As mentioned in the previous post, where I quoted from Thomas Hardy’s Under the Greenwood Tree (1872), here is a short list of vocabulary to help with understanding the same passage.
🍃A quick question: how did you find the text? Was it challenging in terms of vocabulary? Did you understand most of it?
✨Did you enjoy his description of a winter’s night, of a group of men preparing nervously and excitedly for singing Christmas songs?
If you are interested, you can find a recording of the same song that Hardy refers to – ‘Remember, O Thou Man’ – on YouTube; the choir who sings it is very good!
🎵 ‘Ravenscroft, Remember, O Thou Man’
* lantern: a lighted lamp with a transparent case, often having a handle by which to carry it
* accumulation: the gathering of something, increasing amounts (of something)
* twilight: the faint light from the sky between sunset (or sunrise) and nightfall
* pervasive: widespread, invading
* traceable: something that could be traced back to or noticed as coming from something
* alert: alarm or signal; ‘on the alert’ means to be on your guard, watchful or vigilant in case of danger
* rebound: bounce back
* scampered < scamper: (usually describes small animals or children) to run (away) in small hurried steps, scurry forth: outwards and away from a point in time or a place
* time-worn: old, ancient, traditional
* hymn: a Christian song, sung in churches by a group of believers (a congregation)
* embodying: becoming as a body, holding, containing
* quaint: old-fashioned in a nice way
* earnestly: with a full heart, hopefully and eagerly
As always, if you have a question, feel free to write to me via one of the contact forms and I will do my best to respond.
