path their feet have worn,
We sit beneath their orchard trees,
We hear, like them, the hum of bees
And rustle of the bladed corn;
We turn the pages that they read,
Their written words we linger o'er,
But in the sun they cast no shade,
No voice is heard, no sign is made,
No step is on the conscious floor."

The following lines are from Lord Byron's _Apostrophe to the Ocean_:

"Roll on, thou deep and dark blue Ocean--roll!
Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain;
Man marks the earth with ruin--his control
Stops with the shore;--upon the watery plain
The wrecks are all thy deed, nor doth remain
A shadow of man's ravage, save his own,
When, for a moment, like a drop of rain,
He sinks into thy depths with bubbling groan,
Without a grave, unknelled, uncoffined, and unknown."

* * * * *

Children enjoy searching for the different varieties of figures in the
selections which they read. Not much instruction is needed, and it is
not necessary that they should know the names of the different figures
or acquire a great deal of technical knowledge. Yet in helping them to
recognize figures it is best to proceed in a logical manner, showing,
one at a time, what the principal figures are, upon what they are based,
and what they add in vividness and beauty to the language. When one
figure is understood, help the children to find many good examples in
other selections, before taking up the second figure.

As a help to parents and children, we give an outline here for a study
of the figures of speech in Shelley's beautiful _Ode to a Skylark_
(Volume VII, page 275).

1. SIMILE:

"From the earth thou springest
_Like a cloud of fire_."

"_Like an unbodied joy_ whose race is just begun."

"With music _sweet as love_."

"_Like a star of heaven_
In the broad daylight."

2. METAPHOR:

"From rainbow clouds there flow not
Drops so bright to see,
As from thy presence _showers a rain of melody_."

"Or how could thy notes _flow in such a crystal stream_!"

"In _the golden lightning_
Of the sunken sun."

3 and 4. METONYMY AND SYNECDOCHE are nearly related and in this poem the
examples are numerous. Here are a few:

"Better than all _treasures_
That in books are found."

"Teach me half the gladness
That thy _b