Washington

Washington

He played by the river when he was young.
He raced with rabbits along the hills,
He fished for minnows, and climbed and swung,
And hooted back at the whippoorwills.
Stronger and slender, and tall he grew--
And then, one morning, the bugles blew.

Over the hills the summons came,
Over the rivers shining rim.
He said that the bugle called his name,
He knew his country needed him,
And he answered, Coming! and marched away
For many a night and many a day.

Perhaps when the marches were hot and long
He'd think of the river flowing by
Or, camping under the winter sky,
Would hear the whippoorwills far-off song.
Working or playing, in peace or strife,
He loved America all his life!

Nancy Byrd Turner

This is the poem H had to read today for Language Arts. As usual, we did a little comprehension session after he finished reading it.

In his usual chattering mode, he answered my questions with a lot of gibberish in between the answers.

So when I asked him,

"What does the line Washington said about the bugles calling his name mean?"

He replied almost immediately with an exaggerated expression and a chipmunk-like voice,

"Washingtonnn! Washingtonnn!"

and then just as immediately as he responded with that little bit of entertainment for my listening pleasure, his eyes widened and a look of "Aha!" dawned on his face.

"Oh yeah! Calling him to war!"

I didn't expect him to come up with the answer, and was rather anticipating having to explain it to him, but the transition between him making it into a joke and actually arriving at the correct answer tickled me. I burst out laughing. It was contagious indeed and we both ended up laughing.

The jolly mood continued on as I asked more questions.

"How do you think the poet feels about Washington?"

"She likes him," he replied.

"What in the poem shows how the poet feels about Washington?"

He paused for a while. Then a glint of mischief crept into his eyes and I could see it coming from behind those dirty lenses of his glasses.

"She wrote a poem about him!" he exclaimed, proud to have come up with his own sassy response.

I couldn't help but burst out laughing again.

This Big Shake is truly something to contend with. With his blue overall, blue shirt and blue-rimmed glasses, he is anything but a carrier of the blues today, as he turns seven.