A Dictionary of Poetical Quotations: Consisting of Elegant Extracts on Evry ...

242

EXCELLENCE - MERIT-WORTH.

1. The sweet eye-glances, that like arrows glide,
The charming smiles, that rob sense from the heart,
The lovely pleasaunce, and the lofty pride,
Cannot expressèd be by any art.

SPENSER'S Sonnets.

2. Oh, how much more doth beauty beauteous seem, By that sweet ornament which truth doth give! The rose looks fair, but fairer we it deem,

For that sweet odour which doth in it live.

3. Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale Her infinite variety.

4. A combination and a form indeed,

Where every god did seem to set his seal,
To give the world assurance of a man.

5. More pity that the eagle should be mew'd, While kites and buzzards prey at liberty.

SHAKSPEARE.

9. Form'd by the converse happily to steer
From grave to gay, from lively to severe;
Correct with spirit, eloquent with ease,
Intent to reason, or polite to please.

SHAKSPEARE.

6. Love, sweetness, goodness, in her person shin'd.

7. Good nature and good sense must ever join; To err is human, to forgive divine.

8. Beauties in vain their pretty eyes may roll; Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul.

MILTON.

POPE.

10. Worth makes the man, and want of it, the fellow.

11. Let envy snarl, let slander rail; In vain malicious fongues assail:

12.

From virtue's shield (secure from wound,)
Their blunted, venom'd shafts rebound.

A matchless pair;

With equal virtue form'd, and equal grace,
The same, distinguish'd by their sex alone;
Hers the mild lustre of the blooming morn,
And his the radiance of the risen day.

16.

13. Ease in your mien, and sweetness in your face,
You speak a syren, and you move a grace;
Nor time shall urge these beauties to decay,
While virtue gives what
shall steal away.
years

14. Full many a gem, of purest ray serene,
The dark, unfathom'd caves of ocean bear;
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.

GAY'S Fables.

15. His pencil was striking, resistless, and grand; His manners were gentle, complying, and bland ; Still born to improve us in every part,

His pencil our faces-his manners our heart.

POPE.

Describe him who can,

An abridgement of all that was pleasant in man.

17. For she was good as she was fair,
None, none on earth above her-
As pure in thought as angels are,
To see her, was to love her.

THOMSON.

GRAY'S Elegy.

TICKELL.

GOLDSMITH's Retaliation.

GOLDSMITH'S Retaliation.

244

18. Angels attend thee! May their wings
Fan every shadow from thy brow-
For only bright and lovely things
Should wait on one so good as thou.

EXCELLENCE - MERIT-WORTH.

19. But there are deeds which should not pass away, And names that must not wither.

20. Of many charms, to her as natural

23.

24

BYRON'S Childe Harold.

As sweetness to the flower, or salt to ocean.

21. Oh! she was perfect, past all parallel!

22. Tho' modest, on his unembarrass'd brow Nature had written-Gentleman.

BYRON'S Don Juan.

A truer, nobler, trustier heart,
More loving or more loyal, never beat
Within a human breast.

BYRON'S Two Foscari.

25. I think of thee, sweet lady, as of one

And, behind the foil
Of an unblemish'd loveliness, to find
Charms of a higher order, and a power
Deeper and more resistless.

J. G. PERCIVAL.

Too pure to mix with others, like some star
Shining in pensive beauty all alone,

Kindred with those around, yet brighter far.

MRS. A. B. WELBY.

26. The noble mind, unconscious of a fault,
No fortune's frowns can bend, or smiles exalt,
Like the firm rock, that in mid-ocean braves
The war of whirlwinds, and the dash of waves.

27. All beaming with light as those young features are,
There's a light round thy heart that is lovelier far;
It is not thy cheek—'t is the soul dawning clear-
Though its innocent blush makes thy beauty so dear-
As the sky we look up to, though glorious and fair,
Is look'd up to more, because heaven is there!

28. One in whose love, I felt, were given
The mix'd delights of either sphere;
All that the spirit seeks in heaven,
And all the senses burn for here!

29. The fame that a man wins himself, is best;
That he may call his own. Honours put on him
Make him no more a man than his clothes do,
Which are as soon ta'en off.

3.

MOORE's Loves of the Angels.

EXCESS. (See DRINKING.)

EXECUTION.

1. "Tis now past midnight, and, by eight to-morrow, Thou must be made immortal.

2.

If I must die,

I will encounter darkness as a bride,
And hug it in mine arms.

MOORE.

MIDDLETON.

SHAKSPEARE.

See they suffer death;
But in their deaths remember they are men ;
Strain not the laws to make their tortures grievous.

21*

ADDISON'S Cato.

246

4.

EXERCISE.

Slave! do thine office!

Strike as I struck the foe! strike as I would
Have struck those tyrants! strike deep as my curse!
Strike-and but once!

BYRON'S Marino Faliero.

5. These the last accents Hugo spoke,
"Strike:❞—and flashing fell the stroke-
Roll'd the head, and, gushing, sunk
Back the stain'd and heaving trunk
In the dust, which each-deep vein
Slak'd with its ensanguin'd rain;
His eyes and lips a moment quiver,
Convuls'd and quick-then fix for ever!

3.

EXERCISE.

BYRON'S Parisina.

1. Nobody's healthful without exercise;
Just wars are exercises of a state;
Virtue's in motion, and contends to rise,
With generous ascents above a mate.

2. He does allot for every exercise

A several hour; for sloth, the nurse of vices,
And rust of action, is a stranger to him.

Weariness

Can snore upon the flint, when resty sloth
Finds the down-pillow hard.

ALEYN.

MASSINGER.

SHAKSPEARE.

4. Though sluggards deem it but a foolish chase,
And marvel men should quit their easy chair,
The toilsome way, and long, long league to trace,
Oh, there is sweetness in the mountain air,
And life that bloated ease can never hope to share.

BYRON'S Childe Harold.

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