🖋 🇺🇸 WONDERFUL WORDS: America’s Choosing Day

Tuesday (November 5th) is Election Day in the United States. This is a presidential election year when (at the federal level) the office of President is open, along with all House seats and a third of the seats in the Senate. A wide range of state and local government offices will also be open. We don’t do current politics here in the River Houses, but we definitely do literature (and history and civics), so there’s no better week than this to have the Poet of America, Walt Whitman (1818–1892), remind your students what the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November is about. It’s our homeschool poem for this election season.

Election Day, November 1884

If I should need to name, O Western World, your powerfulest scene and show,
’Twould not be you, Niagara — nor you, ye limitless prairies — nor your
     huge rifts of canyons, Colorado,
Nor you, Yosemite — nor Yellowstone, with all its spasmic geyser-loops
     ascending to the skies, appearing and disappearing,
Nor Oregon’s white cones — nor Huron’s belt of mighty lakes — nor
     Mississippi’s stream:
— This seething hemisphere’s humanity, as now, I’d name — the still small
     voice vibrating — America’s choosing day,
(The heart of it not in the chosen — the act itself the main, the quadriennial
     choosing,)
The stretch of North and South arous’d — sea-board and inland — Texas to
     Maine — the Prairie States — Vermont, Virginia, California,
The final ballot-shower from East to West — the paradox and conflict,
The countless snow-flakes falling — (a swordless conflict,
Yet more than all Rome’s wars of old, or modern Napoleon’s:) the peaceful
     choice of all,
Or good or ill humanity — welcoming the darker odds, the dross:
— Foams and ferments the wine? it serves to purify — while the heart pants,
     life glows:
These stormy gusts and winds waft precious ships,
Swell’d Washington’s, Jefferson’s, Lincoln’s sails.

I’m sure the presidential candidates of 1884 are right on the tip of your tongue, yes? Don’t worry, I had to look them up too. The 1884 presidential election was between Grover Cleveland and James Blaine, and an assortment of minor-party candidates. Cleveland, the Democrat, won that year.

What wonderful words and poetical productions are you and your students examining in your homeschool this Cygnus Term? 🗳

❡ These stormy gusts and winds waft precious ships: If a special line or turn of phrase happens to strike you in one of our weekly poems, just copy it onto your homeschool bulletin board for a few days and invite your students to speak it aloud — that’s all it takes to begin a new poetical friendship and learn a few lovely words that will stay with you for life. 🇺🇸

❡ This is a printable lesson: Down at the bottom of this post you’ll find a custom “Print” button that will let you create a neat and easy-to-read copy of this little lesson, and it will even let you resize or delete elements that you may not want or need (such as images or footnotes). Give it a try today! 🖨

❡ Literary lives: The website of the Poetry Foundation includes biographical notes and examples of the work of many important poets (including Walt Whitman) that are suitable for high school students and homeschool teachers. ✒️

❡ Here, said the year: This post is one of our regular homeschool poems-of-the-week. Print your own River Houses Poetry Calendar to follow along with us as we visit fifty of our favorite friends over the course of the year, and add your name to our River Houses mailing list to get posts like these delivered right to your mailbox every week. 📫

❡ Homeschool calendars: We have a whole collection of free, printable, educational homeschool calendars and planners available on our main River Houses calendar page. They will help you create a light and easy structure for your homeschool year. Give them a try today! 🗓

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❡ Join us! The aim of the River Houses project is to create a network of friendly local homeschool support groups — local chapters that we call “Houses.” Our first at-large chapter, Headwaters House, is now forming and is open to homeschoolers everywhere. Find out how to become one of our founding members on the Headwaters House membership page. 🏡