McGuffey's Sixth Eclectic Reader, Revised Edition · Lesson III · Part 2: Lessons I-XII: Storms, dawns and old tales

9. Dawn (Edward Everett)

Goal: Your student reads a descriptive passage aloud and notices how careful word choice and figures of speech make a scene vivid.

⏱ About 40 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

Everett's description of a summer dawn seen from an early train from Providence to Boston, from an address on the "Uses of Astronomy," with an author note, a teaching note and notes on the stars named.

The lesson, step by step

  1. Words and meanings

    The book explains some of the names in the passage, for example:

    Pointers, two stars of the group called the Dipper, in the Great Bear.

    Read its other notes too: Lyra and Andromeda, the Blue Hills, Jupiter, the Pleiades and the Magians.

  2. About the author

    The book says Edward Everett (1794-1865) was born in Dorchester, Massachusetts, graduated from Harvard at seventeen, became a Boston pastor and then Professor of Greek at Harvard, edited the North American Review, served ten years in Congress, and was Governor of Massachusetts, Minister to England, President of Harvard and Secretary of State. It calls him an elegant writer and orator.

  3. Read it aloud

    Read the opening together:

    I had occasion, a few weeks since, to take the early train from Providence to Boston;

    Your student reads on, slowly, letting the descriptions breathe. Another line to enjoy:

    It was a mild, serene, midsummer's night, — the sky was without a cloud, the winds were whist.

  4. Talk about it

    SayThe book says: "Note the careful use of words, and the strong figures in the third and fourth paragraphs." Find one strong figure of speech there. What is compared to what?

    SayHow does the light change, step by step, from darkness to full sunrise?

    SayEverett gave this speech to open an observatory. Why might a description of dawn belong in a speech about astronomy?

    SayNear the end he is "filled with amazement" at something. What surprises him, and do you agree?

  5. Tell it back

    Your student describes the dawn in their own words, in the order Everett gives it.

  6. Copywork and memory

    Copy and learn:

    It was a mild, serene, midsummer's night, — the sky was without a cloud, the winds were whist.

  7. Write (optional)

    Get up early once this week and watch the dawn. Write a paragraph describing it, in order, using at least one comparison.

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