Winter Pleasures

What a wealth of jolly things

Good old winter always brings!

Ice to skate on, hills to coast –

Don’t know which we like the most!

Games to play, and corn to pop –

Midnight seems too soon to stop!

Books to read aloud at night,

Songs to sing, and plays to write!

Nona Keen Duffy

 

What is good to do in winter when one is 5,18, 40, 75 years old?

 

Paper

Paper is two kinds, to write on, to wrap with.

If you like to write, you write.

If you like to wrap, you wrap.

Some papers like writers, some like wrappers.

Are you a writer or a wrapper?

Carl Sandburg

 

The Falling Star

I saw a star slide down the sky,

Blinding the north as I went by,

Too burning and too quick to hold,

Too lovely to be bought or sold,

Good only to make wishes on

And then forever to be gone.

Sara Teasdale

 

 

3. Limericks

Read these limericks. Can you find all the infinitives and the infinitive constructions in them? Learn the limerick you like the best and recite it in class.

 

There was anOld Person whose habits

Induced him to feed upon the rabbits;

When he’d eaten eighteen

He turned perfectly green,

Upon which he relinquished those habits.

 

There was a Young Lady whose nose

Was so long that it reached to her toes;

So she hired an old lady,

Whose conduct was steady,

To carry that wonderful nose.

 

There was an Old Person of Prague,

Who was suddenly taken with the plague;

But they gave him some butter.

Which caused him to mutter.

And cured that Old person of Prague.

 

There was an Old Person of Rhodes,

Who strongly objected to toads;

He paid several cousins

To catch them by dozens,

That futile Old Person of Rhodes.

 

There was an Old Man of Merlose,

Who walked on the tips of his toes,

But they said, ‘It ain’t pleasant

To see you at present,

You stupid Old Man of Merlose.’

 

There was an Old Person of Rheims,

Who was troubled with horrible dreams;

So, to keep him awake,

They fade him on cake,

Which amused that Old Person of Rheims.

 

There was an Old Man of Whitehaven,

Who danced a quadrille with a raven;

But they said, ‘It’s absurd

To encourage this bird!’

So they smashed that Old Man of Whitehaven.

 

There was an Old Man of the Hague,

Whose ideas were excessively vague;

He built a balloon

To examine the moon,

That deluded Old Man of the Hague.

 

There was an Old Man with an owl,

Who continued to bother and howl;

He sat on a rail

And imbibed bitter ale,

Which refreshed that Old Man and his owl.

There was an Old Person of Ewell,

Who chiefly subsisted on gruel;

But to make it more nice

He inserted some mice,

Which refreshed that Old Person of Ewell.

 

Familiar Quotations

Read the quotations and choose one to react to.

a) Explain its meaning in your own words. b) Do you agree with it? Write a two-page reaction to the quotation.

The world is governed more by appearances than by realities, so that it is fully as necessary to seem to know something as to know it.

Webster

 

It is human nature to think wisely and to act foolishly.

France

They have a right to censure that have a heart to help.

Penn

To be absolutely certain about something, one must know everything or nothing about it.

 

The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up.

Mark Twain

To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, be nothing.

Elbert Hubbard

One of the secrets of life is to keep our intellectual curiosity acute.

Phelps

Some people are so afraid to die that they never begin to live.

Van Dyke

There are two tragedies in life. One is not to get your heart’s desire. The other is to get it.

Bernard Shaw

In all things it is better to hope than to despair.

Goethe

Difficulties are meant to rouse, not to discourage.

Channing

It’s better to be alone than in bad company.

George Washington

To find the fault is easy; to do better may be difficult.

Plutarch

The best way to convince a fool that he is wrong is to let him have his own way.

Billings

To err is human, to forgive divine.

Pope

The only way to have a friend is to be one.

Emerson