English Poems, Volume 2

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Clarendon Press, 1873

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Page 60 - So saying, her rash hand in evil hour Forth reaching to the Fruit, she pluck'd, she eat: Earth felt the wound, and Nature from her seat Sighing through all her Works gave signs of woe, That all was lost.
Page 140 - O goodness infinite, goodness immense! That all this good of evil shall produce, And evil turn to good; more wonderful Than that which by creation first brought forth Light out of darkness! full of doubt I stand, Whether I should repent me now of sin By me done and occasion'd, or rejoice Much more, that much more good thereof shall spring. To GOD more glory, more good will to men From GOD, and over wrath grace shall abound. But say, if our Deliverer up to heav'n Must reascend, what will betide the...
Page 337 - I am now indebted, as being a work not to be raised from the heat of youth or the vapours of wine, like that which flows at waste from the pen of some vulgar amorist or the trencher fury of a rhyming parasite, nor to be obtained by the invocation of Dame 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...
Page 208 - Eyeless in Gaza, at the mill with slaves, Himself in bonds under Philistian yoke. Yet stay, let me not rashly call in doubt Divine prediction...
Page 209 - To daily fraud, contempt, abuse and wrong, Within doors, or without, still as a fool, In power of others, never in my own ; Scarce half I seem to live, dead more than half.
Page 97 - Forsake me not thus, Adam! witness Heaven What love sincere and reverence in my heart I bear thee, and unweeting have offended, Unhappily deceived ! Thy suppliant I beg, and clasp thy knees; bereave me not Whereon I live, thy gentle looks, thy aid, Thy counsel in this uttermost distress, 920 My only strength and stay. Forlorn of thee, Whither shall I betake me, where subsist ? While yet we live, scarce one short hour perhaps, Between us two let there be peace; both joining, As joined in injuries,...
Page 142 - Henceforth I learn that to obey is best, And love with fear the only God, to walk As in his presence, ever to observe His providence, and on him sole depend...
Page 68 - The fig-tree; not that kind for fruit renown'd, But such as at this day, to Indians known, In Malabar or Decan spreads her arms Branching so broad and long, that in the ground The bended twigs take root, and daughters grow About the mother tree, a pillar'd shade High over-arch'd, and echoing walks between...
Page 35 - Yet when I approach Her loveliness, so absolute she seems And in herself complete, so well to know Her own, that what she wills to do or say, Seems wisest, virtuousest, discreetest, best.
Page 22 - Their distance argues, and their swift return Diurnal,) merely to officiate light Round this opacous earth, this punctual spot, One day and night : in all their vast survey Useless besides ; reasoning, I oft admire, How nature wise and frugal could commit Such disproportions, with superfluous hand So many nobler bodies to create, Greater so manifold, to this one use...

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