McGuffey's Fourth Eclectic Reader, Revised Edition · Lesson XLV · Part 5: Work, wonder and the world

49. The Tempest, by James T. Fields

Goal: Your child reads a dramatic poem about a storm at sea and explains what the little girl's question meant.

⏱ About 20 minutes · 7 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

A poem: passengers crowd in a ship's cabin during a midnight winter storm, the captain cries out, and a little girl asks a question that comforts them. A note about the author and Definitions are included.

The lesson, step by step

  1. Words and meanings

    The new words are at the end of the lesson, under Definitions. The small number in front of each word is the paragraph or verse where it is used. Read them together before the lesson. A few of them:

    Deep, the ocean.

    Blast, tempest.

    Breakers, waves of the sea broken by rocks.

    Ask your child to find two of these words in the lesson and read the sentence each one is in.

  2. About the author

    The book's note says James T. Fields was born at Portsmouth, N. H., in 1817. He was a poet and also wrote some well known prose works, of which "Yesterdays with Authors" is the most noted.

  3. Read it aloud

    Read the poem aloud to your child first, then let your child read it. Start low and tense, and let the little girl's words be calm. It begins:

    We were crowded in the cabin;

    Not a soul would dare to sleep:

    Then have your child read it a second time, more smoothly: the first reading is for the meaning, the second for the sound and rhythm.

  4. Talk about it

    SayWhere were the people? Why couldn't they sleep?

    SayWhat did the captain cry out?

    SayWhat did the little girl ask? Why did it comfort them?

    SayHow did it end?

    Let your child look back at the page to find answers.

  5. Tell it back

    Your child tells the story of that night, as if they were one of the passengers.

  6. Copywork

    Your child copies the little girl's question as verse:

    Isn't God upon the ocean,

    Just the same as on the land?

  7. Words to learn

    Learn: deep, blast, breakers, cheer. Spell each aloud, then write it with its meaning.

Afterwards

Compare this poem with Lesson XVII, A Ship in a Storm.

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