Extracts from Literature

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667
The ‘Raindrop’ Prelude by Georges Sand

As the storm raged around him, raindrops fell like music on the pianist’s heart.

In 1838, Chopin and Georges Sand (a lady whose real name was Amantine-Lucile-Aurore Dupin) stayed at a Carthusian monastery in Valldemossa, Mallorca. While seated at the piano during a storm, Sand tells us, Chopin experienced a disturbing dream.

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668
Love’s Last Knot by Richard Crashaw

Richard Crashaw offers the hope of eternity for wedded love.

Richard Crashaw (1613-1649) was an Anglican clergyman and scholar who was forced into exile in France in 1643 for his traditional beliefs, after Oliver Cromwell captured Cambridge in the Civil War. In this short poem, he assures us that the bond of wedded love lasts to eternity. (Crashaw is pronounced cray-shaw.)

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669
Angel Cat by Jerome K. Jerome

Cats do have a conscience: it tells them when to look innocent.

According to Jerome’s friend Jephson, alongside Nonconformists cats are the only creatures in this world with a functioning conscience. ‘You might almost think they had a soul.’

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670
Typical Cat! by P. G. Wodehouse

When a cat comes into your life, resistance is futile.

Aspiring author Elizabeth had been needing a little bit of good luck, and finding a stray black cat she named ‘Joseph’ seemed like a good omen.

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671
Mrs Bold’s Thunderclap by Anthony Trollope

There comes a point in some relationships when words just aren’t enough.

In the gardens of the Rectory at Ullathorne, the ambitious Mr Slope, chaplain to the Bishop of Barchester, declares his ‘love’ for wealthy widow Mrs Bold.

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672
‘I Remember’ by Thomas Hood

A poem of nostalgia tinged with regret.

Thomas Hood is better known for his humorous verse; this is a poignant little reflection on childhood innocence lost.

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June 17 NS

June 4 OS

The Two Shakespeares : Arthur Clutton-Brock complained that idealising Shakespeare had made him dull.
Fairway : Use each noun below in two sentences, first as the subject, and then as the object of a verb.
England Expects : Lieutenant John Pasco not only flew the most famous signal in British history, he helped write it.
Running Late : Use these adverbial clauses in your own sentences.
Peggy’s Dog : Some lines from the comic verse of Thomas Hood, for reading aloud.
An Interruption : Report this conversation without using direct speech.
Tender Plants : Prince Albert regretted the destructive power of the Art Critic.
Lost for Words : Join these ideas together into a single sentence, using ‘although’ or ‘though’.
Loan Words : Match these words to the language they come from, whether Old Norse, Malay or Welsh.
Evidence : Join these ideas together to form a single sentence, using the relative pronoun ‘who’.
Fatal Vow : Robert Pierrepont called heaven to witness that he would never pick a side in the Civil War.
Lost and Found : What would you in these difficult situations?
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