Rural School Leaflet 



939 



POETRY AND THE OUT-OF-DOORS 



Alice G. McCloskey 



BOY or girl on a quest for something to 

 read, very rarely looks for poetry. Young 

 persons nearly always want something 

 that has conversation in it. Isn't this 

 true ? There have been boys and girls, 

 however, in the past, and there are 

 many in the present, who really 

 like to read poetry and sometimes to 

 memorize it. It is so worth the while to do 

 this that we wish you would all try to like 

 something written in verse and be willing 

 to commit it to memory. When you 

 write your letters to Mr. Tuttle this month 

 we shall be very glad to know that you 

 have studied potatoes, the locust tree, your 

 garden crops, poultry, and the other prac- 

 tical farm lessons. We shall also be glad 

 to know that you have been watching the 

 winter birds, that you have been trying to 

 find out which of the wayside flowers remain 

 the longest, that you have been thinking 

 much about the stars and the moon and the 

 other outdoor wonders, and we shall be 

 equally glad to know that you have learned the poems in this leaflet. 

 Here are two good stanzas to begin with, written by Robert Louis 



Stevenson : 



" Great is the sun, and wide he goes 

 Through empty heaven without repose; 

 And in the blue and glowing days 

 Afore thick than rain he showers his rays. 



" Above the hills, along the blue, 

 Round the bright air, with footing true, 

 To please the child, to paint the rose, 

 The gardener of the world, he goes." 



When you read the foregoing lines we hope you will think about the 

 summer sun. We are so accustomed to having this wonder in nature that 

 many of us have ceased to think about it. To become familiar with each 

 sunrise, with each noonday light, with each sunset, should give much joy 

 and new joy continually. We watch the sun as it rises over the hills or 

 sets behind the hills; we respond to the brightness; we respond to the 

 warmth ; we respond to the many out-of-door things that sunlight reveals. 



