The Darkling Thrush by Thomas Hardy (and SAT Essay Prep)

I leant upon a coppice gate
When Frost was spectre-gray,
And Winter’s dregs made desolate
The weakening eye of day.
The tangled bine-stems scored the sky
Like strings of broken lyres,
And all mankind that haunted nigh
Had sought their household fires. Read more

Our Students Need to Write More

During the past decade, I’ve spent a fair amount of time evaluating student writing and teaching SAT prep essay workshops and online high school literature classes. I’ve had the chance to read hundreds of papers from students all over the country, and I’ve discovered one small key to success in writing: Write More...

That’s a directive that easily questioned– write more what? Words? Minutes? Pages? My response is simple– YES to all of the above. Students who write often, tend to write better and more easily than students who are rarely required to pick up a pen (or turn on the computer). Read more

Gratefulnesse by George Herbert

GRATEFULNESSE

by George Herbert (1593- 1633)

Thou that hast giv’n so much to me,
Give one thing more, a grateful heart.
See how thy beggar works on thee
By art.

He makes thy gifts occasion more,
And says, If he in this be crossed,
All thou hast giv’n him heretofore
Is lost.

But thou didst reckon, when at first
Thy word our hearts and hands did crave,
What it would come to at the worst
To save.

Perpetual knockings at thy door,
Tears sullying thy transparent rooms,
Gift upon gift, much would have more,
And comes.

This not withstanding, thou wenst on,
And didst allow us all our noise:
Nay thou hast made a sigh and groan
Thy joys.

Not that thou hast not still above
Much better tunes, than groans can make;
But that these country-airs thy love
Did take.

Wherefore I cry, and cry again;
And in no quiet canst thou be,
Till I a thankful heart obtain
Of thee:

Not thankful, when it pleaseth me;
As if thy blessings had spare days:
But such a heart, whose pulse may be
Thy praise.

This lovely poem is one of my favorites, and I think often of the last stanza. I very much enjoy George Herbert’s way of visually and aurally emphasizing important elements in his poems.

In my beautiful old volume of Herbert’s poetry (left), a gift from my oldest son, the last line of each stanza is spaced flush right, so that it is emphasized. I tried very hard to make it appear this way in this post, but it didn’t cooperate, so you’ll just have to imagine it. Better yet, use the poem as copywork, and write it spaced this way, and both you and your students will have an increased appreciation of its beauty. Be sure to notice Herbert’s warm, intimate tone, as of a child speaking to a father.

With this, I wish you a joyous Thanksgiving!

Copywork for Teens

“Mom, I need some copywork!”

I thought my son was kidding when he approached me this morning. After all, he is taking college classes, and doing quite a lot of writing. I thought he’d finished with copywork years ago! As soon as he explained why he wanted it, though, I knew he was right. He did need copywork! He was finding that as he took quick notes in class, his handwriting was getting less and less legible. He needed to practice writing both quickly and neatly, and copywork is the perfect tool for that.

To make his copywork, I copied the first eight verses of Psalm 119 onto college-ruled paper, skipping every other line. That way, he could write directly under my letters, which would remind him to watch his spacing and letterforms. As we did when he was younger, we each used a different color pen, so the finished page looked interesting.

Copywork is an excellent tool for teens who need to improve their handwriting for the essay portion of the SAT or ACT. I’ve read a number of articles that indicate that test evaluators are having serious problems reading some of the handwriting on these exams. Needless to say, if they can’t read it, they can’t evaluate it! Read more