An Essay on English Poetry: With Notices of the British Poets |
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Page 4
... died in 1170 , and the verses ascribed to him might have been written at a time nearly preceding Layamon's work . Of St. Godric's verses a very few may be compared with a few of Layamon's . ST . GODRIC . Sainté Marie Christie's bur ...
... died in 1170 , and the verses ascribed to him might have been written at a time nearly preceding Layamon's work . Of St. Godric's verses a very few may be compared with a few of Layamon's . ST . GODRIC . Sainté Marie Christie's bur ...
Page 20
... died before the middle of the preceding century , and , in the course of the next hundred years , their names became so popular in English song , 6 a Game . b Together . * Virgil , when he carries us back to very ancient manners , in ...
... died before the middle of the preceding century , and , in the course of the next hundred years , their names became so popular in English song , 6 a Game . b Together . * Virgil , when he carries us back to very ancient manners , in ...
Page 40
... died at a great age at Croydon in the year 1552 . His principal work was a free translation of Sebastian Brandt's † ' Navis Stultifera , ' enlarged with some satirical strictures of his * He also wrote ' The Temple of Glass , ' the ...
... died at a great age at Croydon in the year 1552 . His principal work was a free translation of Sebastian Brandt's † ' Navis Stultifera , ' enlarged with some satirical strictures of his * He also wrote ' The Temple of Glass , ' the ...
Page 57
... died about the middle of the sixteenth century , but flourished ( if such a word can be applied to them ) as early as the reign of Henry VIII . Until the time of Elizabeth , the public was contented with mysteries , moralities , or ...
... died about the middle of the sixteenth century , but flourished ( if such a word can be applied to them ) as early as the reign of Henry VIII . Until the time of Elizabeth , the public was contented with mysteries , moralities , or ...
Page 103
... died at fifty - two . The average probability of life is twenty years beyond that age , and the probable endurance of the human faculties in their vigour is not a great deal shorter . Chaucer wrote his best poetry after he was sixty ...
... died at fifty - two . The average probability of life is twenty years beyond that age , and the probable endurance of the human faculties in their vigour is not a great deal shorter . Chaucer wrote his best poetry after he was sixty ...
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Common terms and phrases
admiration afterwards amidst amusing ancient appear ballad beauty Ben Jonson biographer Born century certainly character Chaucer church circumstances comedy court Cowper Creusa death Died drama Dryden Earl eclogues Edinburgh edition England English English poetry entitled exhibits expression fancy father feeling fiction Fletcher French gave genius Gorboduc grace Henry honour humour imagination imitation interest Jonson Joseph Warton King Lady language Layamon letters literary lived London Lord manners married Milton mind Mirror for Magistrates moral Muse native nature night Oxford passage passion period pieces poem poet poet's poetical poetry Pope probably prose published Queen racter reign returned rhyme Robert of Gloucester romance satire Saxon says scene Scotland Scottish seems Shakspeare Sir Walter Scott Spenser spirit story style supposed Surrey taste Thomas Thomas Warton thought tion tragedy translation verse versifier Warton William writer written wrote Xuthus
Popular passages
Page 111 - He scarce had ceased, when the superior fiend Was moving toward the shore: his ponderous shield, Ethereal temper, massy, large, and round, Behind him cast; the broad circumference Hung on his shoulders like the moon, whose orb Through optic glass the Tuscan artist views, At evening, from the top of Fesole, Or in Valdarno, to descry new lands, Rivers, or mountains, in her spotty globe.
Page 112 - Farewell 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 throats The immortal Jove's dread clamours counterfeit, Farewell ! Othello's occupation's gone ! lago.
Page 114 - But clear and artless pouring through the plain Health to the sick, and solace to the swain. Whose causeway parts the vale with shady rows ? Whose seats the weary traveller repose ? Who taught that heaven-directed spire to rise ? " The Man of Ross," each lisping babe replies. Behold the market-place with poor o'erspread ! The Man of Ross...
Page 397 - To gild refined gold, to paint the lily, To throw a perfume on the violet, To smooth the ice, or add another hue Unto the rainbow, or with taper-light To seek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish, Is wasteful, and ridiculous excess.
Page 67 - I cannot say he is everywhere alike; were he so, I should do him injury to compare him with the greatest of mankind. He is many times flat, insipid; his comic wit degenerating into clenches, his serious swelling into bombast. But he is always great when some great occasion is presented to him; no man can say he ever had a fit subject for his wit, and did not then raise himself as high above the rest of poets *Quantum lenta solent inter viburna cupressi.
Page 115 - All things are hush'd as Nature's self lay dead, The mountains seem to nod their drowsy head : The little birds in dreams their songs repeat, And sleeping flowers beneath the night dews sweat. Even lust and envy sleep...
Page 112 - Idalia's velvet-green has something of cant. An epithet or metaphor drawn from Nature ennobles Art; an epithet or metaphor drawn from Art degrades Nature.
Page 96 - GATHER ye rosebuds while ye may, Old Time is still a-flying; And this same flower that smiles to-day, To-morrow will be dying. The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun, The higher he's a-getting, The sooner will his race be run, And nearer he's to setting. That age is best which is the first, When youth and blood are warmer; But being spent, the worse and worst Times still succeed the former.
Page 328 - His best companions, innocence and health; And his best riches, ignorance of wealth. But times are alter'd; trade's unfeeling train Usurp the land and dispossess the swain; Along the lawn, where scatter'd hamlets rose, Unwieldy wealth and cumbrous pomp repose; And every want to luxury allied, And every pang that folly pays to pride.
Page 114 - What modes of sight betwixt each wide extreme, The mole's dim curtain and the lynx's beam ! Of smell, the headlong lioness between And hound sagacious on the tainted green ! Of hearing, from the life that fills' the flood To that which warbles through the vernal wood ! The spider's touch, how exquisitely fine ! Feels at each thread, and lives along the line...