Biographia Literaria: Or, Biographical Sketches of My Literary Life and Opinions, Volumes 1-2 |
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Page 10
... mere virtue of the printer's hyphen . A language which , like the English , is almost without cases , is indeed in its very genius unfitted for compounds . If a writer , every time a compounded word suggests itself to him , would seek ...
... mere virtue of the printer's hyphen . A language which , like the English , is almost without cases , is indeed in its very genius unfitted for compounds . If a writer , every time a compounded word suggests itself to him , would seek ...
Page 18
... mere abstracts . I mention this because , in referring various lines in Gray to their original in Shakspeare and Milton , and in the clear perception how completely all the propriety was lost in the transfer ; I was , at that early ...
... mere abstracts . I mention this because , in referring various lines in Gray to their original in Shakspeare and Milton , and in the clear perception how completely all the propriety was lost in the transfer ; I was , at that early ...
Page 19
... , and the first synonyme is purpureus . I mention this by way of elucidating one of the most ordinary processes in the ferrumination of these centos . from mere novelty , in the reader , and the BIOGRAPHIA LITERARIA . 19.
... , and the first synonyme is purpureus . I mention this by way of elucidating one of the most ordinary processes in the ferrumination of these centos . from mere novelty , in the reader , and the BIOGRAPHIA LITERARIA . 19.
Page 25
... mere talent , ( or the faculty of appropriating and applying the knowledge of others , ) yet still want something of the creative and self - sufficing power of absolute genius . For this reason , therefore , they are men of com- manding ...
... mere talent , ( or the faculty of appropriating and applying the knowledge of others , ) yet still want something of the creative and self - sufficing power of absolute genius . For this reason , therefore , they are men of com- manding ...
Page 31
... mere refusal of praise , as a robbery , and at the justest censures kindle at once into violent and undisciplined abuse ; till the acute disease changing into chronical , the more deadly as the less violent , they become the fit ...
... mere refusal of praise , as a robbery , and at the justest censures kindle at once into violent and undisciplined abuse ; till the acute disease changing into chronical , the more deadly as the less violent , they become the fit ...
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Common terms and phrases
admiration appear Aristotle beauty blank verse cause character common compositions criticism DANE deemed defects diction distinct effect Elbe English equally excellence excitement existence express faculty fancy feelings former French genius German German language Greek ground Hamburg heart honour human idea images imagination imitation instance intellectual intelligible interest jacobinism judgment Klopstock knowledge language latter least less lines literary Lyrical Ballads mallem meaning metaphysics metre Milton mind mode moral natural philosophy nature never notions object once opinions original passage passion perhaps person philosophical Plato pleasure Plotinus poem poet poetic poetry possible present principles prose Ratzeburg reader reason rhyme scarcely sensation sense Shakspeare sonnet sophism soul Spinoza spirit stanzas style supposed Synesius taste thing thou thought tion true truth Venus and Adonis verse whole words Wordsworth writer
Popular passages
Page 254 - While he was talking thus, the lonely place, The old Man's shape, and speech, all troubled me: In my mind's eye I seemed to see him pace About the weary moors continually, Wandering about alone and silently. While I these thoughts within myself pursued, He, having made a pause, the same discourse renewed.
Page 274 - Ah ! then if mine had been the painter's hand, To express what then I saw ; and add the gleam, The light that never was, on sea or land, The consecration, and the poet's dream...
Page 206 - At her feet he bowed he fell, he lay down at her feet he bowed, he fell where he bowed, there he fell down dead...
Page 276 - Not for these I raise The song of thanks and praise : But for those obstinate questionings Of sense and outward things, Fallings from us, vanishings ; Blank misgivings of a creature Moving about in worlds not realized ; High instincts before which our mortal nature Did tremble like a guilty thing surprised...
Page 132 - Keen Pangs of Love, awakening as a babe Turbulent, with an outcry in the heart ; And Fears self-willed, that shunned the eye of Hope; And Hope that scarce would know itself from Fear ; Sense of past Youth, and Manhood come in vain, And Genius given, and Knowledge won in vain...
Page 274 - By sheddings from the pinal umbrage tinged Perennially — beneath whose sable roof Of boughs, as if for festal purpose decked With unrejoicing berries, ghostly shapes May meet at noontide — FEAR and trembling HOPE, SILENCE and FORESIGHT— DEATH, the skeleton, And TIME, the shadow — there to celebrate, As in a natural temple scattered o'er With altars undisturbed of mossy stone, United worship; or in mute repose To lie, and listen to the mountain flood Murmuring from Glaramara's inmost caves.
Page 212 - Yet nature is made better by no mean But nature makes that mean : so, over that art Which you say adds to nature, is an art That nature makes.
Page 246 - Ocean and earth, the solid frame of earth And ocean's liquid mass, beneath him lay . In gladness and deep joy. The clouds were touched, And in their silent faces could he read Unutterable love. Sound needed none, Nor any voice of joy ; his spirit drank The spectacle : sensation, soul, and form All melted into him ; they swallowed up His animal being ; in them did he live, And by them did he live ; they were his life.
Page 184 - Not mine own fears, nor the prophetic soul Of the wide world dreaming on things to come, Can yet the lease of my true love control, Supposed as forfeit to a confined doom.
Page 239 - Of mountain torrents ; or the visible scene Would enter unawares into his mind With all its solemn imagery, its rocks, Its woods, and that uncertain heaven, received Into the bosom of the steady lake.