To give an extended account of the author's life is a poor introduction, unless there is something of unusual interest about his personality or achievements. The pupils usually do not know anything about him, and the teacher's aim, in this preparatory work, is to relate the thought and feeling of the poem to the properly assimilated knowledge and experience of the pupils. In some cases, they may have made a favourable acquaintance with the author in another poem, and this may give the necessary stimulus to their interest in his life. The best time, however, to give a biography of an author, when that is helpful, is after the lesson has been studied, for then the pupils will appreciate what the teacher has to say about him personally.
In some poems, the circumstances under which they are written will be the only introduction necessary, as in the case of _Break, break, break_ or _The Recessional_.
There is often an appropriate time for the teaching of a literature lesson. Sometimes it is the season of the year. The lesson on _An Apple Orchard in the Spring_ should come when the blossoms are stimulating every bird and child with their loveliness, fragrance, and promise. _The First Ploughing_ and the various poems on birds and flowers should come at this season. They can be followed, in turn, by _A Midsummer Song_ and _The Maple_. There are poems in the Readers for September, November, Indian Summer, and Winter; and a wealth of material for the Christmas season. Yet the season may not always determine the time for such lessons. The pupil who has observed again and again an apple orchard in the spring, and who knows birds and trees, has a store of memories that will enable him to picture vividly what he reads about these at any time.
It may be objected that these methods of introduction make the pupil depend too much on the teacher, and do not throw him sufficiently on his own resources. It is to be remembered, however, that the great object of teaching literature is to cultivate a taste for it. When the pupil approaches a selection with ideas and feelings which are already, in his consciousness, related to those presented in the poem, he is in the best possible mental attitude to appreciate it, and the probability of his liking it is much greater than if it were presented without any such introduction. The pupil's first impressions of a poem are all-important, and it is essential that his first introduction to it should be made under the most favourable circumstances. If his first acquaintance with poetry is made under pleasant conditions, he will inevitably develop a taste for poetical literature, and that is the object which the teacher has in view. When this taste has been formed, it will not be necessary that the teacher should be at hand in order to recall the proper experiences for the interpretation of a passage. The pupil will read appreciatively on his own account, without any such assistance.