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1 " Through pity, then, I can't resistdelivering a song of blisswhen witnessing the painful tracethat love leaves in a young girl's face.I try to teach them, through my song,love of that kind will not last long,because, just as my song relents,love rarely stays when it descendson children's hearts, but meets its deaththe way that warmth fades on our breath. "
― Simon Armitage , The Owl and the Nightingale
2 " Who speaks well ... fights well,' goes the song;she'd wage war with her voice instead.'To fight well, speak well,' Alfred said. "
3 " The wise have noted more than oncethat he who argues with a duncemight just as well compare his jawagainst an oven's yawning door.And now a saying comes to mind,a proverb that King Alfred coined:"Be careful not to waste your lifewhere strife & quarrelling are rife;keep well away from fractious fools. "
4 " If Beauty called it didn't stay,& Virtue looked the other way.Another charge that I will file:your habits, like your looks, are vile. "