Lectures on poetry and general literature |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 100
Page 1
... thought was most precious . But with none , I remember , mine ears were at any time more loaden , than when ( angered with our slow payment , or moved with our learner- like admiration ) he exercised his speech in praise of B his ...
... thought was most precious . But with none , I remember , mine ears were at any time more loaden , than when ( angered with our slow payment , or moved with our learner- like admiration ) he exercised his speech in praise of B his ...
Page 3
... thought : it existed before prose in history , before music in melody , before painting in description , and before sculpture in imagery . Anterior to the discovery of letters , it was employed to communicate the lessons of wisdom , to ...
... thought : it existed before prose in history , before music in melody , before painting in description , and before sculpture in imagery . Anterior to the discovery of letters , it was employed to communicate the lessons of wisdom , to ...
Page 4
... thought which gives birth to poetry is an active principle ; in all others it is only a passive sentiment . That alone is true poetry , which makes the reader himself a poet for the time while he is under its excitement ; which , indeed ...
... thought which gives birth to poetry is an active principle ; in all others it is only a passive sentiment . That alone is true poetry , which makes the reader himself a poet for the time while he is under its excitement ; which , indeed ...
Page 6
... thought , and imagery , as well as in the vivacity and permanency of its impressions on the mind ; for its language and sentiments are so intimately connected , that they are remembered to- gether ; they are soul and body , which cannot ...
... thought , and imagery , as well as in the vivacity and permanency of its impressions on the mind ; for its language and sentiments are so intimately connected , that they are remembered to- gether ; they are soul and body , which cannot ...
Page 10
... thought and feeling , producing its greatest effects at the last . Painting begins precisely where poetry breaks off , with the climax of the - subject , ―and lets down the mind from the catastrophe 10 NO . I. THE PRE - EMINENCE OF POETRY .
... thought and feeling , producing its greatest effects at the last . Painting begins precisely where poetry breaks off , with the climax of the - subject , ―and lets down the mind from the catastrophe 10 NO . I. THE PRE - EMINENCE OF POETRY .
Other editions - View all
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.