McGuffey's Fifth Eclectic Reader, Revised Edition · Lesson LXXXIX · Part 9: Soldiers, birds, seeds and society

95. The Rainy Day (Longfellow)

Goal: Your child learns a short, famous poem by heart and explains how the last stanza answers the first two.

⏱ About 25 minutes · 6 steps

Open it at the Internet Archive ↗

You'll need

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

What's in the book

Longfellow's three-stanza poem: a dark, rainy day with dead leaves falling is like the poet's life, and the last stanza tells the "sad heart" that behind the clouds the sun is still shining. (The page also holds the end of "The Peevish Wife.")

The lesson, step by step

  1. About the author

    This short poem is by Longfellow. There is no note about him with this lesson; if he appeared earlier in the book, ask your child what they remember.

  2. Read aloud

    Read the whole poem aloud slowly. It begins:

    The day is cold, and dark, and dreary;

    It rains, and the wind is never weary;

    The vine still clings to the moldering wall,

    But at every gust the dead leaves fall,

    And the day is dark and dreary.

  3. Talk about it

    SayIn the first stanza, the poet describes a day. In the second, what does he say his life is like?

    SayThe last stanza changes the mood. What does it tell the "sad heart"?

    SayLook at the last line of each stanza. What stays the same? What changes?

  4. The last stanza

    Read it together, more than once:

    Be still, sad heart! and cease repining;

    Behind the clouds is the sun still shining;

    Thy fate is the common fate of all,

    Into each life some rain must fall,

    Some days must be dark and dreary.

  5. Memorize

    Learn the last stanza by heart this week, then the first. Say it to someone at home on the next rainy day.

  6. Optional writing

    Your child writes about a "rainy day" in their own life (a hard day) and what helped.

@teddyrookbook GitHub