Our Savior Lutheran School

Grades 6/7/8

Our Savior Lutheran School

Houston, Texas

2007-2008

Poetry, Verse, and Literature

to Learn by Heart

Grades 6/7/8

John 1:1-5

(NIV)

1. In the beginning was the Word,

and the Word was with God,

and the Word was God.

2. He was with God in the beginning.

3. Through him all things were made;

without him nothing was made that has been made.

4. In him was life, and that life was the light of men.

5. The light shines in the darkness,

but the darkness has not understood it.

The Eagle

by Alfred Lord Tennyson

HE clasps the crag with crooked hands;

Close to the sun in lonely lands,

Ringed with the azure world, he stands.

The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;

He watches from his mountain walls,

And like a thunderbolt he falls.

On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer

by John Keats

MUCH have I travell'd in the realms of gold,

And many goodly states and kingdoms seen;

Round many western islands have I been

Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold.

Oft of one wide expanse had I been told

That deep-brow'd Homer ruled as his demesne:

Yet did I never breathe its pure serene

Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold:

Then felt I like some watcher of the skies

When a new planet swims into his ken;

Or like stout Cortez, when with eagle eyes

He stared at the Pacific—and all his men

Look'd at each other with a wild surmise—

Silent, upon a peak in Darien.

Psalm 23

(KJV)

1. The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

2. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:

he leadeth me beside the still waters.

3. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

4. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

5. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

6. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

Epitaph of Simonides

for the Spartans

Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by,

that here, obedient to their laws, we lie

To Homer

by John Keats

Standing aloof in giant ignorance,

Of thee I hear and of the Cyclades,

As one who sits ashore and longs perchance

To visit dolphin-coral in deep seas.

So thou wast blind;--but then the veil was rent,

For Jove uncurtain'd Heaven to let thee live,

And Neptune made for thee a spumy tent,

And Pan made sing for thee his forest-hive;

Aye on the shores of darkness there is light,

And precipices show untrodden green,

There is a budding morrow in midnight,

There is a triple sight in blindness keen;

Such seeing hadst thou, as it once befel

To Dian, Queen of Earth, and Heaven, and Hell.

Julius Caesar

(Mark Antony’s funeral oration in Act III)

by William Shakespeare

bold text only

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;

I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.

The evil that men do lives after them;

The good is oft interred with their bones;

So let it be with Caesar. The noble Brutus

Hath told you Caesar was ambitious:

If it were so, it was a grievous fault,

And grievously hath Caesar answer'd it.

Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest--

For Brutus is an honourable man;

So are they all, all honourable men--

Come I to speak in Caesar's funeral.

He was my friend, faithful and just to me:

But Brutus says he was ambitious;

And Brutus is an honourable man.

He hath brought many captives home to Rome

Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill:

Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?

When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept:

Ambition should be made of sterner stuff:

Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;

And Brutus is an honourable man.

You all did see that on the Lupercal

I thrice presented him a kingly crown,

Which he did thrice refuse: was this ambition?

Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;

And, sure, he is an honourable man.

I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke,

But here I am to speak what I do know.

You all did love him once, not without cause:

What cause withholds you then, to mourn for him?

O judgment! thou art fled to brutish beasts,

And men have lost their reason. Bear with me;

My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar,

And I must pause till it come back to me.

A Mighty Fortress Is Our God

By Martin Luther

A Mighty fortress is our God,

A trusty shield and weapon;

He helps us free from every need

That hath us now overtaken.

The Old evil foe

Now means deadly woe

Deep guile and great might

Are his dread arms in fight;

On earth is not his equal.

With might of ours can naught be done,

Soon were our loss effected;

But for us fights the valiant One,

Whom God himself elected.

Ask ye, Who is this?

Jesus Christ it is,

Of sabaoth Lord,

And there’s none other God;

He holds the field forever.

Though devils all the world should fill,

All eager to devour us,

We tremble not, we fear no ill,

They shall not overpower us.

This world’s prince may still

Scowl fierce as he will,

He can harm us none,

He’s judged; the deed is done’

On little world can fell him.

The Word they still shall let remain

Nor any thanks have for it;

He’s by our side upon the plain

With his good gifts and Spirit.

And take they our life,

Goods, fame, child, and wife,

Though these all be gone,

Our victory has been won;

The Kingdom ours remaineth.

The Nicene Creed

The Council of Nicea

I believe in one God,

the Father Almighty,

maker of heaven and earth

and of all things visible and invisible.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ,

the only-begotten Son of God,

begotten of His Father before all worlds,

God of God, Light of Light,

very God of very God,

begotten, not made,

being of one substance with the Father;

by whom all things were made;

who for us men and for our salvation

came down from heaven,

and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary

and was made man;

and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate.

He suffered and was buried.

And the third day He rose again

according to the Scriptures

and ascended into heaven

and sits at the right hand of the Father.

And He will come again with glory to judge

both the living and the dead,

whose kingdom will have no end.

And I believe in the Holy Spirit,

the Lord and giver of life,

who proceeds from the Father and the Son,

who with the Father and the Son together

is worshiped and glorified,

who spoke by the prophets.

And I believe in one holy Christian and apostolic Church.

I acknowledge one Baptism for the remission of sins,

and I look for the resurrection of the dead

and the life of the world to come. Amen.

Psalm 127:1-4

(NIV)

1. Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain.

Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain.

2. In vain you rise early and stay up late,

toiling for food to eat— for he grants sleep to [a] those he loves.

3. Sons are a heritage from the LORD, children a reward from him.

Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are sons born in one's youth.

4. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them.

They will not be put to shame when they contend with their enemies in the gate.

Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening

By Robert Frost

Whose woods these are I think I know.

His house is in the village though;

He will not see me stopping here

To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer

To stop without a farmhouse near

Between the woods and frozen lake

The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake

To ask if there is some mistake.

The only other sound's the sweep

Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep.

Luke 2:1-7

(KJV)

1. And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus

that all the world should be taxed.

2. (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)

3. And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.

4. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David)

5. To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.

6. And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.

7. And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.

Sonnet XXVIII

by William Shakespeare

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

And summer's lease hath all too short a date:

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,

And often is his gold complexion dimmed,

And every fair from fair sometime declines,

By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed:

But thy eternal summer shall not fade,

Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,

Nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his shade,

When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st,

So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,

So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Psalm 51:1-6

(NIV)

1. Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love;

according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.

2. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.

3. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.

4. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge.

5. Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.

6. Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place.

Here I Stand

by Martin Luther

Since your Imperial Majesty and Lordships demand a simple answer

I will do so without horns or teeth as follows:

Unless I am convicted by the testimony of Scripture or by evident reason

(for I trust neither in popes nor in councils alone, since it is obvious

that they have often erred and contradicted themselves)

I am convicted by the Scripture which I have mentioned

and my conscience is captive by the Word of God.

Therefore I cannot and will not recant,

since it is difficult, unprofitable and dangerous

indeed to do anything against one's conscience.

Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me. Amen.

Sonnet XXIX

by William Shakespeare

When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes

I all alone beweep my outcast state,

And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,

And look upon myself, and curse my fate,

Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,

Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,

Desiring this man's art, and that man's scope,

With what I most enjoy contented least;

Yet in these thoughts my self almost despising,

Haply I think on thee, and then my state,

Like to the lark at break of day arising

From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;

For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings

That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

Paul Revere’s Ride

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Listen my children and you shall hear

Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,

On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;

Hardly a man is now alive

Who remembers that famous day and year.

He said to his friend, "If the British march

By land or sea from the town to-night,

Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch

Of the North Church tower as a signal light,--

One if by land, and two if by sea;

And I on the opposite shore will be,

Ready to ride and spread the alarm

Through every Middlesex village and farm,

For the country folk to be up and to arm."

You know the rest. In the books you have read

How the British Regulars fired and fled,---

How the farmers gave them ball for ball,

From behind each fence and farmyard wall,

Chasing the redcoats down the lane,

Then crossing the fields to emerge again

Under the trees at the turn of the road,

And only pausing to fire and load.

So through the night rode Paul Revere;