FOURTH YEAR
FIRST WEEK
Monday
To be committed to memory:
SONG OF THE BROOK
I come from haunts of coot and hern,
I make a sudden sally,
And sparkle out among the fern
To bicker down a valley.
By thirty hills I hurry down,
Or slip between the ridges,
By twenty thorps, a little town
And half a hundred bridges.
Till last by Philip’s farm I flow,
To join the brimming river,
For men may come and men may go,
But I go on forever.
I chatter over stony ways,
In little sharps and trebles,
I bubble into eddying bays,
I babble on the pebbles.
With many a curve my banks I fret
By many a field and fallow,
And many a fairy foreland set
With willow weed and mallow.
I chatter, chatter, as I flow
To join the brimming river;
For men may come and men may go,
But I go on forever.
I wind about, and in and out,
With here a blossom sailing,
And here and there a lusty trout,
And here and there a grayling.
And here and there a foamy flake
Upon me, as I travel,
With many a silvery water-break,
Above the golden gravel.
And draw them all along, and flow
To join the brimming river,
For men may come and men may go,
But I go on forever.
I steal by lawns and grassy plots,
I slide by hazel covers;
I move the sweet forget-me-nots
That grow for happy lovers.
I slip, I slide, I gloom, I glance
Among my skimming swallows;
I make the melted sunbeams glance
Against my sandy shallows.
I murmur under moon and stars
In brambly wildernesses;
I linger by my shingly bars—
I loiter round my cresses.
And out again I curve and flow
To join the brimming river,
For men may come and men may go,
But I go on forever.—Alfred Tennyson
Have the first six stanzas of the poem copied.
Tuesday
Have the rest of the poem copied.
Wednesday
Pupils commit to memory the first three stanzas of the poem.
Thursday
Commit to memory the second three stanzas of the poem.
Friday
Commit to memory the third three stanzas of the poem.
SECOND WEEK
Monday
Commit to memory the rest of the poem.
Tuesday
Recite the entire poem.
Wednesday
Study up the life of Alfred Tennyson.
Thursday
Answer the following questions:
Where does the brook come from?
What is a “coot”? (See dictionary.)
What is a “hern”? (See dictionary.)
What does the brook do among the ferns?
What is meant by the brook’s “bickering”?
How does the brook come down by thirty hills?
What is meant by the brook’s “slipping” between the ridges?
What is a “thorp”?
Friday
Answer the following questions:
What is meant by a “brimming river”?
How does the brook join the river?
How does the brook go on forever?
How does the brook get the water to keep on flowing forever?
What is meant by the brook’s “chattering”?
What causes the noises of the brook?
What are “sharps and trebles”?
What is an “eddying bay”? What is an eddy?
THIRD WEEK
Monday
Answer the following questions:
What is the meaning of “fret”?
How does the brook fret the banks with its curves?
What is a “foreland”?
What is “willow-weed”?
What is “mallow”?
What makes the brook wind about?
How do blossoms happen to be sailing on the water?
Whereabouts in the brook do the trout stay?
What is a “grayling”?
Tuesday
Answer the following questions:
What is a “water-break”?
What is “gravel”?
Why is the gravel called golden?
What are some of the things that the brook carries along to the river?
What is meant by “hazel covers”?
Why are the forget-me-nots said to “grow for happy lovers”?
Wednesday
Answer the following questions:
How does the brook go?
What is meant by “skimming” swallows?
What makes the sunbeam in the woods “netted”?
What is a “shallow”?
How does the brook murmur?
What is a “bramble”?
What are “cresses”? Where do they grow?
Thursday
Write in a list all the verbs in the poem.
Friday
Write a list of all the adjectives in the poem.
FOURTH WEEK
Monday
Write a composition on brooks.
Tuesday
Talk about brooks, rivers, and the ocean.
Wednesday
Write a rhyme of four lines about a river.
Thursday
Each pupil find and repeat in class a quotation about a brook, a river, or the ocean.
Friday
Play, “My ship came from China, and it brought to me.”