The Copybook

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

1645

© Lewis Clarke, Geograph. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.

November by Thomas Hood

Humorist Thomas Hood obviously didn’t like to see the nights drawing in

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1646

© Hajor, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 3.0.

Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley

The glory of political power soon passes away.

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1647

© Stephen McKay, Geograph. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.

Unsung Heroes by Thomas Gray

The poet reflects on the obscure lives that most of us lead.

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© Nicholas Armitage / Clay Lane, 2025

April 23 NS

April 10 OS

St George the Triumphant Martyr : One of the Emperor Galerius’s most trusted generals openly defied him.
The Day of Resurrection : An eighth-century hymn of the Greek Church, for Easter Day
Approachable : Replace the verb ‘can’ with these alternatives, and explain how the meaning of the sentence has changed.
The First Easter : In a translation from the Authorized Version of the Bible, published in 1611, St Mark recounts the discovery of Christ’s empty tomb.
A Collect for Easter Day : A short prayer from the Book of Common Prayer, for the day of Christ’s resurrection.
The Gambler : Which well-known expression is Dr Johnson talking about here?
If I Had But Two Little Wings : Samuel Taylor Coleridge holds on to those precious moments when loneliness is a problem for tomorrow.
Red Eye : Reconstruct the speaker’s original words from these reports.
Responsible : Combine each group of ideas into a single sentence, in as many ways as you can.
Opposites : Suggest words that seem opposite in meaning to the words in this list.
Three of a Kind : For each of these things, think of three different varieties of it.
The Son of God Goes Forth to War : A hymn in praise of St Stephen, the first Christian martyr.
Peace Plan : Report this brief exchange between Anna and M. Pierre and Tolstoy’s War and Peace
Metaphors : Choose one of these words and use it metaphorically, not literally.
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