McGuffey's Sixth Eclectic Reader, Revised Edition · Lesson LXIV · Part 7: Lessons LXI-LXX: Brutus and Cassius to Hayne
70. Bill and Joe (Oliver Wendell Holmes)
Goal: Your student reads a warm poem about old friendship and explains its contrast between fame and friendship.
You'll need
- The book, or the scan beside this guide
- A notebook and pen
- A dictionary
What's in the book
An author note on Holmes, then his poem about two old college friends, now famous men, who are simply Bill and Joe again when they meet.
The lesson, step by step
Words and meanings
Before reading, find these words in the selection and look up any your student does not know: comrade, lusty.
About the author
The book says Oliver Wendell Holmes, born in 1809 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, graduated from Harvard, studied medicine in Paris and for more than thirty years was a professor at Harvard. Literature was not his profession, yet he succeeded as poet and prose writer; his poems are lively, witty and humorous, with true pathos.
Read it aloud
Read the opening together:
Come, dear old comrade, you and I
Will steal an hour from days gone by —
The shining days when life was new,
And all was bright as morning dew,
Your student reads the whole poem warmly.
Talk about it
SayWho are Bill and Joe now, out in the world?
SayWhat happens to their titles and honors when they meet?
SayWhat does the poem say about fame, in the end?
SayWho is your "Bill" or "Joe"?
Tell it back
Your student tells what the poem says about the two friends.
Copywork and memory
Copy and learn the first four lines.
Write (optional)
Write a letter to an old friend, recalling a shared memory.