Unit 6 Credit Recovery Reading Packet
“Dulce Et Decorum Est”
Wilfred Owen
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of disappointed shells that dropped behind.
GAS! Gas! Quick, boys!-- An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And floundering like a man in fire or lime.-Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,-My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.
Source: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1034/1034-h/1034-h.htm
excerpt from the English fairy-tale, The Laidly Worm of Spindleston Heugh, by Joseph Jacobs:
In Bamborough Castle once lived a king who had a fair wife and two children, a son named
Childe Wynd and a daughter named Margaret. Childe Wynd went forth to seek his fortune, and
soon after he had gone the queen his mother died. The king mourned her long and faithfully,
but one day while he was hunting he came across a lady of great beauty, and became so much
in love with her that he determined to marry her. So he sent word home that he was going to
bring a new queen to Bamborough Castle.
Princess Margaret was not very glad to hear of her mother’s place being taken, but she did not
repine but did her father’s bidding. And at the appointed day came down to the castle gate
with the keys all ready to hand over to her stepmother. Soon the procession drew near, and the
new queen came towards Princess Margaret who bowed low and handed her the keys of the
castle. She stood there with blushing cheeks and eye on ground, and said: “O welcome, father
dear, to your halls and bowers, and welcome to you my new mother, for all that’s here is
yours,” and again she offered the keys. One of the king’s knights who had escorted the new
queen, cried out in admiration: “Surely this northern Princess is the loveliest of her kind.” At
that the new queen flushed up and cried out: “At least your courtesy might have excepted me,”
and then she muttered below her breath: “I’ll soon put an end to her beauty.”
That same night the queen, who was a noted witch, stole down to a lonely dungeon wherein
she did her magic and with spells three times three, and with passes nine times nine she cast
Princess Margaret under her spell. And this was her spell:
I weird ye to be a Laidly Worm,
And borrowed shall ye never be,
Until Childe Wynd, the King’s own son
Come to the Heugh and thrice kiss thee;
Until the world comes to an end,
Borrowed shall ye never be.
Source: http://www.authorama.com/english-fairy-tales-36.html
Hatfield/McCoy
The Hatfield/McCoy family feud began in the 1860s and continued through many generations.
The warring of families took place in West Virginia and Kentucky along the Tug Fork River. You
see, the Hatfield’s lived on the West Virginia side of the river while the McCoys lived on the
Kentucky side of the river. Both families settled in this area at the same time and first began
feuding over land and hogs. The war between the family was just that…a literal war resulting in
more than a dozen deaths between the years of 1878-1891. For a period of time, the
governors of West Virginia and Kentucky had to call in the National Guard to restore order. The
rivalry hit its peak when the Hatfields murdered a McCoy woman. The eight men involved in
the murder were found guilty. Seven of the men received life in prison while the eighth was
executed by a public hanging. The family feud became so famous that, literally, thousands of
spectators came to Kentucky trying to sit in on the trial. Those thousands stayed to watch the
hanging. Finally, in 1891, the Hatfields and McCoys agreed to disagree.
excerpt, based on factual information, about Shakespeare’s inspiration for his play
Research in the literature suggests that William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, the greatest
love story ever told, was first created in the second century. Therefore, we must consider how
the story got into the hands of William Shakespeare. A poem, composed by Arthur Brooke,
“The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet,” inspired Shakespeare to write Romeo and Juliet.
But where did Brooke get his inspiration? Matteo Bandello wrote a work, “Novelle,” in 1554,
just a couple of years prior to Brooke’s poem. The influence does not end here.
Xenophon, a writer in the second century A.D. originated the story line. Some thirteen hundred
years later, Luigi Da Porta rewrote Xenophon’s story and set it in Verona, Italy. De Porta,
himself, was inspired by Massussccio Salernitano who, in 1476, wrote “Cinquante Novelle,” a
story of two feuding families, the Montagues and the Capulets. Centuries of various versions of
the story led to Shakespeare’s famous version that included feuding Montagues and Capulets,
Verona, and Romeo and Juliet.
Since Shakespeare’s play, published in 1597, the influence has continued. Berlioz’s symphony of
1839, Tchaikovsky’s overture of 1870, Prokofiev’s ballet of 1938, and the academy-awardwinning musical, West Side Story, first appearing on Broadway in 1957, are all based on the
tragic love story of Romeo and Juliet.
Source: Levenson (ed.), Jill L. (2000). Romeo and Juliet. The Oxford
Shakespeare (Oxford World's Classics). Oxford: Oxford University Press
Essay 1
If you could choose your favorite kind of movie, what would it be? Some would choose
comedies because they enjoy laughing and others would choose romances because they enjoy
the sappy scenes. As for myself, I would choose scary movies. Scary movies are better than any
other kind of movie!
The first thing that I love about scary movies is the way that my heart beats faster during the
scary scenes. I can feel my heart beating in my ears when the scary music begins to play and
everything else is quiet. Sometimes I think that the person sitting next to me can hear my heart!
__________________________, eating popcorn slowly, while keeping my eyes glued to the
screen is part of the "scary movie" experience and an experience that I never want to miss! The
candy at the theatre is fine, but there is something about scary movies and popcorn that seem
to go together.
__________________________, my friends always make the scary movie experience even
better. Screaming alone may be seen as a little strange, but when we go together, we all
scream together. No one can blame us because the movies are so scary. I also think that when
your friends are scared around you, they make the movie that much scarier.
For all these reasons, scary movies are the best movies that there are. If you get a chance, you
should go see a scary movie with your friends.
“Mending Wall” analysis
In “Mending Wall” Robert Frost claims that fences or borders between people
should not be necessary. In his poem Frost illustrates his point with an analogy to
landowners mending a stone wall each spring. Both landowners know that the
stones will not stay in place for the entire year. Both know that their land does
not need to be separated by a stone wall since one landowner has apple orchards
and the other, pine trees. Finally, Frost asserts the men repair the wall out of
tradition not out of necessity.