s his personal
griefs in so touching a manner! How sweet is the lesson of patience and
resignation when communicated in such a beautiful poem!

E. _Beauty and Effectiveness in Phrasing._ Where in literature will you
find more beautiful phrases, more effective figures, than abound in this
poem? Notice particularly the following, and try to determine why each
is remarkable:

"With a silence deep and white."

"Ermine too dear for an earl."

"Stiff rails softened to swan's down."

"The noiseless work of the sky."

"the leaden sky
That arched o'er our first great sorrow."

"The scar of our deep-plunged woe."

"Folded close in deepening snow."

F. _Conclusion._ _The First Snowfall_ is one of the most perfect poems
in our language. In beauty of composition, of music, of sentiment, and
in deep religious feeling it can scarcely be excelled. Be guarded how
you teach it; treat it reverently. Try to cause the children to love it,
to wish to memorize it. If you see that you are not securing these
results, leave the poem and take up something else. It is almost a sin
to spoil it for any person.

_The Potato_

(Volume II, page 467)

Thomas Moore's amusing stanza may seem silly to some people, but those
who have a sense of humor will be delighted with the whimsical
conception of a potato with so independent a spirit. It usually spoils
humor to comment upon it. To explain a joke is to kill it. The sense of
humor is contagious. Children will laugh when older people smile just
from sympathy. When they ask "what's the joke?" it is time to explain.
Even then it is best to give merely facts and let the joke make its own
way. Laughter lightens many a heavy burden, and a sense of humor is a
saving grace. Cultivate it by indirection.

_Origin of the Opal_

(Volume II, page 480)

The opal is a beautiful stone which seen at different angles and in
different lights seems to glow with various colors. The polished
surface may seem, as you first look at it, to be only a milky white.
Turn it a little and it glows a bright flame color with green lights
round the margin. Turned a little more it shows violet and silver. Other
shades mingle with these, all coming and going as light and position
vary. A fine opal is a wonderfully brilliant precious stone.

The idea of the poem, too, is beautiful. Here is a transparent dewdrop;
in it is the flame of the last ray of sun. As th