Part 1
PRACTICAL RECITATIONS
Selections for Literary Exercises APPROPRIATE FOR _RECEPTION-DAYS, HOLIDAYS, POETS’ BIRTHDAYS, ETC._, INCLUDING CONCERT AND MUSICAL RECITATIONS, AND DIALOGUES FROM POPULAR AUTHORS, ESPECIALLY ARRANGED FOR THIS WORK.
BY CAROLINE B. LEROW, INSTRUCTOR IN ELOCUTION, CENTRAL SCHOOL, BROOKLYN, AND FORMERLY INSTRUCTOR IN VASSAR AND SMITH COLLEGES.
NEW YORK: CLARK & MAYNARD, PUBLISHERS, 771 BROADWAY AND 67 & 69 NINTH STREET.
* * * * *
A PRACTICAL READER.
WITH
EXERCISES IN VOCAL CULTURE.
BY CAROLINE B. LEROW,
_Instructor in Elocution, Central School, Brooklyn, and formerly at Smith and Vassar Colleges._
All students are expected to be able to read well ordinary prose and poetry, and it is for the purpose of helping them to do this, as well as to help teachers in the teaching of reading, that this book is prepared.
It is thoroughly practical. No unnecessary technical terms are used. The subjects explained and illustrated are those only which, as the result of many years’ experience among teachers as well as pupils, the compiler has found most necessary.
As physical development and correct vocalization must precede all good reading, the simplest and therefore most essential physical and vocal exercises are given, with full directions for their use.
The selections for reading present nothing of a merely showy style of elocution. They are adapted for the upper classes of Grammar Schools, as well as for High and advanced schools.
We claim that the Practical Reader contains more suitable material for elocutionary work in the school-room, in more condensed, analytical, and available form, than any other Reader or Speaker before the public.
224 Pages, 16mo, Handsome Cloth Binding, Red Edges.
_A Specimen Copy for Examination, or Copies for Introduction, will be Delivered at 60 Cents Each._
* * * * *
HOW TO TEACH READING.
BY CAROLINE B. LEROW.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
Failure in the Teaching of Reading—Teaching by Imitation—Natural and Logical Method—Variety in Teaching—Physical Exercise—Value of Exercise—Directions for Using Exercises—Exercises for the Body—Exercises for the Chest—Cautions in the Use of Physical Exercises—Breathing—Breathing Exercises—Cautions in the Use of Breathing Exercises—Whispering—Articulation—Vowel Sounds—Consonant Sounds—Final Consonants—Physical Effort in Articulation—Impediments of Speech—Blundering Articulation—Manner of Practicing Exercises in Articulation—Spelling Words by Sounds—Naturalness in Reading—Place of Emphasis—Selection of Words—Teaching without a Book—Punctuation—Sense Independent of Punctuation—The Reading of Poetry—Concert Reading—Reading and Singing—Vocal Accuracy in Recitations—Breathlessness in Reading—Timidity in Reading—Work in Advanced Classes—Special Faults—Extract from “Reading as a Fine Art.”
32 Pages. Price Postpaid, 12 Cents per Copy.
CLARK & MAYNARD, Publishers, 771 BROADWAY, NEW YORK.
Copyright, 1886, by CLARK & MAYNARD.
PREFACE.
Recitations form one of the most attractive features of school entertainments, and give a pleasant variety to every-day work; yet few teachers have the time, even if they have the ability, to drill pupils in the long and difficult pieces which form the bulk of the countless Recitations offered to the public.
The selections included in this volume are _in harmony with the spirit of class-room work_, which demands brevity, simplicity, good sense, and sound morality. This is the only compilation of the kind in which these matters are considered as of equal importance with elocutionary effect. Very few of the pieces are to be found in any other book, and each one has been practically tested in the school-room. The style of rendering, wherever specified, can be changed, of course, to suit the taste of the teacher.
As it is desirable that the largest possible number of students should share in such exercises, many short selections, excellent for practice in correct emphasis and distinct articulation, are provided for the purpose.
The observance of our poets’ birthdays is becoming a pleasant and profitable custom in most schools, and provision has been made for these anniversaries as well as for all other holidays.
As it is not possible to make liberal provision for each poet, it is hoped that the Alphabets will be suggestive of their best poems, and the prose extracts concerning the writers will inspire in students a desire to become better acquainted with them and their works.
CONTENTS.
Miscellaneous Recitations.
TITLE. AUTHOR. PAGE
A Bird’s Ministry, Margaret J. Preston, 40
A Discourse of Buddha, Edwin Arnold, 30
After Vacation, _The Kingdom of Home_, 11
An Illumined Text, _Christian at Work_, 55
Are the Heroes Dead? Helen Lee Sargent, 26
A Song for the Conquered, William W. Story, 66
A Strange Experience, Josephine Pollard, 14
A Swedish Poem, Anon., 47
A True Story, _Baldwin’s Monthly_, 80
A Turkish tradition, _Interior_, 43
Beside the Railway Track, Anon., 65
Concerning Beginnings and Ends, Rev. A. K. H. Boyd, 13
Eyes that See Not, Ella Jewett, 44
Extract from a Letter, Wm. Wirt, 41
Failed, Phillips Thompson, 27
Forefathers’ Day, Helen Hunt Jackson, 79
Forward, Susan Coolidge, 24
Growth, Horace Mann, 39
Happiness, Maggie B. Peeke, 55
Her Angel, Anna F. Burnham, 25
Home Lights, _Sunday-school Times_, 13
Humility, Ernest W. Shurtleff, 35
Labor, Rev. Orville Dewey, 28
Lamentation of the Lungs, _Phrenological Journal_, 44
Little Christel, Mary E. Bradley, 82
Luther, Joaquin Miller, 74
Moral Courage, Rev. Sydney Smith, 17
My Portion, Carlotta Perry, 50
Noblesse Oblige, Carlotta Perry, 59
No Work the Hardest Work, C. F. Orne, 18
Only a Little, Dora Goodale, 49
Only a Little Thing, Mrs. M. P. Handy, 68
Original Maxims, James A. Garfield, 74
Original Maxims, George Washington, 71
Questions, Kate Lawrence, 77
Saxon Grit, Rev. Robert Collyer, 51
Sparrows, Adeline D. T. Whitney, 32
Some Old School-books, _Harper’s Weekly_, 19
The Amen of the Rocks, Christian Gellert, 67
The Angel of Dawn, J. S. Cutler, 76
The Barbarous Chief, Ella Wheeler Wilcox, 38
The Blessing of the Poets, James T. Fields, 115
The Burial of the Old Flag, Mary A. Barr, 62
The Coast-guard, Emily H. Miller, 42
Their Cost, Ellen M. H. Gates, 21
The Daily Task, Marianne Farningham, 15
The Demon on the Roof, Josephine Pollard, 48
The Holy Place, Mary Frances Butts, 29
The King’s Bell, Eben E. Rexford, 57
The Landing of the Pilgrims, Felicia Hemans, 78
The Light-house, _Good Words_, 46
The Little Light, Anon., 53
The Little Messenger of Love, _Harper’s Young People_, 69
The Old Folks in the New School-house, Anon., 37
The Old Reading Class, Will Carleton, 22
The Old Stone Basin, Susan Coolidge, 64
The People’s Holidays, Marianne Farningham, 12
The Silver Bird’s Nest, Anon., 73
The Storming of Stony Point, Elaine Goodale, 34
The Twenty-first of February, Wm. Cullen Bryant, 78
The Value of Literature, Hamilton W. Mabie, 60
The Work of a Sunbeam, Nathan G. Shepherd, 72
True Heroism, Anon., 61
Uses of Adversity, _Watchman_, 60
“What’s the Lesson for To-day?” Anon., 16
What of That? Anon., 36
Wind and Sea, Bayard Taylor, 54
Concert Recitations.
Cavalry Song, Edmund C. Stedman, 107
Songs of the Seasons, Meta E. B. Thorne, 85
Song of the Steamer Engine, C. B. LeRow, 92
Summer Storm, James Russell Lowell, 91
The Cataract of Lodore, Robert Southey, 105
The Charge at Waterloo, Walter Scott, 90
The Child on the Judgment Seat, E. Charles, 95
The Coming of Spring, Wilhelm Müller, 87
The Death of Our Almanac, Henry Ward Beecher, 100
The Good Time Coming, Charles Mackay, 88
The Sorrow of the Sea, Anon., 98
The Two Glasses, Anon., 97
Two Epitaphs, From the German, 104
Selections for Musical Accompaniment.
A Winter Song, _St. Nicholas_, 110
Hope’s Song, Helen M. Winslow, 109
Rock of Ages, Ella Maud Moore, 113
The Angelus, Frances L. Mace, 108
The Concert Rehearsal, Wolstan Dixey, 111
The Sunrise Never Failed Us Yet, Celia Thaxter, 110
POETS’ BIRTHDAYS.
William Cullen Bryant.
A Bryant Alphabet, Compiler, 117
Extract concerning Bryant, Rev. Henry W. Bellows, 116
” ” ” John Bigelow, 115
” ” ” George William Curtis, 116
” ” ” Edwin P. Whipple, 116
Green River, William Cullen Bryant, 123
The Hurricane, ” ” ” 122
The Night Journey of a River, ” ” ” 121
The Third of November, ” ” ” 121
The Violet, ” ” ” 123
To William Cullen Bryant, Fitz-Greene Halleck, 115
Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Art, Ralph Waldo Emerson, 131
An Emerson Alphabet, Compiler, 126
Emerson, Elizabeth C. Kinney, 124
Extract concerning Emerson, Rev. C. A. Bartol, 125
” ” ” George Willis Cooke, 125
” ” ” Oliver Wendell Holmes, 125
” ” ” Protap Chunder Mozoomdar, 126
” ” ” Horace E. Scudder, 124
” from “Compensation,” Ralph Waldo Emerson, 129
” ” “Works and Days,” ” ” ” 130
The Concord Fight, ” ” ” 130
The Rhodora, ” ” ” 131
Oliver Wendell Holmes.
A Holmes Alphabet, Compiler 135
Extract concerning Holmes, George William Curtis, 134
” ” ” Charles W. Eliot, 133
” ” ” Wm. Sloane Kennedy, 134
” ” ” Rev. Ray Palmer, 133
” ” ” Frances H. Underwood, 133
International Ode, Oliver Wendell Holmes, 140
James Russell Lowell’s Birthday Festival, ” ” ” 141
Our Autocrat, John G. Whittier, 132
The Two Streams, Oliver Wendell Holmes, 140
Under the Washington Elm, ” ” ” 139
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
A Longfellow Alphabet, Compiler, 144
Charles Sumner, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 150
Extract concerning Longfellow, George William Curtis, 143
” ” ” Rev. O. B. Frothingham, 143
” ” ” Rev. M. J. Savage, 144
” ” ” Richard H. Stoddard, 143
” ” ” John G. Whittier, 142
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, William W. Story, 142
Loss and Gain, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 149
Musings, ” ” ” 148
The City and the Sea, ” ” ” 149
James Russell Lowell.
Abraham Lincoln, James Russell Lowell, 159
A Lowell Alphabet, Compiler, 154
Extract concerning Lowell, David W. Bartlett, 153
” ” ” Rev. H. R. Haweis, 153
” ” ” _North British Review_, 152
” ” ” W. C. Wilkinson, 153
” ” ” Frances H. Underwood, 152
Freedom, James Russell Lowell, 160
The First Snow-fall, ” ” ” 157
To James Russell Lowell, Oliver Wendell Holmes, 151
Wendell Phillips, James Russell Lowell, 159
John Greenleaf Whittier.
A Whittier Alphabet, Compiler, 163
Extract concerning Whittier, John Bright, 163
” ” ” Horace E. Scudder, 162
” ” ” Richard H. Stoddard, 162
” ” ” Frances H. Underwood, 161
” ” ” Rev. David A. Wasson, 162
My Country, John Greenleaf Whittier, 168
The Light that is Felt, ” ” ” 170
The Moral Warfare, ” ” ” 167
To Children of Girard, Pa., ” ” ” 167
1827-1885, ” ” ” 168
John G. Whittier, James Russell Lowell, 161
Decoration Day.
Between the Graves, Harriet Prescott Spofford, 172
Decoration Day, Henry W. Longfellow, 171
Decoration Hymn, William H. Randall, 175
Flowers for the Brave, Celia Thaxter, 175
Memorial Day, Margaret Sidney, 176
Red, White, and Blue, Harriet McEwen Kimball, 173
The Heroes’ Day, _Harper’s Weekly_, 174
Thanksgiving.
Elsie’s Thanksgiving, Margaret E. Sangster, 186
How the Pilgrims Gave Thanks, Anon., 180
Thanksgiving, William D. Howells, 185
Thanksgiving Day, _The Advance_, 178
Thanksgiving among the Greeks, Anon., 178
Thanksgiving for His House, Robert Herrick, 184
Thanksgiving among the Jews, Anon., 179
Thanksgiving Ode, John G. Whittier, 185
Thanksgivings of Old, E. A. Smuller, 187
The First Boston Thanksgiving, Hezekiah Butterworth, 182
The First English Thanksgiving, Anon, 179
The First National Thanksgiving, Anon, 181
Washington’s Proclamation, 181
Christmas.
A Christmas Question, Rev. Minot J. Savage, 197
A Christmas Thought about Dickens, Bertha S. Scranton, 190
Christmas Bells, Henry W. Longfellow, 201
Christmas in Olden Time, Walter Scott, 189
Christmas Roses, May Riley Smith, 202
The Day of Days, Anon., 188
The Little Mud Sparrows, Eliz. Stuart Phelps, 195
The Nativity, Louisa Parsons Hopkins, 200
The Star in the West, Hezekiah Butterworth, 192
Wings, Dinah Mulock Craik, 199
New-Year’s.
Address to the New Year, Dinah Mulock Craik, 203
A New Year, Margaret E. Sangster, 203
Another Year, Nathaniel P. Willis, 205
A Wish, Margaret Veley, 205
The Child and the Year, Celia Thaxter, 206
The Seasons.
A Song of Waking, Katharine Lee Bates, 207
December, Louisa Parsons Hopkins, 215
Early Spring, Alfred Tennyson, 208
Faded Leaves, Alice Cary, 213
Frost Work, Mary E. Bradley, 217
Golden Rod, Lucy Larcom, 210
Indian Summer, John G. Whittier, 211
January, Rosaline E. Jones, 216
June, Travelers’ Record, 210
May, _Good Cheer_, 209
November, Hartley Coleridge, 214
October, William Cullen Bryant, 212
September, 1815, William Wordsworth, 212
Winter, Robert Southey, 214
Flowers.
A Bunch of Cowslips, Anon., 221
Chrysanthemums, Mary E. Dodge, 223
Daffodils, Robert Herrick, 222
Ferns, Anon., 219
No Flowers, Anon., 218
Ragged Sailors, Anon., 224
Roses, Anon., 223
Sweet Peas, _St. Nicholas_, 220
The Message of the Snowdrop, Anon., 224
The Trailing Arbutus, John G. Whittier, 221
Dialogues.
Alton Locke, Tailor and Poet, Charles Kingsley, 247
Diogenes and Plato on Pride, T. A. Bland, 238
Lorna Doone, R. D. Blackmore, 240
Metaphysics, Anon., 249
Mistress and Maid, Dinah Mulock Craik, 233
Ninety-Three, Victor Hugo, 254
Pilgrim’s Progress, John Bunyan, 245
Put Yourself in His Place, Charles Reade, 243
Queen Isabella’s Resolve, Epes Sargent, 227
Ruth Hall, Fanny Fern, 237
The Hills of the Shatemuc, Elizabeth Wetherell, 231
The Mill on the Floss, George Eliot, 229
The Last Days of Pompeii, Edward Bulwer Lytton, 235
The Queen’s Necklace, Alexander Dumas, 225
The Musical Instrument, Anon., 242
Work: A Story of Experience, Louisa M. Alcott, 251
LIST OF AUTHORS.
ALCOTT, LOUISA M., 251
ARNOLD, EDWIN, 30
BARR, MARY A., 62
BARTLETT, DAVID W., 153
BARTOL, REV. C. A., 125
BATES, KATHARINE LEE, 207
BEECHER, REV. HENRY WARD, 100
BELLOWS, REV. HENRY W., 116
BIGELOW, JOHN, 115
BLACKMORE, R. D., 240
BLAND, T. A., 238
BOYD, REV. A. K. H., 13
BRADLEY, MARY E., 82, 217
BRIGHT, JOHN, 163
BRYANT, WILLIAM CULLEN, 78, 121, 122, 123, 212
BUNYAN, JOHN, 245
BURNHAM, ANNA F., 25
BUTTERWORTH, HEZEKIAH, 182, 192
BUTTS, MARY FRANCES, 29
CARLETON, WILL, 22
CARY, ALICE, 213
CHARLES, E., 95
COLERIDGE, HARTLEY, 214
COLLYER, REV. ROBERT, 51
COOKE, GEORGE WILLIS, 125
COOLIDGE, SUSAN, 24, 64
CRAIK, DINAH MULOCK, 199, 203, 233
CURTIS, GEORGE WM., 116, 134, 143
CUTLER, J. S., 76
DEWEY, REV. ORVILLE, 28
DIXEY, WOLSTAN, 111
DODGE, MARY E., 223
DUMAS, ALEXANDER, 225
ELIOT, CHARLES W., 133
ELIOT, GEORGE, 229
EMERSON, RALPH WALDO, 129, 130, 131
FARNINGHAM, MARIANNE, 12, 15
FERN, FANNY, 237
FIELDS, JAMES T., 155
FROTHINGHAM, REV. O. B., 143
GARFIELD, JAMES A., 74
GATES, ELLEN M. H., 21
GELLERT, CHRISTIAN, 67
GOODALE, DORA, 49
GOODALE, ELAINE, 34
HALLECK, FITZ-GREENE, 115
HANDY, M. P., 68
HAWEIS, REV. H. R., 153
HEMANS, FELICIA, 78
HERRICK, ROBERT, 184, 222
HOLMES, OLIVER WENDELL, 125, 139, 140, 141, 151
HOPKINS, LOUISA PARSONS, 200, 215
HOWELLS, WILLIAM D., 185
HUGO, VICTOR, 254
JACKSON, HELEN HUNT, 79
JEWETT, ELLA, 44
JONES, ROSALINE E., 216
KENNEDY, WM. SLOANE, 134
KIMBALL, HARRIET MCEWEN, 173
KINGSLEY, CHARLES, 247
KINNEY, ELIZABETH C., 124
LARCOM, LUCY, 210
LAWRENCE, KATE, 77
LEROW, C. B., 92
LONGFELLOW, HENRY WADSWORTH, 148, 149, 150, 171, 201
LOWELL, JAMES RUSSELL, 91, 157, 159, 160, 161
LYTTON, E. BULWER, 235
MABIE, HAMILTON W., 60
MACE, FRANCES L., 108
MACKAY, CHARLES, 188
MANN, HORACE, 39
MILLER, EMILY H., 42
MILLER, JOAQUIN, 74
MOORE, ELLA MAUD, 113
MOZOOMDAR, PROTAP CHUNDER, 126
MÜLLER, WILHELM, 87
ORNE, C. F., 18
PALMER, REV. RAY, 133
PEEKE, MAGGIE B., 55, 59
PERRY, CARLOTTA, 50
PHELPS, ELIZ. STUART, 195
POLLARD, JOSEPHINE, 14, 48
PRESTON, MARGARET J., 40
RANDALL, WM. H., 175
READE, CHARLES, 243