1. Introduction

The poem that your teacher is to read describes something with which you are familiar. Try to decide what it is before the name is reached. Be ready to tell what led you to decide.

2. Reading By Teacher

Maize, The Nation's Emblem

Upon a hundred thousand plains Its banners rustle in the breeze,

O'er all the nation's wide domains From coast to coast betwixt the seas.

It storms the hills and fills the vales, It marches like an army grand,

The continent its presence hails, Its beauty brightens all the land.

Far back through history's shadowy page It shines, a power of boundless good,

The people's prop from age to age, The one unfailing wealth of food.

God's gift to the New World's great need That helped to build the nation's strength,

Up through beginnings rude to lead A higher race of men at length.

How straight and tall and stately stand Its serried stalks upright and strong!

How nobly are its outlines planned, What grace and charm to it belong!

What splendor in its rustling leaves!

What richness in its close-set gold! What largess in its clustered sheaves,

New every year, though ages old!

America, from thy broad breast

It sprang, beneficent and bright, Of all thy gifts from heaven the best,

For the world's succor and delight.

Then do it honor, give it praise!

A noble emblem should be ours; - Upon thy fair shield set thy Maize,

More glorious than a myriad flowers.

And let thy States their garland bring,

Each its own lovely blossom-sign, But leading all let Maize be king,

Holding its place by right divine.

- Celia L. Thaxter.

3. Helps For Study

General Questions. What is an emblem? Does your state have an emblem? What is it? What characteristics should an emblem for the whole United States have? What reasons does Miss Thaxter see for having maize for the nation's emblem? Read the lines in which she gives each reason. Do you think it would make a good emblem? Give in your own words reasons for your decision.

Think of something besides corn that would make a good emblem for the United States. Be ready to tell why it would be suitable.

Have you always thought of corn as a commonplace thing? If it has ever seemed poetic to you, tell in what ways it has.

The word poet is almost the same as the Latin word for maker. A poet seems to make, or to imagine, wonderful things, because he sees what common people do not see For this reason a poet is often called a seer, a see-er, one who sees. What are some of the things that Celia Thaxter saw in corn that you had not seen?

Can you think of any other common thing that some other poet has made seem poetic to you? We can all learn to see common things in a poetic light, if we cannot express what we see well enough to put it into poetical form. Do you care to be able to do this? Why?

Questions On Separate Stanzas

1. Is the number meant to be exact? Does it make any difference whether it is or not?

Is rustle a good word to tell the sound that the wind makes among the corn? Can you think of as good a word?

What does Miss Thaxter call banners? How are they like banners? Who bear banners? What then is the entire corn-field likened to?

2. Read the lines in which corn is likened to an army. Of course it does not really move forward. Why does it seem to do so? Can you see a picture in which it looks like an army moving forward? In what stage of its growth do you see it?

Put the words of line three in prose order. What does hail mean? " Why does the continent hail corn? Would it do so if it were really an army?

3. Why is "history's page" called shadowy? What is a "prop"? Do you know any stories 01 early New England life that help to make this stanza clear?

4. What name is sometimes given to maize that suggests that white men found it first in America? All sorts of grain were called corn in England. In what parts of the United States is corn now eaten most?

5. Serried means crowded, dense. Is this stanza a good description? Draw a few stalks of corn.

Can you think of any tree that is stately? Any that is graceful? Any that is both stately and graceful?

6. What is the "close-set gold"? Largess means a liberal gift, a large gift. What does the last line mean?

7. The word beneficent is made from one Latin word, bene, which means well, and from another which means to do. The word then means welldoing, doing good.

What claim does Miss Thaxter make for maize? Think of some other gifts that have been given to America alone. Do you think that maize is the best of the gifts?

8. Does it seem to you "more glorious than a myriad flowers"?

9. Many states have flowers as emblems, - state flowers, they are called. In some cases they were chosen by the legislature and in some by the votes of the children. Do you know of any state flowers?

Can you imagine a magnificent procession suggested by the stanza?