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Page 13
... Waller purified his verse of ornament and arranged it in distichs , he was unconsciously doing what was simultaneously being done in the other leading na- tions of Europe . It will perhaps help us to under- stand the change in England ...
... Waller purified his verse of ornament and arranged it in distichs , he was unconsciously doing what was simultaneously being done in the other leading na- tions of Europe . It will perhaps help us to under- stand the change in England ...
Page 18
... Waller was writing didactic oc- casional poems in distichs which were often as good as Dryden's ever became , at least as early as 1623 . Now Malherbe , with whom by universal consent the fashion for correct versifying and the exclusion ...
... Waller was writing didactic oc- casional poems in distichs which were often as good as Dryden's ever became , at least as early as 1623 . Now Malherbe , with whom by universal consent the fashion for correct versifying and the exclusion ...
Page 19
... Waller and Sidney Godolphin and Denham were in the very smallest degree affected by the French revolt against the ... Waller's earliest couplets . An examination of the records of Sta- tioners ' Company will help us nothing in forming a ...
... Waller and Sidney Godolphin and Denham were in the very smallest degree affected by the French revolt against the ... Waller's earliest couplets . An examination of the records of Sta- tioners ' Company will help us nothing in forming a ...
Page 34
... Waller . To him and to his peculiar qualities of mind and character happens to be due the first initiation into that great change , that turning topsy - turvy of all poetic literature , which was henceforth to be the main intellectual ...
... Waller . To him and to his peculiar qualities of mind and character happens to be due the first initiation into that great change , that turning topsy - turvy of all poetic literature , which was henceforth to be the main intellectual ...
Page 35
... Waller , and did not so rapidly come to maturity , that we did not receive from him a classi- cal bias which would have been something very dif- ferent from Waller's . The time was ripe , and when , in 1623 , these first experiments in ...
... Waller , and did not so rapidly come to maturity , that we did not receive from him a classi- cal bias which would have been something very dif- ferent from Waller's . The time was ripe , and when , in 1623 , these first experiments in ...
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Common terms and phrases
Anthony à Wood Ausonius Beaconsfield beautiful Ben Jonson called Cambridge Chamberlayne Charles charming Clarendon classical school Cooper's Hill copy of verses couplet Cowley critic Cromwell curious Cyril Tourneur Davenant Davenant's death Denham distich Donne doubt Dryden Earl edition Edmund Waller Elizabethans England English poetry epic Exile famous France French friends give Gondibert grace hand heroic heroic couplet House interesting King Lady Lady Dorothy Sidney language less lines literary literature lived Lord Brooke lyrical Malherbe Marinist Marvell Milton mind Muse never numbers Nunappleton Oliver Cromwell parliament person piece plays poem poet poet's poetical political Pope possessed praise printed prosody published Queen readers reign Restoration rhymes romantic romantic poetry Roundheads Sacharissa scholar seems sense seventeenth century Shakespeare Sidney Spenser stanza story style taste thing thou tion tragedy versification writing written wrote young
Popular passages
Page 185 - To move, but doth, if th' other do. And though it in the centre sit, Yet when the other far doth roam, It leans, and hearkens after it, And grows erect as that comes home. Such wilt thou be to me, who must Like th...
Page 6 - ALL human things are subject to decay, And, when Fate summons, monarchs must obey. This Flecknoe found, who, like Augustus, young Was call'd to empire and had govern'd long, In prose and verse was owned without dispute Through all the realms of Nonsense absolute.
Page 91 - O could I flow like thee, and make thy stream My great example, as it is my theme! Though deep, yet clear, though gentle, yet not dull, Strong without rage, without o'er-flowing full.
Page 136 - Thalaba and to the Curse of Kehama. As in the case of those shapeless Indian epics, so in that of Davenant's long-winded Lombardian heroic, there were not a few critics and lovers of poetry who refused to bow the knee to a poetical Baal so foreign to the imaginative tradition of the race. But to the public at large the one class of epic and the other were equally attractive for the moment. The strenuous didactic tone of morality, the emphatic wish to improve the condition and raise the dignity of...
Page 149 - Elisha-like (but with a wish much less, More fit thy greatness, and my littleness) Lo here I beg (I whom thou once didst prove So humble to esteem, so good to love) Not that thy spirit might on me doubled be, I ask but half thy mighty spirit for me ; And when my muse soars with so strong a wing, 'Twill learn of things divine, and first of thee to sing.
Page 4 - Could all this be forgotten ? Yes, a schism Nurtured by foppery and barbarism Made great Apollo blush for this his land. Men were thought wise who could not understand His glories; with a puling infant's force They sway'd about upon a rocking-horse, And thought it Pegasus.
Page 186 - But when the vigilant patrol Of stars walks round about the pole, Their leaves, that to the stalks are curled, Seem to their staves the ensigns furled.
Page 60 - Go, lovely Rose ! Tell her, that wastes her time and me, That now she knows, When I resemble her to thee, How sweet and fair she seems to be. Tell her that's young And shuns to have her graces spied, That hadst thou sprung In deserts, where no men abide, Thou must have uncommended died.
Page 61 - ON A GIRDLE THAT which her slender waist confined, Shall now my joyful temples bind; No monarch but would give his crown His arms might do what this has done. It was my Heaven's extremest sphere, The pale which held that lovely deer; My joy, my grief, my hope, my love, Did all within this circle move. A narrow compass! and yet there Dwelt all that's good, and all that's fair; Give me but what this ribband bound, Take all the rest the sun goes round.
Page 4 - The morning precious: beauty was awake! Why were ye not awake? But ye were dead To things ye knew not of, — were closely wed To musty laws lined out with wretched rule And compass vile: so that ye taught a school Of dolts to smoothe, inlay, and clip, and fit, Till, like the certain wands of Jacob's wit, Their verses tallied.