10 h 24 minAudiobook7 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
A short story sharpens your sight; a poem asks you to listen. What happens when you read them side by side?
Modern Prose and Poetry, edited by Margaret Ashmun, gathers essays, stories, sketches and poems into a broad sampler of English writing. Chosen for students, these short pieces offer room to pause, notice a phrase and follow a thought. You meet many voices rather than stay with one storyteller.
The collection moves between quiet reflection, vivid description and verse meant to be spoken aloud. Its prose invites clear thinking and close observation; its poetry draws attention to rhythm, sound and feeling. Ashmun's selection makes contrast part of the pleasure, helping readers build an ear for language and discover what they enjoy.
What you’ll discover
- Many voices within reach Explore different kinds of writing through short selections you can finish in one sitting.
- Ideas worth turning over Follow essays that develop a thought through examples and lead you toward a conclusion.
- An eye for detail Let sketches and descriptive prose draw your attention to the value of close observation.
- Poetry for the ear Read verse aloud and notice how rhythm and sound carry images and feeling.
- Room to find your taste Compare prose with poetry and discover which voices invite you to linger.
Who will love it
Readers who love short stories, nature walks, travel sketches and poems, and who like one volume that moves from a Boston tenement to the Bronx River to the high Sierra.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Enjoyment comes first and learning follows
- Travel sketches teach you to see places
- Nature writing rewards patient attention outdoors
- Old myths still walk through modern streets
- Strangers at the door test our kindness
- Quiet men carry hidden stories and loyalties
- An immigrant girl finds a new world
- Poems that stir the conscience of a nation
- Humor, daring and big ideas fill the essays
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- Hardcover
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- Large print hardcover
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25 languages, side by side
Moderne Prosa und Lyrik in 25 languages, side by side, paragraph by paragraph, once the book texts are online: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Moderne Prosa und Lyrik
A convict knocks at a bishop's door, and the bishop tells his housekeeper to set another place at the table.
Medium level10–20 hours to read25 languages
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In short
What makes a young reader fall in love with books? This collection, put together by Margaret Ashmun in 1914, answers with variety: a pirate duel on a sandy islet, a convict and a bishop, a Japanese dance for the dead, and poems about a grasshopper and Lincoln's hand.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Enjoyment comes first and learning follows
The editor's preface makes one claim. Students learn best when they enjoy what they read, so the book gathers modern writers whose subjects sit close to young readers' lives. Older classics keep their place, but recent work gets a fair turn.
The selections cover narrative, travel writing, the personal essay and serious exposition, along with a good share of poems. Study questions guide the eye, while themes for writing and reading lists offer ways to explore further. Some pieces are meant for quick pleasure and others for close study. There are even exercises for turning a scene into a short play and for trying a few lines of verse.
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What is Modern Prose and Poetry about?
It is a school anthology of modern stories, essays, travel sketches, a play and poems, gathered in 1914. Study questions, writing topics and reading lists help the volume work as both a reader and a guide to writing.
Who are the authors in Modern Prose and Poetry?
The authors include Bret Harte, Henry James, John Muir, Mary Antin, Sarah Orne Jewett, Walt Whitman, Lafcadio Hearn, William Dean Howells and Woodrow Wilson, along with poets such as Edmund Clarence Stedman and William Vaughn Moody.
What happens in the Jean Valjean scenes?
The scenes are a short play adapted from Victor Hugo. A released convict seeks shelter from a bishop, who welcomes him to supper and a bed. The play is built around the bishop's calm, generous answers to fear and suspicion.
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