NOTES AND QUESTIONS Biography. Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) was born in Concord, Massachusetts, and was educated in the village schools and at Harvard University. He was an intimate friend of Emerson, Hawthorne, and the Alcotts. With the help of Emerson, he built a cottage beside a pond in Walden Woods near Concord, where he lived alone, planted beans, caught fish, and for the most part lived on the products of the soil, cultivated by his own hands. In his book, Walden, or Life in the Woods, from which this selection is taken, he gives a detailed account of his observations and experiences. Other books by Thoreau are A Week on the Concord and the Merrimack Rivers, The Maine Woods, etc. Discussion. 1. Why did Thoreau wish to earn some extra money? 2. What seeds did he plant? 3. The author likens the hoeing of the beans to a "Herculean labor"; explain this reference. 4. What were Thoreau's auxiliaries? His enemies? 5. According to the author, what is the best time to work in the garden? 6. How did he come "to know beans" so well? 7. Explain the metaphor that refers to the weeds as Trojans. 8. How much did the author clear on his garden? 9. What encouragement to thrift in gardening was given during the World War? 10. Find in the Glossary the meaning of: copse; tendrils. Phrases for Study lean and effete, 449, 5 level the ranks, 449, 15 plastic artist, 449, 17 express its summer thought, 449, 26 implements of husbandry, 449, 30 crest-waving Hector, 450, 13 Library Reading. Young People's Story of American Literature (Chapter XXII), Whitcomb; "The Habit of Thrift," Herrick (in The Youth's Companion, January 2, 1919); My Summer in a Garden, Warner. A Suggested Problem. If your school is interested in gardening, you may wish to become members of our national school garden organizations. Write to the Bureau of Education, Washington, D. C., for information relating to "The United States School Garden Army" and for Home Gardening for City Children and A Manual for School-Supervised Gardening; or to the Department of Agriculture for Circular 48 of the "Boys' and Girls' Club Work." Suggestions for Theme Topics. 1. An experience with a garden. 2. How I planned a garden. 3. Canning Clubs, Corn Clubs, etc. 4. Farming on a large scale, with "improved implements of husbandry." THE SHIPBUILDERS JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER The sky is ruddy in the east, The ship's white timbers show. 5 Then let the sounds of measured stroke And grating saw begin; 10 The broadax to the gnarléd oak, The mallet to the pin! Hark! roars the bellows, blast on blast, The sooty smithy jars, And fire-sparks, rising far and fast, Are fading with the stars. All day for us the smith shall stand 15 All day for us his heavy hand Ho!-strike away the bars and blocks, Why lingers on these dusty rocks The young bride of the sea? 25 Look! how she moves adown the grooves, In graceful beauty now! For Biography see page 90. Discussion. 1. What does the title tell us? 2. Make an outline that shows what each stanza tells us of the shipbuilders, for example: Stanza 1-Morning; time for work. Stanza 2-The smithy; work of the smith, etc. 3. What do the first four lines tell us of the time? 4. Note how much else they tell; what pictures do they give? What comparison do they suggest? 5. What line in the second stanza adds to the picture in the first stanza? 6. In what sense is the smith working "for us"? 7. What does the “panting team" bring from the "far-off hills"? 8. With whose labor does the work of shipbuilding really begin? Read the lines that tell this. 9. Which line in the third stanza do you like best? 10. What comparison does the poet make between shipbuilding and other kinds of labor? 11. Is the "master" the only one responsible for making the ship obey the helm? 12. What is the subject of "may peel," page 453, line 14? 13. What dangers to the ship are pointed out? How may the shipbuilders guard against these dangers? 14. Read the stanzas that urge honest workmanship. 15. At what point in the building of a ship are the "bars and blocks" struck away? 16. In what sense does this "set the good ship free"? 17. Find lines that tell of the ship's work. 18. In what sense can the "Prairie's golden grain" "be hers"? 19. What is meant by the "Desert's golden sand"? 20. What poetic name is given to the Far East? 21. Find the lines that express the poet's wish for the ship. 22. Select the lines in this poem that give the most vivid pictures. 23. What picture of America at work mentioned in the Introduction, page 296, does this poem give you? 24. What consequences would result from faulty or dishonest work in shipbuilding? 25. Discuss pride in workmanship as a test of good citizenship. 26. Find in the Glossary the meaning of: spectral; craftsmen; treenail; spar; reeling; citadel; Hindustan; mart; main. 27. Pronounce: sooty; scourge; Hebrides; helm; coral. measured stroke, 452, century-circled oak, 452, 23 slaves of human art, 452, 28 Phrases for Study nor faithless joint, 453, 3 painted shell, 453, 17 Suggestions for Theme Topics. 1. American shipbuilding during the World War. 2. Why America should have a large number of ships of |