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The winner has many friends, the loser has good friends.

Mongolian proverbs
Added by Lucian Velea
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The Winner

Written by c. jackson, m. yancy and g. barge
In this world of make believe I must confess
To be number one youve got to do it better
And if you strive to be happy youll find success
Perspectively youve got to pull it together
Nothing good will come to you if you dont see
A reason for victory
Everybody loves the winner
Only the winner can really make things happen
Everybody loves the winner, so be the winner, I know you are
If theres something youd like to do youve never done
Dont let fear stand in your way
Just collect your dreams and thoughts and get on the run
I wouldnt wait another day
You can be the best in everything you do
When it thawls out, its all up to you
Everybody loves the winner (everybody loves the winner)
Only a winner can really make things happen
Everybody loves a winner (everybody loves a winner)
So be the winner you are
Be a winner, ooh (yes you can, yes you can, yes you can)
Be a winner, ooh (yes you can, yes you can, yes you can)
Be a winner, a winner, a winner, yes you can
cause everybody (everybody) loves (loves a winner)
The winner, so be a winner
You can only make things happen
Everybody (everybody) loves a winner (loves a winner)
So be the winner, I know you are
Every (everybody), everybody, (loves a winner)
Really loves the winner, (so be a winner)
Only the winner can really make things happen
Everybody (everybody) loves the winner (loves a winner)
So be a winner (so be a winner), I know you are if you really try
Be a winner, you know you can, you know you can
You know you can be a winner
(yes you can, yes you can, yes you can)
Scat (yes you can, yes you can, yes you can)
Scat
(everybody) yeah, (loves a winner)
Scat
(everybody loves a winner)
(everybody) everybody really loves a winner (loves a winner)!

song performed by Natalie Cole
Added by Lucian Velea
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Secret Loser

Trapped in a lonely body Im losin control
Cant show my emotions and Im losing my soul
Could it be that Im obsessed with feeding my disease
I couldnt make it know that hidden things that no one sees
Yeah loser Im a secret loser
Loser Im a secret loser
Fighting a losing battle pretending to win
Repenting to holy unknowns pretending to sin
All I do is hide the wounds where blood just wont congeal
Couldnt ever take my soul cos isnt there to steal
Yeah loser Im a secret loser
Loser Im a secret loser
Though Im the loser there is no winner
Theres nothing left to win
The hidden reasons now in deletion
Are lost in sin
So heed my warning the time is dawning
Ill tell you heres the twist
The truth is lying
Below the surface I dont exist
Loser Im a secret loser
Loser Im a secret loser
Seeing is not believing it dont mean a thing
Although it appears to be that the loser is king
I can understand that what you see you think is real
But underneath the surface is a wound that cannot heal
Yeah loser Im a secret loser
Loser Im a secret loser
Loser Im a secret loser
Loser Im a secret loser
Loser Im a secret loser

song performed by Ozzy Osbourne
Added by Lucian Velea
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The Winner

The hulk of a man with a beer in his hand looked like a drunk old fool,
And I knew that if I hit him right, I could knock him off that stool.
But everybody said, 'Watch out, that's Tiger Man McCool.
He's had a whole lot of fights, and he always come out the winner.
Yeah, he's a winner.'

But I'd had myself about five too many, and I walked up tall and proud,
I faced his back and I faced the fact that he'd never stooped or bowed.
I said, 'Tiger Man, you're a pussycat,' and a hush fell on the crowd,
I said, 'Let's you and me go outside and see who's the winner'

Well, he gripped the bar with one big hairy hand and he braced against the wall,
He slowly looked up from his beer....my God, that man was tall.
He said, 'Boy, I see you're a scrapper, so just before you fall,
I'm gonna tell you just a little what a means to be a winner.'

He said, 'You see these bright white smilin' teeth, you know they ain't my own.
Mine rolled away like Chiclets down a street in San Antone.
But I left that person cursin', nursin' seven broken bones.
And he only broke three of mine, and that make me a winner.'

He said, 'Behind his grin, I got a steel pin that holds my jaw in place.
A trophy of my most successful motorcycle race.
And every mornin' when I wake and touch this scar across my face,
It reminds me of all I got by bein' a winner.

Now my broken back was the dyin' act of handsome Harry Clay
That sticky Cincinnatti night I stole his wife away.
But that woman, she gets uglier and meaner every day.
But I got her, boy, and that's what makes me a winner.

You gotta speak loud when you challenge me, son, 'cause it's hard for me to hear
With this twisted neck and these migraine pains and this cauliflower ear.
'N' if it weren't for this glass eye of mine, I'd shed a happy tear
To think of all you'll get by bein' a winner.

I got arthuritic elbows, boy, I got dislocated knees,
From pickin' fights with thunderstorms and chargin' into trees.
And my nose been broke so often I might lose it if I sneeze.
And, son, you say you still wanna be a winner?

My spine is short three vertebrae and my hip is screwed together.
My ankles warn me every time there'll be a change in weather.
Guess I kicked too many asses, and when the kicks all get together,
They sure can slow you down when you're a winner.

My knuckles are so swollen I can hardly make a fist.
Who would have thought old Charlie had a blade taped to his wrist?
And my blind eye's where he cut me, and my good eye's where he missed.
Yeah, you lose a couple of things when you're a winner.

[...] Read more

poem by Sheldon Allan Silverstein
Added by Poetry Lover
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Bad Boy

Oh no,
Don't want to be a bad boy.
Oh no,
You don't want to be the one destroyed.
I know,
You don't want to be a bad boy.
Don't you want to live your life with friends to enjoy?

Oh no,
Don't want to be a bad boy.
Oh no,
You don't want to be the one destroyed.
I know,
You don't want to be a bad boy.
Don't you want to live your life with friends to enjoy.
And have the freedom to resist those things that annoy.

Why, why, why and for what reason,
What is it that you wish to rush too quick?
And...
Who told you being slick would get it to you quicker!
I know...
Everything you want you've got to work for it.
But your getting closer to have hand cuffs on your wrists.

Oh no,
Don't want to be a bad boy.
Oh no,
You don't want to be the one destroyed.
I know,
You don't want to be a bad boy.
Don't you want to live your life with friends to enjoy.
And have the freedom to resist those things that annoy.

You just need to know,
You can be a winner.
You just need to know,
There is a winner in ya!
You just need to know,
You can be a winner.
You just need to know,
There is a winner in ya!
There is a winner there!

Oh,
And I know,
You don't want to be a bad boy.
Don't you want to live your life with friends to enjoy.
And have the freedom to resist those things that annoy.

[...] Read more

poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar
Added by Poetry Lover
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Loser With A Broken Heart

Many miles of memories
Many tears I cant forget
But I know you live inside me yet
Oh
Many hours to contemplate
Many dreams I cant recall
Many nights Ive felt I was too small
Nothing more than a loser with a broken heart, yea
Nothing more than a loser with a broken heart, yea
Its a hard and bitter world
When you face reality
And its hard to be who you want to be
Oh
Many miles of memories
Catch the wind and blow away
But I know that its over, over anyway
Oh
But tonight I sit and wonder why
You left me here
After all this time I dont know why
You left me here
If its all behind me
You know youll find me
Oh
Nothing more than a loser with a broken heart, yea
Nothing more than a loser with a broken heart, oh yea
But tonight I sit and wonder why
You left me here
After all this time I wonder why
Wonder why
You left me here
If its all behind me
You know youll find me
Nothing more than a loser with a broken heart, yea
Nothing more than a loser with a broken heart, oh yea
Im a loser
Im a loser
Im a loser
Im a loser

song performed by Chicago
Added by Lucian Velea
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Good Love

Everytime I get to see you
I get this feelin
Its so fuzzy inside
And as soon as I walk away from you
Im still tasting your kiss
Saving it in my mind
Its not everyday I find
A guy that makes me smile all the time
Not the way that you do
All the guys I thought I used to love
Compared to you they dont match up
They got nothing on you
I think I found a good good good love
The kind that will put it on you
The kind that you wanna hold on to
I think I found a good good good love
We can be lovers and friends too
And theyll do anything for you
A good love
Baby you got somethin special
That has me thinking of settling down
Youre the one my mama told me
Would sooner or later one day finally come around
I think I found a good good good love
The kind that will put it on you
The kind that you wanna hold on to
I think I found a good good good love
We can be lovers and friends too
And theyll do anything for you
A good love
I think I found a good good good love
The kind that will put it on you
The kind that you wanna hold on to
I think I found a good good good love
We can be lovers and friends too
And theyll do anything for you
A good love
You bring me joy
And you bring me much pleasure
I could never see myself leaving you ever
Your soft touch is good and it cant get no better
You have got my mind so caught up
Im drunk off of your good love
I think I found a good good good love
The kind that will put it on you
The kind that you wanna hold on to
I think I found a good good good love
We can be lovers and friends too
And theyll do anything for you
A good love

[...] Read more

song performed by TLC
Added by Lucian Velea
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Old Friends

Old friends
Are the best friends
All my old friends
Are my best friends
Old friends
Are the best friends
All my old friends
Are my best friends
Saw you walk into the club last night
Could not even believe what I was seein
How do I even stop thinkin of you?
cause in my eyes youre still mine
Nobody told me I would feel like this
Wanting you more as the years walk on by
Now Im not afraid to say what i, I believe
But I wish you were my wife
My old friend
Old friends
Are the best friends
All my old friends
Are my best friends
(my old friend)
Old friends
Are the best friends
All my old friends
Are my best friends
First time we met so cool, cool I never knew
You would become so closely to my heart
And now when I look back, girl I was so blessed
The rest never passed the test
Im choosy when it comes to newfound friends
And I wish they could be so smooth
(just like you)
And you never sweated me girl that was so tight
You were an angel in my life, oh, if
(I knew then)
What I know now
(what I know now)
Oh, yeah
(you wouldnt be with him)
You would be here
(youd be here with me)
My old friend
Old friends
Are the best friends
All my old friends
Are my best friends
(my old friend)
Old friends
Are the best friends

[...] Read more

song performed by New Edition
Added by Lucian Velea
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XI. Guido

You are the Cardinal Acciaiuoli, and you,
Abate Panciatichi—two good Tuscan names:
Acciaiuoli—ah, your ancestor it was
Built the huge battlemented convent-block
Over the little forky flashing Greve
That takes the quick turn at the foot o' the hill
Just as one first sees Florence: oh those days!
'T is Ema, though, the other rivulet,
The one-arched brown brick bridge yawns over,—yes,
Gallop and go five minutes, and you gain
The Roman Gate from where the Ema's bridged:
Kingfishers fly there: how I see the bend
O'erturreted by Certosa which he built,
That Senescal (we styled him) of your House!
I do adjure you, help me, Sirs! My blood
Comes from as far a source: ought it to end
This way, by leakage through their scaffold-planks
Into Rome's sink where her red refuse runs?
Sirs, I beseech you by blood-sympathy,
If there be any vile experiment
In the air,—if this your visit simply prove,
When all's done, just a well-intentioned trick,
That tries for truth truer than truth itself,
By startling up a man, ere break of day,
To tell him he must die at sunset,—pshaw!
That man's a Franceschini; feel his pulse,
Laugh at your folly, and let's all go sleep!
You have my last word,—innocent am I
As Innocent my Pope and murderer,
Innocent as a babe, as Mary's own,
As Mary's self,—I said, say and repeat,—
And why, then, should I die twelve hours hence? I—
Whom, not twelve hours ago, the gaoler bade
Turn to my straw-truss, settle and sleep sound
That I might wake the sooner, promptlier pay
His due of meat-and-drink-indulgence, cross
His palm with fee of the good-hand, beside,
As gallants use who go at large again!
For why? All honest Rome approved my part;
Whoever owned wife, sister, daughter,—nay,
Mistress,—had any shadow of any right
That looks like right, and, all the more resolved,
Held it with tooth and nail,—these manly men
Approved! I being for Rome, Rome was for me.
Then, there's the point reserved, the subterfuge
My lawyers held by, kept for last resource,
Firm should all else,—the impossible fancy!—fail,
And sneaking burgess-spirit win the day.
The knaves! One plea at least would hold,—they laughed,—
One grappling-iron scratch the bottom-rock

[...] Read more

poem by Robert Browning from The Ring and the Book
Added by Veronica Serbanoiu
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Be Good Johnny

Skip de skip, up the road
Off to school we go
Dont you be a bad boy johnny
Dont you slip up
Or play the fool
Oh no ma, oh no da,
Ill be your golden boy
I will obey evry golden rule
Get told by the teacher
Not to day-dream
Told by my mother:
Be good be good
Be good be good be good
Be good be good be good be good (johnny)
Be good be good
Be good be good be good
Be good be good be good
Be good be good be good
Be good (johnny)
Be good be good.
Are you going to play football this year, john?
No!
Oh, well you must be going to play cricket this year then,
Are you johnny?
No! no! no!
Boy, you sure are a funny kid, johnny, but I like you! so tell me,
What kind of a boy are you, john?
I only like dreaming
All the day long
Where no one is screaming
Be good be good
Be good be good be good
Be good be good be good be good (johnny)
Be good be good
Be good be good be good
Be good be good be good
Be good be good be good
Be good be good be good
Be good be good be good
Be good be good be good
Be good be good be good
Be good be good be good
Be good be good be good
Be good be good be good
Johnny!

song performed by Men At Work
Added by Lucian Velea
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Prince Hohenstiel-Schwangau, Saviour of Society

Epigraph

Υδραν φονεύσας, μυρίων τ᾽ ἄλλων πόνων
διῆλθον ἀγέλας . . .
τὸ λοίσθιον δὲ τόνδ᾽ ἔτλην τάλας πόνον,
. . . δῶμα θριγκῶσαι κακοῖς.

I slew the Hydra, and from labour pass'd
To labour — tribes of labours! Till, at last,
Attempting one more labour, in a trice,
Alack, with ills I crowned the edifice.

You have seen better days, dear? So have I —
And worse too, for they brought no such bud-mouth
As yours to lisp "You wish you knew me!" Well,
Wise men, 't is said, have sometimes wished the same,
And wished and had their trouble for their pains.
Suppose my Œdipus should lurk at last
Under a pork-pie hat and crinoline,
And, latish, pounce on Sphynx in Leicester Square?
Or likelier, what if Sphynx in wise old age,
Grown sick of snapping foolish people's heads,
And jealous for her riddle's proper rede, —
Jealous that the good trick which served the turn
Have justice rendered it, nor class one day
With friend Home's stilts and tongs and medium-ware,—
What if the once redoubted Sphynx, I say,
(Because night draws on, and the sands increase,
And desert-whispers grow a prophecy)
Tell all to Corinth of her own accord.
Bright Corinth, not dull Thebes, for Lais' sake,
Who finds me hardly grey, and likes my nose,
And thinks a man of sixty at the prime?
Good! It shall be! Revealment of myself!
But listen, for we must co-operate;
I don't drink tea: permit me the cigar!
First, how to make the matter plain, of course —
What was the law by which I lived. Let 's see:
Ay, we must take one instant of my life
Spent sitting by your side in this neat room:
Watch well the way I use it, and don't laugh!
Here's paper on the table, pen and ink:
Give me the soiled bit — not the pretty rose!
See! having sat an hour, I'm rested now,
Therefore want work: and spy no better work
For eye and hand and mind that guides them both,
During this instant, than to draw my pen
From blot One — thus — up, up to blot Two — thus —
Which I at last reach, thus, and here's my line
Five inches long and tolerably straight:

[...] Read more

poem by Robert Browning (1871)
Added by Veronica Serbanoiu
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Robot Man

Live version
--------------------------------------
Grave communication
See me this is my life in the crazy robot man reservation
Do you feel the cold vibration?
cause Im everywhere, produce a crazy science fiction creation
And I say ooh, ooh, Im a robot man
And I say ooh, ooh, Im a loser
I say ooh, ooh, Im a robot man
I lost my mind, I lost my life, I lost my soul
Babe, its a magic station
Where we live, what we do with our magic robot man generation
I say babe, its not a vision
Its reality, this is a robot scene what we live in
And I say ooh, ooh, Im a robot man
And I say ooh, ooh, Im a loser
I say ooh, ooh, Im a robot man
I lost my mind, I lost my life, I lost my soul
And I say ooh, ooh, Im a robot man
And I say ooh, ooh, Im a loser
I say ooh, ooh, Im a robot man
And I say ooh, ooh, Im a loser
And I say ooh, ooh, Im a robot man
And I say ooh, ooh, Im a loser
And I say ooh, ooh, Im a robot man...
Another version
---------------------------------------
Music :rudolf schenker
Lyrics:klaus meine
Crave communication
See me this is my life in the crazy robot man reservation
Do you feel him, the cold vibration
Comes from everywhere, produce a crazy science fiction creation
And I say oooh, oooh
Im a robot man
And I say oooh, oooh
Im a loser
I say oooh, oooh
Im a robot man
Well, thats my mind
Thats my life
Thats my soul
Babe, its a magic station
Where we live what we do with our magic from my generation
I say babe, its not a vision
Its reality, this is a robot scene what we live in.
And I say oooh, oooh
Im a robot man
And I say oooh, oooh
Im a loser

[...] Read more

song performed by Scorpions
Added by Lucian Velea
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Im A Winner

(nickolas ashford/valerie simpson)
I roll the dice
Seven eleven
Youll either take me down
Or youll take me to heaven
And Im so glad
I took the chance on you baby
I said Im so glad
I took the chance on you baby
My friends all say
He dont play by the rules
So listen
Dont you be no fool
Dont you know, youre just a beginner
So look at me now
Im a winner
Im a winner
Yes, I am
Shes a winner
Yeah, yes I am
Shes a winner
Like a roulette wheel
Spinning around in my head
I put my chips on nine
Gamblin youd be mine
And Im so glad
I took a chance on you baby
Say Im so glad
I took the chance on you baby
My friends all say
We just dont understand it
You play this game
Youll come out empty handed
cause here we arrange her
And then shortchange her
But I fooled them, yall
Im a winner
Im a winner
Yes I am
Shes a winner
Yes I am
Put that money down
And put dem chips on nine
Im a gambling girl
And I give all I got
So I am at your love
And I hit the jackpot
And Im so glad
I took a chance on you baby
Im so glad

[...] Read more

song performed by Diana Ross
Added by Lucian Velea
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Nothing So Good

Aint nothin so good
As a sunday morning
When the day is dawnin? kinda makes you feel good
There aint nothing so fine
As a lazy weekend
Just hangin out with your best friend
There aint nothing so good
There aint nothing so good as a good time
Theres nothing so right as the right time
I said please ? dont count on me
Said please ? dont count on me
Theres nothing so good as a good time
Maybe there should
There aint nothing so good
Aint nothin so strong
As the strength of a good love
I cant get enough
Cant ever get too much love
There aint nothing so right
As the sound of your voice
Im gonna make it my choice
And get into something good
There aint nothing so good as a good time
There aint nothing so right as the right time
I said please ? dont count on me
Said please ? dont you count on me
Theres nothing so good as a good time
Maybe there should
There aint nothing so good
Sail away
Cant drift too far
Gotta get away
Be where you are
Sail away, sail away
Sail on far
Gotta find a way
Into your heart
Aint nothin so good
As a sunday morning
When the day is dawning
Kinda makes you feel good
There aint nothing so fine
As a lazy weekend
Just hangin out with your best friend
There aint nothing so good
There aint nothing so good as a good time
Aint nothing so right as the right time
I said please ? dont count on me
Said please ? dont count on me
Theres nothing so good as a good time

[...] Read more

song performed by Nazareth
Added by Lucian Velea
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I'm A Loser

I'm a loser
I'm a loser
And i'm not what i appear to be
Of all the love i have won or have lost
There is one love i should never have crossed
She was a girl in a million, my friend
I should have known she would win in the end
I'm a loser
And i lost someone who's near to me
I'm a loser
And i'm not what i appear to be
Although i laugh and i act like a clown
Beneath this mask i am wearing a frown
My tears are falling like rain from the sky
Is it for her or myself that i cry
I'm a loser
And i lost someone who's near to me
I'm a loser
And i'm not what i appear to be
What have i done to deserve such a fate
I realize i have left it too late
And so it's true, pride comes before a fall
I'm telling you so that you won't lose all
I'm a loser
And i lost someone who's near to me
I'm a loser
And i'm not what i appear to be

song performed by Beatles
Added by Lucian Velea
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I'm A Looser

Lennon/McCartney)
I'm a loser
I'm a loser
And I'm not what I appear to be
Of all the love I have won or have lost
there is one love I should never have crossed
She was a girl in a million, my friend
I should have known she would win in the end
I'm a loser
And I lost someone who's near to me
I'm a loser
And I'm not what I appear to be
Although I laugh and I act like a clown
Beneath this mask I am wearing a frown
My tears are falling like rain from the sky
Is it for her or myself that I cry
I'm a loser
And I lost someone who's near to me
I'm a loser
And I'm not what I appear to be
What have I done to deserve such a fate
I realize I have left it too late
And so it's true, pride comes before a fall
I'm telling you so that you won't lose all
I'm a loser
And I lost someone who's near to me
I'm a loser
And I'm not what I appear to be

song performed by Beatles
Added by Lucian Velea
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Im Loser

Im a loser, Im a loser
And Im not what I appear to be
Of all the love I have won or have lost
There is one love I should never have crossed
She was a girl in a million my friend
I should have known she would win in the end
Im a loser and I lost someone whos near to me
Im a loser and Im not what I appear to be
Although I laugh and I act like a clown
Beneath this mask I am wearing a frown
My tears are falling like rain from the sky
Is it for her or myself that I cry
Im a loser and I lost someone whos near to me
Im a loser and Im not what I appear to be
What have I done to deserve such a fate
I realise I have left it too late
And so its true pride comes before a fall
Im telling you so that you wont lose all
Im a loser and I lost someone whos near to me
Im a loser and Im not what I appear to be

song performed by Beatles
Added by Lucian Velea
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VII. Pompilia

I am just seventeen years and five months old,
And, if I lived one day more, three full weeks;
'T is writ so in the church's register,
Lorenzo in Lucina, all my names
At length, so many names for one poor child,
—Francesca Camilla Vittoria Angela
Pompilia Comparini,—laughable!
Also 't is writ that I was married there
Four years ago: and they will add, I hope,
When they insert my death, a word or two,—
Omitting all about the mode of death,—
This, in its place, this which one cares to know,
That I had been a mother of a son
Exactly two weeks. It will be through grace
O' the Curate, not through any claim I have;
Because the boy was born at, so baptized
Close to, the Villa, in the proper church:
A pretty church, I say no word against,
Yet stranger-like,—while this Lorenzo seems
My own particular place, I always say.
I used to wonder, when I stood scarce high
As the bed here, what the marble lion meant,
With half his body rushing from the wall,
Eating the figure of a prostrate man—
(To the right, it is, of entry by the door)
An ominous sign to one baptized like me,
Married, and to be buried there, I hope.
And they should add, to have my life complete,
He is a boy and Gaetan by name—
Gaetano, for a reason,—if the friar
Don Celestine will ask this grace for me
Of Curate Ottoboni: he it was
Baptized me: he remembers my whole life
As I do his grey hair.

All these few things
I know are true,—will you remember them?
Because time flies. The surgeon cared for me,
To count my wounds,—twenty-two dagger-wounds,
Five deadly, but I do not suffer much—
Or too much pain,—and am to die to-night.

Oh how good God is that my babe was born,
—Better than born, baptized and hid away
Before this happened, safe from being hurt!
That had been sin God could not well forgive:
He was too young to smile and save himself.
When they took two days after he was born,
My babe away from me to be baptized
And hidden awhile, for fear his foe should find,—

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poem by Robert Browning from The Ring and the Book
Added by Veronica Serbanoiu
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VI. Giuseppe Caponsacchi

Answer you, Sirs? Do I understand aright?
Have patience! In this sudden smoke from hell,—
So things disguise themselves,—I cannot see
My own hand held thus broad before my face
And know it again. Answer you? Then that means
Tell over twice what I, the first time, told
Six months ago: 't was here, I do believe,
Fronting you same three in this very room,
I stood and told you: yet now no one laughs,
Who then … nay, dear my lords, but laugh you did,
As good as laugh, what in a judge we style
Laughter—no levity, nothing indecorous, lords!
Only,—I think I apprehend the mood:
There was the blameless shrug, permissible smirk,
The pen's pretence at play with the pursed mouth,
The titter stifled in the hollow palm
Which rubbed the eyebrow and caressed the nose,
When I first told my tale: they meant, you know,
"The sly one, all this we are bound believe!
"Well, he can say no other than what he says.
"We have been young, too,—come, there's greater guilt!
"Let him but decently disembroil himself,
"Scramble from out the scrape nor move the mud,—
"We solid ones may risk a finger-stretch!
And now you sit as grave, stare as aghast
As if I were a phantom: now 't is—"Friend,
"Collect yourself!"—no laughing matter more—
"Counsel the Court in this extremity,
"Tell us again!"—tell that, for telling which,
I got the jocular piece of punishment,
Was sent to lounge a little in the place
Whence now of a sudden here you summon me
To take the intelligence from just—your lips!
You, Judge Tommati, who then tittered most,—
That she I helped eight months since to escape
Her husband, was retaken by the same,
Three days ago, if I have seized your sense,—
(I being disallowed to interfere,
Meddle or make in a matter none of mine,
For you and law were guardians quite enough
O' the innocent, without a pert priest's help)—
And that he has butchered her accordingly,
As she foretold and as myself believed,—
And, so foretelling and believing so,
We were punished, both of us, the merry way:
Therefore, tell once again the tale! For what?
Pompilia is only dying while I speak!
Why does the mirth hang fire and miss the smile?
My masters, there's an old book, you should con
For strange adventures, applicable yet,

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poem by Robert Browning from The Ring and the Book
Added by Veronica Serbanoiu
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V. Count Guido Franceschini

Thanks, Sir, but, should it please the reverend Court,
I feel I can stand somehow, half sit down
Without help, make shift to even speak, you see,
Fortified by the sip of … why, 't is wine,
Velletri,—and not vinegar and gall,
So changed and good the times grow! Thanks, kind Sir!
Oh, but one sip's enough! I want my head
To save my neck, there's work awaits me still.
How cautious and considerate … aie, aie, aie,
Nor your fault, sweet Sir! Come, you take to heart
An ordinary matter. Law is law.
Noblemen were exempt, the vulgar thought,
From racking; but, since law thinks otherwise,
I have been put to the rack: all's over now,
And neither wrist—what men style, out of joint:
If any harm be, 't is the shoulder-blade,
The left one, that seems wrong i' the socket,—Sirs,
Much could not happen, I was quick to faint,
Being past my prime of life, and out of health.
In short, I thank you,—yes, and mean the word.
Needs must the Court be slow to understand
How this quite novel form of taking pain,
This getting tortured merely in the flesh,
Amounts to almost an agreeable change
In my case, me fastidious, plied too much
With opposite treatment, used (forgive the joke)
To the rasp-tooth toying with this brain of mine,
And, in and out my heart, the play o' the probe.
Four years have I been operated on
I' the soul, do you see—its tense or tremulous part—
My self-respect, my care for a good name,
Pride in an old one, love of kindred—just
A mother, brothers, sisters, and the like,
That looked up to my face when days were dim,
And fancied they found light there—no one spot,
Foppishly sensitive, but has paid its pang.
That, and not this you now oblige me with,
That was the Vigil-torment, if you please!
The poor old noble House that drew the rags
O' the Franceschini's once superb array
Close round her, hoped to slink unchallenged by,—
Pluck off these! Turn the drapery inside out
And teach the tittering town how scarlet wears!
Show men the lucklessness, the improvidence
Of the easy-natured Count before this Count,
The father I have some slight feeling for,
Who let the world slide, nor foresaw that friends
Then proud to cap and kiss their patron's shoe,
Would, when the purse he left held spider-webs,
Properly push his child to wall one day!

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poem by Robert Browning from The Ring and the Book
Added by Veronica Serbanoiu
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The Winner

If I listen to you then Im a winner,
If I take you at your word every day.
Theres nothing that can harm me Im a winner
All the way,
If I take notice of what the words tell me,
Its not too long before Im caught out in the
Rain
Youre the only one who can take me back again.
Taking me back, making me one with you,
Taking me back, making me new.
Taking me back, even when Ive been done
With you,
Taking me back, you keep pulling me through,
To the love that wont give up - with you
Im a winner
Here I am Im a winner
See my world turned it upside down,
Maybe know that Im nothing without you.
Got a brand new style of living with a
Motivation,
When I know my way losing my direction.
Thats when I get hurt with no one else to
Blame
Youre the only one who can heal me taking me
Back again.
Taking me back, making me one with you,
Taking me back, making me new.
Taking me back, even when Ive been done
With you,
Taking me back, you keep pulling me through,
To the love that wont give up here I am a
Winner
Here I am Im a winner.
If I listen to you then Im a winner,
If I take you at your word every day.
Theres nothing that can harm me Im a
Winner all the way,
Taking me back, making me one with you,
Taking me back, making me new.
Taking me back, even when Ive been done
With you,
Taking me back, you keep pulling me through,
To the love that wont give up.
You keep taking me back, making me one
With you,
Taking me back, making me new.
Taking me back, even when Ive been done
With you,
Taking me back, you keep pulling me through,
To the love that wont give up.

song performed by Cliff Richard
Added by Lucian Velea
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