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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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Duty

44 lines
Arthur Hugh Clough·1819–1861
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uty that’s to say, complying,With whate’er’s expected here;On your unknown cousin’s dying,Straight be ready with the tear;Upon etiquette relying,Unto usage nought denying,Lend your waist to be embraced,Blush not even, never fear;Claims of kith and kin connection,Claims of manners honour still,Ready money of affectionPay, whoever drew the bill.With the form conforming duly,Senseless what it meaneth truly,Go to church the world require you,To balls the world require you too,And marry papa and mamma desire you,And your sisters and schoolfellows do.Duty ’tis to take on trustWhat things are good, and right, and just;And whether indeed they be or be not,Try not, test not, feel not, see not:’Tis walk and dance, sit down and riseBy leading, opening ne’er your eyes;Stunt sturdy limbs that Nature gave,And be drawn in a Bath chair along to the grave.’Tis the stern and prompt suppressing,As an obvious deadly sin,All the questing and the guessingOf the souls own soul within:’Tis the coward acquiescenceIn a destiny’s behest,To a shade by terror made,Sacrificing, aye, the essenceOf all that’s truest, noblest, best:’Tis the blind non-recognitionOr of goodness, truth, or beauty,Save by precept and submission;Moral blank, and moral void,Life at very birth destroyed.Atrophy, exinanition!Duty!Yea, by duty’s prime conditionPure nonentity of duty!
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