SC+Philip+Booth's+Higher+Purpose

The purpose of "First Lesson", by Philip Booth, is a father teaching his daughter lessons of life when she is going to be on her own. The **first lesson** that is addressed within the poem is that if you are frightened to drown in a huge ocean, the only thing you have to do is lie back and lie on the surface of the water. In this poem, Philip Booth is trying to say that "trust", is the number one lesson in life. Similar to floating in the ocean, if you trust the people and the universe surrounding you, they will not disappoint you. If you believe in the water beneath you and float, smoothly, while looking up at the sky, then you will not know you are laying on a body of water, rather than standing on a bulk of land.

Good job moving from the literal meaning of a poem to the figurative meaning; that's hard to do at times, and you should be proud of your work!