richest understanding and appreciation come when we are able to be unconsciously sensitive to as many as possible in every poem we read. In this way enjoyment and cultivation of taste for the best go hand in hand.

Keep in mind, therefore, that in every poem we should try to detect the germ-thought; to see pictures; to appreciate the compressed meaning of thought or phrase; to swing to the rhythm or cadence of the lines; to sympathize with the particular rhyme scheme and pattern on which the poem is built. In addition, we must be quick to sense sentimentalized expression, prosaic thinking, unrhythmical forms and imperfect rhymes. In a given poem it may be interesting to stress only one or two of these details, but we should have all such bases of judgment ready for use on demand.

POEMS AS STORIES. "Jim Bludso"

..Hay (p. 30)

In order to appreciate the effect of rhyme and rhythm in condensing and sharpening narrative, try telling the story or part of it in prose.

"Jim"

Bret Harte

Notice how condensed the point is in the last stanza. How can you manage to bring out the point of the last two stanzas if you tell them in prose? What explanation would a foreigner need in order to understand the point of the story?

"The Valley that God Forgot".....Knibbs (p. 97) Show, by telling the story in prose, that the poem is clear to you. Which lines do you like best? "The Glory Trail"..

...Clark (p. 149)

Poetry paints a whole canvas in a word or phrase. Notice the effect of such descriptive bits as "highchinned Bob," "thankful chops," "mav'rick-hungry rope,"

"roped him 'round his meal." Notice how the strongly marked rhythm tends to make one feel the loping gallop of high-chinned Bob.

"Merchants from Cathay".

...Benét (p. 179)

Here is another narrative in which the story is made more vivid through rhyme and rhythm. Notice how certain lines tend to linger in the memory without effort.

"His wife stiff with riches, they set before
him there"

or

"A catch and a carol to the great, grand chan"

or

"But Holy, Blessed Mary, preserve us as you may
Let once more those mad merchants come chanting
from Cathay."

"Gunga Din"..

.Kipling (p. 259)

In "Gunga Din" the rhyme emphasis at once begins to swing us through the three-line groups. Is it easier or more difficult to tell this story in prose than to do the same with Bret Harte's "Jim"? Why? What idea do you get of the character of Gunga Din and of the one who is telling the story?

"The Listeners".

.De la Mare (p. 288)

Here is a phantom story in verse. Your imagination has probably been busy as you have been reading. What questions are you asking yourself about the poem? Try to write a preface to the story in explanation of the lines:

""Tell them I came and no one answered,
That I kept my word,' he said."

"The Stone".

...Gibson (p. 304) Notice the plunge into the middle of the story. Do you know a prose story-writer who frequently tells his story in this way? Can you reduce the theme of the poem to one sentence? Would such repetition as the following be effective in prose:

And fixed her gray eyes on my face,
With still, unseeing stare.

And as she waited patiently,

I could not bear to feel

Those still, gray eyes that followed me,

Those eyes that plucked the breath from me,

And curdled the warm blood in me,

Those eyes that cut me to the bone,

And pierced my marrow like cold steel.

Select other poems in this or other anthologies which are also stories in verse. Can you express clearly what seems to you the advantages of telling a story in verse instead of in prose? Try taking a familiar prose story, perhaps one of O. Henry's, and telling part of it in verse, either rhymed or unrhymed. The entire class might try this exercise, either dividing the story among groups or having all try the same part. The results are sure to be interesting.

GOLDEN TABLETS.

We are all creatures of emotional variations. Sometimes ecstasy, sometimes despondency, sometimes flat in

difference sway us. The next group of poems have

pressed from different moods some treasure of conviction which may help to interpret life to us who read.

"The Man With the Hoe"...... Markham (p. 52) What important question for the world to answer lies

in the poem? Notice how much meaning is condensed in the lines:

"... dead to rapture and despair.

A thing that grieves not and that never hopes."

Why is such a being dangerous? What do you understand by "a protest that is also prophecy"?

"The Wild Ride".....

..Guiney (p. 62)

Do you find it easy to see the pictures suggested in the poem? In which lines? What view of life does the poem present? Discuss the high note of courage in the lines:

"Thou leadest, O God!

All's well with thy troopers that follow."

In what other lines do you find the same tone of valor? "Renascence".... . Millay (p. 203) Notice the wealth of imagery, the richness of illustration. Trace the steps by which we are led into a sympathetic understanding of selfishness, of suffering, of contrition. Select lines which you think worth memorizing. .Kipling (p. 267)

"Recessional".

"Recessional" strikes a response in us who read or sing it because it excites a realization of our own "frantic boast and foolish word." "Lest we forget" becomes a personal prayer and for that reason a bit of personal philosophy. Is a preachment of this kind more effective in verse than in prose? Why? Or why not? This poem was inspired by Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. Can you detect evidences of the occasion in the poem? Do you think it took courage for Kipling to write it? "A Consecration".

.Masefield (p. 299)

What ideal does it

What is the theme of this poem? young men and women? What does the poem

suggest for

have in common with those in the group, Social Conscience? Do you know any classic poem which expresses this same idea?

"Sonnet" and "The Great Lover". . Brooke (p. 343)

"Sonnet" is a lyric which makes demands upon the reader's power to see images. What do the first line and a half suggest? Can you picture the shade, the loneliness and mire of the last land, with the patient lover waiting? Can you feel the cool wind blowing, see the light and hear the dead trembling, when the vigil is over? Can you picture the loved one, broad-browed, smiling, bringing light to the darkness? Do you catch the blending in the last two lines of earthly and phantom qualities?

Notice the mood of almost bitter pessimism in the first few lines of "The Great Lover." See the change of mood in the succeeding lines. Try to sense the variety and unrelatedness of the myriad things he loved. Would a more orderly arrangement have been better? Does the poem seem to make life worth living? Do you see any similarity of thought between this poem and Léonie Adams' "April Immortality"? Have you been conscious of the rhythm or of the rhyme scheme in this poem?

"Ploughman at the Plough"......Golding (p. 363) Louis Golding has seized something of the stark vigor of labor in this poem. Compare it with some poem in the group, The New Realism. Or in the group, Social Conscience. Remember that the poet has written in the form which he thinks best suited to his thought. What is the effect on the thought of this couplet form?

THE NEW REALISM. (See pages 22-23 of the