McGuffey's Sixth Eclectic Reader, Revised Edition · Lesson LXIX · Part 7: Lessons LXI-LXX: Brutus and Cassius to Hayne

75. The Brave at Home (Thomas Buchanan Read)

Goal: Your student reads a poem about quiet courage and explains who "the brave at home" are.

⏱ About 25 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

An author note on Read, then his poem about the women who send their loved ones to war and hide their own grief.

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: sash, dissembles, glory.

  2. About the author

    The book says Thomas Buchanan Read (1822-1872), poet and painter, was born in Chester County, Pennsylvania. At seventeen he entered a sculptor's studio in Cincinnati and became known as a portrait painter, later working in New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Florence. His poems fill three volumes and include stirring poems about the Revolution and the Civil War.

  3. Read it aloud

    Read the opening together:

    The maid who binds her warrior's sash,

    And, smiling, all her pain dissembles,

    The while beneath the drooping lash,

    One starry tear-drop hangs and trembles;

    Your student reads the whole poem gently.

  4. Talk about it

    SayWho are the people at home in the poem?

    SayWhy does the maid smile while she cries?

    SayThe poem says her tear is as precious as blood on the battlefield. What does it mean?

    SayWho are "the brave at home" in our own day?

  5. Tell it back

    Your student explains the poem's idea of courage.

  6. Copywork and memory

    Copy and learn the first four lines.

  7. Write (optional)

    Write a paragraph about a kind of quiet courage you have seen.

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