The Copybook

Short passages for reading, drawn from history, legend, poetry and fiction.

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From the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, via Saint Tikhon’s Orthodox University of Humanities. Licence: None stated (public domain assumed).

The Theotokos of Vladimir Clay Lane

It is one of the world’s most recognisable works of art, and a symbol of God’s blessing on all Christian Rus’.

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854

© Julian P. Guffogg, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.

The Fir and the Bramble Clay Lane

A vain fir is stopped short in her boasting by a clear-thinking bush.

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© Andrew Smith, Geograph. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.

The Silent Hall The Exeter Book

An unknown Anglo-Saxon poet shares with us the grief of those whose homes and feast-halls were laid waste by Viking raiders.

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© José Luiz Bernardes Ribeiro, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0.

The Conversion of Saul Clay Lane

A fiery fanatic wins support for the suppression of Christianity in its very cradle.

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© Oliver Dixon, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.

The Jackdaw William Cowper

A bird perched upon a church steeple casts a severe glance over the doings of men.

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858

© B. Leprêtre, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.5.

It is a Beauteous Evening William Wordsworth

Walking with his ten-year-old daughter on the beach at Calais, Wordsworth considers the energy of God moving in all things.

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