Swift Things are beautiful
by Elizabeth Coatsworth
Swift things are beautiful:
Swallows and deer,
And lightening that falls
Bright-veined and clear,
Rivers and meteors,
Wind in the wheat,
The strong-withered horse,
The runner's sure feet.
And slow things are beautiful:
The closing of day,
The pause of the wave
That curves downward to spray,
The ember that crumbles,
The opening flower,
And the ox that moves on
In the quiet of power.
by Elizabeth Coatsworth
Swift things are beautiful:
Swallows and deer,
And lightening that falls
Bright-veined and clear,
Rivers and meteors,
Wind in the wheat,
The strong-withered horse,
The runner's sure feet.
And slow things are beautiful:
The closing of day,
The pause of the wave
That curves downward to spray,
The ember that crumbles,
The opening flower,
And the ox that moves on
In the quiet of power.
What is this poem about?
That is the question I asked my lad BEFORE I actually read the poem.
His response:
Spiders jumping, flies zooming, jumping spiders leaping
Was the Poem about what you thought?
No. It wasn't a good poem mom. It wasn't about what I thought it would be.
Can you think of how it was kinda like what you thought?
With a wrinkled brow he thought and said... well Spiders weren't mentioned...THEY SHOULD HAVE BEEN... but she did talk about some things that were fast, and jumping spiders are slow to when they creep up on something.
BUT why he asked, did she start her poem off talking about fast things when she had slow things in it?
We didn't know the answer.
We did talk about comparison though and that perhaps that might have been her point.
Vocabulary
Withers: the highest part of a horse's back, lying at the base of the neck above the shoulders. The height of a horse is measured to the withers.
What do you see in the poem? How is it set up?
Some of the words rhyme... every other line. But not every other line, just some of them.
That is the question I asked my lad BEFORE I actually read the poem.
His response:
Spiders jumping, flies zooming, jumping spiders leaping
Was the Poem about what you thought?
No. It wasn't a good poem mom. It wasn't about what I thought it would be.
Can you think of how it was kinda like what you thought?
With a wrinkled brow he thought and said... well Spiders weren't mentioned...THEY SHOULD HAVE BEEN... but she did talk about some things that were fast, and jumping spiders are slow to when they creep up on something.
BUT why he asked, did she start her poem off talking about fast things when she had slow things in it?
We didn't know the answer.
We did talk about comparison though and that perhaps that might have been her point.
Vocabulary
Withers: the highest part of a horse's back, lying at the base of the neck above the shoulders. The height of a horse is measured to the withers.
What do you see in the poem? How is it set up?
Some of the words rhyme... every other line. But not every other line, just some of them.
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