McGuffey's Fifth Eclectic Reader, Revised Edition · Lesson CVIII · Part 11: Country, sea and the great classics

114. Minot's Ledge (Fitz-James O'Brien)

Goal: Your child reads a dramatic storm poem with expression and tells the story of the keeper and his son.

⏱ About 30 minutes · 6 steps

Open it at the Internet Archive ↗

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 Fitz-James O'Brien. On a stormy night the keeper of the lighthouse on Minot's Ledge prays for his son's ship, hears a ship strike, sees a body in the waves, throws a rope and pulls his own living boy onto the rocks. The poem ends as it began, with the storm. A note describes the real Minot's Ledge.

The lesson, step by step

  1. About the author

    The book says Fitz-James O'Brien (b. 1829, d. 1862) was born in Ireland and came to America in 1852. He wrote tales and poems for magazines, served in the New York Seventh Regiment, and died from a wound received in a cavalry skirmish.

  2. The note first

    Read the Note: Minot's Ledge, also called the "Cohasset Rocks," is a dangerous reef in Boston Harbor, eight miles southeast of Boston Light, with a fixed light of its own sixty-six feet high. Find Boston on a map.

  3. Read aloud

    Read the poem aloud with energy. Let the storm roar. It begins:

    Like spectral hounds across the sky,

    The white clouds scud before the storm;

    And naked in the howling night

    The red-eyed light-house lifts its form.

  4. Talk about it

    SayThe poet says the clouds are like "spectral hounds" and the waves have "slippery fingers." What do these pictures make you feel?

    SayWhat is the keeper praying for? What does he see in the water?

    SayThe last stanza nearly repeats the first. Why might the poet end where he began?

  5. Tell it back

    Close the book.

    SayTell me the story of the poem, from the storm to the rescue.

    Older children can write their narration in a short paragraph instead. Don't correct while they talk; just listen.

  6. Copywork

    Your child copies the rescue lines:

    A steady pull; it tightens now:

    Oh! his old heart will burst with joy,

    As on the slippery rocks he pulls

    The breathing body of his boy.

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