Goldenrod!

Nature lies disheveled, pale, 10
With her feverish lips apart;
Day by day the pulses fail,
Nearer to her bounding heart;
Yet that slackened grasp doth hold
Store of pure and genuine gold; 15
Quick thou comest, strong and free,
Type of all the wealth to be--
Goldenrod!

1. Three of the stanzas definitely locate the
goldenrod. Read the lines that tell where it grows.

2. Which stanza makes the most vivid picture for
you? What descriptive words in the stanza help make
this picture?

3. Read the second stanza aloud, and tell in your
own words what you think each line means.

4. Find synonyms (words of similar meaning) for the
following: sumptuous, unfettered, disheveled,
lustrous. Substitute your synonym for each of these
words and read the line aloud.

5. Make a pencil sketch of a goldenrod as you
recall it. Color your sketch with crayon.

6. The goldenrod is sometimes called our national
flower. Why do you think it is so called? What is
your state flower?

THE PALISADES

BY JOHN MASEFIELD

(Used by permission of Dodd, Mead and Company, Publishers.)

On the west side of the Hudson River there is a cliff,
or crag of rock, all carved into queer shapes. It
stretches along the riverside for twenty or thirty miles,
as far as Tarrytown, or further, to the broad part where the
stream looks like a sea. The cliff rises up, as a rule very 5
boldly, to the height of several hundred feet. The top of
it (the Jersey shore) appears regular. It is like a well-laid
wall along the river, with trees and one or two white wooden
houses, instead of broken glass, at the top. This wall appearance
made the settlers call the crag the "Palisades." 10

Where the Palisades are the grandest is just as high up as
Yonkers. Hereabouts they are very stately, for they are
all marshaled along a river a mile or more broad, which
runs in a straight line past them, with a great tide. If you
take a boat and row across to the Palisades their beauty 15
makes you shiver. In the afternoon, when you are underneath
them, the sun is shut away from you; and there you