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

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1669
The Dog and the Bell by Clay Lane

Notoriety is often mistaken for fame.

A SPITEFUL little terrier with a penchant for nipping people on the ankle didn’t quite understand why his master had given him a jolly little bell.

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1670
The Debtor and his Pig by Clay Lane

There are no lengths to which some people won’t go.

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1671
The Crow and the Pitcher by Clay Lane

Brute force is no substitute for quick thinking.

As the old military maxim goes, Time spent in reconnaissance is seldom wasted.

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1672
‘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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1673
The Music of Silence by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

In Coleridge’s epic poem, the Ancient Mariner, amid the horrors of a ship of dead men, sees a sight both beautiful and surreal.

The Ancient Mariner has wantonly killed an albatross, and brought death and destruction on his ship. Surrounded now by the dead bodies of the crew, a new and ghostly sight meets his eyes.

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1674
November by Thomas Hood

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

November weather isn’t always as miserable as Hood makes out. But the sun doesn’t rise until half-past seven in the morning, and it sets just after four o’clock, so the days are a little short.

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About Clay Lane nicholas@claylane.uk

© Nicholas Armitage / Clay Lane, 2025

May 31 NS

May 18 OS

The Battle of Jutland : Preventing the German fleet from breaking out into the Atlantic in 1916 should have felt like victory, but it felt like defeat.
The Peacemaker : American historian David Montgomery credited King Edward VII with bringing peace to Europe, the Empire and the world.
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?
They Might Not Need Me : Read these lines of verse out aloud.
The Turn : Ben Jonson tells us how we should measure a life well lived.
Music Video : Julius Benedict, Piano Concerto in E flat: II. Andante,
The Character of George Washington : Thomas Jefferson recalls the virtues (and a few faults) of the first US President.
Amen to That : John Bright declared it was time stop fighting wars around the world for ‘British interests’.
Arena : Use these nouns in sentences of at least ten words in length.
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