23. Study of a Poem
Reading edition
Oral Exercise. 1. Tell your classmates how you think fairies look. How tall do you think they are? What kind of clothes do they wear? After you have answered these questions, draw on the board or on paper, with colored chalks or crayons, a picture of a fairy.
2. Do fairies always walk or run, or can they fly, or have they tiny horses and wagons?
3. Can you see the picture of the fairies in the following lines? What do those lines tell you about fairies that you did not know before?
Their caps of red, their cloaks of green, Are hung with silver bells, And when they're shaken with the wind Their merry ringing swells. And riding on the crimson moths With black spots on their wings, They guide them down the purple sky With golden bridle rings. Robert M. Bird, "The Fairy Folk"
4. Where do you think the fairies live? What do they eat? The following poem gives one answer to these questions, and tells us still more about fairies. What is the name of the poem? The child that sings it is afraid of fairies. Do you know any other children that are afraid of them?
"AND RIDING ON THE CRIMSON MOTHS"
A CHILD'S SONG
Up the airy mountain, Down the rushy glen, We daren't go a-hunting For fear of little men; Wee folk, good folk, Trooping all together; Green jacket, red cap, And white owl's feather! Down along the rocky shore Some make their home, They live on crispy pancakes Of yellow tide-foam; Some in the reeds Of the black mountain-lake, With frogs for their watchdogs, All night awake. Up the airy mountain, Down the rushy glen, We daren't go a-hunting For fear of little men; Wee folk, good folk, Trooping all together; Green jacket, red cap, And white owl's feather! William Allingham (Abridged)
Oral Exercise. 1. Let us make sure that we understand every line of this pretty poem or song. In the first line, why is the mountain called airy? A rushy glen is a narrow valley in which many rushes or swamp reeds grow. Have you ever seen such a place? Draw a picture of a rushy glen.
2. Which lines in the first part of the poem tell about fairies? These fairies go in a troop or band or company. Which line tells us that? With colored crayons draw a picture of a fairy wearing a green jacket, a red cap, and a white owl's feather.
3. The second part, or stanza, of the poem tells where some of these fairies live. What do some of them do all the night? As they watch, who keeps them company?
4. When you read this poem, does it seem to be a song? Do you like the way it reads? Which part do you like best? Draw with colored crayons a picture for this part. Before you draw, explain how the picture looks in your mind. Perhaps you will draw a picture of a troop of fairies, or of a fairy in the reeds with fairy watchdogs near by.
Memory Exercise. Which do you like better, this poem you have just studied or the part of another poem about fairies that is printed before this? Read aloud, several times, the one you like better, until you can say it without once looking at the book.