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

42. April Day, by Mrs. C. A. Southey

Goal: Your child reads a gentle spring-rain poem and notices how the poet describes weather and feeling together.

⏱ About 25 minutes · 6 steps

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You'll need

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

What's in the book

A short poem about a gray, rainy April day and what the rain brings. A note about Caroline Anne Southey opens it; definitions follow.

The lesson, step by step

  1. About the author

    The book says Caroline Anne Southey, better known as Caroline Bowles, was born near Lymington, Hampshire, England, published her writings without her name for more than twenty years, and in 1839 married the poet Southey (whose poems are in Lessons XX and XXXVIII). It says:

    Her poetry is graceful in expression, and full of tenderness, though somewhat melancholy.

  2. Read aloud

    Read it slowly and softly, like steady rain.

    All day the low-hung clouds have dropped

    Their garnered fullness down;

    All day that soft, gray mist hath wrapped

  3. Words and meanings

    Read the definitions on the page together. Then talk about garnered: stored up, as grain is stored in a barn. Say: Why might the poet say the clouds have garnered their rain?

  4. Talk about it

    SayWhat does the rain cover, according to the first stanza?

    SayIs this a sad poem or a hopeful one? Point to words that show it.

    SayWhat does April rain do for the earth?

  5. Memorize

    Learn the first stanza, which begins:

    All day the low-hung clouds have dropped

  6. Write (optional)

    Write a few lines about a rainy day, using the word "all day" to begin two of them.

Tip

Only the first lines of this poem could be checked for this guide. Read the whole poem yourself before teaching.

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