7 8 9 There groups of merry children played, Those hours the ancient timepiece told,° Never forever!" From that chamber, clothed in white, The dead lay in his shroud of snow; Never forever!" All are scattered now and fled, Never forever!" Never here, forever there, Where all parting, pain, and care, The horologe of Eternity Sayeth this incessantly,° "Forever never! Never forever!" 6 affluence (ǎf' loo ĕns), riches antique 1 (ăn tēk), old stopping portico (pōr' ti kō), porch country-seat,1 a fine dwelling in the prime 6 (prīm), best time 1. Read aloud the lines that picture the house, without and within. Which expressions describe the old clock? 2. What does the clock's ticking suggest to the poet? Read the stanzas to bring out the refrain. 3. Give the chief thought of each stanza. 4. Explain crosses himself," "2 "swift vicissitude," 4 "free-hearted Hospitality," 5 and "horologe of Eternity." 9 66 5. What events are most important in a family's history? Why? 6. What piece of furniture does your family prize most? Why? 7. Why should you like to visit the home described in this poem? 8. How can boys and girls help to make home-life pleasant? 9. Read aloud "The Children's Hour" and Riley's "Old Aunt Mary's" (Riverside Readers IV and V), or Payne's "Home, Sweet Home." 10. Oral or written composition: (a) The Prettiest Clock I ever Saw; (b) The Oldest House in Our Town. RAIN IN SUMMER HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW Rain, rain, go away! Come again another day! That is what girls and boys have often wished when a downpour spoiled a picnic! But listen to what the Poet says about rain. He pictures it as a misty figure called Aquarius, striding through the clouds and scattering showers on the earth below. He sees the raindrops form a rainbow opposite the setting sun. Like the seer See-er of visions - he follows this wonderful journey of the rain down to earth where it is absorbed by springs and lakes and ocean, and then is drawn up again by the sun's rays into the clouds, later to fall to the earth once more as welcome rain. This succession from heaven to earth, and back again, makes the Poet think of birth and death. From heaven the baby soul comes, on earth it lives, and back to heaven it goes at death. Like the raindrop it has made the "perpetual round of strange mysterious change." You had not dreamed that there was so much to think of in a little fall of rain? One thing the Poet teaches you is to look beyond things to their real meanings. Now, try to see the pictures, as your teacher reads: How beautiful is the rain! After the dust and heat, How beautiful is the rain! How it clatters along the roofs, Like the tramp of hoofs! How it gushes and struggles out From the throat of the overflowing spout! Across the window pane It pours and pours; And swift and wide, With a muddy tide, Like a river down the gutter roars The rain, the welcome rain! The sick man from his chamber looks At the twisted brooks; He can feel the cool Breath of each little pool; His fevered brain Grows calm again, And he breathes a blessing on the rain. 5 From the neighboring school Come the boys, With more than their wonted° noise And commotion; And down the wet streets Sail their mimic fleets, In the country, on every side, Like a leopard's tawny and spotted hide, To the dry grass and the drier grain, 6 7 In the furrowed° land The toilsome and patient oxen stand; The clover-scented gale, And the vapors that arise From the well-watered and smoking soil. For this rest in the furrow after toil That have not yet been wholly told, For his thought, that never stops, Down to the graves of the dead, Down through chasms and gulfs profound, To the dreary fountain head Of lakes and rivers under ground; And sees them, when the rain is done, On the bridge of colors seven Climbing up once more to heaven, Opposite the setting sun. |