'T is Spring again and the grasses hark
To the magic message the winds convey,
The flowers push through the damp and the dark
To star the meadows of May;

The rivers long in the winter's trance

Now over the rocks their waters fling,
Or softly steal where the sunbeams glance
Through blossoms and buds of Spring.

'Tis Spring again and the vagrant heart
Of the poet pent in the city's walls
Is flying far from the crowd apart

Where the voice of the young year calls.
For tired is he of struggle and strife,

Of thoughts that trouble, of cares that cling,
And dreams of a sweeter, simpler life.
Awake at the touch of Spring!

"Voices from Erin."

Denis McCarthy

Notice the gentle feeling of early spring in Denis McCarthy's poem on "'T is Spring Again." Read it with all the inner joy and the feeling of peace that come to us in the early spring. Let the poem bring a great variety of delicate pictures and a feeling for all the visions of springing life.

THE FIGHTING TÉMÉRAIRE

It was eight bells ringing,

For the morning watch was done,
And the gunner's lads were singing,
As they polished every gun.

It was eight bells ringing,

And the gunner's lads were singing
For the ship she rode a-swinging,
As they polished every gun.

Oh! to see the linstock lighting,
Téméraire! Téméraire!

Oh! to hear the round shot biting,
Téméraire! Têméraire!

Oh! to see the linstock lighting,
And to hear the round shot biting,
For we 're all in love with fighting
On the Fighting Téméraire.

It was noontide ringing,

And the battle just begun,

When the ship her way was winging,
As they loaded every gun.

It was noontide ringing

When the ship her way was winging,
And the gunner's lads were singing,
As they loaded every gun.

There'll be many grim and gory,
Téméraire! Téméraire !
There'll be few to tell the story,
Téméraire! Téméraire!

There'll be many grim and gory,
There'll be few to tell the story,
But we'll all be one in glory
With the Fighting Téméraire.

There's a far bell ringing

At the setting of the sun,
And a phantom voice is singing
Of the great days done.
There's a far bell ringing,
And a phantom voice is singing
Of renown forever clinging
To the great days done.

Now the sunset breezes shiver,
Téméraire! Téméraire!
And she's fading down the river,
Téméraire! Téméraire!

Now the sunset breezes shiver,
And she's fading down the river,
But in England's song for ever

She's the Fighting Téméraire.

Henry Newbolt

Read the preceding lines first with only a vague, general idea; and then in a way to impress each separate idea upon others, so that they will think it with you. To do this what is needful?

You center your attention successively upon one idea at a time, and pause before each one. After such words as "hands," "earnest," "brave," "true," "feet," "faces" you also pause.

When you read it hurriedly or with the mind only upon the general thought you make few pauses, but when you try to lead somebody to think with you point after point, you make a great many pauses; you breathe often; you realize every successive idea.

We have already learned that we must not give words until the pictures or ideas for which they stand have come into the mind. We must not only see but must also feel these pictures, and feel them so intensely that they establish certain conditions, cause us to expand, take breath, and open the throat; only then can we speak the words in a way that will naturally and truly reveal their meaning.

Now, observe as the next step that in order to grasp the words, to think and feel what they awaken in us, and to cause an immediate response in our body, in breathing, and the tone passage, or to get others to think with us, a moment of time is necessary.

The time taken to allow the image and feeling to awaken right conditions of voice and body to respond is called a pause. A pause implies that we are thinking. If you did nothing but stop, such a hesitation would have no meaning. But a pause in union with thinking means attention.

VACATION-TIME

All the world is set to rhyme
Now it is vacation-time,
And a swelling flood of joy
Brims the heart of every boy,
No more rote and no more rule,
No more staying after school
When the dreamy brain forgets
Tiresome tasks the master sets;
Nothing but to play and play
Through an endless holiday.

Morn or afternoon, may all
Swing the bat and catch the ball;
Nimble-footed, race and run
Through the meadows in the sun,
Chasing winged scraps of light,
Butterflies in darting flight;

Or where willows lean and look
Down at others in the brook,
Frolic loud the stream within,
Every arm a splashing fin.

Where the thorny thickets bar,
There the sweetest berries are;
Where the shady banks make dim
Pebbly pools, the shy trout swim;
Where the boughs are mossiest,
Builds the humming-bird a nest;
These are haunts the rover seeks,
Touch of tan upon his cheeks,
And within his heart the joy
Known to no one but a boy.

All the world is set to rhyme
Now it is vacation-time.

"A Boy's Book of Rhyme."

Clinton Scollard

If we simply see words and speak them, one after another, without stopping, then our minds can receive no clear image; we can have no feeling and no response. Our

images or ideas will be confused; they will come after the words; we shall have no real enjoyment; the voice will be cold and hard and will not reveal the spirit or meaning of the passage. Without an impression, there can be no expression; hence, a pause is necessary, that we may think and feel before we speak.

Read this poem about "Vacation" from Mr. Clinton Scollard's "A Boy's Book of Rhyme." Take time to see and enjoy every successive picture. The lines are short, yet we can sometimes pause more than once in a line if some new thought, idea or picture is suggested by the words.

Try an experiment. Merely stop without thinking or receiving an image, without enjoying what the words should awaken. Now you observe that the most important thing is not the pause but the action of the mind during the pause. We may stop because we have nothing to say. We may stop because we meet with a difficult word. All such stops are hesitations and show weakness. They become no part of Expression, but are the death of Expression. A true expressive pause comes when we stop speaking in order to receive a deeper impression, in order really to think, to enjoy or to grasp something with the mind. We must take something before we can give it.

A genuine pause is like the lifting of the hammer before the stroke. We cannot make a good stroke without such a lift of the hammer. Good reading demands preparation. We must take before we show. We must live before we give.

Observe people carefully when you see them talking, and notice how many pauses they make in simple conversation. A genuine pause is part of the rhythm of thinking. In a true pause the talker not only thinks the idea himself but causes another to think it. A pause is either a sustaining of his own attention or the attention of another, or both. This study of conversation shows us that we have two kinds of pauses. We often pause not merely to get an idea but to assure ourselves that the listener grasps the idea