Skip to content
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.

…

Read full poem →

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.”

Know more →

XX. 'LET BE!'

40 lines
Coventry Patmore·1823–1896
✦
h, yes; we tell the good and evil treesBy fruits: But how tell these?Who does not knowThat good and illAre done in secret still,And that which shews is verily but show!How high of heart is one, and one how sweet of mood:But not all height is holiness,Nor every sweetness good;And grace will sometimes lurk where who could guess?The Critic of his kind,Dealing to each his share,With easy humour, hard to bear,May not impossibly have in him shrined,As in a gossamer globe or thickly padded pod,Some small seed dear to God.Haply yon wretch, so famous for his falls,Got them beneath the Devil-defended wallsOf some high Virtue he had vow'd to win;And that which you and ICall his besetting sinIs but the fume of his peculiar fireOf inmost contrary desire,And means wild willingness for her to die,Dash'd with despondence of her favour sweet;He fiercer fighting, in his worst defeat,Than I or you,That only courteous greetWhere he does hotly woo,Did ever fight, in our best victory.Another is mistookThrough his deceitful likeness to his look!Let be, let be:Why should I clear myself, why answer thou for me?That shaft of slander shotMiss'd only the right blot.I see the shameThey cannot see:'Tis very just they blameThe thing that's not.
✦