Friday, February 12, 2016

It snowed this morning


townandcountrymag.co.uk

Every other Friday, I teach a Girls Morning Class. The girls are delightful. 
We cover Plutarch, folk songs, poetry, The Taming of the Shrew and always
a short dictation. The girls range from 10-14. So...... this morning about 
11:00 , there was a " IT'S SNOWING!!!" We became like those animals 
staring at the beauty. Today I had planned for Emily Dickinson's poem:


It sifts from Leaden Sieves -
It powders all the Wood.
It fills with Alabaster Wool
The Wrinkles of the Road -

There is was: the snow in Emily's poem. One girl had recited this poem
right at the beginning of class when it was just plain cold outside.  They begged to go  out and declared me to be the best teacher in the whole world. They ran  outside to catch snow on their tongues until the cold sent them back in . We read Emily...and  each found their favorite verbs about snow:

sifts
powders


It reaches to the Fence -
It wraps it Rail by Rail
Till it is lost in Fleeces -
It deals Celestial Vail

lost

It Ruffles Wrists of Posts
As Ankles of a Queen -
Then stills it’s Artisans - like Ghosts -
Denying they have been -

ruffles
stills


We watched the snow do all those verbs. Sifting like flour from God's sky.  The girls ran outside again and the snow was enough to make  tiny snowmen. 

Then  in for Shakespeare: Act. 5, Scene 1 of The Taming of the Shrew. The merchant is looking out the window. Wow. We had been doing that for the past hour. 

   Sometimes I have to just know that God is with us/me when after a weary week.  He shows His glory in making the lessons fit together in ways I could not have planned. We stood  in awe and wonder.  Pure delight at the snow...





2 comments:

GretchenJoanna said...

What a blessed day! I didn't know that poem before, but it is a good one.

Not that I have that much experience with snow....and in my town today, people were complaining of the heat and wearing tank tops!

Bonnie said...

Very, very cold here today for Valentine's Day.