The Poetry of John DrydenHarcourt, Brace and Howe, 1920 - 361 pages |
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Absalom and Achitophel Anne Killigrew Annus Mirabilis Augustan Aureng-Zebe beauty began Ben Jonson blank verse cadences called Chaucer couplets Cowley criticism Davenant death dedication den's Dramatic Poesy Dryden elegy Elizabethan Eneis English poetry epistle Essay of Dramatic Fables French genius Greek harmony heroic couplet heroic plays Heroic Stanzas Hind Hobbes Homer Horace John Johnson Juvenal kind King Lady Latin learned lines literary logue Longinus Lucretius lyric Mac Flecknoe metrical Milton mind Miscellany Muse narrative nature never numbers Oldham Ovid Panther passage passion pieces Pindaric Plutarch poem poet poetic Pope Pope's praise preface prologues and epilogues prose ratiocinative readers Restoration rhyme satire seems sense Shadwell Shakespeare song soul sound speaking Spenser style sweet thee things thou thought tion translation triplet Troilus and Cressida versification Virgil Waller words Wordsworth writing wrote Zimri
Popular passages
Page 199 - Of these the false Achitophel was first, A name to all succeeding ages curst : For close designs and crooked counsels fit, Sagacious, bold, and turbulent of wit, Restless, unfixed in principles and place, In power unpleased, impatient of disgrace ; A fiery soul, which working out its way, Fretted the pigmy body to decay And o'cr-informed the tenement of clay.
Page 200 - In the first rank of these did Zimri stand ;* A man so various, that he seemed to be Not one, but all mankind's epitome : Stiff in opinions, always in the wrong, Was everything by starts, and nothing long...
Page 201 - He laughed himself from court; then sought relief By forming parties, but could ne'er be chief; For, spite of him, the weight of business fell On Absalom, and wise Achitophel ; Thus, wicked but in will, of means bereft, He left not faction, but of that was left.
Page 253 - And, wondering, on their faces fell To worship that celestial sound. Less than a god they thought there could not dwell Within the hollow of that shell, That spoke so sweetly, and so well.
Page 207 - Tis resolved; for Nature pleads that he Should only rule, who most resembles me: Shadwell alone my perfect image bears, Mature in dullness from his tender years; Shadwell alone of all my sons is he Who stands confirmed in full stupidity. The rest to some faint meaning make pretense, But Shadwell never deviates into sense.
Page 249 - Happy the man, and happy he alone, He, who can call to-day his own : He who, secure within, can say, To-morrow do thy worst, for I have lived today. Be fair or foul, or rain or shine, The joys I have possessed, in spite of fate, are mine. Not Heaven itself upon the past has power ; But what has been, has been, and I have had my hour.
Page 158 - Farewell, too little and too lately known, Whom I began to think and call my own; For sure our souls were near allied, and thine Cast in the same poetic mould with mine.
Page 312 - The style of Dryden is capricious and varied ; that of Pope is cautious and uniform. Dryden obeys the motions of his own mind ; Pope constrains his mind to his own rules of composition. Dryden is sometimes vehement and rapid; Pope is always smooth, uniform, and gentle. Dryden's page is a natural field, rising into inequalities, and diversified by the varied exuberance of abundant vegetation ; Pope's is a velvet lawn, shaven by the scythe, and levelled by the roller.
Page 48 - tis all a cheat; Yet, fooled with hope, men favour the deceit; Trust on, and think to-morrow will repay: To-morrow's falser than the former day; Lies worse, and, while it says, we shall be blest With some new joys, cuts off what we possest.
Page 332 - For them the Ceylon diver held his breath, And went all naked to the hungry shark ; For them his ears gushed blood ; for them in death The seal on the cold ice with piteous bark Lay full of darts ; for them alone did seethe A thousand men in troubles wide and dark : Half-ignorant, they turned an easy wheel, That set sharp racks at work, to pinch and peel.