b. Meter and Rhyme. Both meter and rhyme are irregular, but that fact gives a pleasing variety to the poem and corresponds to the somewhat abrupt changes in the line of thought that at first make the poem rather hard to read. The children will be interested in comparing the lengths of lines in different stanzas and sometimes in different parts of the same stanza. It is easy to pick out the rhymes, to see how often rhymes are repeated in a stanza, and whether the lines are in couples or alternate.
c. Phrases. The following lines are quoted as those perhaps best worth study and remembrance. Let the children determine why they were selected as beautiful lines; that is, determine in what respect the lines are beautiful:
“Now the wild white horses play,
Champ and chafe and toss in the spray.”
“The far-off sound of a silver bell.”
“Where the sea snakes toil and twine,
Dry their mail and bask in the brine.”
“A long, long sigh
For the cold, strange eyes of a little Mermaiden.”
“A ceiling of amber,
A pavement of pearl.”
“Heaths starr’d with broom.”
The Cloud
(Volume VII, page 257)