1. Reading By Teacher

Perhaps, as your teacher reads the poem, you will see how well the sound fits the meaning. Spring is represented as speaking, and the lines have a swinging movement that fits the joyous coming of this glad season.

The writer lived in England. See if she mentions any signs of spring that you cannot see at your home.

See also if she mentions any flower or tree that you are not familiar with.

The Voice Of Spring

I come, I come ! ye have called me long - I come o'er the mountain with light and song! Ye may trace my step o'er the wakening earth By the winds which tell of the violet's birth, By the primrose stars in the shadowy grass, By the green leaves opening as I pass.

I have breathed on the South, and the chestnut flowers

By thousands have burst from the forest bowers,

I have looked on the hills of the stormy North,

And the larch has hung all his tassels forth,

The fisher is out on the sunny sea,

And the reindeer bounds o'er the pastures free,

And the pine has a fringe of softer green,

And the moss looks bright where my foot hath been.

I have sent through the wood-paths a glowing sigh, And called out each voice of the deep blue sky; From the night bird's lay through the starry time, In the groves of the soft Hesperian clime, To the swan's wild note by the Iceland lakes, When the dark fir branch into verdure breaks.

From the streams and founts I have loosed the chain; They are sweeping on to the silvery main, They are flashing down from the mountain brows, They are flinging spray o'er the forest boughs, They are bursting fresh from their sparry caves, And the earth resounds with the joy of waves !

Come forth, O ye children of gladness ! come! Where the violets lie may be now your home. Ye of the rose lip and dew-bright eye, And the bounding footstep, to meet me fly! With the lyre, and the wreath, and the joyous lay, Come forth to the sunshine - I may not stay.

- Felicia Hemans.

2. Study

1. Explain the words, "the wakening earth." How did the winds tell of the violet's birth? Are English violets like those that grow wild near your home?

2. How is a larch tree like a pine tree? How is it different from one?

What lines in this stanza are intended to rhyme? Do there seem to be any poor rhymes? In England been is pronounced as if it rhymed with green.

2 What is the real name of the "night-bird"? Is this bird found near your home? Do you know of other birds that sometimes sing at night?

Hesperian is a word often used in poetry instead of western. Perhaps the poet uses it here because the nightingale is a European and not an Asiatic bird. The evergreen tree, sometimes called balsam, is a fir tree.

4. The main is the great sea in contrast to small bodies of water. Streams often flow from caves high up in the mountains, and caves are often lined with a white lustrous substance called spar.

5. What invitation does spring give to the children in this stanza?

3. Comparison of Poem and Composition.

Which ones of the signs of spring mentioned in your composition (Section V) are mentioned in the poem also? Read the lines of the poem that describe each of these.

4. Oral Compositions

1. Describe the picture that the fourth stanza makes you see.

2. Does the fifth stanza make you think of a May Day party? Tell how you would like to spend May Day.

6. Memory Work

Copy and learn two or three stanzas.