The Writings of James Russell Lowell ...: Literary essaysPrinted at the Riverside Press, 1890 - 452 pages |
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Page 6
... languages living and dead . Voltaire had long before pronounced him " the best poet of England , and at present of all the world . " 1 It was the apotheosis of clearness , point , and technical skill , of the ease that comes of prac ...
... languages living and dead . Voltaire had long before pronounced him " the best poet of England , and at present of all the world . " 1 It was the apotheosis of clearness , point , and technical skill , of the ease that comes of prac ...
Page 9
... language and fitting it for the higher uses to which it was destined . The cultists went down before the implacable good sense of French criticism , but the defect of this criticism was that it ignored imagination altogether , and sent ...
... language and fitting it for the higher uses to which it was destined . The cultists went down before the implacable good sense of French criticism , but the defect of this criticism was that it ignored imagination altogether , and sent ...
Page 16
... language than in the century and a half since . What was of more consequence , French ideas came with them , shaping the form , and through that modifying the spirit , of our literature . - Voltaire , though he came later , was steeped ...
... language than in the century and a half since . What was of more consequence , French ideas came with them , shaping the form , and through that modifying the spirit , of our literature . - Voltaire , though he came later , was steeped ...
Page 21
... Language , I suspect , is more apt to be reformed by the charm of some master of it , like Milton , than by any amount of precept . The influence of second - rate writers for evil is at best ephemeral , for true style , the joint result ...
... Language , I suspect , is more apt to be reformed by the charm of some master of it , like Milton , than by any amount of precept . The influence of second - rate writers for evil is at best ephemeral , for true style , the joint result ...
Page 23
... Language becomes useful for its diluting properties , rather than as the medium by means of which the thought or fancy precipitate themselves in crystals upon a connecting thread of purpose . Let us read a few POPE 23.
... Language becomes useful for its diluting properties , rather than as the medium by means of which the thought or fancy precipitate themselves in crystals upon a connecting thread of purpose . Let us read a few POPE 23.
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æsthetic allegorical Aristotle Beatrice beauty Ben Jonson Boccaccio Brunetto Latini called canto century character Christian Church Cimabue Coleridge Commedia Convito Dante Dante's death delight Divina Commedia divine doth doubt edition England English eternal example eyes Faery Queen faith fancy feeling Florence genius gives grace hath heart heaven highest human ideal imagination Inferno instinct intellectual Italian Joseph Warton judgment language letter literary literature living Lyrical Ballads Masson meaning ment metrist Milton mind Monarchia moral nature never noble Paradise Lost Paradiso passage passion perhaps Petrarch phrase poem poet poetic poetry political Pope Pope's prose Purgatorio rhyme Roman says seems sense Shakespeare sonnet soul speak Spenser spirit style sweet syllable tells things thou thought tion true truth unto verse virtue Vita Nuova Voltaire vulgar whole words Wordsworth writing written wrote
Popular passages
Page 39 - Who sees with equal eye, as God of all, A hero perish, or a sparrow fall, Atoms or systems into ruin hurled, And now a bubble burst, and now a world.
Page 251 - O ! wonder ! How many goodly creatures are there here ! How beauteous mankind is ! O brave new world, That has such people in't ! Pro. Tis new to thee.
Page 45 - Peace to all such! But were there one whose fires True genius kindles, and fair fame inspires; Blest with each talent and each art to please. And born to write, converse, and live with ease: Should such a man, too fond to rule alone, Bear, like the Turk, no brother near the throne; View him with scornful, yev with jealous eyes.
Page 288 - Selinus all alone With blossoms brave bedecked daintily, Whose tender locks do tremble every one At every little breath that under heaven is blown.
Page 41 - Lives through all life, extends through all extent; Spreads undivided, operates unspent! Breathes in our soul, informs our mortal part, As full, as perfect in a hair as heart; As full, as perfect in vile Man that mourns, As the rapt Seraph that adores and burns; To him no high, no low, no great, no...
Page 61 - Lastly, I should not choose this manner of writing, wherein knowing myself inferior to myself, led by the genial power of nature to another task, I have the use, as I may account, but of my left hand.
Page 38 - AWAKE, my St John ! leave all meaner things To low ambition, and the pride of kings. Let us (since life can little more supply Than just to look about us and to die...
Page 34 - And decks the goddess with the glitt'ring spoil. This casket India's glowing gems unlocks. And all Arabia breathes from yonder box. The tortoise here and elephant unite, Transform'd to combs, the speckled and the white. Here files of pins extend their shining rows, Puffs, powders, patches, Bibles, billet-doux.
Page 39 - Heaven from all creatures hides the book of Fate, All but the page prescribed, their present state: From brutes what men, from men what spirits know: Or who could suffer being here below?
Page 53 - Hath scathed the forest oaks, or mountain pines, With singed top their stately growth, though bare Stands on the blasted heath. He now prepared To speak ; whereat their doubled ranks they bend From wing to wing, and half inclose him round With all his peers : attention held them mute.