McGuffey's Fifth Eclectic Reader, Revised Edition · Lesson CII · Part 10: Elephants, the sea and a happy life
108. The Character of a Happy Life (Sir Henry Wotton)
Goal: Your child explains, line by line, what kind of person Wotton calls happy, and learns the last stanza by heart.
You'll need
- The book, open to this lesson
- A notebook or lined paper and a pencil
What's in the book
Sir Henry Wotton's six-stanza poem describing the truly happy person: honest, master of his passions, free of envy and the wish for fame, and "Lord of himself, though not of lands."
The lesson, step by step
About the author
The book says Sir Henry Wotton (b. 1568, d. 1639) was born at Bocton Hall, Kent, England, was educated at Winchester and Oxford, served King James as a diplomat, and in 1623 became provost of Eton College. His fame rests mainly on a few short poems.
Read aloud
This poem is old (more than 350 years) and the English is a little different. Read it aloud slowly, then again. It begins:
How happy is he born and taught,
That serveth not another's will;
Whose armor is his honest thought,
And simple truth his utmost skill!
Line by line
Go through the poem one stanza at a time. For each, your child says in plain modern words what this happy person is like. ("Serveth not another's will" = isn't a slave to what others want.)
Talk about it
SayWotton says a happy man's armor is "his honest thought." How can honesty protect you?
SayIs this person rich? How can he have "nothing, yet hath all"?
SayDo you agree with Wotton about what makes a happy life? What would you add?
Memorize
Learn the last stanza by heart:
This man is freed from servile bands,
Of hope to rise, or fear to fall;
Lord of himself, though not of lands;
And having nothing, yet hath all.