McGuffey's Fifth Eclectic Reader, Revised Edition · Lesson XXII · Part 3: Ballads, battles and Abou Ben Adhem

28. An Elegy on Madam Blaize, by Goldsmith

Goal: Your child enjoys Goldsmith's mock elegy and explains how the poem seems to praise while it actually mocks.

⏱ About 30 minutes · 7 steps

Open it at the Internet Archive ↗

You'll need

  • The book, open to this lesson
  • A notebook and pencil

What's in the book

A comic poem pretending to mourn Madam Blaize, praising her virtues in ways that turn out to be faults. A note about Oliver Goldsmith comes first; a few definitions follow.

The lesson, step by step

  1. About the author

    The book says Oliver Goldsmith was born in Ireland, studied at Trinity College in Dublin, at Edinburgh and at Leyden, wandered through Europe in poverty, and settled in London, where he knew Dr. Johnson and Sir Joshua Reynolds. He wrote "The Deserted Village," "She Stoops to Conquer" and "The Vicar of Wakefield." He died heavily in debt, and his monument is in Westminster Abbey.

  2. Words and meanings

    An elegy is a poem mourning someone who has died. Read the definitions after the poem:

    Accord, agreement of opinion, consent.

    Pledge, personal property delivered to another as a security for a debt.

    Mortal, destructive to life.

  3. Read aloud

    Read it in a mock-solemn voice, as if very sad, so the jokes come through.

    Good people all, with one accord,

    Lament for Madam Blaize,

  4. Find the jokes

    Read this stanza ending together:

    She never slumbered in her pew —

    But when she shut her eyes.

    SayIs that really praise? What is the joke?

    Go through the other stanzas and find the twist in each one.

  5. Talk about it

    SayWhat kind of person was Madam Blaize really?

    SayWhy is it funnier to pretend to praise her than to criticize her openly?

  6. Memorize

    Learn the first stanza, which begins:

    Good people all, with one accord,

  7. Write (optional)

    Write a two-line "praise" of something that is really a joke, the way Goldsmith does.

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