ing-point to win at least a respectful attention to the glorious sermon of the venerable Rabbi. Most high school pupils live in anticipation of more happiness at graduation, some when they enter college, when they finish, when they marry, enter business, or have families, or retire for a placid old age. All life exhibits this optimistic trust in the delights of the years to come. Mankind hopes to be happier later. It is the underlying, unquenchable preservative of the human race. A few minutes' simple discussion of this trait of human nature will open the minds of high school pupils in the two upper years to understand nearly all of this poem. A convenient contrast is apparent if the class has read the same idea in different guise in The Old Man Dreams by Oliver Wendell Holmes. Then the class must be asked to see the venerable old preacher-perhaps before his congregation— propounding this noble philosophy. The teacher must be equipped with a universal alertness and a power of clear exposition in simple language to make plain such ideas as the paradox of apparent failure, the mutual dependence of flesh and spirit, the measure of intention rather than result, the figure of life as potter's clay (many persons have no idea of how pottery is shaped), and the comparative merit of the daring of youth and the judgment of age.

Ode on Intimations of Immortality.-A method exactly similar should be followed in teaching Wordsworth's Ode on Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood. As persons have a preconception concerning old age which must be removed before Rabbi Ben Ezra becomes clear, so they have an interpretation of immortality after death which must be extended to existence before coming to earth before they can participate in the beauty of Wordsworth's poetry. With this logical extension of the meaning of the word immortality, the study of the poem becomes less difficult. The ordinary conception of immortality is exist

ence after death, yet logically the idea is unceasing existence. It must extend into the past as well as into the future. Centering his thoughts upon the previous existence of the soul, the poet describes how the child, still surrounded by his recollections of the glory from which he so recently came, perceives it gradually fade as the appearances of this world take his interest, and occupy his attention. The teacher should explain that appreciation of this beautiful poetry has nothing to do with what any reader may believe. All that is necessary is a temporary acceptance of Wordsworth's theme-which the poet himself makes quite clear in a note. Having prepared pupils for the reception of the poem, the teacher need merely be careful that all the strophes, rimes, and phrases are understood in relation to this central theme of the poem. In this kind of development of receptivity lies the greatest opportunity of the teacher of literature. 1 Great poets need only the opportunity to make themselves heard and understood to win appreciation. The teacher must never forget for an instant that poetry-originally addressed to mature adults will make its way into the consciousness of youths only if properly presented. The method here described may be applied to any poem, the material of which embodies an idea or conception novel to the reader. It is as necessary for an understanding of The Hound of Heaven by Francis Thompson, for The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, for The Forsaken Merman, for In Memoriam, for The Rape of the Lock. It must not be assumed that the preliminary presentation is always necessary before reading the poem. The explanation of the new idea may be required further along. One illustration will suffice. Wordsworth's Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey may be started by almost any pupil, although this poem belongs as far up in the high school as it may be placed. The first explanation will be helpful to fix in the minds the four ways in which the poet has

regarded nature. His enumeration of his changing love is so compact, so filled with words the meanings of which speakers do not carefully limit, that hasty or unattentive reading will pass them over too quickly to arouse discriminating responses in the imagination. These four are an unrestrained animal enjoyment of the outdoor world, then a passion, later an appetite for its calming and elevating influence, and last a communion with a spiritual presence behind nature's visible forms. Perhaps some comment will be needed to make quite clear the statement, "Knowing that nature never did betray the heart that loved her," because the single word betray is here used in a slightly unusual sense.

Adapting the foregoing methods to other poems.Modifications of the plans outlined in this chapter for teaching the contents of poetry may be used for practically any poem. In some cases preliminary discussion may be reduced to the slightest, in others it will have to be amplified to include many more related phases. An example of this is The Rape of the Lock for which some account should be given of the definite occasion which induced the poem, and the customs and costumes of the period it depicts. What may seem to the adult the simplest lyric may be based upon an assumption, a detail of knowledge, an interpretation of life quite beyond or outside the pupil's experience. The conscientious teacher will by exercising the second phase of his nature the vicarious participation in the mental growth of his pupils strive to anticipate difficulties arising from the impact of novel ideas and prepare clear, interesting explanations of them. In this manner the teaching of poetry may be made for both instructor and taught, a vitally valuable and fascinating part of the teaching of English.

Exercises.-See page 347.

CHAPTER IV

THE FORM OF POETRY

Recognition of the form of poetry.-No American school child can suddenly realize as did Monsieur Jourdain in Molière's Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme that he has been speaking prose all his life without knowing it, for in the earliest elementary grades the difference between prose and verse is made apparent. Later the usual school reading and reciting of a pupil indicate that there are two main manners of expressing ideas in words. The form of poetry will strike the eye of an observing child not only in school books but in the young people's magazines, in the newspapers, in street car advertisements, and upon sign boards. So it is a mistake to say that comprehension of the form of poetry is beyond the high school age. It is quite true that a painstaking practice in verse scansion and a deliberate forcing of verse composition may not be worth the time consumed to master them, but it is not correct to say that an amazing degree of proficiency even in this technical skill cannot be reached before the senior year. The scansion of the most irregular poem by Browning is not more difficult than some of the proofs in solid geometry or trigonometry. The form of the rondeau is as easy to memorize as are the provisions of the covenant of the League of Nations. The only basis for deciding whether such practices be followed in high schools is whether the results justify the time and energy.

Form should be considered. It is a safe rule that no poem is known unless its form is at least apprehended. In order that form may be made a sensible thing to pupils, the

teacher must know a great deal more about verse structure than he need ever impart. Form is not the essential quality of poetry-he must believe and teach that truth; but he must know at the beginning or he must learn from his classroom exercises, that form marks practically all the poetry he will be called upon to study with his pupils. He may wax enthusiastic over the poetical passages of Ruskin, of George Meredith, the Bible, but seldom will he be asked to teach these passages as poetry. The body of material for study in high schools is fairly well recognized, depending as it does upon an acceptance of the world's masterpieces by a few acknowledged poets. Even the tendency to introduce recent and contemporary verse has not changed the recognition of form, for the first striking characteristic of free verse, be it that of Walt Whitman or Miss Amy Lowell, is its appearance upon the printed page. Pupils will hardly grasp all the nuances of the explanations published by the artists and artisans of the contemporary popular outpourings; to them cadences will be form in spite of protests of the versifiers; so we may return to the pronouncement that to the adolescent poetry is marked by form.

Teaching rhythm. No one who lives can escape rhythm. All the sounds and movements of nature exhibit it. It is the most easily sensed of all marks of verse. The teacher of English who has been trained in Latin and Greek prosody must accept the characteristic of rhythm in English as based on accent. If he still persists in thinking of quantity-longs and shorts-he is sure to have some unpleasant times when he meets it one of the shortest words in our languagestrongly accented, while stretched-a much longer word in time-bears no stress. He will see the difference between the two schemes if he acknowledges that in Latin a dactyl, one long and two short syllables, corresponds to four-four time in music, a half note followed by two quarter notes;