LivesSamuel Johnson A. Miller, 1800 - English poetry |
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Page 2
... learning , but refused the husks , had the appearance of instinctive elegance , of a particular provifion made by Nature for literary politeness . But in the author's own honest relation , the marvel vanishes : he was , he says , such ...
... learning , but refused the husks , had the appearance of instinctive elegance , of a particular provifion made by Nature for literary politeness . But in the author's own honest relation , the marvel vanishes : he was , he says , such ...
Page 10
... learning , and to shew their learning was their whole endeavour ; but , unluckily resolving to shew it in rhyme , in- stead of writing poetry they only wrote verses , and very often'such verses as stood the trial of the finger better ...
... learning , and to shew their learning was their whole endeavour ; but , unluckily resolving to shew it in rhyme , in- stead of writing poetry they only wrote verses , and very often'such verses as stood the trial of the finger better ...
Page 11
... learning instructs , and their subtility surprises ; but the reader commonly thinks his improvement dearly bought , and , though he sometimes admires , is seldom pleased . From this account of their compositions it will be readily ...
... learning instructs , and their subtility surprises ; but the reader commonly thinks his improvement dearly bought , and , though he sometimes admires , is seldom pleased . From this account of their compositions it will be readily ...
Page 12
... learning not very much frequented by common readers of poetry . Thus Cowley on Knowledge : The sacred tree midst the fair orchard grew ; The phoenix Truth did on it rest , And built his perfum'd nest , That That right Porphyrian tree ...
... learning not very much frequented by common readers of poetry . Thus Cowley on Knowledge : The sacred tree midst the fair orchard grew ; The phoenix Truth did on it rest , And built his perfum'd nest , That That right Porphyrian tree ...
Page 13
... learning and religion , And virtue and such ingredients , have made A mithridate , whose operation Keeps off , or cures what can be done or said . Though the following lines of Donne , on the last night of the something in them too ...
... learning and religion , And virtue and such ingredients , have made A mithridate , whose operation Keeps off , or cures what can be done or said . Though the following lines of Donne , on the last night of the something in them too ...
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Common terms and phrases
acquaintance Addison afterwards appears beauties blank verse called censure character Charles Dryden composition considered Cowley criticism death delight diction Dorset Dryden duke Dunciad Earl elegance endeavoured English English poetry excellence faults favour friends genius honour Hudibras Iliad images imagination imitation kind King known labour Lady language Latin learning letter lines lived Lord lord Halifax mentioned Milton mind nature never night Night Thoughts NIHIL numbers observed occasion once opinion Paradise Lost passion performance perhaps Pindar play pleased pleasure poem poet poetical poetry Pope Pope's pounds praise present produced published Queen racter reader reason received remarks reputation rhyme satire Savage says seems sent sentiments shew shewn sometimes soon supposed Swift Syphax Tatler thing thought tion told tragedy translation Tyrannick Love verses Virgil virtue Waller Whigs write written wrote Young
Popular passages
Page 565 - Tis not enough no harshness gives offence, The sound must seem an echo to the sense : 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 559 - Dryden knew more of man in his general nature, and Pope in his local manners. The notions of Dryden were formed by comprehensive speculation, and those of Pope by minute attention. There is more dignity in the knowledge of Dryden, and more certainty in that of Pope.
Page 11 - Nor was the sublime more within their reach than the pathetic; for they never attempted that comprehension and expanse of thought which at once fills the whole mind, and of which the first effect is sudden astonishment, and the second rational admiration. Sublimity is produced by aggregation, and littleness by dispersion. Great thoughts are always general, and consist in positions not limited by exceptions, and in descriptions not descending to minuteness.
Page 82 - I am now to examine Paradise Lost ; a poem, which, considered with respect to design, may claim the first place, and with respect to performance the second, among the productions of the human mind.
Page 218 - From harmony, from heavenly harmony This universal frame began ; When Nature underneath a heap Of jarring atoms lay, And could not heave her head, The tuneful voice was heard from high, Arise, ye more than dead.
Page 559 - ... nor often to mend what he must have known to be faulty. He wrote, as he tells us, with very little consideration ; when occasion or necessity called upon him, he poured out what the present moment happened to supply, and, when once it had passed the press, ejected it from his mind ; for, when he had no pecuniary interest, he had no further solicitude.
Page 205 - There was therefore before the time of Dryden no poetical diction : no system of words at once refined from the grossness of domestic use and free from the harshness of terms appropriated to particular arts.
Page 524 - Pope's excavation was requisite as an entrance to his garden, and, as some men try to be proud of their defects, he extracted an ornament from an inconvenience, and vanity produced a grotto where necessity enforced a passage.
Page 36 - His spear, — to equal which, the tallest pine Hewn on Norwegian hills, to be the mast Of some great ammiral, were but a wand...
Page 560 - ... is cold, and knowledge is inert ; that energy which collects, combines, amplifies, and animates;- the superiority must, with some hesitation, be allowed to Dryden. It is not to be inferred that of this poetical...