Looking over my language arts log, I realized we've been neglecting poetry. Since I've been re-reading various Charlotte Mason blogs, I've been re-inspired to keep up with good literature. I checked the Ambleside Online website to see what poetry was recommended for B's age, and printed out the Longfellow selections, so we could make notes right on the page.
I looked up Longfellow on Wickipedia, and told the boys the story of the Longfellow bridge from Cambridge to Boston named because he crossed the bridge it replaced so often while courting his second wife. We will have to look for that bridge next time we visit our cousins who live in Cambridge. I also explained how Longfellow and his wife were both burned so badly in the accident when she died. I thought the sad story worth it for the example of nobility; he smothered the flames with his own body. “Snow-flakes” probably refers to his sorrow at her death.
The Tide Rises
I picked "The Tide Rises" partly because I remember being puzzeled by it in High School, but liking the language. I wanted to expose B and M (since his Legos happened to be there ) to the ideas of poetic devices, but not to analyze the poem to death by looking only for its structure, without enjoying the language and art. I instructed the boys not to interrupt with questions, but to listen to the whole thing twice. That didn't work.
I tried again, writing down their questions: “How long is a tide?” and “What happened to the traveler:?” I circled words that either they or I didn't know, we needed to bone up on dictionary skills anyhow. B perked up once he saw that the poem was like a riddle, and that I was not making him look up the words in the dictionary all alone. It turns out that a curlew is not only a name for a shore bird, but also that the name is a pun for a messenger. The hostler not only takes care of horses, but specifically horses at an inn. I couldn't remember how many tides are in a day, so we looked that up too. The dictionary didn't help a whole lot here though, if there are two tides a day, is that one in, one out, or two out/in cycles a day?
We weren't sure if the refrain of “The tide rises, the tide falls” at the end of each stanza refers to three days, or if it just indicates time and nature continuing cycles even if a man dies, or if the mentioned evening, night and morning of the three stanzas were all one day. B suggested that the traveler died in three days because it takes a while for a sick man to die in an inn.
I was pleased at this realativally painless introduction to poetry. Both boys were engaged. M especially liked the image of the waves' soft white hands. B liked solving a mystery.