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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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VII. TO THE BODY.

53 lines
Coventry Patmore·1823–1896
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reation's and Creator's crowning good;Wall of infinitude;Foundation of the sky,In Heaven forecastAnd long'd for from eternity,Though laid the last;Reverberating dome,Of music cunningly built homeAgainst the void and indolent disgraceOf unresponsive space;Little, sequester'd pleasure-houseFor God and for His Spouse;Elaborately, yea, past conceiving, fair,Since, from the graced decorum of the hair,Ev'n to the tingling, sweetSoles of the simple, earth-confiding feet,And from the inmost heartOutwards unto the thinSilk curtains of the skin,Every least partAstonish'd hearsAnd sweet replies to some like region of the spheres;Form'd for a dignity prophets but darkly name,Lest shameless men cry 'Shame!'So rich with wealth conceal'dThat Heaven and Hell fight chiefly for this field;Clinging to everything that pleases theeWith indefectible fidelity;Alas, so trueTo all thy friendships that no graceThee from thy sin can wholly disembrace;Which thus 'bides with thee as the Jebusite,That, maugre all God's promises could do,The chosen People never conquer'd quite;Who therefore lived with them,And that by formal truce and as of right,In metropolitan Jerusalem.For which false fealtyThou needs must, for a season, lieIn the grave's arms, foul and unshriven,Albeit, in Heaven,Thy crimson-throbbing GlowInto its old abode aye pants to go,And does with envy seeEnoch, Elijah, and the Lady, sheWho left the roses in her body's lieu.O, if the pleasures I have known in theeBut my poor faith's poor first-fruits be,What quintessential, keen, ethereal blissThen shall be hisWho has thy birth-time's consecrating dewFor death's sweet chrism retain'd,Quick, tender, virginal, and unprofaned!
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