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ReadingWillow structured literacy program for Australian students
Poetry Library

— Stephen Crane

I stood upon a high place,

And saw, below, many devils

Running, leaping,

And carousing in sin.

…

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adjective

Engaged in or ready for action; characterized by energetic work, thought, or speech.

“The students were very active in class discussions, asking many thoughtful questions.”

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A London Idyll

51 lines
Arthur Hugh Clough·1819–1861
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n grass, on gravel, in the sun,Or now beneath the shade,They went, in pleasant Kensington,A prentice and a maid. That Sunday morning’s April glow,How should it not impartA stir about the veins that flowTo feed the youthful heart. Ah! years may come, and years may bringThe truth that is not bliss,But will they bring another thingThat can compare with this? I read it in that arm she laysSo soft on his; her mien,Her step, her very gown betrays(What in her eyes were seen)That not in vain the young buds round,The cawing birds above,The air, the incense of the ground,Are whispering, breathing love. Ah I years may come, &c. To inclination, young and blind,So perfect, as they lent,By purest innocence confinedUnconscious free consent.Persuasive power of vernal change,On this, thine earliest day,Canst thou have found in all thy rangeOne fitter type than they? Ah! years may come, &c. Th’ high-titled cares of adult strife,Which we our duties call,Trades, arts, and politics of life,Say, have they after all,One other object, end or useThan that, for girl and boy,The punctual earth may still produceThis golden flower of joy. Ah! years may come, &c. O odours of new-budding rose,O lily’s chaste perfume,O fragrance that didst first uncloseThe young Creation’s bloom!Ye hang around me, while in sunAnon and now in shade,I watched in pleasant KensingtonThe prentice and the maid. Ah! years may come, and years may bringThe truth that is not bliss,But will they bring another thingThat will compare with this?
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