The Poetical Works of William Hamilton: Collated with the Best Editions, Volume 1

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Page 90 - Is man no more than this ? Consider him well. Thou owest the worm no silk, the beast no hide, the sheep no wool, the cat no perfume. Ha ! here's three on's are sophisticated ! Thou art the thing itself : unaccommodated man is no more but such a poor, bare, forked animal as thou art.
Page 9 - Fly'st thou, displeas'd, the commerce of mankind ? O ! teach our steps to find the secret cell, Where, with thy sire Content, thou lov'st to dwell. Or say, dost thou a duteous handmaid wait Familiar at the chambers of the great ? Dost thou pursue the voice of them that call To noisy revel and to midnight ball ? O'er the full banquet when we feast our soul, Dost thou inspire the mirth, or mix the bowl? Or, with th...
Page 53 - How oft, beneath Its martial influence, have Scotia's sons Through every age with dauntless valour fought On every hostile ground ! while o'er their breast, Companion to the silver star...
Page 18 - The false, th' inconstant, lewd and vain: Thou hast no subject here, begone; Contemplation comes anon. Above, below, and all around, Now nought but awful quiet's found, The feeling air forgets to move, No zephyr stirs the leafy grove, The gentlest murmur of the rill Struck by the potent charm is still, Each passion in this troubled breast So toiling once lies hush'd to rest, Whate'er man's bustling race employs, His cares, his hopes, his fears, his joys, Ambition, pleasure, interest, fame, Each nothing...
Page 30 - For soon this venerable gloom Will yield a weary sufferer room ; No more a slave to love decreed — At ease and free among the dead. Come then, ye tears, ne'er cease to flow In full satiety of woe : Though now the maid my heart alarms, Severe and mighty in her charms, Doomed to obey, in bondage prest...
Page 8 - Blest still to spend the hours that heav'n has lent, In humble goodness, and in calm content. Serenely gentle, as the thoughts that roll, Sinless and pure, in fair Humeia's soul. But now the rural state these joys has lost, Even swains no more that innocence can boast. Love speaks no more what Beauty may believe, Prone to betray and practis'd to deceive. Now Happiness forsakes her blest retreat, The peaceful...
Page 90 - Why, thou wert better in thy grave than to answer with thy uncovered body this extremity of the skies. Is man no more than this? Consider him well. Thou owest the worm no silk, the beast no hide, the sheep no wool, the cat no perfume.
Page 9 - Or say, dost thou a duteous handmaid wait Familiar, at the chambers of the great? Dost thou pursue the voice of them that call To noisy revel, and to midnight ball? O'er the full banquet when we feast our soul, Dost thou inspire the mirth, or mix the bowl? Or with th' industrious planter dost thou talk, Conversing freely in an evening walk?
Page 14 - sills, and mankind's woes, While kings and all the proud repose ; Or where some holy aged oak A stranger to the woodman's stroke ; From the high rock's aerial crown In twisting arches bending down, Bathes in the smooth pellucid stream ; Full oft he waits the mystic dream Of mankind's joys right understood, And of the all-prevailing good.
Page 42 - That Chloe, lavish maid, has given. I cannot blame thee : Were I lord Of all the wealth those breasts afford, I'd be a miser too, nor give An alms to keep a god alive.

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