Look! the massy trunksAre cased in the pure crystal; each light spray,Nodding and tinkling in the breath of heaven,Is studded with its trembling water-drops,That glimmer with an amethystine light.A Winter Piece. W.C. BRYANT.
Come when the rainsHave glazed the snow and clothed the trees with ice,While the slant sun of February poursInto the bowers a flood of light. Approach!The incrusted surface shall upbear thy steps.A Winter Piece. W.C. BRYANT.
O Winter, ruler of the inverted year.
* * * * *
I love thee, all unlovely as thou seem'st,And dreaded as thou art!I crown thee king of intimate delights,Fireside enjoyments, home-born happiness,And all the comforts that the lowly roofOf undisturbed Retirement, and the hoursOf long uninterrupted evening, know.The Task: Winter Evening. W. COWPER.
Two may keep counsel, putting one away.Romeo and Juliet, Act ii. Sc. 4. SHAKESPEARE.
And whatsoever else shall hap to-night,Give it an understanding, but no tongue.Hamlet, Act i. Sc. 2. SHAKESPEARE.
If you have hitherto concealed this sight,Let it be tenable in your silence still.Hamlet, Act i. Sc. 2. SHAKESPEARE.
I have played the fool, the gross fool, to believeThe bosom of a friend will hold a secretMine own could not contain.Unnatural Combat, Act v. Sc. 2. P. MASSINGER.
O shame, where is thy blush?Hamlet, Act iii. Sc. 4. SHAKESPEARE.
Here shame dissuades him, there his fear prevails,And each by turns his aching heart assails.Metamorphoses: Actaeon, Bk. III.OVID.Trans. ofADDISON.
All is confounded, all!Reproach and everlasting shameSits mocking in our plumes.King Henry V., Act iv. Sc. 5. SHAKESPEARE.
He was not born to shame:Upon his brow shame was ashamed to sit.Romeo and Juliet, Act iii. Sc. 2. SHAKESPEARE.
Himself sole author of his own disgrace.Hope. W. COWPER.
Men the most infamous are fond of fame:And those who fear not guilt, yet start at shame.The Author. C. CHURCHILL.
Had it pleased HeavenTo try me with affliction; had he rainedAll kinds of sores and shames on my bare head,Steeped me in poverty to the very lips,Given to captivity me and my utmost hopes,—I should have found in some part of my soulA drop of patience: but, alas, to make meA fixed figure, for the time of scornTo point his slow unmoving finger at!Othello, Act iv. Sc. 2. SHAKESPEARE.
Build me straight, O worthy Master!Stanch and strong, a goodly vessel,That shall laugh at all disasterAnd with wave and whirlwind wrestle.The Building of the Ship. H.W. LONGFELLOW.
She walks the waters like a thing of life.And seems to dare the elements to strife.The Corsair, Canto I. LORD BYRON.
Hearts of oak are our ships,Hearts of oak are our men.Hearts of Oak. D. GARRICK.
SailingLike a stately shipOf Tarsus, bound for the islesOf Javan or Gadire.With all her bravery on, and tackle trim,Sails filled, and streamers waving,Courted by all the winds that hold them play,An amber scent of odorous perfumeHer harbinger.Samson Agonistes. MILTON.
Behold the threaden sails,Borne with the invisible and creeping wind,Draw the huge bottoms through the furrowed sea,Breasting the lofty surge.King Henry V., Act iii. Chorus. SHAKESPEARE.
Heaven speed the canvas, gallantly unfurled,To furnish and accommodate a world,To give the pole the produce of the sun,And knit th' unsocial climates into one.Charity. W. COWPER.
Dangerous rocks,Which touching but my gentle vessel's side,Would scatter all her spices on the stream,Enrobe the roaring waters with my silks,And, in a word, but even now worth this,And now worth nothing.Merchant of Venice, Act i. Sc. 1. SHAKESPEARE.
As rich….As is the ooze and bottom of the seaWith sunken wreck and sumless treasuries.King Henry V., Act i. Sc. 2. SHAKESPEARE.
Her deck is crowded with despairing souls,And in the hollow pauses of the stormWe hear their piercing cries.Bertram. C.R. MATURIN.
A brave vessel,Who had no doubt some noble creatures in her,Dashed all to pieces. O, the cry did knockAgainst my very heart! Poor souls! they perished.The Tempest, Act i. Sc. 2. SHAKESPEARE.
They lit the high sea-light, and the dark began to fall."All hands to loose topgallant sails," I heard the captain call."By the Lord, she'll never stand it," our first mate, Jackson, cried.… "It's the one way or the other, Mr. Jackson," he replied.
She staggered to her bearings, but the sails were new and good,And the ship smelt up to windward just as though she understood.As the winter's day was ending, in the entry of the night,We cleared the weary headland, and passed below the light.Christmas at Sea. R.L. STEVENSON.
To love,It is to be all made of sighs and tears.As You Like It, Act V. Sc. 2. SHAKESPEARE.
The world was sad.—the garden was a wild;And Man, the hermit, sighed—till Woman smiled.Pleasures of Hope, Pt. I. T. CAMPBELL.
Sighed and looked unutterable things.The Seasons: Summer. J. THOMSON.
My soul has rest, sweet sigh! alone in thee.To Laura in Death. PETRARCH.
Yet sighes, deare sighes, indeede true friends you areThat do not leave your left friend at the wurst,But, as you with my breast I oft have nurst,So, gratefull now, you waite upon my care.Sighes. SIR PH. SIDNEY.
SighsWhich perfect Joy, perplexed for utterance,Stole from her sister Sorrow.The Gardener's Daughter. A. TENNYSON.
Three Silences there are: the first of speech,The second of desire, the third of thought.The Three Silences of Molinos. H.W. LONGFELLOW.
Stillborn silence! thou that artFlood-gate of the deeper heart!Silence. R. FLECKNOE
And silence, like a poultice, comesTo heal the blows of sound.The Music Grinder. O.W. HOLMES.
Silence in love betrays more woeThan words, though ne'er so witty;A beggar that is dumb, you know,May challenge double pity.The Silent Lover. SIR W. RALEIGH.
Shallow brooks murmur moste,deepe silent slide away.The Arcadia, Thirsis and Dorus. SIR PH. SIDNEY.
What, gone without a word?Aye, so true love should do: it cannot speak;For truth hath better deeds than words to grace it.Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act ii. Sc. 3. SHAKESPEARE.
The rest is silence.Hamlet, Act v. Sc. 2. SHAKESPEARE.
Ay me, how many perils doe enfoldThe righteous man, to make him daily fall.Faërie Queene, Bk. I. E. SPENSER.
There is a method in man's wickedness,It grows up by degrees.A King and no King, Act v. Sc. 4. BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER.
Where is the man who has not triedHow mirth can into folly glide,And folly into sin!The Bridal of Triermain, Canto I. SIR W. SCOTT.
I see the right, and I approve it too,Condemn the wrong, and yet the wrong pursue.Metamorphoses, VII. 20. OVID.Trans. ofTATE AND STONESTREET.
I am a manMore sinned against than sinning.King Lear, Act iii. Sc. 2. SHAKESPEARE.
The good he scornedStalked off reluctant, like an ill-used ghost,Not to return; or, if it did, in visitsLike those of angels, short and far between.The Grave, Pt. II. R. BLAIR.
Man-like is it to fall into sin,Fiend-like is it to dwell therein,Christ-like is it for sin to grieve,God-like is it all sin to leave.Sin. F. VON LOGAU.Trans. ofLONGFELLOW.
O, what authority and show of truthCan cunning sin cover itself withal!Much Ado about Nothing, Act iv. Sc. 1. SHAKESPEARE.
Though every prospect pleases,And only man is vile.Missionary Hymn. BISHOP R. HEBER.
And he that does one fault at first,And lies to hide it, makes it two.Divine Songs. DR. I. WATTS.
CommitThe oldest sins the newest kind of ways.Henry IV., Pt. II. Act iv. Sc. 4. SHAKESPEARE.
And out of good still to find means of evil.Paradise Lost, Bk. I. MILTON.
But evil is wrought by want of thought,As well as want of heart!The Lady's Dream. T. HOOD.
Timely advised, the coming evil shun:Better not do the deed, than weep it done.Henry and Emma. M. PRIOR.
Men should be what they seem;Or those that be not, would they might seem none!Othello, Act iii. Sc. 3. SHAKESPEARE.
O, how much more doth beauty beauteous seemBy that sweet ornament which truth doth give!Sonnet LIV. SHAKESPEARE.
O, while you live, tell truth, and shame the devil.King Henry IV. Pt. I. Act iii. Sc. 1. SHAKESPEARE.
His words are bonds, his oaths are oracles,His love sincere, his thoughts immaculate,His tears pure messengers sent from his heart,His heart as far from fraud as heaven from earth.Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act ii. Sc. 7. SHAKESPEARE.
An honest tale speeds best being plainly told.King Richard III., Act iv. Sc. 4. SHAKESPEARE.
Were there no heaven nor hellI should be honest.Duchess of Malfi, Act i. Sc. 1. J. WEBSTER.
One of those heavenly days that cannot die.Nutting. W. WORDSWORTH.
Green calm below, blue quietness above.The Pennsylvania PilgrimJ.G. WHITTIER.
The soft blue sky did never meltInto his heart; he never feltThe witchery of the soft blue sky!Peter Bell. W. WORDSWORTH.
But now the fair traveller's come to the west,His rays are all gold, and his beauties are best;He paints the skies gay as he sinks to his rest,And foretells a bright rising again.A Summer Evening. DR. I. WATTS.
How bravely Autumn paints upon the skyThe gorgeous fame of Summer which is fled!Written in a Volume of Shakespeare. T. HOOD.
Of evening tinct,The purple-streaming Amethyst is thine.Seasons: Summer. J. THOMSON.
Heaven's ebon vault,Studded with stars unutterably bright,Through which the moon's unclouded grandeur rolls,Seems like a canopy which love has spreadTo curtain her sleeping world.Queen Mab, Pt. IV. P.B. SHELLEY.
This majestical roof fretted with golden fire.Hamlet, Act ii. Sc. 2. SHAKESPEARE.
Tired nature's sweet restorer, balmy Sleep!He, like the world, his ready visit paysWhere fortune smiles; the wretched he forsakes:Swift on his downy pinions flies from woe,And lights on lids unsullied with a tear.Night Thoughts, Night I. DR. E. YOUNG.
Thou hast been called, O sleep! the friend of woe;But 'tis the happy that have called thee so.Curse of Kehama, Canto XV. R. SOUTHEY.
Sleep seldom visits sorrow; when it doth,It is a comforter.The Tempest, Act ii. Sc. 1. SHAKESPEARE.
WearinessCan snore upon the flint, when restive slothFinds the down pillow hard.Cymbeline, Act iii Sc. 6. SHAKESPEARE.
O magic sleep! O comfortable bird,That broodest o'er the troubled sea of the mindTill it is hushed and smooth!Endymion, Bk. I. J. KEATS.
Sleep, that sometimes shuts up sorrow's eye,Steal me awhile from mine own company.Midsummer Night's Dream, Act iii. Sc. 2.SHAKESPEARE.
Then Sleep and Death, two twins of wingèd race,Of matchless swiftness, but of silent pace.Iliad, Bk. XVI. HOMER.Trans. ofPOPE.
Care-charming sleep, thou easer of all woes,Brother to Death, sweetly thyself disposeOn this afflicted prince; fall like a cloudIn gentle showers;… sing his painLike hollow murmuring wind or silver rain.Valentinian. BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER.
Smiles from reason flow,To brute denied, and are of love the food.Paradise Lost, Bk. IX. MILTON.
Why should we faint and fear to live alone,Since all alone, so Heaven has willed, we die,Nor even the tenderest heart, and next our own,Knows half the reasons why we smile and sigh?The Christian Year, 24th Sunday after Trinity.J. KEBLE.
And the tear that is wiped with a little address,May be followed perhaps by a smile.The Rose. W. COWPER.
The social smile, the sympathetic tear.Education and Government. T. GRAY.
Eternal smiles his emptiness betray.As shallow streams run dimpling all the way.Satires: Prologue. A. POPE.
So comes a reckoning when the banquet's o'er.The dreadful reckoning, and men smile no more.The What d' ye Call 't. J. GAY.
Heav'n forming each on other to depend,A master, or a servant, or a friend,Bids each on other for assistance call,Till one man's weakness grows the strength of all.Essay on Man, Epistle II. A. POPE.
Love all, trust a few,Do wrong to none: be able for thine enemyRather in power than use, and keep thy friendUnder thy own life's key: be checked for silence,But never taxed for speech.All's Well That Ends Well, Act i. Sc. 1. SHAKESPEARE.
A people is but the attempt of manyTo rise to the completer life of one—And those who live as models for the massAre singly of more value than they all.Luria, Act v. R. BROWNING.
There my retreat the best companions grace,Chiefs out of war, and statesmen out of place;There St. John mingles with my friendly bowl,The feast of reason and the flow of soul.Imitations of Horace, Satire I. Bk. II. A. POPE.
Here thou, great Anna! whom three realms obey,Dost sometimes counsel take—and sometimes tea.Rape of the Lock, Canto III. A. POPE.
Among unequals what societyCan sort, what harmony, or true delight?Paradise Lost, Bk. VIII. MILTON.
The company is "mixed" (the phrase I quote isAs much as saying, they're below your notice).Beppo. LORD BYRON.
Society is now one polished horde.Formed of two mighty tribes, theBoresandBored.Don Juan, Canto XI. LORD BYRON.
He stands erect; his slouch becomes a walk;He steps right onward, martial in his air,His form and movement.The Task, Bk. IV. W. COWPER.
A braver soldier never couched lance,A gentler heart did never sway in court.King Henry VI., Pt. I. Act iii. Sc. 2. SHAKESPEARE.
Unbounded courage and compassion joined,Tempering each other in the victor's mind,Alternately proclaim him good and great,And make the hero and the man complete.
* * * * *
And, pleased the Almighty's orders to perform,Rides in the whirlwind and directs the storm.The Campaign. J. ADDISON.
So restless Cromwell could not ceaseIn the inglorious arts of peace.But through adventurous warUrged his active star.A Horatian Ode: Upon Cromwell's Return from Ireland.A. MARVELL.
'T is the soldier's lifeTo have their balmy slumbers waked with strife.Othello, Act ii. Sc. 3. SHAKESPEARE.
Some for hard masters, broken under arms,In battle lopt away, with half their limbs,Beg bitter bread thro' realms their valor saved.Night Thoughts, Night I. DR. E. YOUNG.
His breast with wounds unnumbered riven,His back to earth, his face to heaven.The Giaour. LORD BYRON.
Wut's words to them whose faith an' truthOn War's red techstone rang true metal,Who ventured life an' love an' youthFor the gret prize o' death in battle?The Biglow Papers, Second Series, No. X.J.R. LOWELL.
God's soldier he be!Had I as many sons as I have hairs.I would not wish them to a fairer death:And so his knell is knolled.Macbeth, Act v. Sc. 8. SHAKESPEARE.
O, now, foreverFarewell the tranquil mind! farewell content!Farewell the plumed troop, and the big wars,That make ambition virtue! O, farewell!Farewell the neighing steed, and the shrill trump,
The spirit-stirring drum, the ear-piercing fife,The royal banner, and all quality,Pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war!And, O you mortal engines, whose rude throatsThe immortal Jove's dread clamors counterfeit,Farewell! Othello's occupation's gone!Othello, Act iii. Sc. 3. SHAKESPEARE.
All heaven and earth are still,—though not in sleep,But breathless, as we grow when feeling most:And silent, as we stand in thoughts too deep;—All heaven and earth are still;
* * * * *
Then stirs the feeling infinite, so feltIn solitude, where we areleastalone.Childe Harold, Canto III. LORD BYRON.
When, musing on companions gone,We doubly feel ourselves alone.Marmion, Canto II. Introduction. SIR W. SCOTT.
Alone!—that worn-out word,So idly spoken, and so coldly heard;Yet all that poets sing, and grief hath known,Of hopes laid waste, knells in that word—Alone!The New Timon, Pt. II. E. BULWER-LYTTON.
O! lost to virtue, lost to manly thought,Lost to the noble, sallies of the soul!Who think it solitude to be alone.Night Thoughts, Night IV. DR. E. YOUNG.
Converse with men makes sharp the glittering wit,But God to man doth speak in solitude.Highland Solitude. J.S. BLACKIE.
But, if much converse perhapsThee satiate, to short absence I could yield;For solitude sometimes is best society,And short retirement urges sweet return.Paradise Lost, Bk. IX. MILTON.
Few are the faults we flatter when alone.Night Thoughts, Night V. DR. E. YOUNG.
'Tis solitude should teach us how to die;It hath no flatterers: vanity can giveNo hollow aid; alone—man with his God must strive.Childe Harold, Canto II. LORD BYRON.
How sweet, how passing sweet is solitude?But grant me still a friend in my retreat,Whom I may whisper—solitude is sweet.Retirement. W. COWPER.
When sorrows come, they come not single spies,But in battalions.Hamlet, Act iv. Sc. 5. SHAKESPEARE.
One woe doth tread upon another's heel,So fast they follow.Hamlet, Act iv. Sc. 7. SHAKESPEARE.
Woes cluster; rare are solitary woes;They love a train, they tread each other's heel.Night Thoughts, Night III. DR. E. YOUNG.
Who ne'er his bread in sorrow ate,Who ne'er the mournful midnight hoursWeeping upon his bed has sate,He knows you not, ye Heavenly Powers.Hyperion, Bk. I. Motto: from Goethe's Wilhelm Meister.H.W. LONGFELLOW.
One fire burns out another's burning;One pain is lessened by another's anguish;Turn giddy, and be helped by backward turning;One desp'rate grief cures with another's languish;Take thou some new infection to the eye,And the rank poison of the old will die.Romeo and Juliet, Act i. Sc. 2. SHAKESPEARE.
All that's bright must fade,—The brightest still the fleetest;All that's sweet was madeBut to be lost when sweetest!National Airs: All that's bright must fade. T. MOORE.
O God! O God!How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitableSeem to me all the uses of this world!Hamlet, Act i. Sc. 2. SHAKESPEARE.
Weep no more, nor sigh, nor groan.Sorrow calls no time that's gone:Violets plucked, the sweetest rainMakes not fresh nor grow again.The Queen of Corinth, Act iii. Sc. 2. J. FLETCHER.
Sorrows remembered sweeten present joy.The Course of Time, Bk. I. R. POLLOK.
Wreaths that endure affliction's heaviest showers,And do not shrink from sorrow's keenest winds.Misc. Sonnets, Pt. I. XXXIII. W. WORDSWORTH.
Affliction is the good man's shining scene;Prosperity conceals his brightest ray;As night to stars, woe lustre gives to man.Night Thoughts, Night IX. DR. E. YOUNG.
Like a ball that boundsAccording to the force with which 'twas thrownSo in affliction's violence, he that's wiseThe more he's cast down will the higher rise.Microcosmos. T. NABBES.
O, fear not in a world like this,And thou shalt know erelong,—Know how sublime a thing it isTo suffer and be strong.The Light of Stars. H.W. LONGFELLOW.
Summe up at night what thou hast done by day;And in the morning what thou hast to do.Dresse and undresse thy soul; mark the decayAnd growth of it: if, with thy watch, that tooBe down, then winde up both; since we shall beMost surely judged, make thy accounts agree.The Temple: The Church Porch. G. HERBERT.
Go to your bosom;Knock there, and ask your heart what it doth know.Measure for Measure, Act ii. Sc. 2. SHAKESPEARE.
O ignorant, poor man! what dost thou bearLocked up within the casket of thy breast?What jewels and what riches hast thou there?What heavenly treasure in so weak a chest?Worth of the Soul. SIR J. DAVIES.
Let Fortune empty all her quiver on me;I have a soul that like an ample shield,Can take in all, and verge enough for more.Sebastian, Act i. Sc. 1. J. DRYDEN.
And keeps that palace of the soul serene.Of Tea. E. WALLER.
A happy soul, that all the wayTo heaven hath a summer's day.In Praise of Lessius' Mule of Health. R. CRASHAW.
And rest at last where souls unbodied dwell,In ever-flowing meads of Asphodel.Odyssey, Bk. XXIV. HOMER.Trans. ofPOPE.
Persuasive speech, and more persuasive sighs,Silence that spoke, and eloquence of eyes.Iliad, Bk. XIV. HOMER.Trans. ofPOPE.
Discourse may want an animated "No"To brush the surface, and to make it flow;But still remember, if you mean to please,To press your point with modesty and ease.Conversation. W. COWPER.
One whom the music of his own vain tongueDoth ravish like enchanting harmony.Love's Labor's Lost, Act i. Sc. 1. SHAKESPEARE.
Turn him to any cause of policy,The Gordian knot of it he will unloose,Familiar as his garter: that, when he speaks,The air, a chartered libertine, is still.King Henry V., Act i. Sc. 1. SHAKESPEARE.
Persuasion tips his tongue whene'er he talks.Parody on Pope. C. CIBBER.
Yet Hold it more humane, more heavenly, first,By winning words to conquer willing hearts,And make persuasion do the work of fear.Paradise Regained, Bk. I. MILTON.
Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice;Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment.Hamlet, Act i. Sc. 3. SHAKESPEARE.
"Careful with fire," is good advice, we know,"Careful with words," is ten times doubly so.Thoughts unexpressed may sometimes fall back dead:But God Himself can't kill them when they're said.First Settler's Story. W. CARLETON.
GLENDOWER.—I can call spirits from the vasty deep.HOTSPUR. —Why, so can I, or so can any man;But will they come when you do call for them?King Henry IV., Pt. I. Act III. Sc. 1. SHAKESPEARE.
Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earthUnseen, both when we wake, and when we sleep.Paradise Lost, Bk. IV. MILTON.
Spirits when they pleaseCan either sex assume, or both,
* * * * *
Can execute their airy purposes,And works of love or enmity fulfil.Paradise Lost, Bk, I. MILTON.
But shapes that come not at an earthly callWill not depart when mortal voices bid;Lords of the visionary eye, whose lid,Once raised, remains aghast, and will not fall!Dion. W. WORDSWORTH.
I shall not see thee. Dare I sayNo spirit ever brake the bandThat stays him from the native land,Where first he walked when clasped in clay?
No visual shade of some one lost,But he, the spirit himself, may comeWhere all the nerve of sense is numb;Spirit to spirit, ghost to ghost.In Memoriam, XCII. A. TENNYSON.
Where is our usual manager of mirth?What revels are in hand? Is there no play,To ease the anguish of a torturing hour?Midsummer Night's Dream, Act v. Sc. 1. SHAKESPEARE.
Prologues, like compliments, are loss of time;'Tis penning bows and making legs in rhyme.Prologue to Crisp's Tragedy of Virginia. D. GARRICK.
Prologues precede the piece in mournful verse,As undertakers walk before the hearse.Prologue to Apprentice. D. GARRICK.
On the stage he was natural, simple, affecting,'Twas only that when he was off, he was acting.Retaliation. O. GOLDSMITH.
The drama's laws, the drama's patrons give.For we that live to please, must please to live.Prologue. Spoken by Mr. Garrick on Opening DruryLane Theatre, 1747. DR. S. JOHNSON.
To wake the soul by tender strokes of art,To raise the genius, and to mend the heart;To make mankind, in conscious virtue bold,Live o'er each scene, and be what they behold—For this the tragic Muse first trod the stage.Prologue to Addison's Cato. A. POPE.
As in a theatre, the eyes of men,After a well-graced actor leaves the stage,Are idly bent on him that enters next,Thinking his prattle to be tedious.Richard II., Act v. Sc. 2. SHAKESPEARE.
Is it not monstrous that this player here,But in a fiction, in a dream of passion,Could force his soul so to his own conceitThat from her working all his visage wanned?Hamlet, Act ii. Sc. 2. SHAKESPEARE.
What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba,That he should weep for her? What would he do,Had he the motive and the cue for passionThat I have? He would drown the stage with tears.Hamlet, Act ii. Sc. 2. SHAKESPEARE.
I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano;A stage, where every man must play a part,And mine a sad one.Merchant of Venice, Act i. Sc. 1. SHAKESPEARE.
I have heardThat guilty creatures, sitting at a play,Have by the very cunning of the sceneBeen struck so to the soul, that presentlyThey have proclaimed their malefactions.
* * * * *
The play's the thingWherein I'll catch the conscience of the King.Hamlet, Act ii. Sc. 2. SHAKESPEARE.
Lo, where the stage, the poor, degraded stage,Holds its warped mirror to a gaping age.Curiosity. C. SPRAGUE.
A veteran see! whose last act on the stageEntreats your smiles for sickness and for age;Their cause I plead,—plead it in heart and mind;A fellow-feeling makes one wondrous kind.Prologue on Quitting the Stage in 1776. D. GARRICK.
Who teach the mind its proper face to scan,And hold the faithful mirror up to man.The Actor. R. LLOYD.
That full star that ushers in the even.Sonnet CXXXII. SHAKESPEARE.
Her blue eyes sought the west afar,For lovers love the western star.Lay of the Last Minstrel, Canto III. SIR W. SCOTT.
And fast by, hanging in a golden chainThis pendent world, in bigness as a starOf smallest magnitude close by the moon.Paradise Lost, Bk. II. MILTON.
Devotion! daughter of astronomy!An undevout astronomer is mad.Night Thoughts, Night IX. DR. E. YOUNG.
There does a sable cloudTurn forth her silver lining on the night,And cast a gleam over this tufted grove.Comus. MILTON.
Blossomed the lovely stars, the forget-me-nots of the angels.Evangeline, Pt. I. H.W. LONGFELLOW.
'Tis the witching hour of night,Orbed is the moon and bright,And the stars they glisten, glisten,Seeming with bright eyes to listen—For what listen they?A Prophecy. J. KEATS.
There is no light in earth or heavenBut the cold light of stars;And the first watch of night is givenTo the red planet Mars.The Light of Stars. H.W. LONGFELLOW.
Sweet Phosphor, bring the day;Light will repayThe wrongs of night;Sweet Phosphor, bring the day!Emblems, Bk. I. F. QUARLES.
At whose sight all the starsHide their diminished heads.Paradise Lost, Bk. IV. MILTON.
Nor sink those stars in empty night,—They hide themselves in heaven's own light.Issues of Life and Death. J. MONTGOMERY.
A thousand years scarce serve to form a state;An hour may lay it in the dust.Childe Harold, Canto II. LORD BYRON.
Who's in or out, who moves this grand machine,Nor stirs my curiosity nor spleen:Secrets of state no more I wish to knowThan secret movements of a puppet show:Let but the puppets move, I've my desire,Unseen the hand which guides the master wire.Night. C. CHURCHILL.
Resolved to ruin or to rule the state.Absalom and Achitophel, Pt. II. J. DRYDEN.
And lives to clutch the golden keys,To mould a mighty state's decrees,And shape the whisper of the throne.In Memoriam, LXIII. A. TENNYSON.
And statesmen at her council metWho knew the seasons when to takeOccasion by the hand, and makeThe bounds of freedom wider yet.To the Queen. A. TENNYSON.
What should it be, that thus their faith can bind?The power of Thought—the magic of the Mind!Linked with success, assumed and kept with skill.That moulds another's weakness to its will.The Corsair. LORD BYRON.
'Tis thus the spirit of a single mindMakes that of multitudes take one direction.Don Juan. LORD BYRON.
For just experience tells, in every soil,That those that think must govern those that toil.The Traveller. O. GOLDSMITH.
A cutpurse of the empire and the rule.That from a shelf the precious diadem stole,And put it in his pocket!Hamlet, Act iii. Sc. 4. SHAKESPEARE.
Some of their chiefs were princes of the land;In the first rank of these did Zimri[A] stand;A man so various, that he seemed to beNot one, but all mankind's epitome:Stiff in opinions, always in the wrong;Was everything by starts, and nothing long;But, in the course of one revolving moon.Was chymist, fiddler, statesman, and buffoon;Then all for women, painting, rhyming, drinking,Besides ten thousand freaks that died in thinking.Absalom and Achitophel, Pt. I. J. DRYDEN.
[Footnote A: George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham.]
For close designs and crooked councils fit;Sagacious, bold, and turbulent of wit;Restless, unfixed in principles and place;In power unpleased, impatient of disgrace:A fiery soul, which, working out its way,Fretted the pygmy-body to decay,And o'er informed the tenement of clay.A daring pilot in extremity;Pleased with the danger, when the waves went highHe sought the storms; but for a calm unfit,Would steer too nigh the sands to boast his wit.Great wits are sure to madness near allied,And thin partitions do their bounds divide.Absalom and Achitophel, Pt. I. (Earl of Shaftesbury.)J. DRYDEN.
I'll example you with thievery:The sun's a thief, and with his great attractionRobs the vast sea: the moon's an arrant thief,And her pale fire she snatches from the sun:The sea's a thief, whose liquid surge resolvesThe moon into salt tears: the earth's a thief,That feeds and breeds by composture stolenFrom general excrement: each thing's a thief.Timon of Athens, Act iv. Sc. 3. SHAKESPEARE.
Kill a man's family and he may brook it,But keep your hands out of his breeches' pocket.Don Juan, Canto X. LORD BYRON.
Stolen sweets are always sweeter:Stolen kisses much completer;Stolen looks are nice in chapels:Stolen, stolen be your apples.Song of Fairies. T. RANDOLPH.
A tailor, though a man of upright dealing,—True but for lying,—honest but for stealing.Of a Precise Tailor. SIR J. HARRINGTON.
Thieves for their robbery have authorityWhen judges steal themselves.Measure for Measure, Act ii. Sc. 2. SHAKESPEARE.
Thou hast stolen both mine office and my name;The one ne'er got me credit, the other mickle blame.Comedy of Errors, Act iii. Sc. 1. SHAKESPEARE.
In vain we call old notions fudgeAnd bend our conscience to our dealing,The Ten Commandments will not budgeAnd stealing will continue stealing.Motto of American Copyright League, 1885.
The lowering elementScowls o'er the darkened landscape.Paradise Lost, Bk. II. MILTON.
At first, heard solemn o'er the verge of Heaven,The tempest growls; but as it nearer comes,And rolls its awful burden on the wind,The lightnings flash a larger curve, and moreThe noise astounds; till overhead a sheetOf livid flame discloses wide, then shuts,And opens wider; shuts and opens stillExpansive, wrapping ether in a blaze.Follows the loosened aggravated roar,Enlarging, deepening, mingling, peal on peal,Crushed, horrible, convulsing Heaven and Earth.The Seasons: Summer. J. THOMSON.
From cloud to cloud the rending lightnings rage,Till, in the furious elemental warDissolved, the whole precipitated massUnbroken floods and solid torrents pour.The Seasons: Summer. J. THOMSON.
Poor naked wretches, wheresoe'er you are,That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm,How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides,Your looped and windowed raggedness, defend youFrom seasons such as these?King Lear, Act iii. Sc. 4. SHAKESPEARE.
Blow wind, swell billow, and swim bark!The storm is up, and all is on the hazard.Julius Cæsar, Act v. Sc. 1. SHAKESPEARE.
I have seen tempests, when the scolding windsHave rived the knotty oaks, and I have seenThe ambitious ocean swell and rage and foam,To be exalted with the threat'ning clouds.Julius Caesar, Acti.Sc. 3. SHAKESPEARE.
SeasRough with black winds, and stormsUnwonted.Book I. Ode V. HORACE.Trans. ofMILTON.
Lightnings, that show the vast and foamy deep,The rending thunders, as they onward roll,The loud, loud winds, that o'er the billows sweep—Shake the firm nerve, appal the bravest soul!Mysteries of Udolpho: The Mariner. MRS. ANN RADCLIFFE.
In the lexicon of youth, which fate reservesFor a bright manhood, there is no such wordAs—fail.Richelieu, Actii.Sc. 2. E. BULWER-LYTTON.
The star of the unconquered will.The Light of Stars. H.W. LONGFELLOW.
'T is not in mortals to command success,But we'll do more, Sempronius; we'll deserve it.Cato, Acti.Sc. 2. J. ADDISON.
And many strokes, though with a little axe,Hew down and fell the hardest-timbered oak.King Henry VI., Pt. III. Actii.Sc. 1. SHAKESPEARE.
Such a nature.Tickled with good success, disdains the shadowWhich he treads on at noon.Coriolanus, Acti.Sc. 1. SHAKESPEARE.
In my school-days, when I had lost one shaft,I shot his fellow of the self-same flightThe self-same way, with more advised watch.To find the other forth; and by adventuring both,I oft found both.Merchant of Venice, Acti.Sc. 1. SHAKESPEARE.
Success is counted sweetestBy those who ne'er succeed.Success. EMILY DICKINSON.
HeThat kills himself t' avoid misery, fears it,And at the best shows but a bastard valor:This life's a fort committed to my trust,Which I must not yield up, till it be forced;Nor will I: he's not valiant that dares die,But he that boldly bears calamity.The Maid of Honor. P. MASSINGER.
All mankindIs one of these two cowards;Either to wish to dieWhen he should live, or live when he should die.The Blind Lady. SIR E. HOWARD.
Against self-slaughterThere is a prohibition so divineThat cravens my weak hand.Cymbeline, Actiii.Sc. 4. SHAKESPEARE.
That orbèd continent the fireThat severs day from night.Twelfth Night, Actv.Sc. 1. SHAKESPEARE.
O thou that, with surpassing glory crowned,Look'st from thy sole dominion like the GodOf this new world,…O Sun!Paradise Lost, Bk. IV. MILTON.
Fires the proud tops of the eastern pines.King Richard II., Actiii.Sc. 2. SHAKESPEARE.
The lessening cloud,The kindling azure, and the mountain's brow,Illumed with fluid gold, his near approachBetoken glad. Lo! now, apparent allAslant the dew-bright earth, and colored air,He looks in boundless majesty abroad;And sheds the shining day, that burnished playsOn rocks, and hills, and towers, and wand'ring streamsHigh gleaming from afar.The Seasons: Summer. J. THOMSON.
The sun had long since in the lapOf Thetis taken out his nap.And, like a lobster boiled, the mornFrom black to red began to turn.Hudibras, Pt. II. Canto II. DR. S. BUTLER.
"But," quoth his neighbor, "when the sunFrom East to West his course has run,How comes it that he shows his faceNext morning in his former place?""Ho! there's a pretty question, truly!"Replied our wight, with an unrulyBurst of laughter and delight,So much his triumph seemed to please him:"Why, blockhead! he goes back at night,And that's the reason no one sees him!"The Astronomical Alderman. H. SMITH.
Behold him setting in his western skies,The shadows lengthening as the vapors rise.Absalom and Achitophel, Pt. IJ.J. DRYDEN.
Now sunk the sun: the closing hour of dayCame onward, mantled o'er with sober gray;Nature in silence bid the world repose.The Hermit. T. PARNELL.
Parting dayDies like the dolphin, whom each pang imbuesWith a new color as it gasps away,The last still loveliest, till—'t is gone—and all is gray.Childe Harold, Canto IV. LORD BYRON.
Come watch with me the shaft of fire that glowsIn yonder West: the fair, frail palaces,The fading Alps and archipelagoes,And great cloud-continents of sunset-seas.Miracles. T.B. ALDRICH.
The setting sun, and music at the close,As the last taste of sweets, is sweetest last.King Richard II., Actii.Sc. 1. SHAKESPEARE.
Yet, where an equal poise of hope and fearDoes arbitrate the event, my nature isThat I incline to hope rather than fear,And gladly banish squint suspicion.Comus. MILTON.
All seems infected that the infected spy,As all looks yellow to the jaundiced eye.Essay on Criticism. A. POPE.
Suspicion, poisoning his brother's cup.Catiline. G. CROLY.
He jests at scars, that never felt a wound.Romeo and Juliet, Actii.Sc. 1 SHAKESPEARE.
No one is so accursed by fate,No one so utterly desolate.But some heart, though unknown,Responds unto his own.Endymion. H.W. LONGFELLOW.
There is in souls a sympathy with sounds,And as the mind is pitched the ear is pleasedWith melting airs of martial, brisk, or grave;Some chord in unison with what we hearIs touched within us, and the heart replies.The Task: Winter Walk at Noon. W. COWPER.
Oh! who the exquisite delights can tell,The joy which mutual confidence imparts?Or who can paint the charm unspeakable,Which links in tender hands two faithful hearts?Psyche. MRS. M. TIGHE.
O! ask not, hope thou not too muchOf sympathy below:Few are the hearts whence one same touchBids the same fountain flow.Kindred Hearts. MRS. F.D. HEMANS.
Yet, taught by time, my heart has learned to glowFor other's good, and melt at other's woe.Odyssey, Bk. XVIII. HOMER.Trans. ofPOPE.
Some hae meat and canna eat,And some wad eat that want it:But we hae meat, and we can eat;Sae let the Lord be thankit.Grace before Meat. R. BURNS.
And do as adversaries do in law,Strive mightily, but eat and drink as friends.Taming of the Shrew, Acti.Sc. 2. SHAKESPEARE.
They are as sick that surfeit with too much, as they thatstarve with nothing.Merchant of Venice. Acti.Sc. 2 SHAKESPEARE.
He hath eaten me out of house and home.King Henry IV., Pt. II. Actii.Sc. 1 SHAKESPEARE.
My cake is dough: but I'll in among the rest,Out of hope of all but my share of the feast.Taming of the Shrew, Act v. Sc. 1. SHAKESPEARE.
And gazed around them to the left and rightWith the prophetic eye of appetite.Don Juan, Canto V. LORD BYRON.
Blest be those feasts, with simple plenty crowned,Where all the ruddy family aroundLaugh at the jests or pranks that never failOr sigh with pity at some mournful tale.The Traveller. O. GOLDSMITH.
They eat, they drink, and in communion sweetQuaff immortality and joy.Paradise Lost, Bk. V. MILTON.
Bone and Skin, two millers thin,Would starve us all, or near it;But be it known to Skin and BoneThat Flesh and Blood can't bear it.On Two Monopolists. J. BYROM.
Nothing's more sure at moments to take holdOf the best feelings of mankind, which growMore tender, as we every day behold,Than that all-softening, overpowering knell,The tocsin of the soul—the dinner bell!Don Juan, Canto V. LORD BYRON.
Their various cares in one great point combineThe business of their lives, that is—to dine.Love of Fame. DR. E. YOUNG.
Across the walnuts and the wine.The Miller's Daughter. A. TENNYSON.
No, pray thee, let it serve for table-talk;Then, howsoe'er thou speak'st, 'mong other thingsI shall digest it.Merchant of Venice, Act iii. Sc. 5. SHAKESPEARE.
Some say, compared to Bononcini,That Mynheer Handel's but a ninny;Others aver,—that he to HandelIs scarcely fit to hold a candle:Strange all this difference should be,'Twixt tweedle-dum and tweedle-dee!On the Feuds between Handel and Bononcini. J. BYROM.
What's one man's poison, signor,Is another's meat or drink.Love's Cure, Act iii. Sc. 2. BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER.
Different mindsIncline to different objects: one pursuesThe vast alone, the wonderful, the wild;Another sighs for harmony, and grace,And gentlest beauty.
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Such and so various are the tastes of men.Pleasures of the Imagination, Bk. III. M. AKENSIDE.
The rose is fairest when 't is budding new,And hope is brightest when it dawns from fears.The rose is sweetest washed with morning dew.And love is loveliest when embalmed in tears.Lady of the Lake, Canto IV. SIR W. SCOTT.
O father, what a hell of witchcraft liesIn the small orb of one particular tear!A Lover's Complaint, Stanza XLII. SHAKESPEARE.
Sunshine and rain at once.King Lear, Act iv. Sc. 3. SHAKESPEARE.
The drying up a single tear has moreOf honest fame, than shedding seas of gore.Don Juan, Canto VIII. LORD BYRON.
And weep the more, because I weep in vain.On the Death of Mr. West. T. GRAY.
Oh! would I were dead now.Or up in my bed now,To cover my head nowAnd have a good cry!A Table of Errata. T. HOOD.
So bright the tear in Beauty's eye.Love half regrets to kiss it dry.Bride of Abydos. LORD BYRON.
I cannot speak, tears so obstruct my words,And choke me with unutterable joy.Caius Marius. T. OTWAY.
Sorrow preys uponIts solitude and nothing more diverts itFrom its sad visions of the other worldThan calling it at moments back to this.The busy have no time for tears.The Two Foscari, Act iv. LORD BYRON.
Oh! blessed with temper, whose unclouded rayCan make to-morrow cheerful as to-day.Moral Essays, Epistle II. A. POPE.
From loveless youth to uninspected age,No passion gratified, except her rage,So much the fury still outran the wit,That pleasure missed her, and the scandal hit.Moral Essays, Epistle II. A. POPE.
Good-humor only teaches charms to last,Still makes new conquests and maintains the past.Epistle to Mrs. Blount. A. POPE.
What then remains, but well our power to use,And keep good-humor still whate'er we lose?And trust me, dear, good-humor can prevail,When airs, and flights, and screams, and scolding fail.Rape of the Lock, Canto V. A. POPE.
How oft the sight of means to do ill deedsMakes ill deeds done!King John, Act iv. Sc. 2. SHAKESPEARE.
O opportunity, thy guilt is great!'T is thou that executest the traitor's treason;Thou sett'st the wolf where he the lamb may get;Whoever plots the sin, thou 'point'st the season;'T is thou that spurn'st at right, at law, at reason.The Rape of Lucrece. SHAKESPEARE.
Sometimes we are devils to ourselves,When we will tempt the frailty of our powers,Presuming on their changeful potency.Troilus and Cressida, Act iv. Sc. 4. SHAKESPEARE.
In part to blame is she.Which hathwithout consentbin only tride;He comestoo neere, that comes to bedenide.A Wife. SIR T. OVERBURY.
Vice is a monster of so frightful mien,As to be hated needs but to be seen;Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face,We first endure, then pity, then embrace.Essay on Man. Epistle II. A. POPE.
Temptations hurt not, though they have accesse;Satan o'ercomes none but by willingnesse.Hesperides' Temptations. R. HERRICK.
In Adam's fallWe sinne'd all.New England Primer.
Hold thou the good: define it well:For fear divine PhilosophyShould push beyond her mark, and beProcuress to the Lords of Hell.In Memoriam. A. TENNYSON.
For forms of government let fools contest;Whate'er is best administered is best:For modes of faith let graceless zealots fight;His can't be wrong whose life is in the right.Essay on Man, Epistle III. A. POPE.
Hisfaith, perhaps, in some nice tenets mightBe wrong; hislife, I'm sure, was in the right.On the Death of Crashaw. A. COWLEY.
Slave to no sect, who takes no private road.But looks through nature up to nature's God.
* * * * *
And knows where faith, law, morals, all began,All end, in love of God and love of man.Essay on Man, Epistle IV. A. POPE.
Thought can wing its waySwifter than lightning-flashes or the beamThat hastens on the pinions of the morn.Sonnet. J.G. PERCIVAL.
I and my bosom must debate awhile,And then I would no other company.King Henry V., Act iv. Sc. 1. SHAKESPEARE.
He that has light within his own clear breast,May sit i' th' centre and enjoy bright day:But he that hides a dark soul, and foul thoughts,Benighted walks under the midday sun.Comus. MILTON.
So Thought flung forward is the prophecyOf Truth's majestic march, and shows the wayWhere future time shall lead the proud arrayOf peace, of power, and love of liberty.SIR J. BOWRING.
There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.Hamlet, Act ii. Sc. 2. SHAKESPEARE.
O Time! the beautifier of the dead,Adorner of the ruin, comforterAnd only healer when the heart hath bled—Time! the corrector where our judgments err,The test of truth, love,—soul philosopher,For all besides are sophists, from thy thriftWhich never loses though it doth defer—Time, the avenger! unto thee I liftMy hands, and eyes, and heart, and crave of thee a gift.Childe Harold, Canto IV. LORD BYRON.
The more we live, more brief appearOur life's succeeding stages:A day to childhood seems a year,And years like passing ages.
* * * * *
Heaven gives our years of fading strengthIndemnifying fleetness;And those of youth, a seeming length,Proportioned to their sweetness.The River of Life. T. CAMPBELL.
Yet Time, who changes all, had altered himIn soul and aspect as in age; years stealFire from the mind as vigor from the limb:And life's enchanted cup but sparkles near the brim.Childe Harold, Canto III. LORD BYRON.
Catch! then, O catch, the transient hour;Improve each moment as it flies;Life's a short summer—man a flower.Winter: An Ode. DR. S. JOHNSON.
Come what come may,Time and the hour runs through the roughest day.Macbeth, Act i. Sc. 3. SHAKESPEARE.
And then he drew a dial from his poke,And, looking on it with lack-lustre eye,Says very wisely, "It is ten o'clock:Thus may we see," quoth he, "how the world wags:'T is but an hour ago since it was nine;And after one hour more 't will be eleven;And so, from hour to hour, we ripe and ripe.And then, from hour to hour, we rot and rot;And thereby hangs a tale."As You Like it, Act ii. Sc. 7. SHAKESPEARE.
Seven hours to law, to soothing slumber seven,Ten to the world allot, and all to heaven.Ode in Imitation of Alcaeus. SIR W. JONES.
Nought treads so silent as the foot of Time;Hence we mistake our autumn for our prime.Love of Fame, Satire IV. DR. E. YOUNG.
Not one word more of the consumed time.Let's take the instant by the forward top;For we are old, and on our quick'st decreesThe inaudible and noiseless foot of TimeSteals ere we can effect them.All's Well that End's Well, Act v. Sc. 3. SHAKESPEARE.
Sublime tobacco! which from east to west.Cheers the tar's labor or the Turkman's rest,
* * * * *
Divine in hookahs, glorious in a pipe.When tipped with amber, mellow, rich and ripe;Like other charmers, wooing the caressMore dazzlingly when daring in full dress;Yet thy true lovers more admire by farThy naked beauties—Give me a cigar!The Island, Canto II. LORD BYRON.
Yes, social friend, I love thee well,In learnèd doctors' spite;Thy clouds all other clouds dispel,And lap me in delight.To my Cigar. C. SPRAGUE.
Such often, like the tube they so admire,Important triflers! have more smoke than fire.Pernicious weed! whose scent the fair annoys,Unfriendly to society's chief joys,Thy worst effect is banishing for hoursThe sex whose presence civilizes ours.Conversation. W. COWPER.