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

121. Fate (Bret Harte)

Goal: Your child reads a three-stanza poem, explains its surprise ending, and talks about what "fate" means.

⏱ About 20 minutes · 5 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

Bret Harte's short poem: a cautious speaker will not go to sea in a storm or join a dangerous hunt; but the ship sails safely, the hunters come home happy, and the town built on a rock is swallowed in an earthquake.

The lesson, step by step

  1. About the author

    The book says Bret Harte was born in Albany, New York, in 1839, went to California at seventeen, and worked as a teacher, in the gold mines and as a printer. In 1868 he founded the "Overland Monthly."

  2. Read aloud

    Read the whole poem aloud twice. It is short:

    The sky is clouded, the rocks are bare;

    The spray of the tempest is white in air;

    The winds are out with the waves at play,

    And I shall not tempt the sea to-day.

  3. Talk about it

    SayWhy does the speaker stay at home? Was that a sensible choice?

    SayWhat happened to the ship and the hunters? What happened to the town on the rock?

    SayWhat do you think happened to the speaker? Why is the poem called "Fate"?

    SayNotice that the first two stanzas end "to-day." How does the third stanza break the pattern?

  4. Memorize

    This poem is short enough to learn whole. The last stanza:

    But the ship sailed safely over the sea,

    And the hunters came from the chase in glee;

    And the town that was builded upon a rock

    Was swallowed up in the earthquake shock.

  5. Optional writing

    Your child writes a few sentences: Is it wiser to be careful or brave? Can we always tell?

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