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 35
... considered as of unrivalled excellence . Clatendon represents him as having taking a flight beyond all that went before him ; and Milton is said to have declared , that the three greatest English poets were Spenser , Shakspeare , and ...
... considered as of unrivalled excellence . Clatendon represents him as having taking a flight beyond all that went before him ; and Milton is said to have declared , that the three greatest English poets were Spenser , Shakspeare , and ...
Page 37
... considered , that words being arbitrary must owe their power to association , and have the influence , and that only , which custom has given them . Language is the dress of thought : and as the noblest mien , or most graceful action ...
... considered , that words being arbitrary must owe their power to association , and have the influence , and that only , which custom has given them . Language is the dress of thought : and as the noblest mien , or most graceful action ...
Page 39
... considered the verse of twelve syllables as elevated and majestick , and has therefore deviated into that measure when he supposes the voice heard of the Supreme Being . The Author of the Davideis is commended by Dryden for having ...
... considered the verse of twelve syllables as elevated and majestick , and has therefore deviated into that measure when he supposes the voice heard of the Supreme Being . The Author of the Davideis is commended by Dryden for having ...
Page 41
Great Britain. In 1631 he was sent to Oxford , where he was considered " as a dreaming young man , given more to dice and cards than study ; " and therefore gave no prognosticks of his future eminence ; nor was suspected to conceal ...
Great Britain. In 1631 he was sent to Oxford , where he was considered " as a dreaming young man , given more to dice and cards than study ; " and therefore gave no prognosticks of his future eminence ; nor was suspected to conceal ...
Page 42
... considered as one of the fathers of English poetry . " Denham and Waller , " says Prior , " improved our versification , and Dryden " perfected it . " He has given specimens of various composition , descriptive , ludicrous , didactick ...
... considered as one of the fathers of English poetry . " Denham and Waller , " says Prior , " improved our versification , and Dryden " perfected it . " He has given specimens of various composition , descriptive , ludicrous , didactick ...
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.