My+Childhood+Home+I+See+Again

__Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)__ //from// **My Childhood-Home I See Again**

My childhood's home I see again, And sadden with the view; And still, as memory crowds my brain, There's pleasure in it too.

O Memory! thou midway world 'Twixt earth and paradise, Where things decayed and loved ones lost In dreamy shadows rise,

And, freed from all that's earthly vile, Seem hallowed, pure, and bright, Like scenes in some enchanted isle All bathed in liquid light.

As dusky mountains please the eye When twilight chases day; As bugle-tones that, passing by, In distance die away;

As leaving some grand waterfall, We, lingering, list its roar— So memory will hallow all We've known, but know no more.

Near twenty years have passed away Since here I bid farewell To woods and fields, and scenes of play, And playmates loved so well.

Where many were, but few remain Of old familiar things; But seeing them, to mind again The lost and absent brings.

The friends I left that parting day, How changed, as time has sped! Young childhood grown, strong manhood gray, And half of all are dead.

I hear the loved survivors tell How nought from death could save, Till every sound appears a knell, And every spot a grave.

I range the fields with pensive tread, And pace the hollow rooms, And feel (companion of the dead) I'm living in the tombs.

"My _ I See Again" I will ask students to close their eyes and think about a time when they had to depart a place that they did not want to: moving to another state, moving to a new house and changing schools, leaving a best friend's birthday party, leaving Ms. B's Language Arts class, etc. This specific situation will replace "childhood home" in Abraham Lincoln's "My Childhood Home I See Again". Ask for emotions they felt during this experience. They will they open their eyes and jot down adjectives that they felt. Using the same format of Abe's poem, students will re-write the first four stanzas.
 * Kay B: Poetry Writing Activity **

A variation that can be used for my Thematic Unit: __The Watson's Go to Birmingham - 1963__ Place yourself in the shoes of one of the family members of the Watson Family- Kenneth, Byron, Joetta, Wilona, and Daniel. How did you feel moving from Michigan to Alabama? How will living in the North be different from the South? What characteristics of Northerners will you miss? How do you expect Southerners to welcome you? Students can jot these down. Later students will construct their own poem by modeling the format and structure of Abe Lincoln's poem.