The Poetical Works of Alexander Pope: With Memoir, Critical Dissertation, and Explanatory Notes, Volume 1J. Nichol, 1856 |
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Common terms and phrases
ALEXANDER POPE ancient Bavius beauty bless'd blest bliss breast breath charms court cried critics crown'd Curll Cynthus divine Dunciad e'er earth ease Eclogues Elkanah Settle envy EPISTLE eternal eyes fair fame fate fire flames flowers fools genius glory Gnome grace groves happy head heart Heaven honour Horace Iliad kings knave laws learn'd learning live Lord Lord Bolingbroke mankind mind mortal Muse Muse's Nature Nature's ne'er never numbers nymph o'er once passion pastoral peace plain pleased pleasure poem poet Pope Pope's praise pride proud rage rhyme rise sacred Sappho satire sense shade shine sighs sing skies smile soft song soul spleen Sylphs taught tears Thalestris thee Theocritus things thou thought trembling truth Twas Umbriel VARIATIONS verse virtue WESTMINSTER ABBEY whate'er Whig wings write youth
Popular passages
Page 177 - Great in the earth as in the ethereal frame; Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze, Glows in the stars, and blossoms in the trees, Lives through all life, extends through all extent, Spreads undivided, operates unspent : Breathes in our soul, informs our mortal part, As full, as perfect, in a hair as heart; As full, as perfect, in vile man that mourns, As the rapt seraph that adores and burns : To him no high, no low, no great, no small ; He fills, he bounds, connects, and equals all.
Page 37 - And value books, as women men, for dress: Their praise is still, — the style is excellent; The sense, they humbly take upon content. Words are like leaves; and where they most abound, Much fruit of sense beneath is rarely found...
Page 38 - whispers through the trees;' If crystal streams ' with pleasing murmurs creep,' The reader's threaten'd (not in vain) with 'sleep;' Then, at the last and only couplet fraught With some unmeaning thing they call a thought, A needless Alexandrine ends the song, That, like a wounded snake, drags its slow length along.
Page 29 - First follow nature and your judgment frame By her just standard, which is still the same : Unerring Nature, still divinely bright, One clear, unchanged, and universal light, Life, force, and beauty, must to all impart, At once the source, and end, and test of art. Art from that fund each just supply provides, Works without show, and without pomp presides; In some fair body thus th...
Page 210 - God loves from whole to parts: but human soul Must rise from individual to the whole. Self-love but serves the virtuous mind to wake, As the small pebble stirs the peaceful lake; The centre moved, a circle straight succeeds, Another still, and still another spreads; Friend, parent, neighbour, first it will embrace; His country next; and next all human race...
Page 71 - She said ; then raging to Sir Plume repairs, And bids her beau demand the precious hairs : (Sir Plume, of amber snuff-box justly vain, And the nice conduct of a clouded cane,) With earnest eyes, and round, unthinking face, He first the snuff-box open'd, then the case, And thus broke out — -"My lord, why, what the devil!
Page 45 - And speak, though sure, with seeming diffidence: Some positive, persisting fops we know, Who, if once wrong, will needs be always so ; But you, with pleasure, own your errors past, 570 And make each day a critique on the last.
Page 207 - To see all others' faults, and feel our own : Condemn'd in business or in arts to drudge, Without a second, or without a judge : Truths would you teach, or save a sinking land ? All fear, none aid you, and few understand.
Page 197 - For forms of government let fools contest ; Whate'er is best administered is best : For modes of faith let graceless zealots fight ; His can't be wrong whose life is in the right...
Page 212 - tis past a doubt, All Bedlam, or Parnassus, is let out : Fire in each eye, and papers in each hand, They rave, recite, and madden round the land. What walls can guard me, or what shades can hide? They pierce my thickets, thro...