Page 35 - SpringBoard_CloseReading_Workshop_Grade6_Flipbook

Close Reading of poetry (continued)
key ideas and deTails
Which details help convey Lincoln’s emotional state as he walks at midnight?
Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight by Vachel Lindsay
(In Springfield, Illinois)
It is portentous, and a thing of state
That here at midnight, in our little town
A mourning figure walks, and will not rest, Near the old court-house pacing up and down.
5 Or by his homestead, or in shadowed yards
He lingers where his children used to play,
Or through the market, on the well-worn stones He stalks until the dawn-stars burn away.
A bronzed, lank man! His suit of ancient black, 10 A famous high top-hat and plain worn shawl
Make him the quaint great figure that men love, The prairie-lawyer, master of us all.
He cannot sleep upon his hillside now. He is among us:—as in times before!
15 And we who toss and lie awake for long
Breathe deep, and start, to see him pass the door.
His head is bowed. He thinks on men and kings. Yea, when the sick world cries, how can he sleep? Too many peasants fight, they know not why,
20 Too many homesteads in black terror weep.
The sins of all the war-lords burn his heart.
He sees the dreadnaughts scouring every main. He carries on his shawl-wrapped shoulders now The bitterness, the folly and the pain.
25 He cannot rest until a spirit-dawn
Shall come;—the shining hope of Europe free; The league of sober folk, the Workers’ Earth, Bringing long peace to Cornland, Alp and Sea.
key ideas and deTails
How do the poet’s descriptions of Lincoln show the contradiction in his personality — that he is both “quaint” and “great”?
key ideas and deTails
What does the poet imagine that Lincoln is thinking about and hoping for?
34 SpringBoard® English Language Arts Grade 6
© 2014 College Board. All rights reserved.