The works of the English poets. With prefaces, biographical and critical, by S. Johnson, Volume 52

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Page 67 - His hand protefts us in the fight, And guards us from our woes. Then, be the earth's unwieldy frame From its foundations hurl'd, We may, unmov'd with fear, enjoy The ruins of the world. What though the folid rocks be rent, In tempefts whirl'd away ? What though the hills...
Page 75 - I lay, and ripening to my birth ; Yet, Lord, thy out-ftretch'd arm preferv'd me there ; Before I mov'd to entity, and trod The verge of being. To thy hallow'd name I'll pay due honours : for thy mighty hand Built this corporeal fabrick, when it laid The ground-work of exiltence.
Page 104 - You praife low-living, but you live at large. Perhaps you fcarce believe the rules you teach, Or find it hard to praftife what you preach. Scarce have you paid one idle journey down, But, without bufinefs, you're again in town. If none invite you, fir, abroad to roam, Then — Lord, what pleafure 'tis to read at home^ And fip your two half-pints, with great delight, Of beer at noon, and muddled port at night.
Page 133 - ... Let the grave judges too the glafs forbear, Who never fing and dance but once a year. This truth once known, our poets take the hint, Get drunk or mad, and then get into print : To raife their flames indulge the mellow fit, And lofe their fenfes in the fearch of wit : * Late r.illn.n of London. And And when with claret fir'd they take the pen, Swear they can write, becaufe they drink, like Ben.
Page 214 - I would not blufh, but triumph in the theft. Nor on the Antients for the whole rely, The whole is more than all their works fupply ; Some things your own invention muft explore, Some virgin images untouch'd before. New terms no laws forbid us to induce, To coin a word, and...
Page 136 - Warm blufhes lend a beauty to their face, For virtue's comely tints their cheeks adorn ; Thus o'er the diftant hillocks you may trace The purple beamings of the infant morn : Sweet are our blooming maids — the fweeteft creatures born. IV. None but their...
Page 177 - A cold dull order bravely they forfake ; Fixt and refolv'd the winding way to take, They nobly deviate from the beaten track. The poet marks th...
Page 215 - How many words from rich Mycenae come, Of Greek extraftion, in the drefs of Rome ? That live with ours, our rights and freedom claim, Their nature different, but their looks the fame ; Through Latium's realms, in Latium's garb they go, At once her ftrangers, and her natives too. Long has her poverty been fled, and long With native riches has me grac'd her tongue.
Page 232 - Carthaginians. ./Eneas, going out to discover the country, meets his mother in the shape of a huntress, who conveys him in a cloud to Carthage, where he sees his friends whom he thought lost, and receives a kind entertainment from the queen. Dido- by a device of Venus, begins to have a passion for him, and, after some discourse with him, desires the history of his adventures since the siege of Troy, which is the subject of the two following books.
Page 118 - Coachmen will criticife your ftyle, nay further. Porters will bring it in for wilful murther : The dregs of the canaille will look afkew To hear the language of the town from you ; Nay, my...

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