原版英文故事与诗歌：Town & Country

 　　Read the poems

　　Progress

　　by Osbert Sitwell

　　The city's heat is like a leaden pall-

　　Its lowered lamps glow in the midnight air

　　Like mammoth¹ orange-moths that flit and flare²

　　Through the dark tapestry³ of night. The tall

　　Black houses crush the creeping beggars down,

　　Who walk beneath and think of breezes cool,

　　Of silver bodies bathing in a pool;

　　Or trees that whisper in some far, small town

　　Whose quiet nursed them, when they thought that

　　Was merely metal, not a grave of mould

　　In which men bury all that's fine and fair.

　　When they could chase the jewelled butterfly

　　Through the green bracken-scented lanes or sigh

　　For all the future held so rich and rare;

　　When, though they knew it not, their baby cries

　　Were lovely as the jewelled butterflies.

　　The City

　　by Charles Hanson Towne

　　When, sick of all the sorrow and distress⁴

　　That flourished in the City like foul⁵ weeds,

　　I sought blue rivers and green, opulent meads,

　　And leagues of unregarded loneliness

　　Whereon no foot of man had seemed to press,

　　I did not know how great had been my needs,

　　How wise the woodland’s gospels and her creeds⁶,

　　How good her faith to one long comfortless.

　　But in the silence came a Voice to me;

　　In every wind it murmured, and I knew

　　It would not cease though far my heart might roam.

　　It called me in the sunrise and the dew,

　　At noon and twilight⁷, sadly, hungrily,

　　The jealous City, whispering always-“Home!” Poems - Town and Country

1 mammoth   

n.长毛象；adj.长毛象似的，巨大的

参考例句：

• You can only undertake mammoth changes if the finances are there.资金到位的情况下方可进行重大变革。
• Building the new railroad will be a mammoth job.修建那条新铁路将是一项巨大工程。

2 flare   

v.闪耀，闪烁；n.潮红；突发

参考例句：

• The match gave a flare.火柴发出闪光。
• You need not flare up merely because I mentioned your work.你大可不必因为我提到你的工作就动怒。

3 tapestry   

n.挂毯，丰富多采的画面

参考例句：

• How about this artistic tapestry and this cloisonne vase?这件艺术挂毯和这个景泰蓝花瓶怎么样？
• The wall of my living room was hung with a tapestry.我的起居室的墙上挂着一块壁毯。

4 distress   

n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛

参考例句：

• Nothing could alleviate his distress.什么都不能减轻他的痛苦。
• Please don't distress yourself.请你不要忧愁了。

5 foul   

adj.污秽的；邪恶的；v.弄脏；妨害；犯规；n.犯规

参考例句：

• Take off those foul clothes and let me wash them.脱下那些脏衣服让我洗一洗。
• What a foul day it is!多么恶劣的天气！

6 creeds   

（尤指宗教）信条，教条( creed的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• people of all races, colours and creeds 各种种族、肤色和宗教信仰的人
• Catholics are agnostic to the Protestant creeds. 天主教徒对于新教教义来说，是不可知论者。

7 twilight   

n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期

参考例句：

• Twilight merged into darkness.夕阳的光辉融于黑暗中。
• Twilight was sweet with the smell of lilac and freshly turned earth.薄暮充满紫丁香和新翻耕的泥土的香味。