Clear had the day been from the dawn,
All chequer’d was the sky,
Thin clouds like scarfs of cobweb lawn
Veil’d heaven’s most glorious eye.
The wind had no more strength than this,
That leisurely it blew,
To make one leaf the next to kiss
That closely by it grew.
Golden Numbers Edited by Kate Douglas Wiggin (1909) | Michael Drayton
Suggestions
Have your students do one or more of the following.
- Read the poem aloud.
- Michael Drayton was an Elizabethan English poet. Explain that chequer’d and veil’d would commonly be spelled checkered and veiled in today’s American English.
- Copy the verse.
- He can also draw or illustrate one of the stanzas.
- What type of day is it today?
- Have your student write a description of today’s weather using the same form as the poem.
- Try cloud watching. Resources below.
Additional Resources
Windy Day Experiments ~ Free
Experiments to learn more about the wind.
Cloud Matchbooks ~ Free Find
Free notebooking/lapbooking aid for identifying and recording clouds and charting the weather. Great for cloud watching.
