Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets: With Critical Observations on Their Works, Volume 2J. B. Lippincott & Company, 1866 - English poetry |
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Page 28
... means to be excepted out of the number of those who have brought Pindar into discredit by pretending to resemble him . - GILBERT WEST : Preface to Pindar . That Pindar's odes were regular , English writers might have ascertained from ...
... means to be excepted out of the number of those who have brought Pindar into discredit by pretending to resemble him . - GILBERT WEST : Preface to Pindar . That Pindar's odes were regular , English writers might have ascertained from ...
Page 39
... means his observations are solid and natural as well as delicate , so his design is always to bring to light something use- ful and ornamental ; whence his character is the reverse to theirs , who have eminent abilities in insignificant ...
... means his observations are solid and natural as well as delicate , so his design is always to bring to light something use- ful and ornamental ; whence his character is the reverse to theirs , who have eminent abilities in insignificant ...
Page 40
... means the imagination can with great facility range the wide field of nature , contemplate an infinite variety of objects , and , by observing the similitude and disagreement of their several qualities , single out and abstract , and ...
... means the imagination can with great facility range the wide field of nature , contemplate an infinite variety of objects , and , by observing the similitude and disagreement of their several qualities , single out and abstract , and ...
Page 45
... mean that we are entertained every day with more valuable sentiments at the table - conversation of ingenious and learned men . " I am unwilling , however , to leave him in total disgrace , and will therefore quote from another preface ...
... mean that we are entertained every day with more valuable sentiments at the table - conversation of ingenious and learned men . " I am unwilling , however , to leave him in total disgrace , and will therefore quote from another preface ...
Page 54
... mean arts and dishonourable shifts . Whoever mentioned Fenton , men- tioned him with honour . The life that passes in penury must necessarily pass in obscurity . It is impossible to trace Fenton from year to year , or to discover what means ...
... mean arts and dishonourable shifts . Whoever mentioned Fenton , men- tioned him with honour . The life that passes in penury must necessarily pass in obscurity . It is impossible to trace Fenton from year to year , or to discover what means ...
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Common terms and phrases
acted Addison afterwards allowed appeared beauty believe born called character common considered continued conversation copy Court criticism death desire died Dryden Earl edition effect Essay excellence expected expression father favour gave give given hand honour hope imagination Johnson kind King known Lady learning least less letter lines lived London Lord manner March mean mentioned mind mother nature never night observed occasion once opinion original particular passed performance perhaps person play pleased pleasure poem poet poetry Pope Pope's pounds praise present printed published Queen reader reason received remarks Richard Blackmore Savage says seems sent sometimes soon success supposed Swift tell thought tion told translation verses virtue volume whole wish write written wrote Young
Popular passages
Page 322 - If the flights of Dryden therefore are higher, Pope continues longer on the wing. If of Dryden's fire the blaze is brighter, of Pope's the heat is more regular and constant. Dryden often surpasses expectation, and Pope never falls below it. Dryden is read with frequent astonishment, and Pope with perpetual delight.
Page 322 - The style of Dryden is capricious and varied, that of Pope is cautious and uniform ; Dryden obeys the motions of his own mind, Pope constrains his mind to his own rules of composition. Dryden is sometimes vehement and rapid ; Pope is always smooth, uniform, and gentle. Dryden's page is a natural field, rising into inequalities, and diversified by the varied exuberance of abundant vegetation ; Pope's is a velvet lawn, shaven by the scythe, and levelled by the roller. Of genius, that power which constitutes...
Page 329 - Soft is the strain when Zephyr gently blows, And the smooth stream in smoother numbers flows ; But when loud surges lash the sounding shore, The hoarse, rough verse should like the torrent roar : When Ajax strives some rock's vast- weight to throw, The line too labours, and the words move slow ; Not so, when swift Camilla scours the plain, Flies o'er th' unbending corn, and skims along the main.
Page 250 - As when the moon, refulgent lamp of night, O'er Heaven's clear azure spreads her sacred light, When not a breath disturbs the deep serene, And not a cloud o'ercasts the solemn scene ; Around her throne the vivid planets roll, And stars unnumber'd gild the glowing pole, O'er the dark trees a yellower verdure shed, And tip with silver every mountain's head...
Page 614 - Church-yard' abounds with images which find a mirror in every mind, and with sentiments to which every bosom returns an echo.
Page 342 - After all this it is surely superfluous to answer the question that has once been asked, whether Pope was a poet? otherwise than by asking in return, if Pope be not a poet, where is poetry to be found?
Page 329 - Waller was smooth; but Dryden taught to join The varying verse, the full resounding line, The long majestic march, and energy divine.
Page 440 - The great defect of The Seasons is want of method ; but for this I know not that there was any remedy. Of many appearances subsisting all at once, no rule can be given why one should be mentioned before another; yet the memory wants the help of order, and the curiosity is not excited by suspense or expectation. His diction is in the highest degree florid and luxuriant, such as may be said to be to his images and thoughts 'both their lustre and their shade'; such as invests them with splendour, through...
Page 487 - I have formerly said of his writings may be added, that his diction was often harsh, unskilfully laboured, and injudiciously selected. He affected the obsolete when it was not worthy of revival ; and he puts his words out of the common order, seeming to think, with some later candidates for fame, that not to write prose is certainly to write poetry.
Page 351 - ... this as the most valuable of all Pope's epitaphs : the subject of it is a character not discriminated by any shining or eminent peculiarities; yet that which really makes, though not the splendour, the felicity of life, and that which every wise man will choose for his final and lasting companion in the languor of age, in the quiet of privacy, when he departs weary and disgusted from the ostentatious, the volatile, and the vain. Of such a character, which the dull overlook, and the gay despise,...