Browse Sermon Illustrations
2,202 illustrations available
Fragment: Thoughts Come and Go in Solitude
My thoughts arise and fade in solitude, The verse that would invest them melts away Like moonlight in the heaven of spreading day: How beautiful they were, how firm they stood, Flecking the starry sky
Fragment: Pater Omnipotens
Serene in his unconquerable might Endued[,] the Almighty King, his steadfast throne Encompassed unapproachably with power And darkness and deep solitude an awe Stood like a black cloud on some aery cl
Away With Funeral Music
AWAY with funeral music - set The pipe to powerful lips - The cup of life's for him that drinks And not for him that sips.
383. Song—My Wife’s a winsome wee thing
Chorus.—She is a winsome wee thing, She is a handsome wee thing, She is a lo’esome wee thing, This dear wee wife o’ mine. I NEVER saw a fairer, I never lo’ed a dearer, And neist my heart I’ll wear
Fragment: Apostrophe to Silence
Silence! Oh, well are Death and Sleep and Thou Three brethren named, the guardians gloomy-winged Of one abyss, where life, and truth, and joy Are swallowed up--yet spare me, Spirit, pity me, Until the
Substitute for an Epitaph
KIND Reader! take your choice to cry or laugh; Here HAROLD lies--but where's his Epitaph? If such you seek, try Westminster, and view Ten thousand just as fit for him as you.
Good and Bad Children (excerpt)
Children, you are very little, And your bones are very brittle; If you would grow great and stately, You must try to walk sedately. You must still be bright and quiet, And content with simple diet; A
No Romance sold unto
No Romance sold unto Could so enthrall a Man As the perusal of His Individual One -- 'Tis Fiction's -- When 'tis small enough To Credit -- 'Tisn't true!
Lines to a Lady Weeping
Weep, daughter of a royal line, A Sire's disgrace, a realm's decay; Ah! happy if each tear of thine Could wash a Father's fault away! Weep--for thy tears are Virtue's tears-- Auspicious to these
Fragment: 'Such Hope, As Is the Sick Despair of Good'
Such hope, as is the sick despair of good, Such fear, as is the certainty of ill, Such doubt, as is pale Expectation's food Turned while she tastes to poison, when the will Is powerless, and the spiri
The Flower must not blame the Bee
The Flower must not blame the Bee -- That seeketh his felicity Too often at her door -- But teach the Footman from Vevay -- Mistress is "not at home" -- to say -- To people -- any more!
Fragment: 'Alas! This Is Not What I Thought Life Was'
Alas! this is not what I thought life was. I knew that there were crimes and evil men, Misery and hate; nor did I hope to pass Untouched by suffering, through the rugged glen. In mine own heart I saw
Declaiming Waters none may dread --
Declaiming Waters none may dread -- But Waters that are still Are so for that most fatal cause In Nature -- they are full --
On the Eyes of Miss a----H---
Anne's Eye is liken'd to the _Sun_, From it such Beams of Beauty fall; And _this_ can be denied by none, For like the _Sun_, it shines on _All_. Then do not admiration smother, Or say these gla
To----
But once I dared to lift my eyes-- To lift my eyes to thee; And since that day, beneath the skies, No other sight they see. In vain sleep shuts them in the night-- The night grows day to me; Pr
226. Song—I hae a Wife o’ my Ain
I HAE a wife of my ain, I’ll partake wi’ naebody; I’ll take Cuckold frae nane, I’ll gie Cuckold to naebody. I hae a penny to spend, There—thanks to naebody! I hae naething to lend, I’ll borr
244. The Henpecked Husband
Chorus.—Robin shure in hairst, I shure wi’ him. Fient a heuk had I, Yet I stack by him. I GAED up to Dunse, To warp a wab o’ plaiden, At his daddie’s yett, Wha met me but Robin: Robin sh
On Moore's Last Operatic Farce, or Farcical Opera
GOOD plays are scarce, So Moore writes _farce_: The poet's fame grows brittle-- We knew before That _Little_'s Moore, But now't is Moore that's _little_. R.C. DALLAS. Y
Nature rarer uses Yellow
Nature rarer uses Yellow Than another Hue. Saves she all of that for Sunsets Prodigal of Blue Spending Scarlet, like a Woman Yellow she affords Only scantly and selectly Like a Lover's Words.
Lines Written Beneath a Picture
Dear object of defeated care! Though now of Love and thee bereft, To reconcile me with despair Thine image and my tears are left. 'Tis said with Sorrow Time can cope; But this I feel can ne'er
Lines Written on a Blank Leaf of _the Pleasures of Memory_
Absent or present, still to thee, My friend, what magic spells belong! As all can tell, who share, like me, In turn thy converse, and thy song. But when the dreaded hour shall come By Friendshi
My Garden -- like the Beach
My Garden -- like the Beach -- Denotes there be -- a Sea -- That's Summer -- Such as These -- the Pearls She fetches -- such as Me
Fragment: The Lady of the South
Faint with love, the Lady of the South Lay in the paradise of Lebanon Under a heaven of cedar boughs: the drouth Of love was on her lips; the light was gone Out of her eyes--
279. Epigram on Francis Grose the Antiquary
THE DEVIL got notice that Grose was a-dying So whip! at the summons, old Satan came flying; But when he approached where poor Francis lay moaning, And saw each bed-post with its burthen a-groaning, As