the maypole of merry mount prezi

Oh, people of the Golden Age, the chief of your husbandry, was to raise flowers!But what was the wild throng that stood hand in hand about the May-Pole? They who reared it, should their banner be triumphant, were to pour sunshine over New England's rugged hills, and scatter flower seeds throughout the soil. Even that dim light is now withdrawn, relinquishing the whole domain of Merry Mount to the evening gloom, which has rushed so instantaneously from the black surrounding woods. Through a world of toil and care she flitted with a dreamlike smile, and came hither to find a home among the lightsome hearts of Merry Mount.Never had the May-Pole been so gayly decked as at sunset on midsummer eve.

Down nearly to the ground, the pole was dressed with birchen boughs, and others of the liveliest green, and some with silvery leaves, fastened by ribbons that fluttered in fantastic knots of twenty different colors, but no sad ones. The ring of gay masquers was disordered and broken; the stag lowered his antlers in dismay; the wolf grew weaker than a lamb; the bells of the morrice-dancers tinkled with tremulous affright.

Behind this lightsome couple, so close to the May-Pole that its boughs shaded his jovial face, stood the figure of an English priest, canonically dressed, yet decked with flowers, in heathen fashion, and wearing a chaplet of the native vine leaves. But he later is won by their faithfulness to one another. Let him look to himself! You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. As we glance again at the May-Pole, a solitary sunbeam is fading from the summit, and leaves only a faint golden tinge, blended with the hues of the rainbow banner. In the slight sketch here attempted, the facts, recorded on the grave pages of our New England annalists, have wrought themselves, almost spontaneously, into a sort of allegory. Their leaders were men who had sported so long with life, that when Thought and Wisdom came, even these unwelcome guests were led astray, by the crowd of vanities which they should have put to flight. PLAY.

At the beginning of the story “jollity” and “gloom” are said to be contending for an empire, the Merry Mount colonists personifying jollity or mirth and the Puritans being the emblems of gloom. Jollity In "The May-Pole of Merry-Mount", the Lord and Lady of the May are saved from harm and taken in by the Puritans because they demonstrate a pure and passionate love. The wreath of roses, that hung from the lowest green bough of the May-Pole, had been twined for them, and would be thrown over both their heads, in symbol of their flowery union.

The selectman nodded to the constable; and there sat the light-heeled reprobate in the stocks; or if he danced, it was round the whipping-post, which might be termed the Puritan May-Pole.A party of these grim Puritans, toiling through the difficult woods, each with a horse-load of iron armor to burthen his footsteps, would sometimes draw near the sunny precincts of Merry Mount. Thus, the scenario above is a familiar set piece from the lore of early American history. These were Gothic monsters, though perhaps of Grecian ancestry. The youth, in the peril of the moment, had dropped his gilded staff, and thrown his arm about the Lady of the May, who leaned against his breast, too lightly to burthen him, but with weight enough to express that their destinies were linked together, for good or evil. Nathaniel Hawthorne Historical Significance of Merry Mount Hawthorne’s account of The Merry Mount colony presents them as an example of early American Romanticism. From the moment that they truly loved, they had subjected themselves to earth’s doom of care, and sorrow, and troubled joy, and had no more a home at Merry Mount. Complete summary of Nathaniel Hawthorne's My Kinsman, Major Molineux. And here again, almost as wondrous, stood a real bear of the dark forest, lending each of his fore paws to the grasp of a human hand, and as ready for the dance as any in that circle. These cookies do not store any personal information.This website uses cookies to improve your experience. Authority on these points may be found in Strutt’s Book of English Sports and Pastimes.Bright were the days at Merry Mount, when the May-Pole was the banner-staff of that gay colony! No sooner had their hearts glowed with real passion, than they were sensible of something vague and unsubstantial in their former pleasures, and felt a dreary presentiment of inevitable change. Once, it is said, they were seen following a flower-decked corpse, with merriment and festive music, to his grave.

We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. Erring Thought and perverted Wisdom were made to put on masques, and play the fool. All rights reserved. Being powerless, I entreat!