The Masters of English Literature |
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Page viii
... authors themselves . Whatever is written in these pages by way of criticism or biographical narrative is designed to awaken interest , and to send the reader to those masters of the literature of whom he has learnt enough viii PREFACE.
... authors themselves . Whatever is written in these pages by way of criticism or biographical narrative is designed to awaken interest , and to send the reader to those masters of the literature of whom he has learnt enough viii PREFACE.
Page 9
... narrative poet . The excellences , however , of this part of the Canterbury Tales are surpassed in the Troilus and Cressida , where Chaucer probably attained his highest pitch in the beauty of sustained and purely poetic narrative . The ...
... narrative poet . The excellences , however , of this part of the Canterbury Tales are surpassed in the Troilus and Cressida , where Chaucer probably attained his highest pitch in the beauty of sustained and purely poetic narrative . The ...
Page 12
... narrative : the gentle- folk on the whole inclining to romantic tragedy , the commoners to lewd jesting . Whatever ten- dency there may be among such folk as the man of law to gloomy themes is counteracted by the jolly host , who ...
... narrative : the gentle- folk on the whole inclining to romantic tragedy , the commoners to lewd jesting . Whatever ten- dency there may be among such folk as the man of law to gloomy themes is counteracted by the jolly host , who ...
Page 14
... narrative tells how Arcite was buried , and how after certain years Theseus harangued his folk upon the changefulness of things and the need " To maken vertu of necessitee , " with the conclusion that now is time for joy after long ...
... narrative tells how Arcite was buried , and how after certain years Theseus harangued his folk upon the changefulness of things and the need " To maken vertu of necessitee , " with the conclusion that now is time for joy after long ...
Page 28
... narrative . Even with all the license that he takes to wander as he pleases , the book is wearisome to read through . But owing to the lack of structural completeness there is no occasion to read through more than one pleases , and to ...
... narrative . Even with all the license that he takes to wander as he pleases , the book is wearisome to read through . But owing to the lack of structural completeness there is no occasion to read through more than one pleases , and to ...
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admirable ballad beauty Ben Jonson blank verse Bonny Dundee born Burns Byron Canterbury Tales century character charm Chaucer chronicle plays Coleridge colour comedy contemporary couplet criticism death described Dickens drama Dryden emotion England English literature essays expression eyes Faerie Queene Falstaff fame famous genius heart heaven honour human humour Johnson Keats King lady later less lines literary living London Lord lyric Lyrical Ballads master metre Milton mind narrative nature never night novel o'er Paradise Lost passage passion perhaps persons play poem poet poetry Pope prose published reader rhyme satire Scott sense Shakespeare Shelley song sonnets Spenser spirit stanzas story style Swift tale Tamburlaine tell thee Theseus things thou thought tion tragedy Troilus and Cressida truth uncle Toby verse whole wife woman words Wordsworth writing written wrote young
Popular passages
Page 143 - Changed his hand, and check'd his pride. He chose a mournful muse, Soft pity to infuse: He sung Darius great and good! ~By too severe a fate, Fallen! fallen! fallen! fallen! Fallen from his high estate, And weltering in his blood!
Page 270 - Piping down the valleys wild, Piping songs of pleasant glee, On a cloud I saw a child, And he laughing said to me: "Pipe a song about a Lamb!' So I piped with merry cheer. 'Piper, pipe that song again;
Page 330 - But oft, in lonely rooms, and 'mid the din Of towns and cities, I have owed to them In hours of weariness, sensations sweet, Felt in the blood, and felt along the heart; And passing even into my purer mind. With tranquil restoration...
Page 112 - Thus with the year Seasons return; but not to me returns Day, or the sweet approach of even or morn, Or sight of vernal bloom, or summer's rose, Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine...
Page 100 - Oft, on a plat of rising ground, I hear the far-off curfew sound, Over some wide-watered shore Swinging slow with sullen roar; Or, if the air will not permit, Some still removed place will fit, Where glowing embers through the room Teach light to counterfeit a gloom, 80 Far from all resort of mirth, Save the cricket on the hearth, Or the bellman's drowsy charm To bless the doors from nightly harm.
Page 241 - Here Reynolds is laid, and to tell you my mind, He has not left a wiser or better behind : His pencil was striking, resistless, and grand : His manners were gentle, complying, and bland ; Still born to improve us in every part, His pencil our faces, his manners our heart...
Page 117 - O'er other creatures : yet when I approach Her loveliness, so absolute she seems, And in herself complete, so well to know Her own, that what she wills to do or say Seems wisest, virtuousest, discreetest, best...
Page 365 - He has outsoared the shadow of our night; Envy and calumny and hate and pain, And that unrest which men miscall delight, Can touch him not and torture not again...
Page 243 - In all my wanderings round this world of care, In all my griefs, — and God has given my share, — I still had hopes, my latest hours to crown, Amidst these humble bowers to lay me down ; To husband out life's taper at the close, And keep the flame from wasting by repose.
Page 344 - Lyrical Ballads^; in which it was agreed that my endeavours should be directed to persons and characters supernatural, or at least romantic; yet so as to transfer from our inward nature a human interest and a semblance of truth sufficient to procure for these shadows of imagination that willing suspension of disbelief for the moment, which constitutes poetic faith.