Biographia Literaria: Or, Biographical Sketches of My Literary Life and Opinions |
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Page 11
... former , in the truth and nativeness , both of their thoughts and diction . the same time that we were studying the Greek tragic poets , he made us read Shakspeare and Milton as lessons : and they were lessons , too , which required ...
... former , in the truth and nativeness , both of their thoughts and diction . the same time that we were studying the Greek tragic poets , he made us read Shakspeare and Milton as lessons : and they were lessons , too , which required ...
Page 19
... former passion for metaphysical investigations , I labored at a solid foundation on which , permanent- ly , to ground my opinions in the component faculties of the human mind itself , and their comparative dignity and importance . Ac ...
... former passion for metaphysical investigations , I labored at a solid foundation on which , permanent- ly , to ground my opinions in the component faculties of the human mind itself , and their comparative dignity and importance . Ac ...
Page 20
... former , from DONNE to COWLEY , we find the most fantastic out - of - the - way thoughts , but in the most pure and genuine mother English ; in the latter , the most obvious thoughts in language the most fantastic and arbitrary . Our ...
... former , from DONNE to COWLEY , we find the most fantastic out - of - the - way thoughts , but in the most pure and genuine mother English ; in the latter , the most obvious thoughts in language the most fantastic and arbitrary . Our ...
Page 21
... former leaven , and among the many who have done me the honor of putting my poems in the same class with those of my betters , the one or two who have pretended to bring examples of affected simplicity from my volume , have been able to ...
... former leaven , and among the many who have done me the honor of putting my poems in the same class with those of my betters , the one or two who have pretended to bring examples of affected simplicity from my volume , have been able to ...
Page 25
... former rest content between thought and reality , as it were in an intermundium , of which their own liv- ing spirit supplies the substance , and their imagination the ever varying form ; the latter must impress their preconceptions on ...
... former rest content between thought and reality , as it were in an intermundium , of which their own liv- ing spirit supplies the substance , and their imagination the ever varying form ; the latter must impress their preconceptions on ...
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Common terms and phrases
admiration appear Aristotle beauty blank verse cause character common compositions criticism DANE deemed defects diction distinct effect Elbe English equally excellence excitement existence express faculty fancy feelings former French genius German German language Greek ground Hamburg heart honour human idea images imagination imitation instance intellectual intelligible interest jacobinism judgment Klopstock knowledge language latter least less lines literary Lyrical Ballads mallem meaning metaphysics metre Milton mind mode moral natural philosophy nature never notions object once opinions original passage passion perhaps person philosophical Plato pleasure Plotinus poem poet poetic poetry possible present principles prose Ratzeburg reader reason rhyme scarcely sensation sense Shakspeare sonnet sophism soul Spinoza spirit stanzas style supposed Synesius taste thing thou thought tion true truth Venus and Adonis verse whole words Wordsworth writer
Popular passages
Page 172 - The primary IMAGINATION I hold to be the living Power and prime Agent of all human Perception, and as a repetition in the finite mind of the eternal act of creation in the infinite I AM.
Page 179 - The poet, described in ideal perfection, brings th^. whole soul of man into activity, with the subordination of its faculties to each other, according to their relative worth and dignity. He diffuses a tone and spirit of unity, that blends, and, (as it were,) fuses, each into each, by that synthetic and magical power, to which we have exclusively appropriated the name of imagination.
Page 27 - Was it the proud full sail of his great verse, Bound for the prize of all too precious you, That did my ripe thoughts in my brain inhearse, Making their tomb the womb wherein they grew? Was it his spirit, by spirits taught to write Above a mortal pitch, that struck me dead?
Page 173 - Fancy, on the contrary, has no other counters to play with but fixities and definites. The fancy is indeed no other than a mode of memory emancipated from the order of time and space, while it is blended with, and modified by, that empirical phenomenon of the will which we express by the word choice. But equally with the ordinary memory the fancy must receive all its materials ready made from the law of association.
Page 276 - But for those first affections, Those shadowy recollections, Which, be they what they may, Are yet the fountain light of all our day, Are yet a master light of all our seeing; Uphold us, cherish, and have power to make Our noisy years seem moments in the being Of the eternal silence: truths that wake, To perish never...
Page 184 - Anon permit the basest clouds to ride With ugly rack on his celestial face, And from the forlorn world his visage hide, Stealing unseen to west with this disgrace...
Page 12 - ... bring up, so as to escape his censure. I learned from him that poetry, even that of the loftiest and, seemingly, that of the wildest odes, had a logic of its own, as severe as that of science ; and more difficult, because more subtle, more complex, and dependent on more, and more fugitive, causes. In the truly great poets, he would say, there is a reason assignable, not only for every word, but for the position of every word...
Page 275 - Heaven lies about us in our infancy ! Shades of the prison-house begin to close Upon the growing boy ; But he beholds the light, and whence it flows ; He sees it in his joy ! The youth who daily further from the east Must travel, still is nature's priest, And by the vision splendid Is on his way attended ; At length the man perceives it die away, And fade into the light of common day.
Page 269 - The blackbird amid leafy trees, The lark above the hill, Let loose their carols when they please, Are quiet when they will. With Nature never do they wage A foolish strife ; they see A happy youth, and their old age Is beautiful and free : But we are pressed by heavy laws ; And often, glad no more, We wear a face of joy, because We have been glad of yore.
Page 246 - He looked — Ocean and earth, the solid frame of earth And ocean's liquid mass, beneath him lay In gladness and deep joy. The clouds were touched, And in their silent faces did he read Unutterable love.