Oshkosh High School - Index Yearbook (Oshkosh, WI)

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MAY INDEX FOR NINETEEN HUNDRED SEVENTEEN A May Day Game IRMA NIGHTHART THE first of May dawned bright and clear. The pupils of the country school were going on their annual trip of gathering May flowers. At nine, the teacher and pupils had arrived at the school-house, and, lunch-boxes in hand, this gay procession started for the woods. Arriving in the woods the boys and girls scattered in various directions to gather flowers. After picking for some time, they returned to the place where they had left their lunches. Every one found that the lunches, which on starting from home were declared too large for such a tramp, were scarcely enough to satisfy their appetites. While the hungry childr en were eating, they became aware of a small pair of beady black eyes that was watching them. Soon a twittering was heard and a much enraged little black and white bird about seven inches long flew away but soon came back again. This act was repeated several times. The teacher explained to the children that they must be near his nesting place. Do any of you know the name of the bird? she questioned. Several voices shouted in unison the Bob-o ' -link. You are right, she said. Do you know a poem about him? This time only one pupil, a girl, answered Robert-o ' -Lincoln. That, explained the teacher, is the name William Cullen Bryant called the bird. To Bryant he is a bridegroom dressed in his wedding garments of black and white. Probably his stride has also influenced Bryant to call him braggart and prince of braggarts. His song as Bryant hears it is: Bob-o ' -link, bob-o ' -link, Spink, spank, spink, Chee, chee, chee! Give, me another poem which Bryant wrote about a bird, and then hearing no response, she began: Seek ' st thou the plashy brink Of reedy lake, or marge of river wide, Or where the rocky billows rise and sink. On the chafed ocean side? All the pupils at once responded, The Waterfowl. What poem did he also write about a flower which I think most of you picked this morning? A sixth grade boy sitting on the outside of the circle answered, The Yellow Violet. Now, said the teacher, you see the influence which a bird or flower may have on the life work of one man. Since we have commenced to give Page seventeen

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i V The Star-Spangled Banner Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn ' s early light, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight ' s last gleaming? Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro ' the perilous fight, O ' er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming? And the rockets ' red glare, the bombs bursting in air. Gave proof thro ' the night that our flag was still t here. Oh, say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave O ' er the land of the free and the home of the brave? On the shore dimly seen through the mist of the deep. Where the foe ' s haughty host in dead silence reposes. What is that which the breeze, o ' er the towering steep, As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses? Now it catches the gleam of the morning ' s first beam. In full glory reflected, now shines on the stream: ' Tis the star-spangled banner, oh, long may it wave O ' er the land of the free and the home of the brave. Oh, thus be it ever when freemen shall stand Between their loved home and wild war ' s desolation; Blest with victory and peace, may the heaven-rescued land Praise the power that hath made and preserved us a nation! Then conquer we must, xvhen our cause is just. And this be or motto: In God our trust! And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave O ' er the land of the free and the home of the brave. Page sixteen i

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MAY INDEX FOR NINETEEN HUNDRED SEVENTEEN the influence of birds and flowers on one writer, suppose we continue and give otfiers. Emerson seems to have been quite a nature writer. What bird has he immortalized by a poem? The pupils vied with each other in an- swering this. Finally a fourth grader who had just finished reading this poem answered, The Chicka-dee. Now name another author who has taken up the cause of a simple flower, which, because of its abundance, is ignored. Probably many of you tO|day have trampled upon it, seeing many of the flowers less numerous ahead of you. Soon all came to the conclusion that it must be the dande- lion and that the teacher had in mind Lowell ' s poem To a Dandelion. Then Miss Jane asked her pupils what poet had sung the praises of the bluebird. All shouted, Longfellow. What bird does Thoreau tell us says to the farmer planting corn Drop it, drop it, cover it up, cover it up? Accordingly, as all were farmer chil- dren, they answered The Brown Thrasher. You see now how a very small call which you would not interpret at all probably is an inspiration to a poet or writer. Yes, the sparrow for example, some boys kill it simply for the sake of shooting something, said a girl who had hitherto remained silent. Mr. Lathrop wrote about the sparrow. The poem is in one of father ' s books at home. Another girl who had until now paid very little attention to the conver- sation, asked: Miss Jane, have you read the ' Skylark? ' Miss Jane confessed that she had not. Well you know at the Mother ' s club, the ladies were discussing the subject of birds. One woman told a story which John Burroughs wrote about an American. It seems the man became enthusiastic over the poem and when he went to England he went out with the book and wandered through the fields. He thought that it would help him to understand the bird language just as Shelley understood it. When he went back to the house he said he had heard no larks, although they sang and soared above him all the time. y Mfss Jane asked her pupils if they knew why the man did not under- stand the bird notes. She waited a moment and then said: Why, simply because he did not hear the song as Shelley heard it. So it is with us, even the commonest birds and flowers are looked upon as pests by some people while to others they are beautiful. Page eighteen