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straw

(Encyclopedia)straw, dried stalks of threshed grains, especially wheat, barley, oats, and rye. It has been used from antiquity for bedding, covering floors, and thatching roofs, as fodder and litter for animals, an...

pasture

(Encyclopedia)pasture, land used for grazing livestock. Land unsuited for cultivation, e.g., hilly or stony land, may be used as pasture. Tilled land and meadow may be pastured after the crops are removed. Pastures...

Ritchie, Alexander Hay

(Encyclopedia)Ritchie, Alexander Hay, 1822–95, American engraver and painter, b. Scotland. He came to the United States in 1841 and a few years later established a successful workshop in New York City. His engrav...

Ariosto, Ludovico

(Encyclopedia)Ariosto, Ludovico lo͞odōvēˈkō äryôsˈtō [key], 1474–1533, Italian epic and lyric poet. As a youth he was a favorite at the court of Ferrara; later he was in the service of Ippolito I, Cardin...

Comus

(Encyclopedia)Comus kōˈməs [key], in late Roman legend, god of mirth and revelry. A follower of Dionysus, he was represented as a drunken youth bearing a torch. In Milton's poetic masque, Comus, he is the mischi...

Fenton, Elijah

(Encyclopedia)Fenton, Elijah, 1683–1730, English poet. A graduate of Cambridge, he was a schoolmaster for a time and later was a tutor in several noble families. He is chiefly remembered for his share in Pope's t...

Sittingbourne

(Encyclopedia)Sittingbourne sĭtˈĭngbôrn [key], town (1991 pop. 35,893), Kent, SE England, on the ancient Watling Street and on the old route of pilgrimage to Canterbury. It is an agricultural market with paper,...

lyric

(Encyclopedia)lyric, in ancient Greece, a poem accompanied by a musical instrument, usually a lyre. Although the word is still often used to refer to the songlike quality in poetry, it is more generally used to ref...

West, Paul Noden

(Encyclopedia)West, Paul Noden, 1930–2015, British-American writer, b. Eckington, Derbyshire, England, B.A. Univ. of Birmingham (1950), M.A. Columbia (1953). After serving in the Royal Air Force and teaching at M...

Uriel

(Encyclopedia)Uriel yo͞oˈrēəl [key]. 1, 2 Two descendants of Kohath. 3 Man whose daughter became mother of King Abijah of Judah. The name appears in the pseudepigrapha for an archangel. He is introduced in Milt...
 

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