1. Reading Lesson

Read the poem, then read it again until you think you can make the meaning clear when you read it aloud in class.

You see it is made up almost wholly of conversation. You will sometimes need to notice the quotation marks very closely in order to tell who is speaking.

Does the end of the story come as a surprise to you? Is there anything in the poem that might lead one to suspect it?

The Gray Swan

"Oh, tell me, sailor, tell me true,

Is my little lad, my Elihu, A-sailing with your ship?"

The sailor's eyes were dim with dew,

"Your little lad, your Elihu?" He said with trembling lip, - " What little lad? What ship? "

"What little lad? as if there could be Another such a one as he!

What little lad, do you say? Why, Elihu, that took to the sea The moment I put him off my knee!

It was just the other day

The Gray Swan sailed away!"

"The other day?" The sailor's eyes Stood open with a great surprise: -

"The other day? - the Swan?" His heart began in his throat to rise. "Ay, ay, sir ! here in the cupboard lies

The jacket he had on !"

"And so your lad is gone?"

"Gone with the Swan." "And did she stand With her anchor clutching hold of the sand,

For a month, and never stir ?" "Why, to be sure! I've seen from the land, Like a lover kissing his lady's hand,

The wild sea kissing her, -

A sight to remember, sir !"

"But, my good mother, do you know All this was twenty years ago?

I stood on the Gray Swan's deck, And to that lad I saw you throw, Taking it off, as it might be, so,

The kerchief from your neck."

"Ay, and he'll bring it back !"

"And did the little lawless lad,

That has made you sick and made you sad,

Sail with the Gray Swan's crew?" "Lawless ! The man is going mad! The best boy ever mother had: -

Be sure he sailed with the crew!

What would you have him do?"

"And he has never written line,

Nor sent you word, nor made you sign,

To say he was alive?" "Hold ! if 'twas wrong, the wrong is mine; Besides, he may be in the brine;

And could he write from the grave?

Tut, man ! What would you have? "

"Gone, twenty years, - a long, long cruise, 'Twas wicked thus your love to abuse!

But if the lad still live, And come back home, think you, you can Forgive him?" - "Miserable man !

You're mad as the sea, - you rave -

What have I to forgive?"

The sailor twitched his shirt so blue, And from within his bosom drew

The kerchief. She was wild, "O God, my Father! is it true? My little lad, my Elihu !

My blessed boy, my child !

My dead, my living child !"

2. Oral Composition

Be able to tell the story of the poem in class.

Make it interesting. When you have said one thing, stop. Then say another. Do not often connect statements with and. Oliver Wendell Holmes once said:

"And when you stick on conversation's burrs, Don't strew your pathway with those dreadful wr's."

What did he mean? And's are almost as bad as ur's.

3. Word Studies

1. Anchor. Find a picture of an anchor in a dictionary or elsewhere. What are anchors used for?

2. Clutch. This word is derived from, or made from, an older English word that meant claw. Does this help you to understand the meaning of clutch? Can you picture the anchor " clutching hold of the sand"?

3. Cruise. This is derived from a Latin word meaning a cross. What kind of journey should you think a cruise must be? Look in the dictionary and see if you are right.

4. Think of four other names for different kinds of journeys. What sort of journey is each?

5. What is meant by "the brine"? Why is it given this name?

6. Lawless. What does law mean? Less means without. Why did the sailor call himself lawless?

7. Make a list of words that describe the mother. Explain why you think each describes her.

4. Oral Composition

Think what you should like to have a painter put into some picture that the poem, The Gray Swan, makes you see. Perhaps your teacher will read to you Alice Cary's poem, An Order for a Picture. Be ready to give your "order for a picture" in class.

5. Draw the ship as you see it.

6. Review Of Points Of Form

Copy exactly the first stanza of The Gray Svxm. Have punctuation, capitalization, and indentation of lines exactly right.

Why does the word 18 begin with a capital letter?

Give reasons for the question marks used.

How many quotations are there? Notice that one is a divided quotation.