To all their heavenly colors true, Stanza 1. Then hail the banner of the free, - OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. What is meant by the Flower of Liberty? Freshly here means newly. How old is our flag? Meaning of kindles? Why the sunset land? Stanza 2.- Where was the seed of "the flower of liberty" sowed by our fathers? Put this question in literal form and answer it. What is meant by the storm winds? What caused its opening leaves to be streaked with blood? Stanza 3. - This gives a description of the flag. What does the uniting of the rays suggest? What is meant by fires? by azure? Notice that everything in this stanza emphasizes the thought of union. Stanza 4.- Explain verse 1. Mention some of the places where it floats. Explain stanza 5. How many accented syllables do you find in each verse? How are the verses rhymed? How many verses in each stanza form a refrain, something like the chorus in a song? Word Study. Analyze spotless, heavenly, explaining the suffixes. Grammar. You learned that there are adverbs which answer the question "how much," as, "You must work more." Adverbs of this kind are very seldom added to the verb, but generally modify the meaning of an adjective, as in the following: None ever heard of creature more tractable. Her face was very fair. The earthquake day was extremely hot. It was a most wonderful spectacle. We heard a still more ominous sound. In this last sentence, ominous modifies the noun sound, so it is an adjective. More modifies ominous, and as you have just learned, it is therefore an adverb. Still modifies more, and is also an adverb. 5 5 What three parts of speech may be modified by an adverb? For what, then, is an adverb used? (1) He spoke very kindly. (2) He would go also. (3) He walked out. (4) He wore a very heavy coat. (5) It stormed too violently. Name all the adverbs in the foregoing sentences. Tell in each case whether the adverb modifies a verb, an adjective, or another adverb. See if you can find in your reading lesson to-day five adverbs. Make three sentences, one containing an adverb modifying a verb, one an adverb modifying an adjective, and one in which the adverb modifies another adverb. Too, very, much, quite, almost, nearly, so, more, are often used to modify adjectives or other adverbs. You will see why adverbs are used in three ways; because verbs, adverbs, and adjectives all need the same kind of modification; that is, words that limit or modify by showing how, when, where, how much, etc. 24 LITTLE BROWN HANDS THEY drive home the cows from the pasture, Where the quail whistles loud in the wheat fields, They find, in the thick waving grasses, Where the scarlet-lipped strawberry grows, They gather the earliest snowdrops, And the first crimson buds of the rose. They toss the new hay in the meadow; They know where the apples hang ripest, And are sweeter than Italy's wines; They know where the fruit hangs the thickest They gather the delicate seaweeds, And build tiny castles of sand; They pick up the beautiful seashells, - K 5 10 They wave from the tall, rocking treetops Those who toil bravely are strongest; The of the author and statesman, - The noble and wise of the land, The sword, and the chisel, and palette, M. H. KROUT. chisel, tool used by sculptors in carving; palette, tablet on which artists lay their colors. Can you mention any brown-handed children who have become rulers? authors? soldiers? painters? sculptors? If you were going to paint a picture from this poem, which lines would you select? Synonyms. Arrange the following synonyms in pairs. there is any difference in meaning, state what it is. If Scarlet, earliest, rocks, crimson, first, floated, tinted, dusky, dark, swings, pasture, collect, drifted, colored, gather, meadow. Composition. In making sentences and paragraphs you found it very necessary to know what to put in and what to leave out. It is just as important for you to know this in writing a whole composition. Suppose your title is, Lincoln the Liberator of the Slave. You must not fill your composition with a great number of facts which you may know about Lincoln, but which have nothing to do with the slavery question. If your title is, Lincoln the Railsplitter, you must confine yourself to telling about that one period of his life. It is generally better to take one side of a big subject. You would probably write a better composition on either of the above topics than on Abraham Lincoln. Select your material Select some great man who was one of the "brown-handed children" referred to in Little Brown Hands. Take some one period in his life that may seem interesting to you. very carefully, rejecting anything, no matter how interesting, that does not relate to the subject. Prepare an outline of four or five topics. Write your composition. Before handing it in, ask yourself these questions: (1) Have I told any facts not relating to the subject of my composition? (2) Do my paragraphs follow one another in proper order? (3) Have I placed my composition correctly on my paper? 25 THE FOREST PRIMEVAL THIS is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks, Bearded with moss, and in garments green, indistinct in the twilight, Stand like Druids of eld, with voices sad and prophetic, Stand like harpers hoar, with beards that rest on their bosoms. Loud from its rocky caverns, the deep-voiced neighboring ocean Speaks, and in accents disconsolate answers the wail of the forest. -HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW: Evangeline. 5 |