There are two distinct parts. What does each part describe? The first two stanzas describe a game of "Hide and Seek" between the father and the boy, and the last two, the father's intense longing for the boy whom he has lost. What kind of day is described in the first stanza? A bright and calm June day. What things suggest this? Sleeping trees, still winds, wandering clouds, "noonday silence". What does the writer represent the trees and the winds to be? Persons--the trees having the ability to sleep, and the winds to move or keep still. This is called personification. What are "fleecy clouds"? Clouds that are white and downy. The poet speaks of them as "flocks". What is the comparison intended? The comparison of the clouds to flocks of white sheep that, instead of wandering across a meadow, are wandering across the sky. What does the word "wandered" suggest? That the clouds are moving along slowly and leisurely without any purpose in view. They are doing this because the "winds are still". What is meant by saying that they "Have wandered past the hill"? They have gone below the horizon at the hilltop and cannot be seen. The sky is thus clear of clouds. What causes "the noonday silence"? The heat of the mid-day has silenced even the songs of the birds. Compare Keats: When all the birds are faint with the hot sun And hide in cooling trees. How is the silence broken? By the voice of the little boy hunting for his father. What do the words of the tune he is singing constitute? The rules of the game. The one hiding must respond "Coo-ee" each time the one searching calls. Where is his father? In a "leafy nook" in the woods. What does the question "Shall I let him pass?" seem to indicate? That his father hesitates for a moment to reveal himself. What does he do, however? He gives the boy the signal--a "low, soft whistle". He cannot "let him pass". What is shown in the last long line of the stanza? That the man enters into the spirit of the game with the same zest as the boy. What feeling exists between the two? A feeling of perfect good-fellowship and affection. Explain, "you're it". Your turn to hunt, mine to hide. What further rules of the game are given here? (Every boy and girl will know these.) What change in feeling is there between the first two stanzas and the last two? A sudden transition from gaiety and light-heartedness to sorrow. What has happened? The boy is dead.