ShmoopTube

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[ musical flourish ]

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And here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by spirit ditties.

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Just wait and see. You'll have so much more time

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to dance, play, and sing after you're dead.

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Okay, read it.

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Weep.

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And here we go. Lines 21 through 24 imply that...

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what?

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And here are the potential answers.

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All right. Pause waiver thingy. Yeah, you gotta read it.

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We gotta give it.

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Once again, we're being asked to zero in on a few particular lines

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and try to decipher their meaning.

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We'll have to get deep inside the writer's head.

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[ noo ]

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Okay, here are the lines in question. Ready?

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"Ah, happy, happy boughs! that cannot shed

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Your leaves, nor ever bid the Spring adieu;

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And, happy melodist, unwearied

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For ever piping songs for ever new..."

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All right. So we start out talking about tree boughs that

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never shed leaves.

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Uh... Somewhere where it's always spring.

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Well, how about South Florida?

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Oh, wait. Actually, because we're studying scenery on the side

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of an urn, that would make sense.

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The trees painted onto it would never lose their leaves

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and the season would never change.

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Does that work with the last two lines?

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"...happy melodist, unwearied"?

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Huh. Okay, so this melodist guy never gets tired,

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and is forever playing songs on his pipe.

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Either he is really hard up for the cash and can't afford

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to take breaks, or, yeah, he's also frozen in time

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on the urn.

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So it seems these lines are all about how nice and happy and beautiful it is

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that these pleasant scenes are forever preserved on the urn.

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We never have to see the tree lose its leaves

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or the melodist, you know, take five.

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Looking over our answer choices, C looks like a pretty clear winner here.

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The speaker envies the stillness of time in the urn.

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So, boom, we're done.

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Play us out, melodist.

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[ upbeat music ]

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