Sketches of the Poetical Literature of the Past Half-century in Six Lectures |
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Page 3
... land separating the confines of barbarism and refinement , which appears to be that best adapted for most things , — for intellectual exercise and enterprise , as well as for the development of the imaginative faculty ; for there the ...
... land separating the confines of barbarism and refinement , which appears to be that best adapted for most things , — for intellectual exercise and enterprise , as well as for the development of the imaginative faculty ; for there the ...
Page 6
... land , and the hills and valleys of Britain became a more flourishing but far less poetical region . In the first great era of our national literature - that of Spenser , and Shakspeare , and Milton , and Taylor , and Hooker , and Bacon ...
... land , and the hills and valleys of Britain became a more flourishing but far less poetical region . In the first great era of our national literature - that of Spenser , and Shakspeare , and Milton , and Taylor , and Hooker , and Bacon ...
Page 10
... land formed its span , Ere the wide world was its empire , And its home the heart of man . " In Robert Burns , poetry showed itself no longer a weak nursling , like cresses reared on flannel floated on water , but a healthy plant ...
... land formed its span , Ere the wide world was its empire , And its home the heart of man . " In Robert Burns , poetry showed itself no longer a weak nursling , like cresses reared on flannel floated on water , but a healthy plant ...
Page 21
... land of enchantments ; where ogres tyrannise in castles , and dragons spout fire in caves ; and where all the accredited Aristotelian elements - fire , air , earth , and water - are continually reverberating to each other- " Black ...
... land of enchantments ; where ogres tyrannise in castles , and dragons spout fire in caves ; and where all the accredited Aristotelian elements - fire , air , earth , and water - are continually reverberating to each other- " Black ...
Page 22
... land , the bow of ridicule was also bent against them . Jeffrey let fly a few sharp arrows ; and the " Water Fiends " of George Colman the younger , as well as the burlesques of Horace Smith , will long be remembered as exquisite ...
... land , the bow of ridicule was also bent against them . Jeffrey let fly a few sharp arrows ; and the " Water Fiends " of George Colman the younger , as well as the burlesques of Horace Smith , will long be remembered as exquisite ...
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admiration alike Allan Cunningham Amelia Opie amid ballads Barry Cornwall beauty Bowles Burns Byron Campbell characteristic child Coleridge composition Cowper Crabbe dark delight Della Cruscans dream earth Ebenezer Elliot elegance excellencies exquisite extract fancy feeling finest flowers forest Furness Abbey genius George Crabbe Giaour glowing grace hath Hayley heart heaven Hemans Hogg human imagery imagination Isle of Palms James James Hogg Joanna Baillie Kilmeny Leigh Hunt less light literature Lord Lord Byron Lyrical Ballads magnificent manner Mary Howitt Milton mind Moore morning nature never night o'er occasionally Oriana original passages passion pathos peculiar picturesque poem poet poetical poetry popularity regarded scarcely scene Scottish seemed sentiment Shakspeare sketches song Southey specimen spirit stanzas style sweet taste Thalaba thee things thou thought tion tone touch verse wild William Wilson wonderful Wordsworth writings young youthful
Popular passages
Page 84 - They sin who tell us love can die. ; With life all other passions fly, All others are but vanity. In Heaven Ambition cannot dwell, Nor Avarice in the vaults of Hell ; Earthly these passions of the Earth, They perish where they have their birth ; But Love is indestructible. Its holy flame for ever burneth, From Heaven it came, to Heaven returneth...
Page 146 - Prayer is the burden of a sigh, The falling of a tear, The upward glancing of an eye, When none but God is near.
Page 75 - Alas! they had been friends in youth; But whispering tongues can poison truth; And constancy lives in realms above; And life is thorny; and youth is vain; And to be wroth with one we love Doth work like madness in the brain.
Page 238 - I remember, I remember Where I was used to swing, And thought the air must rush as fresh To swallows on the wing; My spirit flew in feathers then That is so heavy now, And summer pools could hardly cool The fever on my brow. I remember, I remember The fir trees dark and high; I used to think their slender tops Were close against the sky: It was a childish ignorance, But now 'tis little joy To know I'm farther off from- Heaven Than when I was a boy.
Page 54 - There was a roaring in the wind all night; The rain came heavily and fell in floods; But now the sun is rising calm and bright; The birds are singing in the distant woods; Over his own sweet voice the Stock-dove broods; The Jay makes answer as the Magpie chatters; And all the air is filled with pleasant noise of waters.
Page 211 - Saturn, quiet as a stone, Still as the silence round about his lair; Forest on forest hung about his head Like cloud on cloud. No stir of air was there, Not so much life as on a summer's day Robs not one light seed from the feather'd grass, But where the dead leaf fell, there did it rest.
Page 70 - It was a time of rapture! Clear and loud The village clock tolled six - I wheeled about, Proud and exulting like an untired horse That cares not for his home. All shod with steel, We hissed along the polished ice in games Confederate, imitative of the chase And woodland pleasures, - the resounding horn, The pack loud chiming, and the hunted hare.
Page 269 - Turns the long light that drops adown the wall, Turn the black flies that crawl along the ceiling, All are turning, all the day, and we with all. And all day the iron wheels are droning, And sometimes we could pray, 'O ye wheels' (breaking out in a mad moaning) 'Stop!
Page 70 - And not a voice was idle ; with the din Smitten, the precipices rang aloud ; The leafless trees and every icy crag Tinkled like iron ; while far distant hills Into the tumult sent an alien sound Of melancholy not unnoticed, while the stars Eastward were sparkling clear, and in the west The orange sky of evening died away.
Page 155 - Are not the mountains, waves, and skies, a part Of me and of my soul, as I of them ? Is not the love of these deep in my heart With a pure passion?