They sailed. They sailed. Then spake the mate: "This mad sea shows his teeth to-night.

He curls his lip, he lies in wait,

With lifted teeth, as if to bite!

Brave Admiral, say but one good word:
What shall we do when hope is gone?"
The words leapt like a leaping sword:

"Sail on! sail on! sail on! and on!"

Then, pale and worn, he paced his deck,
And peered through darkness. Ah, that night
Of all dark nights! And then a speck
A light! A light! At last, a light!

It grew, a starlit flag unfurled!

It grew to be Time's burst of dawn. He gained a world; he gave that world Its grandest lesson: "On! sail on!"

JOAQUIN MILLER

Exercise. I. What seems to you the most striking line in the first stanza? Write a paragraph, telling in your own words, simply and briefly, what the first stanza says.

2. Tell the meaning of the second stanza. Use your own words. Look up in the dictionary ghastly, wan, swarthy, unless you know exactly what these words mean. Write a paragraph telling the thought of this stanza.

3. Look up in the dictionary blanched and dread. Tell orally the meaning of the third stanza. What lines in this stanza make the strongest impression on you? Write a paragraph telling in your own words exactly what the third stanza says.

4. Does the fourth stanza give you as vivid a picture as the third? What stirs you in this fourth stanza? Describe the picture that this stanza gives you of Columbus; of the ocean. Did you ever see the ocean or one of the Great Lakes foaming with whitecaps? These whitecaps give forth a hissing sound that one can distinctly hear from a boat. Write a paragraph saying in your own words what this stanza tells you.

5. Tell what the fifth stanza makes you see. Can you hear the lookout's excited cry in the dark night, "A light"? Imagine that you hear the cry taken up by the sailors, first on one ship, then on another, as they strain their eyes to see it. Can you understand Columbus's feelings when he catches his first glimpse of the light? Why is the word light repeated in the line:

"A light! A light! At last, a light!"?

Write a paragraph giving this stanza in your own words.

6. Now read over the five paragraphs you have written. Now read the poem again. Which stanza do you like best?

Oral Exercise. 1. Can you imagine Columbus returning to the court of Ferdinand and Isabella and telling them of his voyage? Perhaps you have seen pictures about his return or

read about it. Imagine that you are Columbus and that the class is the Spanish court. A classmate may take the part of Ferdinand, another that of Isabella. Tell of your voyage. Perhaps the classmates who are taking the parts of Ferdinand and Isabella will make fitting replies when you have finished giving your account.

2. Let other pupils play that they are Columbus, Ferdinand, and Isabella. Let Columbus tell what he saw when he at last reached land and explored those islands. Perhaps Ferdinand and Isabella will ask him questions or explain their plans for other voyages.

5. Letter Writing

Written Exercise. Pretend that you are the son of the stout mate" on Columbus's ship. You have heard your father talk with the sailors; you have heard him talk with Columbus. You saw the sea showing its teeth," and you were one of the first to look on the strange light in the distance. Finally you returned to Spain. Write a letter to a friend in Italy, telling as much of the voyage and of Columbus as is given in the poem. Use your own language. What shall you speak of first? What next? What after that? Group together the sentences that belong together, so that your letter will fall into two or three or four distinct paragraphs.

Or, imagine that you are Columbus. Write the letter he might have written from Spain to an old friend in Genoa, Italy, telling of the plan of the sailors to throw him overboard. Group Exercise. Read your letter to the class, or copy it on the board, in order that your classmates may consider, one at a time, such matters as (1) the writing of heading, greeting, and ending; (2) the paragraphing; (3) the sentences.

Written Exercise. Your uncle in New York has often asked you to let him know what books you want for your bookshelf. Write him a letter, explaining why you wish to read and own Irving's "Life of Columbus."

6. Word Study

Oral Exercise. Use your dictionary to learn the meaning of the following words. Then use each in a sentence in such a way as to show that you know its meaning. Let some of the sentences be declarative and some interrogative.

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Oral Exercise. Turn to the poem Columbus" and find in it illustrations of each of the following rules:

1. A capital letter should be used to begin every line of poetry. 2. A capital letter should be used to begin the first word of a quotation.

3. Quotation marks should be used to inclose a quotation and each part of a divided quotation.

4. The comma is used to separate a quotation from the rest of the sentence.

5. The comma should be used to separate from the rest of the sentence the name (or words used for the name) of the person addressed.

6. The exclamation mark (!) should be used after a word or group of words that expresses strong feeling.25

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Written Exercise. Copy a stanza of the poem Columbus." Dictation Exercise. Study and then write from dictation, with the preceding rules in mind, one or more stanzas of the poem.

Correction Exercise. Compare what you have written with the stanza or stanzas in the book, and correct your mistakes, if there

are any.

Exercise. Refer to the pages in the Appendix 14 of this book which contain the rules for the use of capitals and punctuation marks. Find the rules which you already know. Write an illustration for each one.

8. Memorizing a Poem

Exercise. I. Would it not be a good plan to learn the entire poem "Columbus," so that you can recite it whenever you wish?

In learning it, read the whole poem over thoughtfully, preferably aloud. Then see how many lines of it you can repeat. Perhaps you will be able to recite the first two lines. Read the whole poem again; now, it may be, you will find yourself able to recite the first four lines. In this way read the entire poem again and again until you can repeat it all without a mistake.26

When you recite it, make your hearers feel what a fine and stirring poem it is and what a great man Columbus was.

2. Let the class be divided into several groups of five pupils each. Let each group, or team, before or after school, diligently practice reciting the poem "Columbus." Then let there be a contest. Each team may choose one of its number to represent it, and he will then recite the whole poem; or an entire team may recite it, every pupil giving one stanza.