The Poetry of John DrydenHarcourt, Brace and Howe, 1920 - 361 pages |
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Absalom and Achitophel Æneid 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 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 Religio Laici Restoration rhyme satire seems sense Shadwell Shakespeare song soul sound Spenser style sweet thee things thou thought tion translation triplet Troilus and Cressida versification Virgil Waller words 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 259 - Bacchus' blessings are a treasure, Drinking is the soldier's pleasure : Rich the treasure, Sweet the pleasure, Sweet is pleasure after pain. Soothed with the sound the king grew vain; Fought all his battles o'er again, And thrice he routed all his foes, and thrice he slew the slain!
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 207 - But Shadwell never deviates into sense. Some beams of wit on other souls may fall, Strike through and make a lucid interval ; But Shadwell's genuine night admits no ray, His rising fogs prevail upon the day.
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.