McGuffey's Sixth Eclectic Reader, Revised Edition · Lesson LXXIX · Part 8: Webster, Evangeline and the poets of death and toil

85. The Song of the Potter (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)

Goal: Your student can explain how the turning potter's wheel stands for change in the world and life.

⏱ About 30 minutes · 7 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

A short poem by Longfellow, a whole page, in which the potter sings to his wheel as it shapes clay.

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.

    If you can, show a short video or picture of a potter's wheel before reading.

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

  2. About the author

    Longfellow was introduced in Lesson LXXII (Evangeline). Ask your student what they remember from that note.

  3. Read aloud

    Read the poem aloud, keeping a steady, turning rhythm, like a wheel.

  4. Talk about it

    SayWhat is the potter making? What happens to the clay?

    SayThe poem says all things change and pass away. Which lines say that?

    SayWhy might a potter's wheel be a good picture of the world?

    SayHow is this poem different in feeling from Evangeline?

  5. Narration

    Your student explains the poem's main idea in two or three sentences.

  6. Memorize or copy

    Choose the first stanza and copy it exactly. Then read your copy aloud.

  7. Writing (optional)

    Pick a tool or machine you know (a bicycle, a clock, a sewing machine) and write four lines of poetry about what it might stand for.

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