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1) The statue of the Happy Prince stood in the city square made of lead covered in gold with sapphire eyes and a ruby on its sword. 2) One night, a little swallow decided to stay with the statue and discovered it was crying tears of lead. 3) The Happy Prince asked the swallow to give away its ruby, sapphires, and gold to help the poor and needy of the city, leaving the statue bare and blind.

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Thian Fang Ming
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162 views

Summary

1) The statue of the Happy Prince stood in the city square made of lead covered in gold with sapphire eyes and a ruby on its sword. 2) One night, a little swallow decided to stay with the statue and discovered it was crying tears of lead. 3) The Happy Prince asked the swallow to give away its ruby, sapphires, and gold to help the poor and needy of the city, leaving the statue bare and blind.

Uploaded by

Thian Fang Ming
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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0 SUMMARY There was a statue of the Happy Prince stood in the middle of the square in the big city. The statue was made of lead gilded with fine gold, his eyes were made of sapphires and there was a large ruby on his sword-hilt. People often passed by the statue and stopped; they sometimes admired his smile and wished they were as happy as the Happy Prince was. One night, when all the birds were already flying to Egypt, a little Swallow was left behind for he was in love with the pretty Reed. But sadly the Reed had rejected the Swallows request. After that, the Swallow found the appropriate place for him to stay and rest, it was beside the statue of the Happy Prince. Then, teardrops were falling down and the Swallow found that the statue of the Happy Prince was crying. Since then, the statue of the Happy Prince told the Swallow that when he was alive, he lived in the Palace of Sans-Souci where sorrow was not allowed to enter. He lived happily and joyful without caring what lay beyond it, and that was why people called him Happy Prince. So he lived and died. People had set the statue of him, high above in the city and he was able to see those ugliness and misery of his city, and yet he wept. The statue continued telling the Swallow that there was a house where a poor woman was embroidering while her little boy was sick and asking for oranges. His mother had nothing to give him but river water. The statue asked the Swallow to pick out the ruby to give it to the poor woman. At the beginning the Swallow was not willing to do so. It was due to the Swallow needed to fly to Egypt as winter was coming. Al last, the Swallow agreed and he felt so warm after helping the poor woman. The next day, when the Swallow came to say good-bye to the statue of the Happy Prince, the statue cried and told the Swallow that he saw a young man who was too cold and hungry but needed to finish a play. So, the statue asked the Swallow to pluck out one of the sapphires and give it to him. The Swallow obeyed and did it. After that, the Swallow had decided to fly to Egypt but the statue asked the Swallow to stay one more night with him and told the swallow that there was a
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match-girl who lost her matches in the street. She cried as her father would beat her severely if she did not bring home money. The statue commanded the Swallow to pluck out the last sapphire and give it to her. The Swallow did not want to do so as the statue would blind. Since the statue insisted to do so, the Swallow did as what the statue commanded. Now, the statue of the Happy Prince was blinded, but he asked the Swallow to fly to Egypt as winter was coming. The Swallow did not want to leave the statue alone and promised him that the Swallow will stay with him. The Swallow flew over the city and told the statue of the Happy Prince what was going on in the city. There were rich people who enjoying themselves while the poor people were starving in the streets. The statue heard so and asked the Swallow to take the entire fine gold and give it to the needed people. So, the Swallow did what the statue commanded. The statue had become dull and grey. Finally, winter had come. It was snowing everywhere. The little Swallow grew colder and colder. When the Swallow realized that he was going to die soon, he gained all his strength to fly up to the Princes shoulder and said goodbye to him and kissed him. After that, the Swallow fell down dead at his feet. At the same time, the statues heart had broken too. Early the next morning, the Mayor found that the statue had gone dull and grey. He commanded his followers to pull down the statue and melted in a furnace. A strange thing had happened, the broken lead heart did not melt in the furnace and they threw it at the dust-heap where the dead Swallow was lying. The swallow and the Happy Prince had sacrificed their lives to help the poor and the needy. God was happy with their sacrifices. Therefore, God rewarded them that the Swallow would sing in the garden of paradise and the Happy Prince would praise him.

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