Who wrote the line about teaching the nation fairness, thrift, and a golden tongue?

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Multiple Choice

Who wrote the line about teaching the nation fairness, thrift, and a golden tongue?

The line reflects a careful, moralizing view of national character—one that treats civic virtues as something to be taught to the nation, with a measured, traditional voice. That style and focus fit Robert P. Tristram Coffin, whose poetry often contemplates America’s character and the virtues that ought to shape it, in a formal, reflective manner. Carl Sandburg would lean toward a more bold, ground-level, free-verse portrait of American life; Ralph Waldo Emerson writes in a philosophical, individualist key; Mark Twain uses humor and satire to critique society. The constellations of tone and purpose here point to Coffin as the best match for that line.

The line reflects a careful, moralizing view of national character—one that treats civic virtues as something to be taught to the nation, with a measured, traditional voice. That style and focus fit Robert P. Tristram Coffin, whose poetry often contemplates America’s character and the virtues that ought to shape it, in a formal, reflective manner.

Carl Sandburg would lean toward a more bold, ground-level, free-verse portrait of American life; Ralph Waldo Emerson writes in a philosophical, individualist key; Mark Twain uses humor and satire to critique society. The constellations of tone and purpose here point to Coffin as the best match for that line.

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