The Mother Tongue, Book I: Lessons in Speaking, Reading and Writing English · Secs. 342–343 · Part 2: Part Second
97. Breathes there the man
Goal: Your child learns a famous passage by heart and puts its meaning into plain prose.
You'll need
- The book, open to this lesson
- Paper and pencil (a notebook kept just for this book works well)
What's in the book
Section 342 is Sir Walter Scott's passage "Breathes there the man with soul so dead", to study and learn by heart. Section 343 gives a plan: explain the italicized words, turn the passage into your own prose, and write a matching description of a man who loves his country.
The lesson, step by step
Read it aloud
Read the passage aloud, slowly and with feeling.
This is my own, my native land!
Explain the hard words (Section 343)
Go through the words together: native land (the country where you were born); foreign strand (a foreign shore); minstrel raptures (the joyful songs of poets); pelf (money, riches); concentred all in self (thinking only of himself); forfeit fair renown (lose his good name); unwept, unhonored, and unsung (no one cries for him, honors him, or sings about him).
In plain words
Your child says the meaning of the passage in their own prose, aloud first. Then writes it in 4 to 6 sentences.
Check it gently
Read it aloud. Is the meaning the same as Scott's? Fix one place where it drifts.
The other side
The book asks for a parallel description, in prose, of the man who loves his country. Your child says it aloud, or writes 3 or 4 sentences.
Learn it
Begin learning the passage by heart, three lines a day.
What a good result looks like
Example (written for this guide, not from the book):
In plain words: There can hardly be a man so dead inside that he has never felt, on coming home from a far country, "This is my own land." If there is such a man, he may be rich and important, but no one will sing about him, and when he dies no one will miss him.