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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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ABDALLA.

47 lines
Samuel Johnson·1709–1784
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ALI.Some petty passion! some domestick trifle!Some vain amusement of a vacant soul!A weeping wife, perhaps, or dying friend,Hung on your neck, and hinder'd your departure.Is this a time for softness or for sorrow?Unprofitable, peaceful, female virtues!When eager vengeance shows a naked foe,And kind ambition points the way to greatness. ABDALLA.Must then ambition's votaries infringeThe laws of kindness, break the bonds of nature,And quit the names of brother, friend, and father? CALI.This sov'reign passion, scornful of restraint,E'en from the birth, affects supreme command,Swells in the breast, and, with resistless force,O'erbears each gentler motion of the mind:As, when a deluge overspreads the plains,The wand'ring rivulet, and silver lake,Mix undistinguish'd with the gen'ral roar. ABDALLA.Yet can ambition, in Abdalla's breast,Claim but the second place: there mighty loveHas fix'd his hopes, inquietudes, and fears,His glowing wishes, and his jealous pangs. CALI.Love is, indeed, the privilege of youth;Yet, on a day like this, when expectationPants for the dread event--But let us reason-- ABDALLA.Hast thou grown old, amidst the crowd of courts,And turn'd th' instructive page of human life,To cant, at last, of reason to a lover?Such ill-tim'd gravity, such serious folly,Might well befit the solitary student,Th' unpractis'd dervis, or sequester'd faquir.Know'st thou not yet, when love invades the soul,That all her faculties receive his chains?That reason gives her sceptre to his hand,Or only struggles to be more enslav'd?Aspasia, who can look upon thy beauties?Who hear thee speak, and not abandon reason?Reason! the hoary dotard's dull directress,That loses all, because she hazards nothing!Reason! the tim'rous pilot, that, to shunThe rocks of life, for ever flies the port!
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