McGuffey's Sixth Eclectic Reader, Revised Edition · Lesson XCVII · Part 10: Granada, Hamlet and the Union

103. Enoch Arden at the Window (Alfred Tennyson)

Goal: Your student can tell what Enoch sees through the window and explain why he chooses to stay silent.

⏱ About 40 minutes · 6 steps

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You'll need

  • The book, open to this lesson
  • A notebook and pen
  • A dictionary

What's in the book

From Tennyson's Enoch Arden: a sailor, long thought dead, comes home and looks through a window at his wife, now married to his friend, with their children. The heading is at the top of the page.

The lesson, step by step

  1. Words and meanings

    Look over the notes and definitions printed at the end of the lesson before you start, so names and hard words don't trip up the reading.

    Before reading, tell your student only this: Enoch was shipwrecked and gone for many years. Everyone at home believed he was dead.

    Your student picks three unfamiliar words, guesses each meaning from the sentence, then checks a dictionary.

  2. About the author

    The book says Tennyson was born in 1809 in Lincolnshire, England. His first volume (1830) made little impression and was severely treated by the critics, but he was widely recognized after 1842. He became poet laureate when Wordsworth died. Enoch Arden was published in 1864.

  3. Read aloud

    Read it slowly and quietly.

    Listen for these lines:

    But Enoch yearned to see her face again;

  4. Talk about it

    SayWhat does Enoch see through the window? Describe the room.

    SayHow does he feel? Which lines show it?

    SayWhy does he not go in and tell them he is alive?

    SayWas his choice brave, sad, or both?

  5. Narration

    Your student tells the scene from Enoch's point of view, in the first person.

  6. Writing (optional)

    Write a paragraph: What would you have done in Enoch's place, and why?

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