Chapter 2 of Ballads and Poems of Tragic Life is here in full — 363 sentences across 73 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
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Chapter II
Chapter 2 of Ballads and Poems of Tragic Life is here in full — 363 sentences across 73 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
VII. O lady, though you are ice to men, All pure to heaven as light Within the dew within the flower, Of you 'tis whispered that love has power When secret is the night. VIII. I have silenced the slanderers, peace to their souls! Save one was too cunning for me.
Chapter 2 of Ballads and Poems of Tragic Life is here in full — 363 sentences across 73 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Reading 1/72 · 5 reading units · Lines 1–5
These definitions explain words found in the current reading and keep every example grounded in its original sentence.
Oxford-style entry order: headword, part of speech, US IPA, concise definition, contextual example, and audio.
attractive especially by means of smallness or prettiness or quaintness
From this reading “Save one was too cunning for me.”
water that has condensed on a cool surface overnight from water vapor in the air
From this reading “O lady, though you are ice to men, All pure to heaven as light Within the dew within the flower, Of you 'tis whispered that love has power When secret is the night.”
a plant cultivated for its blooms or blossoms
From this reading “O lady, though you are ice to men, All pure to heaven as light Within the dew within the flower, Of you 'tis whispered that love has power When secret is the night.”
water frozen in the solid state
From this reading “O lady, though you are ice to men, All pure to heaven as light Within the dew within the flower, Of you 'tis whispered that love has power When secret is the night.”
free of extraneous elements of any kind
From this reading “O lady, though you are ice to men, All pure to heaven as light Within the dew within the flower, Of you 'tis whispered that love has power When secret is the night.”
reduced to silence
From this reading “I have silenced the slanderers, peace to their souls!”
plural of “soul” — the immaterial part of a person; the actuating cause of an individual life
From this reading “I have silenced the slanderers, peace to their souls!”
plural of “ti” — a light strong grey lustrous corrosion-resistant metallic element used in strong lightweight alloys (as for airplane parts); the main sources are rutile and ilmenite
From this reading “O lady, though you are ice to men, All pure to heaven as light Within the dew within the flower, Of you 'tis whispered that love has power When secret is the night.”
English keeps certain words together, and knowing the pair is worth more than knowing each word alone. Every partnership below was counted across our whole published library, and earns its place by appearing far more often than two unrelated words of the same frequency would.
Shown as this reading writes them, with the form the library counts, what kind of pairing it is, and how often it occurs.
In this reading “Save one was too cunning for me.”
Every word in these five lines is listed here, and every one of them can be played on its own.
Dictionary details are shown only when verified; these are not licensed Oxford entries.
(quantifier) used with either mass or count nouns to indicate the whole number or amount of or every one of a class
From this reading O lady, though you are ice to men, All pure to heaven as light Within the dew within the flower, Of you 'tis whispered that love has power When secret is the night.
the form of “be” used with you, we, they, or a plural noun
From this reading O lady, though you are ice to men, All pure to heaven as light Within the dew within the flower, Of you 'tis whispered that love has power When secret is the night.
at the same time that; because; in the way that
From this reading O lady, though you are ice to men, All pure to heaven as light Within the dew within the flower, Of you 'tis whispered that love has power When secret is the night.
attractive especially by means of smallness or prettiness or quaintness
From this reading Save one was too cunning for me.
water that has condensed on a cool surface overnight from water vapor in the air
From this reading O lady, though you are ice to men, All pure to heaven as light Within the dew within the flower, Of you 'tis whispered that love has power When secret is the night.
a plant cultivated for its blooms or blossoms
From this reading O lady, though you are ice to men, All pure to heaven as light Within the dew within the flower, Of you 'tis whispered that love has power When secret is the night.
intended to be given to, or used by, somebody
From this reading Save one was too cunning for me.
the form of “have” used with he, she, it, or a singular noun
From this reading O lady, though you are ice to men, All pure to heaven as light Within the dew within the flower, Of you 'tis whispered that love has power When secret is the night.
used with a past participle to form the perfect tenses
From this reading I have silenced the slanderers, peace to their souls!
any place of complete bliss and delight and peace
From this reading O lady, though you are ice to men, All pure to heaven as light Within the dew within the flower, Of you 'tis whispered that love has power When secret is the night.
the person speaking or writing, as the subject of the verb
From this reading I have silenced the slanderers, peace to their souls!
water frozen in the solid state
From this reading O lady, though you are ice to men, All pure to heaven as light Within the dew within the flower, Of you 'tis whispered that love has power When secret is the night.
the form of “be” used with he, she, it, or a singular noun
From this reading O lady, though you are ice to men, All pure to heaven as light Within the dew within the flower, Of you 'tis whispered that love has power When secret is the night.
a polite name for any woman
From this reading O lady, though you are ice to men, All pure to heaven as light Within the dew within the flower, Of you 'tis whispered that love has power When secret is the night.
of comparatively little physical weight or density
From this reading O lady, though you are ice to men, All pure to heaven as light Within the dew within the flower, Of you 'tis whispered that love has power When secret is the night.
a strong positive emotion of regard and affection
From this reading O lady, though you are ice to men, All pure to heaven as light Within the dew within the flower, Of you 'tis whispered that love has power When secret is the night.
the person speaking, as the object of a verb or preposition
From this reading Save one was too cunning for me.
the force of workers available
From this reading O lady, though you are ice to men, All pure to heaven as light Within the dew within the flower, Of you 'tis whispered that love has power When secret is the night.
the time after sunset and before sunrise while it is dark outside
From this reading O lady, though you are ice to men, All pure to heaven as light Within the dew within the flower, Of you 'tis whispered that love has power When secret is the night.
a nonmetallic bivalent element that is normally a colorless odorless tasteless nonflammable diatomic gas; constitutes 21 percent of the atmosphere by volume; the most abundant element in the earth's crust
From this reading O lady, though you are ice to men, All pure to heaven as light Within the dew within the flower, Of you 'tis whispered that love has power When secret is the night.
belonging to, or connected with, somebody or something
From this reading O lady, though you are ice to men, All pure to heaven as light Within the dew within the flower, Of you 'tis whispered that love has power When secret is the night.
used to mean any person in general, including the speaker
From this reading Save one was too cunning for me.
the state prevailing during the absence of war
From this reading I have silenced the slanderers, peace to their souls!
possession of controlling influence
From this reading O lady, though you are ice to men, All pure to heaven as light Within the dew within the flower, Of you 'tis whispered that love has power When secret is the night.
free of extraneous elements of any kind
From this reading O lady, though you are ice to men, All pure to heaven as light Within the dew within the flower, Of you 'tis whispered that love has power When secret is the night.
except for; apart from
From this reading Save one was too cunning for me.
Something that is kept or meant to be kept unknown or unseen by others.
From this reading O lady, though you are ice to men, All pure to heaven as light Within the dew within the flower, Of you 'tis whispered that love has power When secret is the night.
reduced to silence
From this reading I have silenced the slanderers, peace to their souls!
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading I have silenced the slanderers, peace to their souls!
plural of “soul” — the immaterial part of a person; the actuating cause of an individual life
From this reading I have silenced the slanderers, peace to their souls!
used to introduce what somebody said, thought, or felt
From this reading O lady, though you are ice to men, All pure to heaven as light Within the dew within the flower, Of you 'tis whispered that love has power When secret is the night.
used before a noun that is already known, already mentioned, or the only one of its kind
From this reading O lady, though you are ice to men, All pure to heaven as light Within the dew within the flower, Of you 'tis whispered that love has power When secret is the night.
belonging to the people or things already mentioned
From this reading I have silenced the slanderers, peace to their souls!
in spite of the fact that
From this reading O lady, though you are ice to men, All pure to heaven as light Within the dew within the flower, Of you 'tis whispered that love has power When secret is the night.
plural of “ti” — a light strong grey lustrous corrosion-resistant metallic element used in strong lightweight alloys (as for airplane parts); the main sources are rutile and ilmenite
From this reading O lady, though you are ice to men, All pure to heaven as light Within the dew within the flower, Of you 'tis whispered that love has power When secret is the night.
used before the base form of a verb to make the infinitive
From this reading O lady, though you are ice to men, All pure to heaven as light Within the dew within the flower, Of you 'tis whispered that love has power When secret is the night.
to a degree exceeding normal or proper limits
From this reading Save one was too cunning for me.
the cardinal number that is the sum of six and one
From this reading VII.
the cardinal number that is the sum of seven and one
From this reading VIII.
the past form of “be” used with I, he, she, it, or a singular noun
From this reading Save one was too cunning for me.
at the time that
From this reading O lady, though you are ice to men, All pure to heaven as light Within the dew within the flower, Of you 'tis whispered that love has power When secret is the night.
spoken in soft hushed tones without vibrations of the vocal cords
From this reading O lady, though you are ice to men, All pure to heaven as light Within the dew within the flower, Of you 'tis whispered that love has power When secret is the night.
inside; before a period of time has passed
From this reading O lady, though you are ice to men, All pure to heaven as light Within the dew within the flower, Of you 'tis whispered that love has power When secret is the night.
the person or people being spoken to
From this reading O lady, though you are ice to men, All pure to heaven as light Within the dew within the flower, Of you 'tis whispered that love has power When secret is the night.
Chapter 2 of Ballads and Poems of Tragic Life by George Meredith holds 363 sentences, grouped into 73 reading sections of at most 5 sentences. The text is the source edition, unabridged, and the chapter records which sentences cover which part of the work so that nothing is dropped. Every word can be tapped for its pronunciation and dictionary entry.
Chapter 2 holds 363 sentences of Ballads and Poems of Tragic Life, unabridged, divided into 73 reading sections.
This page carries chapter 2 of Ballads and Poems of Tragic Life by George Meredith exactly as it stands in the source edition, without abridgement. It runs to 363 sentences, grouped into 73 sections of at most 5 sentences so that a reader can take the chapter in steady, finishable pieces. The chapter also stores a coverage record mapping every one of its sentences to a part of the work, which is how the edition demonstrates that no line was dropped.
Work through the 73 sections in order, replaying any sentence and tapping unfamiliar words for their entries.
Each of the 73 sections in this chapter is short enough to read once, hear once, and then re-read with the vocabulary in view. Tapping a word plays it alone and opens its dictionary entry with IPA, part of speech and meaning, so the reader is never forced to guess a pronunciation from spelling. Working section by section keeps a long chapter from becoming an undifferentiated wall of text, which is the usual reason a reader abandons a work of this period.
Yes — every sentence and every individual word in chapter 2 can be played aloud in United States English.
Audio covers the whole chapter: any sentence can be played, and any single word within it can be played on its own. The voice uses United States English. For a work of this period that matters, because spelling is an unreliable guide to pronunciation for vocabulary that has fallen out of daily use, and a learner who guesses wrong tends to keep the error. Hearing the word in its own sentence, and then alone, settles it.
Common questions about reading Ballads and Poems of Tragic Life by George Meredith on this page, its source edition and its audio.
Yes. All 1060 sentences of Project Gutenberg eBook #47225 are kept, with a record of which sentences cover which part.
Project Gutenberg eBook #47225, unabridged. The Project Gutenberg header, footer and licence are removed.
About 88 minutes of reading across 212 sections of 5 sentences each, at an unhurried pace.
How to work through Ballads and Poems of Tragic Life section by section, using the audio and the tap-to-define vocabulary.
Choose one of the 3 chapters of Ballads and Poems of Tragic Life to begin.
Each section holds 5 sentences; read it once through.
Play the section aloud, then tap any unfamiliar word for its entry.
Words and structures a reader meets early in Ballads and Poems of Tragic Life, each tappable for pronunciation and meaning.
