The Mother Tongue, Book I: Lessons in Speaking, Reading and Writing English · Secs. 350–351 · Part 2: Part Second
99. Abou Ben Adhem
Goal: Your child learns Leigh Hunt's poem by heart and says what it teaches.
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 350 is Leigh Hunt's poem "Abou Ben Adhem", in which an angel writes the names of those who love the Lord, and Abou asks to be written as one who loves his fellow men. Section 351 asks the child to write it from memory.
The lesson, step by step
Read the poem
Read it aloud, with your child reading the words of Abou and you the angel.
Write me as one who loves his fellow men.
Talk it over
Ask: What was the angel writing? What did Abou ask? What happened the next night? The book asks: What do you think the poet wishes us to learn from the poem?
Learn it
Learn the first six lines today, the next six tomorrow, and the last six the day after.
Notice the punctuation
Look at the quotation marks around the speakers' words and the question marks inside them. Your child points to each.
Write from memory (Section 351)
When the poem is learned, your child writes it from memory.
Check it gently
Compare with the book. Your child checks capitals at the start of lines and the quotation marks, and fixes their own slips.
What a good result looks like
Example (written for this guide, not from the book):
A copy written from memory with a capital at the start of each line, quotation marks around each speaker's words, and the question mark inside the marks after "What writest thou?". Your child can also say the lesson in one sentence of their own:
Abou loved other people, and that was a way of loving God.
Answers to the book's problems
What the poem teaches: loving and serving other people is a way of loving God; Abou's name, as one who loved his fellow men, led all the rest.
Worked out for this site from the scan. If a number in your copy differs, trust the book.