McGuffey's Fifth Eclectic Reader, Revised Edition · Lesson XXXIV · Part 4: Lost Lucy, the Town Pump and the bobolink

40. The Death of the Flowers, by Bryant

Goal: Your child reads Bryant's autumn poem in a gentle, sad tone and notices how nature mirrors the poet's grief.

⏱ About 30 minutes · 6 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 poem about late autumn, when the flowers are gone, ending with the memory of a young girl who died. A note about William Cullen Bryant opens the lesson.

The lesson, step by step

  1. About the author

    The book says William Cullen Bryant was born in Cummington, Massachusetts, practiced law for nine years, then worked for the New York "Evening Post" until his death. It says:

    In all his poems, Mr. Bryant exhibits a remarkable love for, and a careful study of, nature.

    He wrote "Thanatopsis" at nineteen and translated Homer after seventy.

  2. Read aloud

    Read it slowly, in a soft voice.

    The melancholy days are come,

    Where are the flowers, the fair young flowers,

    The south wind searches for the flowers

  3. Talk about it

    SayWhat season is it? Which details tell you?

    SayThe south wind "searches for the flowers." What is the poet doing when he makes the wind search?

    SayIn the last stanza, who does the poet remember? How is she like the flowers?

    SayWhy does the poem end with the line "Should perish with the flowers"?

  4. Tell it back

    Your child tells what the poem describes, from the gray days to the memory at the end.

  5. Memorize

    Learn the first stanza, which begins:

    The melancholy days are come,

  6. Write (optional)

    Write a short description of autumn where you live, using one detail of sight, one of sound and one of feeling.

Tip

The page this lesson starts on could not be read for this guide. Read the definitions on the book page with your child.

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