The Courtship of Miles Standish
Reading Comprehension Activity

In 1858, Henry Wadsworth  Longfellow wrote the poem The Courtship of Miles Standish. One of his most popular romantic poems, it tells of a love triangle between three Pilgrims from Plymouth Colony. Both Miles Standish and John Alden are in love with Priscilla Mullins. Standish is a brash soldier and leader of the Plymouth Colony. Alden, however, is quieter and shyer than Standish. The characters in the poem were actual Pilgrims on the Mayflower and later in Plymouth. In this stanza, John brings Priscilla flowers while she works at a spinning wheel.

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So he entered the house:
and the hum of the wheel and the singing

Suddenly ceased; for
Priscilla, aroused by his step on the threshold,

Rose as he entered, and
gave him her hand, in signal of welcome,

Saying, “I knew it was
you, when I heard your step in the passage;

For I was thinking of
you, as I sat there singing and spinning.”

Awkward and dumb with
delight, that a thought of him had been mingled

Thus in the sacred
psalm, that came from the heart of the maiden,

Silent before her he
stood, and gave her the flowers for an answer,
Finding no words for his
thought. He remembered that day in the winter,

After the first great
snow, when he broke a path from the village,

Reeling and plunging
along through the drifts that encumbered the doorway,

Stamping the snow from
his feet as he entered the house, and Priscilla

Laughed at his snowy
locks, and gave him a seat by the fireside,

Grateful and pleased to
know he had thought of her in the snow-storm.

Had he but spoken then!
perhaps not in vain had he spoken;

Now it was all too late;
the golden moment had vanished!

So he stood there abashed, and gave her the flowers
for an answer.