Rights for this book: Public domain in the USA. This edition is published by Project Gutenberg. Originally issued by Project Gutenberg on 2006-10-04. To support the work of Project Gutenberg, visit their Donation Page. This free ebook has been produced by GITenberg, a program of the Free Ebook Foundation. If you have corrections or improvements to make to this ebook, or you want to use the source files for this ebook, visit the book's github repository. You can support the work of the Free Ebook Foundation at their Contributors Page. The Project Gutenberg eBook, Poems Teachers Ask For, Book Two, by Various This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org Title: Poems Teachers Ask For, Book Two Author: Various Release Date: October 4, 2006 [eBook #19469] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 ***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK POEMS TEACHERS ASK FOR, BOOK TWO*** E-text prepared by Charles Aldarondo and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net/) POEMS TEACHERS ASK FOR BOOK TWO Selected by READERS OF "NORMAL INSTRUCTOR-PRIMARY PLANS" CONTAINING MORE THAN TWO HUNDRED POEMS REQUESTED FOR PUBLICATION IN THAT MAGAZINE ON THE PAGE "POEMS OUR READERS HAVE ASKED FOR" INDEX OF TITLES African Chief, The Bryant 145 Annabel Lee Poe 25 Annie and Willie's Prayer Snow 196 April! April! Are You Here? Goodale 59 April Showers Wilkins 26 Armageddon E. Arnold 157 Autumn Hood 186 Autumn Leaves Wray 65 Aux Italiens Lytton 72 Awakening Sangster 93 Babie, The Miller 131 Ballad of East and West, The Kipling 23 Ballad of the Tempest, The Fields 56 Battle of Bunker's Hill, The Cozzens 102 Bells of Ostend, The Bowles 140 Bernardo Del Carpio Hemans 160 Betty and the Bear 130 Bible My Mother Gave Me, The 117 Bill's in the Legislature 53 Billy's Rose Sims 104 Bivouac of the Dead, The O'Hara 15 Boy and Girl of Plymouth Smith 154 Boys, The O.W. Holmes 27 Boy Who Didn't Pass, The 108 Boy with the Hoe, The Weaver 202 Break, Break, Break Tennyson 52 "Brides of Enderby, The." See "High Tide, The" 150 Bridge Builder, The 54 Broken Pinion, The Butterworth 9 Burial of Moses, The Alexander 45 Casabianca Hemans 164 Charge of Pickett's Brigade, The 122 Children Longfellow 16 Children, The Dickinson 133 Children We Keep, The Wilson 146 Christmas Day in the Workhouse Sims 193 Christmas Long Ago, A 47 Chums Foley 206 Circling Year, The Graham 208 Cleon and I Mackay 37 Color in the Wheat Garland 8 Columbus Smith 137 Conscience and Future Judgment 81 Courting in Kentucky 67 Courtin', The Lowell 59 Cradle Hymn Watts 35 Dandelion Garabrant 82 David's Lament for Absalom Willis 191 Death of the Flowers, The Bryant 21 Don't Kill the Birds Colesworthy 53 Duty Browning 20 Dying Newsboy, The Thornton 52 Echo Saxe 65 Encouragement Dunbar 71 Engineer's Story, The Hall 96 Ensign Bearer, The 11 Eve of Waterloo, The Byron 17 Excelsior Longfellow 15 Finding of the Lyre, The Lowell 150 Fireman's Story, The 125 Flower of Liberty, The O.W. Holmes 85 Flying Jim's Last Leap Banks 128 Fortunate Isles, The Miller 168 Give Them the Flowers Now Hodges 84 God Derzhavin 162 God's Message to Men Emerson 62 God's Will Is Best Mason 67 Good Shepherd, The Howe 166 Grandfather's Clock Work 35 Grandmother's Quilt 186 Graves of a Household, The Hemans 130 Gray Swan, The A. Cary 207 Gunga Din Kipling 98 Hark, Hark! the Lark Shakespeare 111 Harp That Once Through Tara's Halls, The Moore 71 Health and Wealth 103 Heartening, The Webb 103 Height of the Ridiculous, The O.W. Holmes 14 Heritage, The Lowell 22 He Who Has Vision McKenzie 146 He Worried About It Foss 203 Highland Mary Burns 88 High Tide, The Ingelow 150 His Mother's Song 39 Home Guest 7 Home They Brought Her Warrior Dead Tennyson 74 House with Nobody in It, The Kilmer 8 How Did You Die? Cooke 132 How Salvator Won Wilcox 120 Hullo Foss 123 If All the Skies Van Dyke 36 "If" for Girls, An Otis 153 If We Understood 29 I Got to Go to School Waterman 121 I Have a Rendezvous with Death Seeger 142 I Have Drank My Last Glass 87 Inasmuch Ford 178 Indian Names Sigourney 135 Inventor's Wife, The Corbett 82 Isle of Long Ago, The B.F. Taylor 51 Jamie Douglas 9 Jim Brady's Big Brother Foley 206 John Maynard Alger 78 John Thompson's Daughter P. Cary 34 King and the Child, The Hall 134 King's Ring, The Tilton 159 Knight's Toast, The W. Scott 57 Ladder of St. Augustine, The Longfellow 33 Lamb, The Blake 86 Land of Beginning Again, The Tarkington 32 Land Where Hate Should Die, The McCarthy 18 Last Leaf, The O.W. Holmes 20 Laugh in Church, A 29 Laughing Chorus, A 59 Law and Liberty Cutler 39 Leaving the Homestead 159 Legend Beautiful, The Longfellow 174 Legend of the Northland, A P. Cary 131 Let Me Walk with the Men in the Road Gresham 28 Let Us Be Kind Childress 143 Life, I Know Not What Thou Art Barbauld 65 Lincoln, the Man of the People Markham 118 Little Bateese Drummond 80 Little Fir-Trees, The Stein 203 Little Willie's Hearing 127 Loss and Gain Longfellow 34 Lost Occasion, The Whittier 84 Lullaby Foley 205 Mad River Longfellow 100 Message for the Year, A Hardy 66 Minstrel-Boy, The Moore 55 Minuet, The Dodge 48 Mizpah 162 Monterey Hoffman 165 More Cruel Than War Hawkins 136 Mortgage on the Farm, The 173 Mother o' Mine Kipling 70 Mothers of Men Miller 64 My Prairies Garland 74 Mystic Weaver, The 171 Nearer Home P. Cary 48 New Leaf, A Rice 202 Newsboy, The Corbett 94 New Year, The Craik 153 Night with a Wolf, A Bayard Taylor 89 Nobody's Child Case 46 No Sects in Heaven Cleaveland 180 O'Grady's Goat Hays 44 Old Actor's Story, The Sims 106 Old Flag Forever Stanton 21 Old Kitchen Floor, The 75 Old Man Dreams, The O.W. Holmes 58 Old Man in the Model Church, The Yates 148 Old Man's Dreams, An Sherman 61 "One, Two, Three!" Bunner 30 Our Flag Sangster 202 Our Homestead P. Cary 55 Our Own Sangster 119 Our Presidents Gilman 195 Out in the Snow Moulton 83 Over the Hill from the Poor-House Carleton 42 Papa's Letter 40 Parting of Marmion and Douglas W. Scott 95 Parts of Speech, The 201 Petrified Fern, The Branch 36 Picciola Newell 158 Piller Fights Ellsworth 80 Polish Boy, The Stephens 12 Poor Little Joe Proudfit 32 Prayer and Potatoes Pettee 200 Prayer for a Little Home, A 87 President, The Johnston 204 Pride of Battery B Gassaway 176 Quangle Wangle's Hat, The Lear 91 Railroad Crossing, The Strong 182 Rain on the Roof Kinney 97 Rainy Day, The Longfellow 28 Real Riches, The Saxe 12 Red Jacket, The Baker 77 Reply to "A Woman's Question" Pelham 155 Rhodora, The Emerson 90 Ring Out, Wild Bells Tennyson 63 Roll Call, The Shepherd 86 Romance of Nick Van Stann Saxe 156 Rustic Courtship 76 Sandman, The Vandegrift 62 Santa Filomena Longfellow 56 School-Master's Guest, The Carleton 68 September G. Arnold 75 September Days Smith 153 September Gale, The O.W. Holmes 137 Sermon in Rhyme, A 167 Service Flag, The Herschell 127 She Was a Phantom of Delight Wordsworth 89 Singing Leaves, The Lowell 92 Sin of Omission, The Sangster 116 Sin of the Coppenter Man Cooke 139 Small Beginnings Mackay 97 Solitude Wilcox 139 Somebody's Darling La Coste 175 Song of Marion's Men Bryant 54 Song of the Chattahoochee Lanier 66 "'Specially Jim" 44 Station-Master's Story, The Sims 109 Stranger on the Sill, The Read 147 Sunset City, The Gilman 183 Teacher's "If", The Gale 165 There Was a Boy Wordsworth 90 Things Divine, The Burt 64 Tin Gee Gee, The Cape 169 "Tommy" Kipling 170 Tommy's Prayer Nicholls 112 Towser Shall Be Tied To-night 37 Trailing Arbutus Whittier 199 Trouble in the Amen Corner Harbaugh 18 Try, Try Again 135 Two Angels, The Longfellow 187 Two Kinds of People, The Wilcox 116 Two Little Stockings, The Hunt 141 Two Pictures, The 114 Unawares Lent 30 Vagabonds, The Trowbridge 49 V oice of Spring, The Hemans 26 V olunteer Organist, The Foss 149 Warren's Address to the American Soldiers Pierpont 99 Washington Bryant 37 Washington's' Birthday Butterworth 58 Water Mill, The Doudney 143 What the Choir Sang About the New Bonnet Morrison 168 When Father Carves the Duck Wright 40 When My Ship Comes In Burdette 138 When Papa Was a Boy Brininstool 100 When the Light Goes Out Chester 199 Which Shall It Be? Beers 101 Who Stole the Bird's Nest? Child 41 Why the Dog's Nose Is Always Cold 144 Wishing Bridge, The Whittier 63 Witch's Daughter, The Whittier 188 With Little Boy Blue Kennedy 122 Wolsey's Farewell to His Greatness Shakespeare 94 Women of Mumbles Head, The C. Scott 123 Wood-Box, The Lincoln 177 Work: A Song of Triumph Morgan 154 Work Thou for Pleasure Cox 169 You Put No Flowers on My Papa's Grave C.E.L. Holmes 140 (An Index of First Lines is given on pages 209-213) PREFACE In homely phrase, this is a sort of "second helping" of a dish that has pleased the taste of thousands. Our first collection of Poems Teachers Ask For was the response to a demand for such a book, and this present volume is the response to a demand for "more." In Book One it was impracticable to use all of the many poems entitled to inclusion on the basis of their being desired. We are constantly in receipt of requests that certain selections be printed in NORMAL INSTRUCTOR-PRIMARY PLANS on the page "Poems Our Readers Have Asked For." More than two hundred of these were chosen for Book One, and more than two hundred others, as much desired as those in the earlier volume, are included in Book Two. Because of copyright restrictions, we often have been unable to present, in magazine form, verse of large popular appeal. By special arrangement, a number of such poems were included in Book One of Poems Teachers Ask For , and many more are given in the pages that follow. Acknowledgment is made below to publishers and authors for courteous permission to reprint in this volume material which they control: THE CENTURY COMPANY— The Minuet , from "Poems and Verses," by Mary Mapes Dodge. W.B. CONKEY COMPANY— Solitude , from "Poems of Passion," and How Salvator Won , from "Kingdom of Love," both by Ella Wheeler Wilcox. DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY, INC.— Encouragement , by Paul Laurence Dunbar, copyright by Dodd, Mead & Company; Work , by Angela Morgan, from "The Hour Has Struck," copyright 1914 by Angela Morgan. DODGE PUBLISHING COMPANY— How Did You Die? from "Impertinent Poems," and The Sin of the Coppenter Man , from "I Rule the House," both by Edmund Vance Cooke. GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY— The House with Nobody in It , from "Trees and Other Poems," by Joyce Kilmer, copyright 1914 by George H. Doran Company, publishers. HAMLIN GARLAND— My Prairies and Color in the Wheat ISABEL AMBLER GILMAN— The Sunset City HARPER & BROTHERS— Over the Hill from the Poor-House and The School-Master's Guests , from "Farm Legends," by Will Carleton. HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY— The Sandman , by Margaret Vandegrift; The Sin of Omission and Our Own , by Margaret E. Sangster; The Ballad of the Tempest , by James T. Fields; also the poems by Henry W. Longfellow, John G. Whittier, James Russell Lowell, Alice Cary, Phoebe Cary, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and J.T. Trowbridge, of whose works they are the authorized publishers. CHARLES H.L. JOHNSTON— The President RUDYARD KIPLING and DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY (A.P. WATT & SON, London, England) — Mother o' Mine LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD COMPANY— Hullo and The Volunteer Organist , both from "Back Country Poems," by Sam Walter Foss, and He Worried About It , from "Whiffs from Wild Meadows," by Sam Walter Foss. EDWIN MARKHAM— Lincoln, the Man of the People REILLY & LEE CO.— Home , from "A Heap o' Livin'," by Edgar A. Guest. FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY— Our Flag , by Margaret E. Sangster. CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS— I Have a Rendezvous with Death , by Alan Seeger; Song of the Chattahoochee , by Sidney Lanier; If All the Skies , by Henry van Dyke. HARR WAGNER PUBLISHING COMPANY— Mothers of Men and The Fortunate Isles , by Joaquin Miller. THE PUBLISHERS. POEMS TEACHERS ASK FOR BOOK TWO Home It takes a heap o' livin' in a house t' make it home, A heap o' sun an' shadder, an' ye sometimes have t' roam Afore ye really 'preciate the things ye left behind, An' hunger fer 'em somehow, with 'em allus on yer mind. It don't make any differunce how rich ye get t' be, How much yer chairs an' tables cost, how great yer luxury; It ain't home t' ye, though it be the palace of a king, Until somehow yer soul is sort o' wrapped 'round everything. Home ain't a place that gold can buy or get up in a minute; Afore it's home there's got t' be a heap o' livin' in it: Within the walls there's got t' be some babies born, and then Right there ye've got t' bring 'em up t' women good, an' men; And gradjerly, as time goes on ye find ye wouldn't part With anything they ever used—they've grown into yer heart; The old high chairs, the playthings, too, the little shoes they wore Ye hoard; an' if ye could ye'd keep the thumbmarks on the door. Ye've got t' weep t' make it home, ye've got t' sit and sigh An' watch beside a loved one's bed, an' know that Death is nigh; An' in the stillness o' the night t' see Death's angel come, An' close the eyes o' her that smiled, an' leave her sweet voice dumb. Fer these are scenes that grip the heart, an' when yer tears are dried, Ye find the home is dearer than it was, an' sanctified; An' tuggin' at ye always are the pleasant memories O' her that was an' is no more—ye can't escape from these. Ye've got t' sing and dance fer years, ye've got t' romp an' play, An' learn t' love the things ye have by usin' 'em each day; Even the roses 'round the porch must blossom year by year Afore they 'come a part o' ye, suggestin' someone dear Who used t' love 'em long ago, an' trained 'em jes' t' run The way they do, so's they would get the early mornin' sun; Ye've got t' love each brick an' stone from cellar up t' dome: It takes a heap o' livin' in a house f' make it home. Edgar A. Guest. The House with Nobody In It Whenever I walk to Suffern along the Erie track I go by a poor old farm-house with its shingles broken and black; I suppose I've passed it a hundred times, but I always stop for a minute And look at the house, the tragic house, the house with nobody in it. I've never seen a haunted house, but I hear there are such things; That they hold the talk of spirits, their mirth and sorrowings. I know that house isn't haunted and I wish it were, I do, For it wouldn't be so lonely if it had a ghost or two. This house on the road to Suffern needs a dozen panes of glass, And somebody ought to weed the walk and take a scythe to the grass. It needs new paint and shingles and vines should be trimmed and tied, But what it needs most of all is some people living inside. If I had a bit of money and all my debts were paid, I'd put a gang of men to work with brush and saw and spade. I'd buy that place and fix it up the way that it used to be, And I'd find some people who wanted a home and give it to them free. Now a new home standing empty with staring window and door Looks idle perhaps and foolish, like a hat on its block in the store, But there's nothing mournful about it, it cannot be sad and lone For the lack of something within it that it has never known. But a house that has done what a house should do, a house that has sheltered life, That has put its loving wooden arms around a man and his wife, A house that has echoed a baby's laugh and helped up his stumbling feet, Is the saddest sight, when it's left alone, that ever your eyes could meet. So whenever I go to Suffern along the Erie track I never go by the empty house without stopping and looking back, Yet it hurts me to look at the crumbling roof and the shutters fallen apart, For I can't help thinking the poor old house is a house with a broken heart. Joyce Kilmer. Color in the Wheat Like liquid gold the wheat field lies, A marvel of yellow and russet and green, That ripples and runs, that floats and flies, With the subtle shadows, the change, the sheen, That play in the golden hair of a girl,— A ripple of amber—a flare Of light sweeping after—a curl In the hollows like swirling feet Of fairy waltzers, the colors run To the western sun Through the deeps of the ripening wheat. Broad as the fleckless, soaring sky, Mysterious, fair as the moon-led sea, The vast plain flames on the dazzled eye Under the fierce sun's alchemy. The slow hawk stoops To his prey in the deeps; The sunflower droops To the lazy wave; the wind sleeps— Then swirling in dazzling links and loops, A riot of shadow and shine, A glory of olive and amber and wine, To the westering sun the colors run Through the deeps of the ripening wheat. O glorious land! My western land, Outspread beneath the setting sun! Once more amid your swells, I stand, And cross your sod-lands dry and dun. I hear the jocund calls of men Who sweep amid the ripened grain With swift, stern reapers; once again The evening splendor floods the plain, The crickets' chime Makes pauseless rhyme,