Slanting through the painted beeches, And beneath it pond and meadow And shouting boys in woodland haunts And laughed, they knew not why; Mingled the glow of autumn With the sunshine of sweet looks. From spire and barn, looked westerly The patient weathercocks; But even the birches on the hill Stood motionless as rocks. No sound was in the woodlands Save the squirrel's dropping shell, And the yellow leaves among the boughs, The summer grains were harvested; The stubble fields lay dry, Where June winds rolled, in light and shade, The pale-green waves of rye; But still on gentle hill slopes, In valleys fringed with wood, Ungathered, bleaching in the sun, The heavy corn crop stood. ΙΟ 15 20 25 1. What is Indian summer? Is this a description of an Indian summer day? Sketch the field described, or the sunset. Observe the color words in the last stanza. 2. What was happening in the woods on that October day? In the fields? Describe the scene in each. GOLDENROD BY ELAINE GOODALE EASTMAN Most of our wild flowers that blossom in the fall are of brilliant colors. In September the fields and fence rows are a blaze of reds, yellows, buffs, and browns. Conspicuous among these is the stately yellow plume of the goldenrod, strikingly described in the following poem. Read this selection slowly. Every line adds to the picture— every word means one more idea. Try to sense the entire meaning of the author. When the meadow lately shorn, Parched and languid, swoons with pain, When her lifeblood, night and morn, Shrinks in every throbbing vein, Round her fallen, tarnished urn Leaping watch fires brighter burn; Royal arch o'er autumn's gate, (Used by special permission of the author.) ΙΟ 15 1. Three of the stanzas definitely locate the goldenrod. Read the lines that tell where it grows. 2. Which stanza makes the most vivid picture for you? What descriptive words in the stanza help make this picture? 3. Read the second stanza aloud, and tell in your own words what you think each line means. 4. Find synonyms (words of similar meaning) for the following: sumptuous, unfettered, disheveled, lustrous. Substitute your syn onym for each of these words and read the line aloud. 5. Make a pencil sketch of a goldenrod as you recall it. Color your sketch with crayon. 6. The goldenrod is sometimes called our national flower. Why do you think it is so called? What is your state flower? THE PALISADES BY JOHN MASEFIELD ON THE west side of the Hudson River there is a cliff, or crag of rock, all carved into queer shapes. It stretches along the riverside for twenty or thirty miles, as far as Tarrytown, or further, to the broad part where the stream looks like a sea. The cliff rises up, as a rule very boldly, to the height of several hundred feet. The top of it (the Jersey shore) appears regular. It is like a well-laid wall along the river, with trees and one or two white wooden houses, instead of broken glass, at the top. This wall appearance made the settlers call the crag the "Palisades." to Where the Palisades are the grandest is just as high up as Yonkers. Hereabouts they are very stately, for they are all marshaled along a river a mile or more broad, which runs in a straight line past them, with a great tide. If you take a boat and row across to the Palisades their beauty makes you shiver. In the afternoon, when you are underneath them, the sun is shut away from you; and there you are, in the chill and the gloom, with the great cliff towering up and the pinnacles and tall trees catching the sunlight at the top. Then it is very still there. You will see no 20 one along that shore. A great eagle will go sailing out, or a hawk will drop and splash after a fish, but you will see no other living thing, except at the landing. There are schooners in the river, of course, but they keep to the New York shore to avoid being becalmed. (Used by permission of Dodd, Mead and Company, Publishers.) |