Sonnet 130: My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun

BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;

Coral is far more red than her lips' red;

If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;

If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.

I have seen roses damasked, red and white,

But no such roses see I in her cheeks;

And in some perfumes is there more delight

Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.

I love to hear her speak, yet well I know

That music hath a far more pleasing sound;

I grant I never saw a goddess go;

My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground.

And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare

As any she belied with false compare.

Early one morning in May I set out,

And nobody I knew was about.

I'm bound away for ever,

Away somewhere, away for ever.

There was no wind to trouble the weathercocks.

I had burnt my letters and darned my socks.

No one knew I was going away,

I thought myself I should come back some day.

I heard the brook through the town gardens run.

O sweet was the mud turned to dust by the sun.

A gate banged in a fence and banged in my head.

'A fine morning, sir', a shepherd said.

I could not return from my liberty,

To my youth and my love and my misery.

The past is the only dead thing that smells sweet,

The only sweet thing that is not also fleet.

I'm bound away for ever

Away somewhere, away for ever.

They sing their dearest songs—

He, she, all of them—yea,

Treble and tenor and bass,

And one to play;

With the candles mooning each face. . . .

Ah, no; the years O!

How the sick leaves reel down in throngs!

They clear the creeping moss—

Elders and juniors—aye,

Making the pathways neat

And the garden gay;

And they build a shady seat. . . .

Ah, no; the years, the years,

See, the white storm-birds wing across.

They are blithely breakfasting all—

Men and maidens—yea,

Under the summer tree,

With a glimpse of the bay,

While pet fowl come to the knee. . . .

Ah, no; the years O!

And the rotten rose is ript from the wall.

They change to a high new house,

He, she, all of them—aye,

Clocks and carpets and chairs

And brightest things that are theirs. . . .

Ah, no; the years, the years;

Down their carved names the rain-drop ploughs.

Ramayana tells about life in India around 1000 BCE and offers models in dharma. The hero, Rama, lived his whole
life by the rules of dharma; in fact, that was why Indian consider him heroic. When Rama was a young boy, he was
the perfect son. Later he was an ideal husband to his faithful wife, Sita, and a responsible ruler of Aydohya. "Be as
Rama," young Indians have been taught for 2,000 years; "Be as Sita."

The original Ramayana was a 24,000 couplet-long epic poem attributed to the Sanskrit poet Valmiki. Oral versions
of Rama's story circulated for centuries, and the epic was probably first written down sometime around the start of
the Common Era. It has since been told, retold, translated and transcreated throughout South and Southeast Asia,
and the Ramayana continues to be performed in dance, drama, puppet shows, songs and movies all across Asia.

From childhood most Indians learn the characters and incidents of these epics and they furnish the ideals and
wisdom of common life. The epics help to bind together the many peoples of India, transcending caste, distance and
language. Two all-Indian holidays celebrate events in the Ramayana. Dussehra, a fourteen-day festival in October,
commemorates the siege of Lanka and Rama's victory over Ravana, the demon king of Lanka. Divali, the October-
November festival of Lights, celebrates Rama and Sita's return home to their kingdom of Ayodhya

Prince Rama was the eldest of four sons and was to become king when his father retired from ruling. His
stepmother, however, wanted to see her son Bharata, Rama's younger brother, become king. Remembering that the
king had once promised to grant her any two wishes she desired, she demanded that Rama be banished and Bharata
be crowned. The king had to keep his word to his wife and ordered Rama's banishment. Rama accepted the decree
unquestioningly. "I gladly obey father's command," he said to his stepmother. "Why, I would go even if you ordered
it."

When Sita, Rama's wife, heard Rama was to be banished, she begged to accompany him to his forest retreat. "As
shadow to substance, so wife to husband," she reminded Rama. "Is not the wife's dharma to be at her husband's side?
Let me walk ahead of you so that I may smooth the path for your feet," she pleaded. Rama agreed, and Rama, Sita
and his brother Lakshmana all went to the forest.

When Bharata learned what his mother had done, he sought Rama in the forest. "The eldest must rule," he reminded
Rama. "Please come back and claim your rightful place as king." Rama
with Bharata's selflessness. As Bharata left, Rama said to him, "I should have known that you would renounce
gladly what most men work lifetimes to learn to give up."

Later in the story, Ravana, the evil King of Lanka, (what is probably present-day Sri Lanka) abducted Sita. Rama
mustered the aid of a money army, built a causeway across to Lanka, released Sita and brought her safely back to
Aydohya. In order to set a good example, however, Rama demanded that Sita prove her purity before he could take
her back as his wife. Rama, Sita and Bharata are all examples of persons following their dharma.

This lesson focuses on how the Ramayana teaches Indians to perform their dharma. Encourage

students to pick out examples of characters in the epic who were faithful to their dharma and those who violated
their dharma. Mahatma Gandhi dreamed that one day modern India would

become a Ram-rajya.

=
 The Butcher Boy.
In Jersey City, where I did dwell, A butcher-boy I loved so well, He courted me my heart away, And now with me
he will not stay. There is an inn in the same town, Where my love goes and sits him down; He takes a strange girl on
his knee, And tells to her what he don't tell me.

It's a grief for me; I'll tell you why: Because she has more gold than I; But her gold will melt, and her silver fly; In
time of need, she'll be poor as I. I go up-stairs to make my bed, But nothing to my mother said; My mother comes
up-stairs, to me Saying, "What's the matter, my daughter dear!"

"Oh! mother, mother! you do not know What grief, and pain, and sorrow, Go get a chair to sit me down, woe- And a
pen and ink to write it down." On every line she dropped a tear, While calling home her Willie dear; And when her
father he came home, He said, "Where is my daughter gone?"

He went up-stairs, the door he broke- He found her hanging upon a rope- He took his knife and he cut her down,
And in her breast those lines were found: "Oh! what a silly maid am I! To hang myself for a butcher-boy! Go dig my
grave, both long and deep; Place a marble-stone at my head and feet, And on my breast a turtle dove, To show the
world I died for love!"

Henry J. Wehman
Evangeline by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Bellefontaine—and his lovely daughter Evangeline. Their lives are great: they enjoy beautiful scenery, healthy livestock, and
plentiful farmland. Best of all, Evangeline is in love. The lucky guy is Gabriel Lajeunesse. He is the son of Basil the blacksmith
and is about to become Evangeline's husband.

They arrange the wedding and it seems like nothing can stand in the way of their living happily ever after—certainly not those
English warships that have anchored off the coast nearby, with their cannons pointed at the locals. Ah, who are we kidding?
That's exactly what happens. The soldiers in the ships order all the locals to attend a meeting in the village church. Right in the
middle of Evangeline and Gabriel's wedding feast, all the menfolk have to put down their plates and trundle off to hear what
these soldiers have to say.

The upshot is this: "All your lands and money and animals are belong to us." The Acadians are told to get out, by order of King
George of England. The men are not pleased to hear this news, but they're locked up in the church by the soldiers. Meanwhile,
the women and children of Grand-Pré are forced to pack all their stuff up into wagons and haul it down to the beach, where ships
are waiting to take them… someplace else.

Eventually, the Acadian men are released and they join the women and children on the beach. The eviction is pretty hectic. In all
the hubbub, Evangeline's father dies, and she's separated from Gabriel—bad times. She's forced to bury her father on the beach,
and then becomes essentially a refugee, moving from place to place in search of Gabriel. She has a lot of luck in this: all of it bad.
In fact, at one point Evangeline travels by boat to Louisiana and, along the way, falls asleep on a riverbank. Gabriel, meanwhile,
paddles right past her, off on a hunting trip. But he doesn't notice her and so the pair never connect.

When she reaches her destination in Louisiana, Evangeline does manage to reunite with Gabriel's dad, Basil, and learns that she
has just missed him. She takes off again, following Gabriel up to the Ozark Mountains, but again: no soup. At a Catholic
Mission, she waits for Gabriel to return from his hunting trip. Months pass with no sign of him. Then, when she hears a rumor
that he's living in a hunting lodge in Michigan, she takes off again. She finds the lodge, but not Gabriel. Evangeline is on a
serious losing streak.

The years pass by and Evangeline winds up in Philadelphia. She tries to move on with her life by joining a charity group called
the Sisters of Mercy. They help the sick and the dying. One day, Evangeline is tending to some sick people when she recognizes
Gabriel, lying there before her. Good news: at last they're together. Bad news: Gabriel's on his deathbed. He can only muster up
enough strength to mouth her name before he shuffles off his mortal coil. And that, folks, is the sad, really sad, super-sad story of
poor Evangeline.
The Adventure of Tom Sawyer
An imaginative and mischievous boy named Tom Sawyer lives with his Aunt Polly and his half-brother, Sid, in the Mississippi River town
of St. Petersburg, Missouri. After playing hooky from school on Friday and dirtying his clothes in a fight, Tom is made to whitewash the
fence as punishment on Saturday. At first, Tom is disappointed by having to forfeit his day off. However, he soon cleverly persuades his
friends to trade him small treasures for the privilege of doing his work. He trades these treasures for tickets given out in Sunday school
for memorizing Bible verses and uses the tickets to claim a Bible as a prize. He loses much of his glory, however, when, in response to a
question to show off his knowledge, he incorrectly answers that the first two disciples were David and Goliath.

Tom falls in love with Becky Thatcher, a new girl in town, and persuades her to get “engaged” to him. Their romance collapses when she
learns that Tom has been “engaged” before—to a girl named Amy Lawrence. Shortly after being shunned by Becky, Tom accompanies
Huckleberry Finn, the son of the town drunk, to the graveyard at night to try out a “cure” for warts. At the graveyard, they witness the
murder of young Dr. Robinson by the Native-American “half-breed” Injun Joe. Scared, Tom and Huck run away and swear a blood oath
not to tell anyone what they have seen. Injun Joe blames his companion, Muff Potter, a hapless drunk, for the crime. Potter is wrongfully
arrested, and Tom’s anxiety and guilt begin to grow.

Tom, Huck, and Tom’s friend Joe Harper run away to an island to become pirates. While frolicking around and enjoying their newfound
freedom, the boys become aware that the community is sounding the river for their bodies. Tom sneaks back home one night to observe
the commotion. After a brief moment of remorse at the suffering of his loved ones, Tom is struck by the idea of appearing at his funeral
and surprising everyone. He persuades Joe and Huck to do the same. Their return is met with great rejoicing, and they become the envy
and admiration of all their friends.

Back in school, Tom gets himself back in Becky’s favor after he nobly accepts the blame for a book that she has ripped. Soon Muff Potter’s
trial begins, and Tom, overcome by guilt, testifies against Injun Joe. Potter is acquitted, but Injun Joe flees the courtroom through a
window.

Summer arrives, and Tom and Huck go hunting for buried treasure in a haunted house. After venturing upstairs they hear a noise below.
Peering through holes in the floor, they see Injun Joe enter the house disguised as a deaf and mute Spaniard. He and his companion, an
unkempt man, plan to bury some stolen treasure of their own. From their hiding spot, Tom and Huck wriggle with delight at the prospect
of digging it up. By an amazing coincidence, Injun Joe and his partner find a buried box of gold themselves. When they see Tom and
Huck’s tools, they become suspicious that someone is sharing their hiding place and carry the gold off instead of reburying it.

Huck begins to shadow Injun Joe every night, watching for an opportunity to nab the gold. Meanwhile, Tom goes on a picnic to
McDougal’s Cave with Becky and their classmates. That same night, Huck sees Injun Joe and his partner making off with a box. He follows
and overhears their plans to attack the Widow Douglas, a kind resident of St. Petersburg. By running to fetch help, Huck forestalls the
violence and becomes an anonymous hero.

Tom and Becky get lost in the cave, and their absence is not discovered until the following morning. The men of the town begin to search
for them, but to no avail. Tom and Becky run out of food and candles and begin to weaken. The horror of the situation increases when
Tom, looking for a way out of the cave, happens upon Injun Joe, who is using the cave as a hideout. Eventually, just as the searchers are
giving up, Tom finds a way out. The town celebrates, and Becky’s father, Judge Thatcher, locks up the cave. Injun Joe, trapped inside,
starves to death.

A week later, Tom takes Huck to the cave and they find the box of gold, the proceeds of which are invested for them. The Widow Douglas
adopts Huck, and, when Huck attempts to escape civilized life, Tom promises him that if he returns to the widow, he can join Tom’s
robber band. Reluctantly, Huck agrees

Novel by Mark Twain

Poetry
prose