Successful Recitations

I seed it in the stable yard--it fairly turned me sick-- A greasy, wheezy, engine as can neither buck nor kick. You've a screw to drive it forard, and a screw to make it stop, F...

He laugh'd a laugh of merry scorn: He turn'd and kiss'd her where she stood. "If you are not the heiress born, And I," said he, "the next in blood--

Little Orphant Annie's come to our house to stay An' wash the cups and saucers up, and brush the crumbs away, An' shoo the chickens off the porch, an' dust the hearth an' sweep,...

"He said the idea didn't strike him. So then I suggested that he might turn it into Columbus discovering America. Let George stand for Columbus, and the tree be turned into a na...

Mrs. B. had all this time been exciting the bewildered animal to frenzy by her conversation and shovel, without giving it the opportunity to escape, which, as soon as offered, i...

Barber's 'prentice was Frieder, but having No sense of the true barber's art, He cut every face in the shaving, Pulled hair, and left gashes and smart, Getting blows for his part.

'Twas midnight ere our guns' loud laugh at their wild work did cease, And by the smouldering fires of war we lit the pipe of peace. At four a burst of bells went up through Nigh...

Upon the lips of Praise They lay their own hands, saying, _"We have not won Great battles for you, nor Immortal bays, But what your boys were given to do is done!"_

"Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you, trippingly on the tongue; but if you mouth it, as many of our players do, I had as lief the town-crier spoke my lines."...

"Meekly I followed him through long avenues of silks, damasks, brocades, and other costly examples of Oriental luxury in all the tints of the rainbow. I was beginning to feel un...

'Twas the time of the working men's great strike, When all the land stood still At the sudden roar from the hungry mouths That labour could not fill; When the thunder of the rai...

How can I describe the spending of that evening? How can I get sufficient power out of the English language to let you know what a nuisance that bird was to us? How can I tell y...

Five men to one the first dark wave of battle brought, it bore Down swiftly, while our youngsters waited steadfast as the shore; Behind the slender barricade, half-hidden, on th...

Then said King Charles, "Where thousands fail, what king can stand alone? The strength of kings is in the men that gather round the throne. When war dismays my barons bold, 'tis...

Not a drum was heard, not a funeral note, As his corse to the rampant we hurried; Not a soldier discharged his farewell shot O'er the grave where our hero we buried.

As he walked slowly up, watched by many a bright eye, As a dark cloud moves on through the stars in the sky-- None dared to oppose him, for Phadrig was great, Till he stood, all...

"And, brother, as Heaven goes with the wrong, If this lying baron should lay me along, Strike another blow for our good renown." "Doubt me not," said the young knight John.

Which I wish to remark, And my language is plain, That for ways that are dark And for tricks that are vain The heathen Chinee is peculiar, Which the same I would rise to explain.

And Nat and his party, they, too, went away; And I haven't seen either for many a day. Still, don't be surprised If you see advertised, The name of Nat Ricket Connected with cri...

One afternoon, as in that sultry clime It is the custom in the summer time, With bolted doors and window-shutters closed, The inhabitants of Atri slept or dozed; When suddenly u...

"Don't you see, Mister Brown," Cried the youth with a frown, "How wrong the whole thing is, How preposterous each wing is, How flattened the head is, how jammed down the neck is...

There with coils of rope I strapped him to my sofa, firm and fast, Douched him, doused him, bled and tapped him, till I sobered him at last, To that lost expression led him--tha...

As shines the moon in clouded skies, She in her poor attire was seen: One praised her ankles, one her eyes, One her dark hair and lovesome mien. So sweet a face, such angel grac...

Yea, I will smite th' falt'ring, quiv'ring strings, And magazines shall buy my murky stunts; Too long I've held my hand to honest things, Too long I've borne rejections and affr...

Other nations fail in their attempts at colonisation because they proceed on military lines. With them it is the soldier first and the civilian where he can. England succeeds be...

And broadside the great ship went down Amid the swirling foam; And with her nigh four hundred men Went down in sight of home (Fletcher and I alone were saved) Only an hour from...

There, through smoke of onset rifted, Soldiers who disdained to yield Had for weal or woe uplifted England's own broad battle-shield. Right across the path of pillage Was that i...

The Arab horse will not shrink back, Though death confront him in his track, The Arab horse will not shrink back, And shall his rider's arm be slack? No!--By the God who gave us...

Build up heroic lives, and all Be like a sheathen sabre, Ready to flash out at God's call-- O chivalry of labour! Triumph and toil are twins; though they Be singly born in sorro...