McGuffey's Fifth Eclectic Reader, Revised Edition · Lesson CIV · Part 10: Elephants, the sea and a happy life
110. The Mariner's Dream (William Dimond)
Goal: Your child reads a dramatic poem with changing moods and tells what the sailor-boy dreamed and what really happened.
You'll need
- The book, open to this lesson
- A notebook or lined paper and a pencil
What's in the book
A poem by William Dimond. A sailor-boy asleep in his hammock dreams happily of home, but a storm wrecks the ship and he is drowned; the last stanzas mourn him in the deep. Definitions and notes on coral and amber follow.
The lesson, step by step
About the author
The book says William Dimond was a dramatist and poet of the early 1800s, born and educated in Bath, England, who studied law in London. Most of his writing was for the stage.
Words and meanings
The words and meanings are printed at the end of the lesson. Read a few together before the reading, so they don't trip your child up:
Hammock, a hanging or swinging bed, usually made of netting or hempen cloth.
Transport, ecstasy, rapture.
Dirge, funeral music.
The notes explain that coral is the solid part of a tiny sea animal, and amber is a yellow resin, the fossil gum of buried trees.
Read aloud
Read the poem aloud. Start softly, like a dream, and change your voice when the storm comes. It begins:
In slumbers of midnight the sailor-boy lay;
His hammock swung loose at the sport of the wind;
But watch-worn and weary, his cares flew away,
And visions of happiness danced o'er his mind.
Talk about it
SayWhat does the sailor-boy dream about? Find two details.
SayWhere does the poem turn from the dream to the storm? How does the poet make the change sudden?
SayWhy does the poet tell us the happy dream first, before the wreck?
Tell it back
Close the book.
SayTell me the poem as a story: the dream, the storm, and the end.
Older children can write their narration in a short paragraph instead. Don't correct while they talk; just listen.
Copywork
Your child copies:
O sailor-boy! sailor-boy! never again
Shall home, love, or kindred, thy wishes repay;
Tip
This poem ends with the boy's death. For a sensitive child, read it together and talk about it afterward.