Lectures on poetry and general literature |
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Page 27
... respect dishonourable to the art ) has been a snare by which multitudes of its professors have been tempted to dishonour both it and themselves , by courtly servility to royal and noble patrons ; - by yet viler degradation in minis ...
... respect dishonourable to the art ) has been a snare by which multitudes of its professors have been tempted to dishonour both it and themselves , by courtly servility to royal and noble patrons ; - by yet viler degradation in minis ...
Page 30
... respecting Mr. West and Sir Walter Scott are adopted from common report ; but , however incorrect they may be , the impression made on the public mind , on the presumption of their truth , is sufficient for the author's argument here ...
... respecting Mr. West and Sir Walter Scott are adopted from common report ; but , however incorrect they may be , the impression made on the public mind , on the presumption of their truth , is sufficient for the author's argument here ...
Page 33
... respects , as the transmitter of knowledge concerning the past , is compelled to vail to poetry . Not that the records of actual events can be so properly conveyed in verse ( though bards in all nations were the first chroniclers ) as ...
... respects , as the transmitter of knowledge concerning the past , is compelled to vail to poetry . Not that the records of actual events can be so properly conveyed in verse ( though bards in all nations were the first chroniclers ) as ...
Page 37
... respects , splendid piles of error , on which eloquence , argument , all the power , penetration , and subtilty of minds of the highest order were expended in comparatively vain speculations ; resembling their temples , -prodigies of ...
... respects , splendid piles of error , on which eloquence , argument , all the power , penetration , and subtilty of minds of the highest order were expended in comparatively vain speculations ; resembling their temples , -prodigies of ...
Page 43
... respecting the sublime , sanctions this mode of proof : - " He that hath a competent share of natural and acquired taste may easily distinguish the value of any performance from a bare recital of it . If he finds that it transports not ...
... respecting the sublime , sanctions this mode of proof : - " He that hath a competent share of natural and acquired taste may easily distinguish the value of any performance from a bare recital of it . If he finds that it transports not ...
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Common terms and phrases
admiration Æneid ancient beauty blank verse breath cadence character circumstances composed composition CORDELIA death delight diction Dryden earth effect eloquence employed English equal excellence exquisite Faerie Queene fancy feel genius glory grace Greece hand harmony heart heaven Henry Kirke White hieroglyphics highest Homer honour human ideas Iliad images imagination ingulphed invention kind King Lear labours Lamech language latter LEAR learning less lines literature living Lord melody ments metre Milton mind moral nature never night original painting Paradise Lost passage passions pathos peculiar perfect Pisistratus poem poet poetical poetry present prosaic prose reader rhyme rhythm Robert Burns Roman scarcely scene sense sentiments Shakspeare song soul sound spirit splendour spondees stanzas strains style sublime syllables taste thee themes things thou thought tion tongue trochees truth verse wheel of fire whole words writing
Popular passages
Page 220 - one hundred and thirty years; few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers, in the days of their pilgrimage!' " And Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and went out from before Pharaoh.
Page 145 - TO THE MEMORY OF THOSE WHO FELL IN THE REBELLION OF 174>5. " How sleep the brave, who sink to rest With all their country's wishes blest! When Spring, with dewy fingers cold, Returns to deck their hallow'd mould, She there shall dress a sweeter sod Than Fancy's feet have ever trod.
Page 47 - There is yet a higher strain. In the paragraph just quoted from Dr. Johnson, we are taught, that " whatever withdraws us from the power of our senses, and makes the past, the distant, or the future, predominate over the present, advances us in the dignity of thinking beings.
Page 145 - When Spring, with dewy fingers cold, Returns to deck their hallow'd mould, She there shall dress a sweeter sod Than Fancy's feet have ever trod. " By Fairy-hands their knell is rung; By Forms unseen their dirge is sung ; There Honour comes, a pilgrim gray, To bless the turf that wraps their clay ; And Freedom shall a while repair
Page 244 - his foal unto the vine, and his ass's colt unto the choice vine, he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes: his eye shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk." Here is an hieroglyphic table in three compartments : in the
Page 48 - of invisible depths a hundred, nay, a thousand times their number more, imagination itself sinks under the effort to "find out the Almighty to perfection ;" and still the devout worshipper exclaims, — " Lo ! these are parts of his ways, but how little a portion is heard of them ! for the thunder of his power, who can understand
Page 45 - from my friends, be such frigid philosophy, as may conduct us, indifferent and unmoved, over any ground which has been dignified by wisdom, bravery, or virtue ! That man is little to be envied, whose patriotism would not gain force on
Page 102 - O pale, pale now, those rosy lips, I aft hae kiss'd sae fondly; And closed for aye the sparkling glance, That dwelt on me sae kindly. And mouldering now, in silent dust, That heart that lo'ed me dearly; But still within my bosom's core, Shall live my Highland Mary I
Page 145 - The wretch, condemn'd with life to part, Still, still on hope relies, And every pang that rends his heart Bids expectation rise. " Hope, like the glimmering taper's light, Adorns and cheers his way, And still, as darker grows the night, Emits a brighter ray." GOLDSMITH. Is this poetry ? Every one feels that it is. Is
Page 18 - In brief sententious precepts, while they treat Of fate, and chance, and change in human life, High actions, and high passions best describing: Thence to the famous orators repair, Those ancient, whose resistless eloquence Wielded at will that fierce democratic, Shook the arsenal, and fulmined over Greece To Macedon and Artaxerxes' throne.