The works of the poets of Great Britain and Ireland. With prefaces, biographical and critical, by S. Johnson, Volume 11804 |
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Page 69
... believe his faculties to be vigorous only half the year . His submission to the seasons was at least more reasonable than his dread of decaying nature , or a frigid zone ; for general causes must operate uniformly in a general abatement ...
... believe his faculties to be vigorous only half the year . His submission to the seasons was at least more reasonable than his dread of decaying nature , or a frigid zone ; for general causes must operate uniformly in a general abatement ...
Page 73
... believe , and which is universally rejected , it is difficult to con- jecture . The style is harsh ; but it has something of rough vigour , which perhaps may often strike , though it cannot please . On this history the licenser again ...
... believe , and which is universally rejected , it is difficult to con- jecture . The style is harsh ; but it has something of rough vigour , which perhaps may often strike , though it cannot please . On this history the licenser again ...
Page 75
... believe , not the rapier , but the back - sword , of which he recommends the use in his book on Education . His eyes are said never to have been bright ; but , if he was a dexterous fencer , they must have been once quick . His ...
... believe , not the rapier , but the back - sword , of which he recommends the use in his book on Education . His eyes are said never to have been bright ; but , if he was a dexterous fencer , they must have been once quick . His ...
Page 76
... believe that he was ever reduced to indigence . His wants , being few , were competently supplied . He sold his library before his death , and left his family fifteen hundred pounds , on which his widow laid hold , and only gave one ...
... believe that he was ever reduced to indigence . His wants , being few , were competently supplied . He sold his library before his death , and left his family fifteen hundred pounds , on which his widow laid hold , and only gave one ...
Page 80
... believe the writer not to have been conscious . Such is the power of reputation justly acquired , that its blaze drives away the eye from nice examination . Surely no man could have fancied that he read Lycidas with pleasure , had he ...
... believe the writer not to have been conscious . Such is the power of reputation justly acquired , that its blaze drives away the eye from nice examination . Surely no man could have fancied that he read Lycidas with pleasure , had he ...
Other editions - View all
The Works of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland. with Prefaces ... Great Britain No preview available - 2016 |
The Works of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland. with Prefaces ... Great Britain,Samuel Johnson No preview available - 2015 |
The Works of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland. with Prefaces ... Great Britain No preview available - 2015 |
Common terms and phrases
acquaintance Addison afterwards appears beauties blank verse called censure character Charles Dryden composition considered Cowley criticism death delight diction Dryden duke Dunciad Earl elegance endeavoured English English poetry excellence faults favour friends genius honour Hudibras Iliad images imagination imitation John Dryden 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 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 562 - 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 44 - O could I flow like thee, and make thy stream My great example, as it is my theme! Though deep, yet clear, though gentle, yet not dull, Strong without rage, without o'er-flowing full.
Page 55 - Memory and her siren daughters, but by devout prayer to that eternal Spirit, who can enrich with all utterance and knowledge, and sends out his seraphim, with the hallowed fire of his altar, to touch and purify the lips of whom he pleases.
Page 673 - I rejoice to concur with the common reader ; for by the common sense of readers, uncorrupted with literary prejudices, after all the refinements of subtility and the dogmatism of learning, must be finally decided all claim to poetical honours. The Churchyard abounds with images which find a mirror in every mind, and with sentiments to which every bosom returns an echo. The four stanzas beginning, "Yet even these bones...
Page 204 - They have not the formality of a settled style, in which the first half of the sentence betrays the other. The clauses are never balanced, nor the periods modelled : every word seems to drop by chance, though it falls into its proper place. Nothing is cold or languid : the whole is airy, animated, and vigorous; what is little, is gay ; what is great, is splendid.
Page 12 - Yet great labour, directed by great abilities, is never wholly lost: if they frequently threw away their wit upon false conceits, they likewise sometimes struck out unexpected truth; if their conceits were far-fetched, they were often worth the carriage. To write on their plan, it was at least necessary to read and think.
Page 557 - His declaration that his care for his works ceased at their publication, was not strictly true. His parental attention never abandoned them ; what he found amiss in the first edition, he silently corrected in those that followed. He appears to have revised the 'Iliad...
Page 5 - Let him for succour sue from place to place, Torn from his subjects, and his son's embrace. First let him see his friends in battle slain, And their untimely fate lament in vain: And when at length the cruel war shall cease, On hard conditions may he buy his peace: Nor let him then enjoy supreme command ; But fall, untimely, by some hostile hand, And lie unburied on the barren sand!
Page 636 - Insatiate Archer! could not one suffice? Thy shaft flew thrice ; and thrice my peace was slain ; And thrice, ere thrice yon moon had fill'd her horn.
Page 522 - A grotto is not often the wish or pleasure of an Englishman, who has more frequent need to solicit than exclude the sun; but 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.