McGuffey's Sixth Eclectic Reader, Revised Edition · Lesson XXVII · Part 4: Lessons XXV-XXXVI: Orators and soldiers

33. The Snow-Shower (William Cullen Bryant)

Goal: Your student reads a quiet nature poem and notices how its pictures make a mood.

⏱ About 30 minutes · 7 steps

Open it at the Internet Archive ↗

You'll need

  • The book, or the scan beside this guide
  • A notebook and pen
  • A dictionary

What's in the book

Bryant's poem about watching snowflakes fall and vanish into a dark lake. An author note comes first.

The lesson, step by step

  1. Words and meanings

    Before reading, find these words in the selection and look up any your student does not know: wavering, veil.

  2. About the author

    The book says William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878) was born in Cummington, Massachusetts, a doctor's son. He left Williams College after two years, practiced law for about nine years, and from 1826 worked on the New York Evening Post until his death. He wrote "Thanatopsis" at nineteen and translated Homer's Iliad and Odyssey after he was seventy.

  3. Read it aloud

    Read the opening together:

    Stand here by my side and turn, I pray,

    On the lake below thy gentle eyes;

    The clouds hang over it, heavy and gray,

    And dark and silent the water lies;

    Your student reads the rest in a soft, unhurried voice.

  4. Talk about it

    SayWhat does the speaker ask his companion to look at?

    SayFind the words that describe the flakes. What do they look like as they fall?

    SayThe lines "Flake after flake / They sink in the dark and silent lake" come back again. Why repeat them?

    SayWhat feeling does the poem leave you with?

  5. Tell it back

    Your student describes the scene in plain prose, as if writing a letter.

  6. Copywork and memory

    Copy and learn the first four lines.

  7. Write (optional)

    Watch rain or snow fall for five minutes. Write four lines or a paragraph about it.

@teddyrookbook GitHub