104. Lochinvar (Sir Walter Scott)

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.

   Ask your student to find what a galliard is, and where the Border and the Netherby Hall of the poem would be (the border of England and Scotland).

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

2. About the author

   This lesson has no new author note. Sir Walter Scott, the Scottish poet and novelist, appears elsewhere in the book.

3. Read aloud

   This poem gallops. Read it fast and bold, and let your student read the second half.

   Listen for these lines:

   Oh, young Lochinvar is come out of the west,

   Through all the wide Border his steed was the best;

4. Talk about it

   SayWhy does Lochinvar come to the wedding? Whom was the bride supposed to marry?

   SayWhat does he say to the bride's father? Is he telling the truth?

   SayHow does he carry her off? Why can't anyone catch them?

   SayDo you think the poem wants us to cheer for Lochinvar?

5. Narration

   Your student tells the story as a news report from Netherby Hall the next morning.

6. Memorize or copy

   Learn the first stanza. Here is how it begins:

   Oh, young Lochinvar is come out of the west,

   Through all the wide Border his steed was the best;

   So faithful in love, and so dauntless in war,

   There never was knight like the young Lochinvar!