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Old tree! the storm still brave!
And woodman, leave the spot;
While I've a hand to save,
Thy ax shall harm it not.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
ENGLAND, 1564-1616

Under the Greenwood Tree

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Under the greenwood tree,
Who loves to lie with me,

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And tune his merry note

Unto the sweet birds' throat

Come hither, come hither, come hither!

Here shall he see

No enemy

But winter and rough weather.

Who doth ambition shun,
And loves to live i' the sun,

Seeking the food he eats,

And pleased with what he gets -
Come hither, come hither, come hither!

Here shall he see

No enemy

But winter and rough weather.

A SEA DIRGE

HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW

AMERICA, 1807-1882

The Arrow and the Song

I shot an arrow into the air,
It fell to earth, I know not where;
For, so swiftly it flew, the sight
Could not follow it in its flight.

I breathed a song into the air,
It fell to earth, I know not where;
For who has sight so keen and strong
That it can follow the flight of song?

Long, long afterward, in an oak
I found the arrow, still unbroke;
And the song, from beginning to end,
I found again in the heart of a friend.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
ENGLAND, 1564-1616

A Sea Dirge

Full fathom five thy father lies:
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade,

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But doth suffer a sea-change

Into something rich and strange ;
Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell :
Hark, now I hear them, -
Ding, dong, bell.

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Deep in the wave is a coral grove,

Where the purple mullet and goldfish rove; Where the sea flower spreads its leaves of blue, That never are wet with the falling dew; 10 But in bright and changeful beauty shine Far down in the green and glassy brine. The floor is of sand, like the mountain's drift, And the pearl shells spangle the flinty snow; From coral rocks the sea plants lift 15 Their boughs, where the tides and billows flow. The water is calm and still below, For the winds and waves are absent there, And the sands are bright as the stars that glow In the motionless fields of upper air.

THE CORAL GROVE

There, with its waving blade of green,
The sea flag streams through the silent water,
And the crimson leaf of the dulse is seen

To blush like a banner bathed in slaughter;
There, with a light and easy motion,

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The fan coral sweeps through the clear, deep

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sea;

And the yellow and scarlet tufts of ocean
Are bending like corn on the upland lea:
And life in rare and beautiful forms

Is sporting amid those bowers of stone,

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And is safe when the wrathful spirit of storms
Has made the top of the wave his own:

And when the ship from his fury flies,

When the myriad voices of ocean roar,

When the wind god frowns in the murky 15

skies,

And demons are waiting the wreck on shore,

Then, far below, in the peaceful sea,

The purple mullet and goldfish rove

Where the waters murmur tranquilly

Through the bending twigs of the coral grove. 20

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PHEBE CARY

AMERICA, 1824-1871

The Leak in the Dike

The good dame looked from her cottage
At the close of the pleasant day,
And cheerily called to her little son
Outside the door at play :

"Come, Peter, come! I want you to go,
While there is light to see,

To the hut of the blind old man who lives
Across the dike, for me;

And take these cakes I made for him
They are hot and smoking yet;

You have time enough to go and come
B'fore the sun is set."

Then the good-wife turned to her labor,
Humming a simple song,

And thought of the husband, working hard
At the sluices all day long;

And set the turf a-blazing,

And brought the coarse black bread;

That he might find a fire at night,
And find the table spread.

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