>>> YOU ARE VIEWING A 200 LINE SAMPLE OF EBOOK# E00730 <<< TITLE: GRADED POETRY: SEVENTH YEAR AUTHOR: VARIOUS EBOOK: E00730 (O'Briens Book Cellar) GRADED POETRY SEVENTH YEAR Edited By: Katherine D. Blake Principal, Girls' Department Public School No. 6, New York City and Georgia Alexander Supervising Principal, Indianapolis, Indiana 1906 INTRODUCTION Poetry is the chosen language of childhood and youth. The baby repeats words again and again for the mere joy of their sound: the melody of nursery rhymes gives a delight which is quite independent of the meaning of the words. Not until youth approaches maturity is there an equal pleasure in the rounded periods of elegant prose. It is in childhood therefore that the young mind should be stored with poems whose rhythm will be a present delight and whose beautiful thoughts will not lose their charm in later years. The selections for the lowest grades are addressed primarily to the feeling for verbal beauty, the recognition of which in the mind of the child is fundamental to the plan of this work. The editors have felt that the inclusion of critical notes in these little books intended for elementary school children would be not only superfluous, but, in the degree in which critical comment drew the child's attention from the text, subversive of the desired result. Nor are there any notes on methods. The best way to teach children to love a poem is to read it inspiringly to them. The French say: "The ear is the pathway to the heart." A poem should be so read that it will sing itself in the hearts of the listening children. In the brief biographies appended to the later books the human element has been brought out. An effort has been made to call attention to the education of the poet and his equipment for his life work rather than to the literary qualities of his style. * * * * * CONTENTS FIRST HALF YEAR Good Name _William Shakespeare_ From "Love's Labor's Lost". _William Shakespeare_ From "Richard II," Act II, Sc. I _William Shakespeare_ Jog on, Jog on _William Shakespeare_ The Downfall of Wolsey _William Shakespeare_ The Noble Nature _Ben Johnson_ Song on a May Morning _John Milton_ O God, our Help in Ages Past. _Isaac Watts_ The Diverting History of John Gilpin _William Cowper_ Bannockburn _Robert Burns_ My Heart's in the Highlands _Robert Burns_ The Solitary Reaper _William Wordsworth_ Sonnet _William Wordsworth_ "Soldier, Rest!" _Walter Scott_ Lochinvar _Walter Scott_ The Star-Spangled Banner _Francis Scott Key_ Hohenlinden _Thomas Campbell_ The Harp that Once through Tara's Halls _Thomas Moore_ Childe Harold's Farewell to England _George Noel Gordon, Lord Byron_ The Night before Waterloo _George Noel Gordon, Lord Byron_ Abide with Me _Henry Francis Lyte_ Horatius at the Bridge _Thomas B. Macauley_ SECOND HALF YEAR Early Spring _Alfred, Lord Tennyson_ Sir Galahad _Alfred, Lord Tennyson_ The Charge of the Light Brigade _Alfred, Lord Tennyson_ Ring out, Wild Bells. From "In Memoriam" _Alfred, Lord Tennyson_ A Christmas Hymn _Alfred Domett_ Home Thoughts from Abroad _Robert Browning_ Pheidippides _Robert Browning_ A Song of Clover _Saxe Holm_ Song of Love _Lewis Carroll_ Scythe Song _Andrew Lang_ White Butterflies _Algernon Charles Swinburne_ Recessional. A Victorian Ode _Rudyard Kipling_ To a Waterfowl _William Cullen Bryant_ The Death of the Flowers _William Cullen Bryant_ Thanatopsis _William Cullen Bryant_ From "Woodnotes" _Ralph Waldo Emerson_ Daybreak _Henry Wadsworth Longfellow_ The Fiftieth Birthday of Agassiz _Henry Wadsworth Longfellow_ Hymn to the Night _Henry Wadsworth Longfellow_ Longing _James Russell Lowell_ The Finding of the Lyre _James Russell Lowell_ Waiting _John Burroughs_ Columbus _Joaquin Miller_ Evening Songs _John Vance Cheney_ A Vagabond Song _Bliss Carman_ Old Glory _James Whitcomb Riley_ Kavanagh _Henry Wadsworth Longfellow_ Biographical Sketches of Authors * * * * * SEVENTH YEAR--FIRST HALF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE ENGLAND, 1564-1616 Good name in man and woman, dear my lord, Is the immediate jewel of their souls: Who steals my purse steals trash; 'tis something, nothing; 'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands; But he that filches from me my good name Robs me of that which not enriches him And makes me poor indeed. --"OTHELLO," Act II, Sc. 3. * * * * * When daisies pied and violets blue, And lady-smocks all silver-white, And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue Do paint the meadows with delight. --"LOVE'S LABOR'S LOST," Act V, Sc. 2. * * * * * This royal throne of kings, this scepter'd isle, This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars, This other Eden, demi-paradise; This fortress built by Nature for herself Against infection and the hand of war; This happy breed of men, this little world, This precious stone set in the silver sea, Which serves it in the office of a wall, Or as a moat defensive to a house, Against the envy of less happier lands; This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England. --"RICHARD II," Act II, Sc. 1. * * * * * Jog on, jog on, the foot-path way, And merrily hent the stile-a: A merry heart goes all the day, Your sad tires in a mile-a. --From "WINTER'S TALE." * * * * * The Downfall of Wolsey Farewell! a long farewell, to all my greatness! This is the state of man: to-day he puts forth The tender leaves of hopes; to-morrow blossoms And bears his blushing honors thick upon him; The third day comes a frost, a killing frost; And, when he thinks, good easy man, full surely His greatness is a ripening, nips his root, And then he falls, as I do. I have ventured, Like little wanton boys that swim on bladders, This many summers in a sea of glory, But far beyond my depth: my high-blown pride At length broke under me; and now has left me, Weary and old with service, to the mercy Of a rude stream, that must forever hide me. Vain pomp and glory of this world, I hate ye: I feel my heart new opened. O, how wretched Is that poor man that hangs on princes' favors! There is, betwixt that smile we would aspire to, That sweet aspect of princes, and their ruin, More pangs and fears than wars or women have: And when he falls, he falls like Lucifer, Never to hope again. --From "HENRY VIII." * * * * * BEN JONSON <<< END OF SAMPLE... 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