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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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What? Is the hour already for the Court?

29 lines
Arthur Hugh Clough·1819–1861
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_Enter a Servant._) _Serv._ My lord, a woman begging to be seen. _Di._ A woman begging to be seen? What’s this?’Tis not the duty of your post, my friend,To give admittance on the busy daysOf a hard labourer in this great worldTo all poor creatures begging to be seen.Something unusual in it? Bid her waitIn the room below, I’ll see her as I pass.Is the horse there? _Serv._ He’s coming round, my lord. _Di._ Say I will see her as I pass. (_Exit Servant._)I have but one way left; but that one way,On which once entered, there is no return;And as there’s no return, no looking back,Amidst the smoky tumult of this fieldWhereon, enlisted once, in arms we stand,Nor know, nor e’en remotely can divineThe sense, or purport, or the probable end,One only guide to our blind work we keep,To obey orders, and to fight it out.Some hapless sad petitioner, no doubt,With the true plaintiveness of real distress,Twisting her misery to a marketable lie,To waste my close-shorn interval of rest._She_ came upon me in my weaker thoughts,Those weaker thoughts that still indeed recur,But come, my servants, at a word to go. (_Enter Woman._)
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