, lest we forget, lest we forget." And
the prayer echoes and reechoes in the soul of the man, and the world
sees his lips moving in the prayer of the poet, "Lest we forget, lest we
forget."
=Native land.=--Or, again, he writes Bannockburn and the spirit is fired
with patriotic devotion to native land.
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