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TO A CHILD
Dear child! how radiant on thy mother's knee, With merry-making eyes and jocund smiles, Thou gazest at the painted tiles, Whose figures grace, With many a grotesque form and face. The ancient chimney
Heaven and Earth
PART I. SCENE I.--_A woody and mountainous district near Mount Ararat.--Time, midnight_. _Enter_ ANAH _and_ AHOLIBAMAH. _Anah_. OUR father sleeps: it is the hour
Hints From Horace
Who would not laugh, if Lawrence hired to grace His costly canvas with each flattered face, Abused his art, till Nature, with a blush, Saw cits grow Centaurs underneath his brush? Or, should some lim
56. Epistle to Davie, A Brother Poet
WHILE winds frae aff Ben-Lomond blaw, An’ bar the doors wi’ driving snaw, An’ hing us owre the ingle, I set me down to pass the time, An’ spin a verse or twa o’ rhyme, In hamely, westlin jingle. W
Sardanapalus
ACT I. SCENE I.--_A Hall in the Palace_. _Salemenes_ (_solus_). He hath wronged his queen, but still he is her lord; He hath wronged my sister--still he is my brother; He hath wronged his people--st
The Canterbury Tales. The Prologue.
WHEN that Aprilis, with his showers swoot, The drought of March hath pierced to the root, And bathed every vein in such licour, Of which virtue engender'd is the flower; When Zephyrus eke with his swo
The Statue and the Bust
There's a palace in Florence, the world knows well, And a statue watches it from the square, And this story of both do our townsmen tell. Ages ago, a lady there, At the farthest window facing the Eas
The Canterbury Tales. The Man of Law's Tale.
THE PROLOGUE. Our Hoste saw well that the brighte sun Th' arc of his artificial day had run The fourthe part, and half an houre more; And, though he were not deep expert in lore, He wist it was the e
Werner; or, the Inheritance
ACT I. SCENE I.--_The Hall of a decayed Palace near a small Town on the Northern Frontier of Silesia--the Night tempestuous_. WERNER _and_ JOSEPHINE, _his Wife_.
The Prisoner of Chillon
My hair is grey, but not with years, Nor grew it white In a single night, As men's have grown from sudden fears: My limbs are bowed, though not with toil, But rusted with a vile repose, For they
Troilus and Criseyde: Book IV
But al to litel, weylaway the whyle, Lasteth swich Ioye, y-thonked be Fortune! That semeth trewest, whan she wol bygyle, And can to foles so hir song entune, That she hem hent and blent, traytour com
280. The Kirk of Scotland’s Alarm: A Ballad
ORTHODOX! orthodox, who believe in John Knox, Let me sound an alarm to your conscience: A heretic blast has been blown in the West, That what is no sense must be nonsense, Orthodox! That what is n
The Task: Book II, The Time-Piece (excerpts)
England, with all thy faults, I love thee still-- My country! and, while yet a nook is left Where English minds and manners may be found, Shall be constrain'd to love thee. Though thy clime Be fickle,
Paradise Regained: The Second Book
Meanwhile the new-baptized, who yet remained At Jordan with the Baptist, and had seen Him whom they heard so late expressly called Jesus Messiah, Son of God, declared, And on that high authority had b
The Deformed Transformed:
PART I. SCENE I.--_A Forest_. _Enter_ ARNOLD _and his mother_ BERTHA. _Bert._ Out, Hunchback! _Arn._ I was born so, Mother! _Bert._
Satire IV.
THE SATIRES OF DR JOHN DONNE, DEAN OF ST PAUL'S, VERSIFIED. Well, if it be my time to quit the stage, Adieu to all the follies of the age! I die in charity with fool and knave, Secure of peace at lea
Original Poetry by Victor and Cazire
Here I sit with my paper, my pen and my ink, First of this thing, and that thing, and t'other thing think; Then my thoughts come so pell-mell all into my mind, That the sense or the subject I never ca
Samson Agonistes
Of that sort of Dramatic Poem which is call'd Tragedy. TRAGEDY, as it was antiently compos'd, hath been ever held the gravest, moralest, and most profitable of all other Poems: therefore said by Ari
The Landlord's Tale; Paul Revere's Ride
Listen my children and you shall hear Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere, On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five; Hardly a man is now alive Who remembers that famous day and year. He said to hi
The Strayed Reveller
1 Faster, faster, 2 O Circe, Goddess, 3 Let the wild, thronging train 4 The bright procession 5 Of eddying forms, 6 Sweep through my soul! 7 Thou standest, smiling 8 Down on me! thy right arm, 9 Lean
Indications, The.
THE indications, and tally of time; Perfect sanity shows the master among philosophs; Time, always without flaw, indicates itself in parts; What always indicates the poet, is the crowd of the pleasant
Hiawatha's Wooing
"As unto the bow the cord is, So unto the man is woman; Though she bends him, she obeys him, Though she draws him, yet she follows; Useless each without the other!" Thus the youthful Hiawatha Said wit
The Heretic's Tragedy: A Middle-Age Interlude
The Lord, we look to once for all, Is the Lord we should look at, all at once: He knows not to vary, saith Saint Paul, Nor the shadow of turning, for the nonce. See him no other than a
Cain: A Mystery
ACT I. SCENE I.--_The Land without Paradise.--Time, Sunrise_. ADAM, EVE, CAIN, ABEL, ADAH, ZILLAH, _offering a Sacrifice_. _Adam_. God, the Eternal! Infinite! All-wise!-- Who out of darkness on