McGuffey's Fifth Eclectic Reader, Revised Edition · Lesson LXXIV · Part 7: Courage, temper and work

80. The Isle of Long Ago (B. F. Taylor)

Goal: Your child explains the poem's picture of Time as a river and memory as an island, and reads it with a smooth, musical voice.

⏱ About 35 minutes · 6 steps

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You'll need

  • The book, open to this lesson
  • A notebook or lined paper and a pencil

What's in the book

A poem by Benjamin Franklin Taylor in seven stanzas. Time is a river flowing into the ocean of Years; in it lies an isle, "the Long Ago," where we keep the treasures and memories of the past. Definitions and notes follow.

The lesson, step by step

  1. About the author

    The book says Benjamin Franklin Taylor (b. 1822, d. 1887) was born in Lowville, New York, graduated from Madison University, was for many years literary editor of the Chicago Journal, and was a successful lecturer.

  2. Words and meanings

    The words and meanings are printed at the end of the lesson. Read a few together before the reading, so they don't trip your child up:

    Realm, region, country.

    Rhythm, the harmonious flow of vocal sounds.

    Surge, a great, rolling swell of water.

    Aye, always, ever.

    The notes explain that "a lute unswept" means a lute that is unplayed, and that Greenwood is a cemetery in Brooklyn, New York; in the poem it means the resting-place of the soul.

  3. Read aloud

    Read the poem aloud slowly, in a soft, flowing voice. It begins:

    Oh, a wonderful stream is the river of Time,

    As it runs through the realm of tears,

    With a faultless rhythm and a musical rhyme,

    And a boundless sweep and a surge sublime,

    As it blends with the ocean of Years.

  4. Talk about it

    SayThe poet says Time is a river. Where does the river go? What is the island in it?

    SayWhat things are kept on the Isle of Long Ago? Why are some of them broken or unfinished?

    SayFind the rhymes in the first stanza. How many lines rhyme with "Time"? How does that make the poem sound?

  5. Tell it back

    Close the book.

    SayTell me what the Isle of Long Ago is, and what the poet hopes for at the end.

    Your child may draw the river, the island and the ocean, and label them.

  6. Memorize

    Learn the first stanza (above) by heart this week. Say it with a smooth, even rhythm.

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