o pick out the rhymes, to see how often rhymes
are repeated in a stanza, and whether the lines are in couples or
alternate.

_c. Phrases._ The following lines are quoted as those perhaps best
worth study and remembrance. Let the children determine why they were
selected as beautiful lines; that is, determine in what respect the
lines are beautiful:

"Now the wild white horses play,
Champ and chafe and toss in the spray."

"The far-off sound of a silver bell."

"Where the sea snakes toil and twine,
Dry their mail and bask in the brine."

"A long, long sigh
For the cold, strange eyes of a little Mermaiden."

"A ceiling of amber,
A pavement of pearl."

"Heaths starr'd with broom."

_The Cloud_

(Volume VII, page 257)

This lyric has wonderful beauty. It is one of the most musical of poems,
the ideas are fine and the pictures of surpassing charm. If it lacks the
high message it is still an inspiration, for beauty is always ennobling
to the appreciative.

The charm of _The Cloud_ will appeal to children but it may be
intensified by judicious questioning and comment. As always in trying to
give appreciation of real literature, the teacher in the home or at the
school must be certain of his purpose and must never carry the
instruction too far. He must understand the nature of the reader and
shape his questions accordingly. It is impossible to print anything that
will be helpful equally to all or that can be used in its entirety in
any instance. Do not talk too much about what is evident, and stop at
the first signs of a dawning distaste.

_First Stanza._ It is the cloud that is speaking, and as every cloud is
ever changing, the song of the cloud varies with its condition. It is
now the cloud of the warm summer shower that piles up in snowy billows
on the horizon and rolls over the laughing face of flowering nature.

How do the flowers show that they are thirsting? Will they look
different when their thirst is satisfied? Do leaves dream? Leaves, you
know, are the lungs of plants. May they do more work in the morning, the
evening and the night, than at midday? May they be said to be sleeping
at times? Is the shade of the cloud a help to the leaves? Did you ever
see the leaves of trees turn their glazed upper surfaces toward the
ground and twist up their under sides toward the sky, begging for
moisture? Did you ever notice that the buds of most flowers open in the