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ReadingWillow structured literacy program for Australian students
Poetry Library

— Stephen Crane

I looked here;

I looked there;

Nowhere could I see my love.

And--this time--

…

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FOR THESE

38 lines
Edward Thomas
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N acre of land between the shore and the hills,Upon a ledge that shows my kingdoms three,The lovely visible earth and sky and sea,Where what the curlew needs not, the farmer tills: A house that shall love me as I love it,Well-hedged, and honoured by a few ash-treesThat linnets, greenfinches, and goldfinchesShall often visit and make love in and flit: A garden I need never go beyond,Broken but neat, whose sunflowers every oneAre fit to be the sign of the Rising Sun:A spring, a brook's bend, or at least a pond: For these I ask not, but, neither too lateNor yet too early, for what men call content,And also that something may be sentTo be contented with, I ask of fate. MARCH THE THIRD* HERE again (she said) is March the thirdAnd twelve hours singing for the bird'Twixt dawn and dusk, from half past sixTo half past six, never unheard. 'Tis Sunday, and the church-bells endWhen the birds do. I think they blendNow better than they will when passedIs this unnamed, unmarked godsend. Or do all mark, and none dares say,How it may shift and long delay,Somewhere before the first of Spring,But never fails, this singing day? And when it falls on Sunday, bellsAre a wild natural voice that dwellsOn hillsides; but the birds' songs haveThe holiness gone from the bells. This day unpromised is more dearThan all the named days of the yearWhen seasonable sweets come in,Because we know how lucky we are. * The author's birthday.
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