McGuffey's Fifth Eclectic Reader, Revised Edition · Lesson LV · Part 6: Liberty and the voices of birds
61. The Nose and the Eyes, by Cowper
Goal: Your child enjoys Cowper's mock trial and explains how the poem makes fun of lawyers and courts.
You'll need
- The book, open to this lesson
- A notebook and pencil
What's in the book
A comic poem in which Nose and Eyes go to court over who owns the spectacles, with Tongue as lawyer and Ear as judge. A note about William Cowper opens it; definitions follow.
The lesson, step by step
About the author
The book says William Cowper was born at Great Berkhampstead, Hertfordshire, England, the son of a clergyman. He studied law and was admitted to the bar but never practiced. He spent his later years at Olney, and "The Task" is among his works.
Words and meanings
Read the definitions:
Argued, discussed, treated by reasoning.
Discerning, marking as different, distinguishing.
Behalf, support, defense.
Decreed, determined judicially by authority, ordered.
Read aloud
Read it like a solemn courtroom report, so the silliness shows.
Between Nose and Eyes a strange contest arose;
The spectacles set them, unhappily, wrong;
So Tongue was the lawyer, and argued the cause,
With a great deal of skill, and a wig full of learning,
Talk about it
SayWhat were Nose and Eyes arguing about?
SayWhat was Tongue's argument for Nose?
SayRead the judge's decision:
That whenever the Nose put his spectacles on,
By daylight or candle-light, — Eyes should be shut.
SayWhy is that a ridiculous decision? What is Cowper saying about courts?
Act it out
Act out the trial with three people: Tongue, Ear (the judge) and a narrator.
Memorize
Learn the first stanza, which begins:
Between Nose and Eyes a strange contest arose;