McGuffey's Fifth Eclectic Reader, Revised Edition · Lesson CVI · Part 11: Country, sea and the great classics
112. The Country Life (R. H. Stoddard)
Goal: Your child reads a thoughtful poem about longing for the country and talks about what makes a "rational and free" life.
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 Richard Henry Stoddard in six stanzas. A man who lives in the city remembers his childhood by the sea, the old homestead and its garden, and a little country house, and praises the farmer's contented life. (The page also has the end of "The Passenger Pigeon.")
The lesson, step by step
About the author
The book says Richard Henry Stoddard was born in 1825 in Hingham, Massachusetts, moved to New York City as a boy, and published his first poems, "Foot-prints," in 1849. This selection is abridged from his "Book of the East."
Read aloud
Read the poem aloud together. It begins:
Not what we would, but what we must,
Makes up the sum of living;
Heaven is both more and less than just,
In taking and in giving.
In the next stanza, the poet speaks about himself:
Me, whom the city holds, whose feet
Have worn its stony highways,
Talk about it
SayWhat does the first stanza mean: "Not what we would, but what we must"?
SayThe poet lives in the city. What does he remember and miss about the country?
SayAt the end, he asks if any life is "more rational and free" than the farmer's. What do you think?
Tell it back
Close the book.
SayTell me what the poet remembers, stanza by stanza.
A few sentences are enough.
Memorize
Learn the first stanza (above) by heart. It is a short, wise saying worth keeping.
Optional writing
Your child writes about a place they love and would miss if they moved away.