Thirty Years After
Two old St. Andrews men, after a separation of nearly thirty years, meet by chance at a wayside inn. They interchange experiences; and at length one of them, who is an admirer of Mr. Swinburne's Poems and Ballads, speaks as follows:
If you were now a bejant,
And I a first year man,
We'd grind and grub together
In every kind of weather,
When Winter's snows were regent,
Or when the Spring began;
If you were now a bejant,
And I a first year man.
If you were what you once were,
And I the same man still,
You'd be the gainer by it,
For you—you can't deny it—
A most uncommon dunce were;
My profit would be nil,
If you were what you once were,
And I the same man still.
If you were last in Latin,
And I were first in Greek,
I'd write your Latin proses,
While you indulged in dozes,
Or carved the bench you sat in,
So innocent and meek;
If you were last in Latin,
And I were first in Greek.
If I had got a prize, Jim,
And your certif. was bad,
And you were filled with sorrow
And brooding on the morrow,
I'd gently sympathise, Jim,
And bid you not be sad,
If I had got a prize, Jim,
And your certif. was bad.
If I were through in Moral,
And you were spun in Math.,
I'd break it to your parent,
When you confessed you daren't,
And so avert a quarrel
And smooth away his wrath;
If I were through in Moral,
And you were spun in Math.
My prospects rather shone, Jim,
And yours were rather dark,
And those who knew us both then
Would often take their oath then,
That you would not get on, Jim,
While I should make my mark;
My prospects rather shone, Jim,
And yours were rather dark.
Yet somehow you've made money,
And I am still obscure;
Your face is round and red, Jim,
While I look underfed, Jim;
The thing's extremely funny,
And beats me, I am sure,
Yet somehow you've made money,
And I am still obscure.
poem by Robert Fuller Murray
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Related quotes
Harmony is an obscure and difficult musical science, but most difficult to those who are not acquainted with the Greek language; because it is necessary to use many Greek words to which there are none corresponding in Latin.
quote by Marcus V. Pollio
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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No One Gets The Prize
(nickolas ashford/valerie simpson)
No one, no one gets the prize
No one, no one
No one gets the prize
We were best of friends
It all began
He came in to town and changed the plan
I knew she felt, the same as me
Which one of us would it be
Just in fun, fight begun
Before long a web of hate was spun
She pretended same as me
Oh, but friends again wed never be
No one, no one gets the prize
She told him lies, and I told him lies
No one, no one gets the prize
She schemed and dreamed and told him dirt
That I was wrong for him
I told him all the boys shed hurt and I would number them
He was the ray of light that made our hearts live
But either one of us knew really how to give
So we scandalized and criticized
And then we learned how to despise
No one, no one gets the prize
She told him lies and I lied, I lied yeah
No one, no one gets the prize
No, no, no
Yeah, yeah
Back off
Tried to steal him, tried to steal him
Tried to steal him
Runnin behind my back
Tried to steal him
Tried to show him where it was at
Watch it now
No, no I wont take second place
No, no tell him to his face
We were friends for so, so, so long
Messed around, now hes gone gone gone gone
No one, no one gets the prize
No, no
No one, no one gets the prize
I wasnt alive, a love thats satisfied
No one, no one gets the prize
It wasnt fair, the love I couldnt share
No one, no one gets the prize
No, no
No one, no one gets the prize
No one, no one gets the prize
She lied, I lied, we lied
No one, no one
song performed by by Diana Ross
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Tis In The Power Of Money
'Tis in the power of money real fame is to be found
And money is always involved where corruption abound
And corruption and human greed to each other live nearby
And why some people are corrupt this could be the answer why
Some will tell you that money is their nearest and dearest friend
And it is because of money that many friendships are known to end
And many with lots of money seem to have a crave for more
This year they have made two million in profit next year they aim for four
The lust for paper currency to everyone does not apply
But that money speaks every language is something that none can deny
Those with it are looked up to and those without it on are looked down
And who would wish for to be known as the pauper of the town
'Tis the lust for money that leads to corruption through greed
And those with plenty of it looked up to as those who in life succeed.
poem by Francis Duggan
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Math Suks
If necessity was the mother of invention
Then Id like to kill the guy who invented this
The numbers come together in some kind of third dimension
A regular algebraic bliss
Lets starts with something simple
Like 1 and 1 aint 3
Any 2 plus 2 will never get you 5
Theres fractions in my subtraction
And x dont equal y
But my homework is bound to multiply
Math suks (math suks), math suks (math suks)
Id like to burn this text book
I hate that stuff so much
Math suks (math suks), math suks (math suks)
Sometimes I think that I dont know that much
But math suks
I got so bored with my homework
I turned on the tv
The beauty pageant winners were all smiling through their teeth
And they asked the new miss america
Hey babe can you add up all those bucks
She looked puzzled then just said math suks
Math suks (math suks), math suks (math suks)
You dont even have to spell it
All you have to do is yell it
Math suks (math suks), math suks (math suks)
Sometime times I think that I dont know that much
But math suks
Geometry and trigonometry and if they dont tax your brain
There are numbers to big to be named
Numerical precision is a science with a mission
And I think its gonna drive me insane
Parents fighting with their children
And the congress cant agree
Teachers and their students are all jousting constantly
Management and labor keep rattling old sabres
Quacking like those peabody ducks
Math suks (quack quack), math suks (quack quack)
You dont even have to spell it
All you have to do is yell it
Math suks, thats right, math suks, you got it
Sometime times I think that I dont know that much
But math suks
All right there goes our g rating
Math suks, math suks, math suks the big one
Math suks, math suks, math suks the big one
Math suks, math suks, math suks the big one
Math suks, math suks, math suks, math suks
song performed by by Jimmy Buffett
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Face To Face
Anderson/squire/howe/white/sherwood/khoroshev
Here we are trying to mend all the broken hearts
In a world where the pain is the fear
Aint no doubt theres a method to madness here
Set your clock to the start of a brand new year
Shine your heart to the universe and get the news
Not alone never have been, never will be
See the truth, not to mention the promise made
See them all, see them all high on judar rhythm
We began at the very first spring
How the promise will come when the promise is made
We will sing at the very first spring
That the promise will come when the promise is made
Promise is made, promise is made
Shake me up, take me up
Face to face
Lift me up, shake me up
Face to face
Make me real, make me longing to see you smile
Shall we dancing, shall we be the dancing down under
In this life of lives, are we ready to take the chance
Moving to the rhythm, here at last to
Believe
To believe
We began at the first real spring
How the promise will come when the promise is made
We will sing at the very first spring
That the promise will come when the promise is made
We began at the first real spring - ya
We will sing at the very first spring - ya
We began at the first real spring
We will sing at the very first spring
How the promise will come when the promise is made
Promise is made, promise is made
We began at the first real spring
That the promise will come when the promise is made
We will sing at the very first spring
That the promise will come when the promise is made
Promise is made, promise is made
Shake it up, take me up
Face to face
Face to face
Face to face
song performed by by Yes
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Face To Face
Anderson/squire/howe/white/sherwood/khoroshev
Here we are trying to mend all the broken hearts
In a world where the pain is the fear
Aint no doubt theres a method to madness here
Set your clock to the start of a brand new year
Shine your heart to the universe and get the news
Not alone never have been, never will be
See the truth, not to mention the promise made
See them all, see them all high on judar rhythm
We began at the very first spring
How the promise will come when the promise is made
We will sing at the very first spring
That the promise will come when the promise is made
Promise is made, promise is made
Shake me up, take me up
Face to face
Lift me up, shake me up
Face to face
Make me real, make me longing to see you smile
Shall we dancing, shall we be the dancing down under
In this life of lives, are we ready to take the chance
Moving to the rhythm, here at last to
Believe
To believe
We began at the first real spring
How the promise will come when the promise is made
We will sing at the very first spring
That the promise will come when the promise is made
We began at the first real spring - ya
We will sing at the very first spring - ya
We began at the first real spring
We will sing at the very first spring
How the promise will come when the promise is made
Promise is made, promise is made
We began at the first real spring
That the promise will come when the promise is made
We will sing at the very first spring
That the promise will come when the promise is made
Promise is made, promise is made
Shake it up, take me up
Face to face
Face to face
Face to face
song performed by by Yes
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Three Faces
I.--VENTIMIGLIA
The sky and sea glared hard and bright and blank:
Down the one steep street, with slow steps firm and free,
A tall girl paced, with eyes too proud to thank
The sky and sea.
One dead flat sapphire, void of wrath or glee,
Through bay on bay shone blind from bank to bank
The weary Mediterranean, drear to see.
More deep, more living, shone her eyes that drank
The breathless light and shed again on me,
Till pale before their splendour waned and shrank
The sky and sea.
II.--GENOA
Again the same strange might of eyes, that saw
In heaven and earth nought fairer, overcame
My sight with rapture of reiterate awe,
Again the same.
The self-same pulse of wonder shook like flame
The spirit of sense within me: what strange law
Had bid this be, for blessing or for blame?
To what veiled end that fate or chance foresaw
Came forth this second sister face, that came
Absolute, perfect, fair without a flaw,
Again the same?
III.--VENICE
Out of the dark pure twilight, where the stream
Flows glimmering, streaked by many a birdlike bark
That skims the gloom whence towers and bridges gleam
Out of the dark,
Once more a face no glance might choose but mark
Shone pale and bright, with eyes whose deep slow beam
Made quick the twilight, lifeless else and stark.
The same it seemed, or mystery made it seem,
As those before beholden; but St. Mark
Ruled here the ways that showed it like a dream
Out of the dark.
poem by Algernon Charles Swinburne
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Explaining what is obscure by what is still more obscure. [Making confusion worse confounded.]
It's a World for All
The test of history never rest
A queue of villians give their best.
Coniving, cheating passing threats.
All this for a prize - a world for only one to keep.
If all these ways were ever had.
I fear -
I dreadfully fear what ills there be.
Genocide - an excluded kind.
One supreme tongue.
Greek, Latin even French and German perhaps
But history remains a true defender
.
This world was never made for one.
Cruel intentions must fade
They must learn
It is a world for all
Never a world for one.
poem by Godfrey Morris
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If you enjoy math and you write novels, it's very rare that you'll get a chance to put your math into a novel. I leapt at the chance.
quote by Mark Haddon
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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September Quandary
Thirty days does have September,
But there's one thing I don't remember.
What happened to those eight other months?
I know I must appear a dunce, but…
All this time couldn't pass me by I don't believe,
While I celebrated last year's New Year's Eve.
Then before I could make it to New Year's Day,
Exactly 243 days of this year have passed away.
Never again will this calendar inhibit my sight.
People and experiences will be focused delight.
poem by Gregory Huyette
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Explaining what is obscure by what is still more obscure.
So Dark
{remix of dark from come (1994)}
So dark, so dark (dark) {x2}
Inside lookin out my window
I dont see nothin but rain
Sun up in the sky just-a-shinin (just-a-shinin)
Still Im lost in my shadow of pain (mm-hmm)
Like an innocent man thats on death row
I dont understand what made u go
And wanna leave me, baby
Leave me in the dark
Can u tell me, tell me?
U took my sex and my money (money)
Took all my self-esteem, yes u did
U had the nerve 2 think it was funny (funny)
I never knew a bitch so mean, yes sir
U absolutely drove a man 2 tears
All I really know is that u sincerely
Wanna hurt me, baby
Oh, yes u do
U wanna hurt me in the dark
Sunshine - somebody make the sun shine
Dark cloud - somebody take this dark cloud away
Just as sure as noah built the ark (thats how sure)
Thats how sure I am u broke my heart
How could u, baby, leave me in the dark?
Baby, its so dark
So dark, so dark (dark)
Feel like the sun aint never gonna shine
U left me in the dark
So dark, so dark (dark)
I dont know, I dont know why we ever had 2 part
Baby, cant see a damn thing out my window, its so dark
So dark, so dark (dark)
Sometimes I want 2 curse the ground u walk on
Even when I know that everything u feel, I feel it 2
I wanna curse u, baby
Ooh, u left me in the dark
And now I want 2 curse u, baby (I wanna curse u, baby)
4 leavin me alone, alone, alone (u left me in the dark)
Oh, yes u did
And now all I wanna say is
In the dark
Ow! u left me {x2}
Its like being on death row (in the dark)
I dont understand why u had 2 go
I dont understand why u (hurt me in the dark)
Dont understand why u (hurt me in the dark)
Dont understand why u hurt me, hurt me, hurt me, hurt me here!
Just leave me (in the dark)
(in the dark)
So dark, so dark (dark) (in the dark)
So dark, so dark (dark)
(in the dark)
song performed by by Prince
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Dark
I wanna top the rose petals that whisper sweet
Come on
So dark, dark, so dark
So dark, dark, so dark
Inside lookin out my window
I dont see nothin but rain
Sun up in the sky just a shinin (just a shinin)
Still Im lost in my shadow of pain
Like an innocent man thats on death row
I dont understand what made u go
And wanna leave me baby
Leave me in the dark
Can u tell me, tell me?
U took my sex and my money (money)
Took all my self esteem, yes u did
U had the nerve 2 think it was funny (funny)
I never knew a bitch so mean, yes sir
U absolutely drove a man 2 tears
All I really know is that u sincerely
U wanna hurt me baby, oh yes u do
U wanna hurt me in the dark
(sunshine) somebody make the sun shine
(dark cloud) somebody take this dark cloud away
Just as sure as noah built the ark
Thats how sure
Thats how sure I am u broke my heart
How could u baby, leave me in the dark?
Baby, so dark
So dark, dark, so dark
Feel like the sun aint never gonna shine
U left me in the dark
So dark, dark, so dark
I dont know, I dont know why we ever had 2 part
Baby, cant see a damn thing out my window its so dark (so dark)
(so dark, dark, so dark)
Sometimes I want 2 curse the ground u walk on
Even when I know that everything u feel I feel it 2
I wanna curse u baby
U left me in the dark
And now I want 2, I wanna curse u baby
4 leavin me alone, alone, alone
U left me in the dark, yes u did
And now all I wanna say is
In the dark
Ow, u left me
Ow, u left me
Its like being on death row (in the dark)
I dont understand why u had 2 go
I dont understand why u (hurt me in the dark)
Dont understand why u (hurt me in the dark)
Dont understand why u hurt me (hurt me, hurt me)
Hurt me (hurt me in, hurt me in)
Hurt me, hurt me, hurt me (hurt me in the dark)
Just leave me
In the dark
In the dark
So dark, dark, so dark (in the dark)
So dark, dark, so dark
In the dark
song performed by by Prince
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Funny Money
Some poems may be funny,
But mine is not so funny,
A shocking reality,
That involves money.
The funny thing about money,
It makes the world go round,
The real and funny money,
Banks make the world go around,
By loaning and keeping money,
A dirty secret found,
They even do the laundry,
We all are so confound!
We love the smell of money,
But don't smell the funny money,
The banks are in big trouble,
They found one, now it's double.
And that's not so funny,
Coz it's one too many.
The British system had requirements, including Latin. I'm not positive you ever had to know Greek, but there are certainly kinds of curricula where you had to know Greek too. I think in Britain there was the most mindless, repetitive sort of learning.
quote by William Scott
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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A Poor Scholar Of The 'Forties
MY eyelids red and heavy arc
With bending o'er the smold'ring peat.
I know the Aeneid now by heart,
My Virgil read in cold and heat,
In loneliness and hunger smart.
And I know Homer, too, I ween,
As Munster poets know Ossian.
And I must walk this road that winds
Twixt bog and bog, while east there lies
A city with its men and books;
With treasures open to the wise,
Heart-words from equals, comrade-looks;
Down here they have but tale and song,
They talk Repeal the whole night long.
'You teach Greek verbs and Latin nouns,'
The dreamer of Young Ireland said,
'You do not hear the muffled call,
The sword being forged, the far-off tread
Of hosts to meet as Gael and Gall
What good to us your wisdom-store,
Your Latin verse, your Grecian lore?'
And what to me is Gael or Gall?
Less than the Latin or the Greek
I teach these by the dim rush-light
In smoky cabins night and week.
But what avail my teaching slight?
Years hence, in rustic speech, a phrase,
As in wild earth a Grecian vase!
poem by Padraic Colum
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The Thought
Into the skies, one summer's day,
I sent a little Thought away;
Up to where, in the blue round,
The sun sat shining without sound.
Then my Thought came back to me.—
Little Thought, what did you see
In the regions whence you come?
And when I spoke, my Thought was dumb.
But she breathed of what was there,
In the pure bright upper air;
And, because my Thought so shone,
I knew she had been shone upon.
Next, by night a Thought I sent
Up into the firmament;
When the eager stars were out,
And the still moon shone about.
And my Thought went past the moon
In between the stars, but soon
Held her breath and durst not stir,
For the fear that covered her;
Then she thought, in this demur:
'Dare I look beneath the shade,
Into where the worlds are made;
Where the suns and stars are wrought?
Shall I meet another Thought?
'Will that other Thought have wings?
Shall I meet strange, heavenly things?
Thought of Thoughts, and Light of Lights,
Breath of Breaths, and Night of Nights?'
Then my Thought began to hark
In the illuminated dark,
Till the silence, over, under,
Made her heart beat more than thunder.
And my Thought, came trembling back,
But with something on her track,
And with something at her side;
Nor till she has lived and died,
Lived and died, and lived again,
Will that awful thing seem plain.
poem by William Brighty Rands
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A Lasting Friendship
For Betty Burton
A friend for over thirty years.
It is funny just how time slips away.
It only seems like yesterday
when the two of us met,
long, long ago in 1976.
It was in September of that year
a friend persuaded me
to go along to a writing class
to help boost up the numbers
and my moral.
With just four pupils
and five when I came along,
so a small intimate group
all with the desire to write,
but Betty became
the most famous of us all
with over thirteen
historical romantic bestsellers.
She really has made her name.
I am proud to say
I was there when she began.
I remember when
she had her first short story published
it was a treat to us all.
If Betty could do it
then there was some hope for us all.
She even started teaching
and I was a guest speaker
at one of her classes,
and as the years passed on by,
we met up with one another
very occasionally,
but what remained
even to this day
was a lasting friendship.
About that
there is nothing more to say.
17 January 2007
poem by David Harris
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Dunce
At school I never gained a prize,
Proving myself the model ass;
Yet how I watched the wistful eyes,
And cheered my mates who topped the class.
No envy in my heart I found,
Yet bone was worthier to own
Those precious books in vellum bound,
Than I, a dreamer and a drone.
No prize at school I ever gained
(Shirking my studies, I suppose):
Yes, I remember being caned
For lack of love of Latin prose.
For algebra I won no praise,
In grammar I was far from bright:
Yet, oh, how Poetry would raise
In me a rapture of delight!
I never gained a prize at school;
The dullard's cap adorned my head;
My masters wrote me down a fool,
And yet - I'm sorry they are dead.
I'd like to go to them and say:
"Yours is indeed a tricky trade.
My honoured classmates, where are they?
Yet I, the dunce, brave books have made."
Oh, I am old and worn and grey,
And maybe have not long to live;
Yet 'tis my hope at some Prize Day
At my old school the Head will give
A tome or two of mine to crown
Some pupil's well-deserved success -
Proving a scapegrace and a clown
May win at last to worthiness.
poem by Robert William Service
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