Byron Quotes. C.N. Douglas, comp. 1917. Forty Thousand Quotations: Prose and Poetical

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CONTENTS · BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

C.N. Douglas, comp. Forty Thousand Quotations: Prose and Poetical. 1917.

Byron

	A crowd of shivering slaves of every nation,
	And age, and sex, were in the market rang’d;
	Each bevy with the merchant in his station:
	Poor creatures! their good looks were sadly chang’d;
	All save the blacks seem’d jaded with vexation,
	From friends, and home, and freedom far estrang’d.
	The negroes more philosophy display’d,—
	Used to it, no doubt, as eels are to be flay’d.

	A light broke in upon my soul—
	It was the carol of a bird;
	It ceased—and then it came again
	The sweetest song ear ever heard.

	A little stream came tumbling from the height,
	And struggling into ocean as it might.
	Its bounding crystal frolick’d in the ray,
	And gush’d from cliff to crag with saltless spray.

	A lovely being, scarcely formed or moulded,
	A rose with all its sweetest leaves yet folded.

	A man must serve his time to ev’ry trade,
	Save censure; critics all are ready made:
	Take hackney’d jokes from Miller, got by rote,
	With just enough of learning to misquote;
	A mind well skill’d to find or forge a fault,
	A turn for punning—call it Attic salt—
	Fear not to lie—’twill seem a lucky hit;
	Shrink not from blasphemy—’twill pass for wit;
	Care not for feeling, pass your proper jest—
	And stand a critic, hated, yet caress’d.

	A mere soldier, a mere tool, a kind
	Of human sword in a friend’s hand.

	A mighty mass of brick, and smoke, and shipping,
	Dirty and dusty, but as wide as eye
	Could reach, with here and there a sail just skipping
	In sight, then lost amidst the forestry
	Of masts; a wilderness of steeples peeping
	On tiptoe through their sea-coal canopy,
	A huge, dun cupola, like a foolscap crown
	On a fool’s head—and there is London Town.

	A paler shadow strews
	Its mantle o’er the mountains; parting day
	Dies like a dolphin, whom each pang imbues
	With a new colour as it gasps away
	The last still loveliest ’till—’tis gone—and all is grey.

	A quiet conscience makes one so serene!
	Christians have burnt each other, quite persuaded
	That all the apostles would have done as they did.

	A real spirit
	Should neither court neglect, nor dread to bear it.

	A thousand hearts beat happily; and when
	Music arose with its voluptuous swell,
	Soft eyes look’d love to eyes which spake again,
	And all went merry as a marriage bell.

	A thousand years scarce serve to form a state;
	An hour may lay it in the dust.

	A tigress robb’d of young, a lioness,
	Or any interesting beast or prey,
	Are similes at hand for the distress
	Of ladies who cannot have their own way.

	A would-be satirist, a hired buffoon,
	A monthly scribbler of some low lampoon,
	Condemn’d to drudge, the meanest of the mean,
	And furbish falsehoods for a magazine.

	A young star, who shone
	O’er life, too sweet an image for such gloss,
	A lovely being scarcely form’d or moulded,
	A rose with all its sweetest leaves yet folded.

	Above me are the Alps,
	The palaces of Nature, whose vast walls
	Have pinnacled in clouds their snowy scalps,
	And thron’d Eternity in icy halls
	Of cold sublimity, where forms and falls
	The avalanche—the thunderbolt of snow!
	All that expands the spirit, yet appals,
	Gather round these summits, as to show
	How Earth may pierce to Heaven, yet leave vain man below.

	Adieu, adieu! my native shore
	Fades o’er the waters blue.

	Ah, nut-brown partridges! ah, brilliant pheasants!
	And ah, ye poachers!—’tis no sport for peasants.

	Ah, Vice! how soft are thy voluptuous ways!
	While boyish blood is mantling, who can ’scape
	The fascination of thy magic gaze?

	Ah! were I sever’d from thy side,
	Where were thy friend and who my guide?
	Years have not seen, Time shall not see
	The hour that tears my soul from thee.

	Alas! our young affections run to waste,
	Or water but the desert.

	All human history attests
	That happiness for man—the hungry sinner—
	Since Eve ate apples, much depends on dinner!

	All is gentle; nought
	Stirs rudely; but congenial with the night,
	Whatever walks is gliding like a spirit.

	All that I know is, that the facts I state
	Are true as truth has ever been of late.

	All that the mind would shrink from, of excesses;
	All that the body perpetrates, of bad;
	All that we read, hear, dream, of man’s distresses;
	All that the devil would do, if run stark mad;
	All that defies the worst which pen expresses
	All by which hell is peopled, or is sad
	As hell—mere mortals who their power abuse—
	Was here (as heretofore and since) let loose.

	All was prepared—the fire, the sword, the men
	To wield them in their terrible array.
	The army, like a lion from his den,
	March’d forth with nerves and sinews bent to slay—
	A human Hydra, issuing from its fen
	To breathe destruction on its winding way,
	Whose heads were heroes, which cut off in vain,
	Immediately in others grew again.

	All who joy would win
	Must share it—happiness was born a twin.

	An infant when it gazes on the light,
	A child the moment when it drains the breast,
	A devotee when soars the Host in sight,
	An Arab with a stranger for a guest,
	A sailor when the prize has struck in fight,
	A miser filling his most hoarded chest,
	Feel rapture; but not such true joy are reaping
	As they who watch o’er what they love while sleeping.

	Ancient of days! august Athena! where,
	Where are thy men of might? thy grand in soul?
	Gone—glimmering though the dream of things that were;
	First in the race that led to glory’s goal,
	They won, and pass’d away—Is this the whole?

	And cast
	O’er erring deeds and thoughts a heav’nly hue
	Of words, like sunbeams, dazzling as they pass’d.

	And gazed around them to the left and right
	With the prophetic eye of appetite.

	And glory long has made the sages smile;
	’Tis something, nothing, words, illusion, wind—
	Depending more upon the historian’s style
	Than on the name a person leaves behind.

	And her face so fair
	Stirr’d with her dream, as rose-leaves with the air.

	And I have loved thee, Ocean! and my joy
	Of youthful sports was on thy breast to be
	Borne, like thy bubbles, onward; from a boy
	I wanton’d with thy breakers.

	And o’er that fair broad brow were wrought
	The intersected lines of thought;
	Those furrows, which the burning share
	Of sorrow ploughs untimely there:
	Scars of the lacerating mind,
	Which the soul’s war doth leave behind.

	And one by one in turn, some grand mistake
	Casts off its bright skin yearly like the snake.

	And rash enthusiasm in good society
	Were nothing but a moral inebriety.

	And then he danced—all foreigners excel
	The serious Angles in the eloquence
	Of pantomine—he danced, I say, right well
	With emphasis, and also with good sense—
	A thing in footing indispensable:
	He danced without theatrical pretence,
	Not like a ballet-master in the van
	Of his drill’d nymphs, but like a gentleman.

	And there was mounting in hot haste: the steed,
	The mustering squadron, and the clattering car,
	Went pouring forward with impetuous speed,
	And swiftly forming in the ranks of war;
	And the deep thunder peal on peal, afar
	And near; the beat of the alarming drum
	Roused up the soldier ere the morning star;
	While throng’d the citizens with terror dumb,
	Or whispering with white lips—“The foe! they come! they come!”

	And these vicissitudes come best in youth;
	For when they happen at a riper age,
	People are apt to blame the Fates, forsooth.
	And wonder Providence is not more sage.
	Adversity is the first path to truth:
	He who hath proved war, storm or woman’s rage,
	Whether his winters be eighteen or eighty,
	Has won the experience which is deem’d so weighty.

	And though, as you remember, in a fit
	Of wrath and rhyme, when juvenile and curly,
	I railed at Scots to show my wrath and wit,
	Which must be owned was sensitive and surly,
	Yet ’tis in vain such sallies to permit,
	They cannot quench young feelings fresh and early:
	I “scotched, not killed” the Scotchman in my blood,
	And love the land of “mountain and of flood.”

	And to his eye
	There was but one beloved face on earth,
	And that was shining on him.

	And whether coldness, pride, or virtue, dignify
	A woman; so she’s good, what does it signify?

	And, after all, what is a lie? ’Tis but
	The truth in masquerade.

	Around her shone
	The light of love, the purity of grace,
	The mind, the music breathing from her face;
	The heart whose softness harmonized the whole;
	And, oh! that eye was in itself a soul!

	Around her shone
	The nameless charms unmark’d by her alone.
	The light of love, the purity of grace,
	The mind, the music breathing from her face,
	The heart whose softness harmonized the whole,
	And, oh! that eye was in itself a soul.

	Around his form his loose long robe was thrown,
	And wrapt a breast bestowed on heaven alone.

	As soon
	Seek roses in December—ice in June,
	Hope, constancy in wind, or corn in chaff;
	Believe a woman or an epitaph,
	Or any other thing that’s false, before
	You trust in critics.

	As winds come lightly whispering from the west,
	Kissing, not ruffling the blue deep’s serene.

	Ave Maria! blessed be the hour!
	The time, the clime, the spot where I so oft
	Have felt that moment in its fullest power
	Sink o’er the earth so beautiful and soft,
	While swung the deep bell in the distant tower,
	Or the faint dying day-hymn stole aloft,
	And not a breath crept through the rosy air,
	And yet the forest leaves seem’d stirr’d with prayer.
	Soft hour! which makes the wish and melts the heart
	Of those who sail the seas, on the first day;
	When they from their sweet friends are torn apart;
	Or fills with love the pilgrim on his way,
	As the far bell of vesper makes him start,
	Seeming to weep the dying day’s decay;
	Is this a fancy which our reason scorns?
	Ah! surely nothing dies but something mourns!

	Be thou the rainbow to the storms of life!
	The evening beam that smiles the clouds away
	And tints to-morrow with prophetic ray!

	Before decay’s effacing fingers
	Have swept the lines where beauty lingers.

	But ’twas a public feast, and public day,
	Quite full, right dull, guests hot, and dishes cold,
	Great plenty, much formality, small cheer,
	And everybody out of their own sphere.

	But all have prices,
	From crowns to kicks, according to their vices.

	But midst the crowd, the hum, the shock of men,
	To hear, to see, to feel, and to possess,
	And roam along, the world’s tired denizen,
	With none who bless us, none whom we can bless:
	Minions of splendor shrinking from distress!
	None that, with kindred consciousness endued,
	If we were not, would seem to smile the less,
	Of all that flatter’d, follow’d, sought and sued;
	This is to be alone; this, this is solitude!

	But O ye lords of ladies intellectual,
	Inform us truly, have they not henpecked you all?

	But passion raves herself to rest, or flies;
	And vice, that digs her own voluptuous tomb
	Had buried long his hopes, no more to rise:
	Pleasure’s pall’d victim! life-abhorring gloom
	Wrote on his faded brow curst Cain’s unresting doom.

	But she was a soft landscape of mild earth,
	Where all was harmony, and calm, and quiet,
	Luxuriant, budding; cheerful without mirth.

	But sighs subside, and tears (e’en widows’) shrink,
	Like Arno in the summer, to a shallow
	So narrow as to shame their wintry brink,
	Which threatens inundations deep and yellow!
	Such diff’rence do a few months make. You’d think
	Grief a rich field that never would lie fallow;
	No more it doth; its ploughs but change their boys,
	Who furrow some new soil to sow for joys.

	But these are foolish things to all the wise,
	And I love wisdom more than she loves me;
	My tendency is to philosophise
	On most things, from a tyrant to a tree;
	But still the spouseless virgin Knowledge flies,
	What are we? and whence come we? what shall be
	Our ultimate existence? What’s our present?
	Are questions answerless, and yet incessant.

	But words are things, and a small drop of ink,
	Falling, like dew, upon a thought produces
	That which makes thousands, perhaps millions think.

	But, at sixteen, the conscience rarely gnaws
	So much, as when we call our old debts in
	At sixty years, and draw the accounts of evil,
	And find a deuced balance with the devil.

	By heaven! it is a splendid sight to see
	(For one who hath no friend, no brother there)
	Their rival scarfs of mix’d embroidery,
	Their various arms that glitter in the air!
	What gallant war-hounds rouse them from their lair,
	And gnash their fangs, loud yelling for the prey!
	All join the chase, but few the triumph share;
	The grave shall bear the chiefest prize away,
	And havoc scarce for joy can number their array.

	By those tresses unconfin’d,
	Woo’d by every gentle wind;
	By those lids whose jetty fringe
	Kiss thy soft cheek’s blooming tinge;
	By those wild eyes, like the roe,
	Ah! hear my vow before I go—
	My dearest life, I love thee!
	Can I cease to love thee?—no!
	Zoe mous s-as agapo.

	Chaste were his steps, each kept within due bound,
	And elegance was sprinkled o’er his figure;
	Like swift Camilla, he scarce skimm’d the ground,
	And rather held in than put forth his vigor:
	And then he had an ear for music’s sound,
	Which might defy a crotchet critic’s rigor.
	Such classic pas—sans flaws—set off our hero,
	He glanced like a personified Bolero.

	Christians have burnt each other, quite persuaded
	That all the apostles would have done as they did.

	Clime of the unforgotten brave!
	Whose land, from plain to mountain-cave,
	Was Freedom’s home, or Glory’s grave;
	Shrine of the mighty! can it be,
	That this is all remains of thee?

	Come, lay thy head upon my breast,
	And I will kiss thee into rest.

	Could we but keep our spirit to that height,
	We might be happy; but the clay will sink
	Its thoughts immortal.

	Dark tree! still sad when others’ grief is fled,
	The only constant mourner o’er the dead.

	Dear authors! suit your topics to your strength,
	And ponder well your subject, and its length;
	Nor lift your load, before you’re quite aware
	What weight your shoulders will, or will not, bear.

	Death, so called, is a thing that makes men weep,
	And yet a third of life is pass’d in sleep.

	Deformity is daring;
	It is its essence to o’ertake mankind
	By heart and soul, and make itself the equal—
	Ay, the superior of the rest. There is
	A spur in its halt movements, to become
	All that the others cannot, in such things
	As still are free for both, to compensate
	For stepdame Nature’s avarice at first.

	Do proper homage to thine idol’s eyes,
	But not too humbly, or she will despise
	Thee and thy suit though told in moving tropes;
	Disguise even tenderness, if thou art wise.

	Does not the law of Heaven say blood for blood?
	And he who taints kills more than he who sheds it.

	Down to the dust! and as thou rott’st away,
	Even worms shall perish on thy poisonous clay.

	Dreading that climax of all human ills,
	The inflammation of his weekly bills.

	Dreams in their development have breath,
	And tears, and tortures, and the touch of joy,
	They have a weight upon our waking thoughts,
	They take a weight from off our waking toils,
	They do divide our being.

	Ecclesiastes said that “all is vanity,”
	Most modern preachers say the same, or show it
	By their examples of true Christianity.
	In short, all know, or very soon may know it.

	Eternal Spirit of the chainless mind!
	Brightest in dungeons, Liberty! thou art,
	For there thy habitation is the Heart—
	The Heart which love of thee alone can bind;
	And when thy sons to fetters are consign’d—
	To fetters and the damp vault’s dayless gloom,
	Their country conquers with their Martyrdom,
	And Freedom’s fame finds wings on every wind.

	Even as a broken mirror, which the glass
	In every fragment multiplies, and makes
	A thousand images of one that was
	The same, and still the more, the more it breaks.

	Even to the delicacy of their hand
	There was resemblance such as true blood wears.

	Exhausting thought,
	And hiving wisdom with each studious year.

	Existence may be borne, and the deep root
	Of life and sufferance make its firm abode
	In bare and desolate bosoms: mute
	The camel labors with the heaviest load,
	And the wolf dies in silence: Not bestow’d
	In vain should such examples be; if they,
	Things of ignoble or of savage mood,
	Endure and shrink not, we of nobler clay
	May temper it to bear—it is but for a day.

	“Farewell, my Spain! a long farewell!” he cried.
	“Perhaps I may revisit thee no more,
	But die, as many an exiled heart hath died,
	Of its own thirst to see again thy shore.”

	Fair Italy!
	Thou art the garden of the world, the home
	Of all Art yields, and Nature can decree,
	Even in thy desert, what is like to thee?
	Thy very weeds are beautiful, thy waste
	More rich than other climes’ fertility;
	Thy wreck a glory, and thy ruin graced
	With an immaculate charm which cannot be defac’d.

	Famished people must be slowly nursed,
	And fed by spoonfuls, else they always burst.

	Far along,
	From peak to peak the rattling crags among,
	Leaps the live thunder.

	Fare thee well! and if for ever,
	Still for ever, fare thee well.

	Farewell! a word that must be, and hath been—
	A sound which makes us linger;—yet—farewell.

	Farewell! if ever fondest prayer
	For other’s weal availed on high,
	Mine will not all be lost in air
	But waft thy name beyond the sky.

	Farewell!
	For in that word,—that fatal word,—howe’er
	We promise—hope—believe,—there breathes despair.

	Father of Light! great God of Heaven!
	Hear’st thou the accents of despair?
	Can guilt like man’s be e’er forgiven?
	Can vice atone for crimes by prayer?

	For Ennui is a growth of English root,
	Though nameless in our language:—we retort
	The fact for words, and let the French translate
	That awful Yawn which Sleep cannot abate.

	For Freedom’s battle once begun,
	Bequeath’d by bleeding sire to son,
	Though baffled oft is ever won.

	For I am a weed,
	Flung from the rock, on Ocean’s foam, to sail,
	Where’er the surge may sweep, the tempest’s breath prevail.

	For through the south the custom still commands
	The gentleman to kiss the lady’s hands.

	Foul Superstition! howsoe’er disguised,
	Idol, saint, virgin, prophet, crescent, cross,
	For whatsoever symbol thou art prized,
	Thou sacerdotal gain, but general loss!
	Who from true worship’s gold can separate thy dross?

	Go—let thy less than woman’s hand
	Assume the distaff—not the brand.

	Hand to hand and foot to foot,
	Nothing there save death, was mute;
	Stroke and thrust, and flash, and cry
	For quarter or for victory,
	Mingle there with the volleying thunder.

100

	Hark to the Boatswain’s call, the cheering cry!
	While through the seaman’s hand the tackle glides;
	Or schoolboy Midshipman that, standing by,
	Strains his shrill pipe as good or ill betides,
	And well the docile crew that skilful urchin guides.

101

	Hark, hark! Deep sounds, and deeper still,
	Are howling from the mountain’s bosom:
	There’s not a breath of wind upon the hill,
	Yet quivers every leaf, and drops each blossom:
	Earth groans as if beneath a heavy load.

102

	Hark! to the hurried question of Despair:
	“Where is my child?”—an Echo answers—“Where?”

103

	Have not all past human beings parted,
	And must not all the present, one day part?

104

	He enter’d in his house—his home no more,
	For without hearts there is no home;—and felt
	The solitude of passing his own door
	Without a welcome.

105

	He fell upon whatever was offer’d, like
	A priest, a shark, an alderman, or pike.

106

	He had kept
	The whiteness of his soul, and thus men o’er him wept.

107

	He had then the grace, too rare in every clime,
	Of being, without alloy of fop or beau,
	A finish’d gentleman from top to toe.

108

	He learn’d the arts of riding, fencing, gunnery,
	And how to scale a fortress or—a nunnery.

109

	He sighed;—the next resource is the full moon,
	Where all sighs are deposited; and now
	It happen’d luckily, the chaste orb shone.

110

	He smiles and sleeps!—sleep on
	And smile, thou little, young inheritor
	Of a world scarce less young: sleep on and smile!
	Thine are the hours and days when both are cheering
	And innocent!

111

	He was the mildest manner’d man
	That ever scuttled ship, or cut a throat!
	With such true breeding of a gentleman,
	You never could divine his real thought.

112

	He who ascends to mountain-tops shall find
	Their loftiest peaks most wrapt in clouds of snow;
	He who surpasses or subdues mankind,
	Must look down on the hate of those below.
	Tho’ high above the sun of glory glow,
	And far beneath the earth and ocean spread,
	Round him are icy rocks, and loudly blow
	Contending tempests on his naked head.

113

	He who first met the Highland’s swelling blue,
	Will love each peak that shows a kindred hue;
	Hail in each crag a friend’s familiar face,
	And clasp the mountain in his mind’s embrace.

114

	He who hath bent him o’er the dead,
	Ere the first day of death is fled—
	The first dark day of nothingness,
	The last of danger and distress,
	(Before Decay’s effacing fingers,
	Have swept the lines where beauty lingers)—
	And mark’d the mild angelic air,
	The rapture of repose that’s there.

115

	He who surpasses or subdues mankind,
	Must look down on the hate of those below.

116

	Her eye (I am very fond of handsome eyes),
	Was large and dark, suppressing half its fire
	Until she spoke, then through its soft disguise
	Flash’d an expression more of pride than ire,
	And love than either; and there would arise,
	A something in them which was not desire,
	But would have been, perhaps, but for the soul,
	Which struggled through and chasten’d down the whole.

117

	Her glossy hair was clustered o’er a brow
	Bright with intelligence, and fair and smooth;
	Her eyebrow’s shape was like the aërial bow,
	Her cheek all purple with the beam of youth,
	Mounting, at times, to a transparent glow,
	As if her veins ran lightning.

118

	Her overpowering presence made you feel
	It would not be idolatry to kneel.

119

	Her years
	Were ripe, they might make six-and-twenty springs;
	But there are forms which Time to touch forbears,
	And turns aside his scythe to vulgar things.

120

	Here and there some stern high patriot stood,
	Who could not get the place for which he sued.

121

	Here’s a sigh to those who love me,
	And a smile to those who hate;
	And whatever sky’s above me,
	Here’s a heart for every fate.

122

	His breast with wounds unnumber’d riven,
	His back to earth, his face to heaven.

123

	His speech was a fine sample, on the whole,
	Of rhetoric, which the learn’d call “rigmarole.”

124

Hope, withering, fled—and Mercy sighed farewell.

125

	How beautiful is all this visible world!
	How glorious in its action and itself!
	But we, who name ourselves its sovereigns, we,
	Half dust, half deity, alike unfit
	To sink or soar, with our mix’d essence make
	A conflict of its elements, and breathe
	The breath of degradation and of pride,
	Contending with low wants and lofty will,
	Till our mortality predominates,
	And men are—what they name not to themselves,
	And trust not to each other.

126

	How lovely he appears! his little cheeks
	In their pure incarnation, vying with
	The rose leaves strewn beneath them.
	And his lips, too,
	How beautifully parted! No; you shall not
	Kiss him; at least not now; he will wake soon—
	His hour of midday rest is nearly over.

127

	How many a time have I
	Cloven with arm still lustier, breast more daring
	The wave all roughen’d; with a swimmer’s stroke
	Flung the billows back from my drench’d hair,
	And laughing from my lip the audacious brine
	Which kiss’d it like a wine-cup rising o’er
	The waves as they rose, and prouder still
	The loftier they uplifted me.

128

	I am not now
	That which I have been.

129

	I am the very slave of circumstance
	And impulse—borne away with every breath.

130

	I depart,
	Whither I know not; but the hour’s gone by
	When Albion’s lessening shores could grieve or glad mine eye.

131

	I die,—but first I have possess’d,
	And come what may, I have been bless’d.

132

	I hate inconstancy—I loathe, detest,
	Abhor, condemn, abjure the mortal made
	Of such quicksilver clay that in his breast
	No permanent foundation can be laid.

133

	I have a passion for the name of “Mary,”
	For once it was a magic sound to me,
	And still it half calls up the realms of fairy,
	Where I beheld what never was to be.

134

	I know that there are angry spirits
	And turbulent mutterers of stifled treason,
	Who lurk in narrow places, and walk out
	Muffled to whisper curses to the night;
	Disbanded soldiers, discontented ruffians,
	And desperate libertines who brawl in taverns.

135

	I live not in myself, but I become
	Portion of that around me, and to me
	High mountains are a feeling, but the hum
	Of human cities torture.

136

	I live,
	But live to die: and living, see no thing
	To make death hateful, save an innate clinging,
	A loathsome and yet all invincible
	Instinct of life, which I abhor, as I
	Despise myself, yet cannot overcome—
	And so I live.

137

	I love the sex, and sometimes would reverse
	The tyrant’s wish, “that mankind only had
	One neck, which he with one fell stroke might pierce;”
	My wish is quite as wide, but not so bad,
	And much more tender on the whole than fierce;
	It being (not now, but only while a lad)
	That womankind had but one rosy mouth,
	To kiss them all at once, from North to South.

138

	I loved her from my boyhood; she to me
	Was as a fairy city of the heart,
	Rising like water-columns from the sea,
	Of joy the sojourn, and of wealth the mart;
	And Otway, Radcliffe, Schiller, Shakespeare’s art,
	Had stamp’d her image in me.

139

	I own my natural weakness; I have not
	Yet learn’d to think of indiscriminate murder
	Without some sense of shuddering; and the sight
	Of blood, which spouts through hoary scalps, is not,
	To me, a thing or triumph, nor the death
	Of men surprised, a glory.

140

	I say the sun is a most glorious sight,
	I’ve seen him rise full oft, indeed of late
	I have sat up on purpose all the night,
	Which hastens, as physicians say, one’s fate;
	And so all ye, who would be in the right
	In health and purse, begin your day to date
	From daybreak, and when coffin’d at fourscore,
	Engrave upon the plate, you rose at four.

141

	I stood in Venice, on the Bridge of Sighs,
	A palace and a prison on each hand;
	I saw from out the wave her structure rise,
	As from the stroke of the enchanter’s wand:
	A thousand years their cloudy wings expand
	Around me, and a dying Glory smiles
	O’er the far times, when many a subject land
	Look’d to the winged Lion’s marble piles,
	Where Venice sate in state, throned on her hundred isles.

142

	I want a hero: an uncommon want,
	When every year and month sends forth a new one.

143

	I wish’d but for a single tear,
	As something welcome, new and dear,
	I wish’d it then, I wish it still,
	Despair is stronger than my will.

144

	I’ve seen your stormy seas and stormy women,
	And pity lovers rather more than seamen.

145

	If we do but watch the hour,
	There never yet was human power
	Which could evade, if unforgiven,
	The patient search and vigil long
	Of him who treasures up a wrong.

146

	In fact, there’s nothing makes me so much grieve,
	As that abominable tittle-tattle,
	Which is the cud eschew’d by human cattle.

147

	In reading authors, when you find
	Bright passages, that strike your mind,
	And which, perhaps, you may have reason
	To think on, at another season,
	Be not contented with the sight,
	But take them down in black and white;
	Such a respect is wisely shown,
	As makes another’s sense one’s own.

148

	In that instant, o’er his soul
	Winters of Memory seem’d to roll,
	And gather in that drop of time
	A life of pain, an age of crime.
	O’er him who loves, or hates, or fears,
	Such moment pours the grief of years.

149

	In the desert a fountain is springing,
	In the wide waste there still is a tree,
	And a bird in the solitude singing,
	Which speaks to my spirit of thee.

150

	In Venice, Tasso’s echoes are no more,
	And silent rows the songless gondolier;
	Her palaces are crumbling to the shore,
	And music meets not always now the ear.

151

	In virtues nothing earthly could surpass her,
	Save thine “incomparable oil,” Macassar!

152

	It has a strange, quick jar upon the ear,
	That cocking of a pistol, when you know
	A moment more will bring the sight to bear
	Upon your person, twelve yards off or so.

153

	It is the hour when from the boughs
	The nightingale’s high note is heard;
	It is the hour when lovers’ vows
	Seem sweet in every whispered word;
	And gentle winds, and waters near,
	Make music to the lonely ear.
	Each flower the dews have lightly wet,
	And in the sky the stars are met,
	And on the wave is deeper blue,
	And on the leaf a browner hue,
	And in the heaven that clear obscure,
	So softly dark, and darkly pure.
	Which follows the decline of day,
	As twilight melts beneath the moon away.

154

	It was the cooling hour, just when the rounded
	Red sun sinks down behind the azure hill,
	Which then seems as if the whole earth is bounded,
	Circling all nature, hush’d, and dim, and still,
	With the far mountain-crescent half surrounded
	On one side, and the deep sea calm and chill
	Upon the other, and the rosy sky
	With one star sparkling through it like an eye.

155

	Italia! O Italia! thou who hast
	The fatal gift of beauty, which became
	A funeral dower of present woes and past,
	On thy sweet brow is sorrow plough’d by shame,
	And annals graved in characters of flame.

156

	Jack was embarrassed—never hero more,
	And as he knew not what to say, he swore.

157

	Keen were his pangs, but keener far to feel,
	He nursed the pinion, which impell’d the steel.

158

	Kill a man’s family, and he may brook it,
	But keep your hands out of his breeches’ pocket.

159

	Let’s not unman each other—part at once;
	All farewells should be sudden, when forever,
	Else they make an eternity of moments,
	And clog the last sad sands of life with tears.

160

	Like a lovely tree
	She grew to womanhood, and between whiles
	Rejected several suitors, just to learn
	How to accept a better in his turn.

161

	Like the leaves of the forest when summer is green,
	That host with their banners at sunset were seen;
	Like the leaves of the forest when autumn hath blown,
	That host on the morrow lay wither’d and strown!

162

	Look how he laughs and stretches out his arms,
	And opens wide his blue eyes upon thine,
	To hail his father: while his little form
	Flutters as wing’d with joy. Talk not of pain!
	The childless cherubs well might envy thee
	The pleasures of a parent.

163

	Look on its broken arch, its ruined wall,
	Its chambers desolate, its portals foul;
	Yes, this was once ambition’s airy hall,
	The dome of thought, the palace of the soul.

164

	Look on me in my sleep,
	Or watch my watchings—come and sit by me!
	My solitude is solitude no more,
	But peopled with the furies;—I have gnash’d
	My teeth in darkness till returning morn,
	Then cursed myself till sunset;—I have pray’d
	For madness as a blessing—’tis denied me.

165

	Maid of Athens, ere we part,
	Give, oh, give me back my heart!

166

	Maidens, like moths, are ever caught by glare,
	And mammon wins his way where seraphs might despair.

167

	Man is a carnivorous production,
	And must have meals, at least one meal a day;
	He cannot live, like woodcocks, upon suction,
	But, like the shark and tiger, must have prey;
	Although his anatomical construction
	Bears vegetables, in a grumbling way,
	Your laboring people think beyond all question,
	Beef, veal, and mutton better for digestion.

168

	Man’s love is of man’s life a thing apart,
	’Tis woman’s whole existence; man may range
	The court, the camp, church, vessel, and the mart,
	Sword, gown, gain, glory, offer in exchange;
	Pride, fame, ambition, to fill up his heart;
	And few there are whom these cannot estrange;
	Men have all these resources, we but one—
	To love again, and be again undone.

169

	Marriage, from love, like vinegar from wine—
	A sad, sour, sober beverage—by time
	Is sharpened from its high celestial flavor
	Down to a very homely household savor.

170

	May no marble bestow the splendor of woe,
	Which the children of vanity rear;
	No fiction of fame shall blazon my name,
	All I ask—all I wish—is a tear.

171

	May the grass wither from thy feet; the woods
	Deny thee shelter! earth a home! the dust
	A grave! the sun his light! and heaven her God!

172

	Men are the sport of circumstance, when
	The circumstances seem the sport of men.

173

	Mighty Nature bounds as from her birth,
	The sun is in the heavens, and life on earth;
	Flowers in the valley, splendor in the beam,
	Health on the gale, and freshness in the stream.

174

	Mont Blanc is the monarch of mountains;
	They crown’d him long ago
	On a throne of rocks, in a robe of clouds,
	With a diadem of snow.

175

	Must I consume my life—this little life,
	In guarding against all may make it less?
	It is not worth so much!—it were to die
	Before my hour, to live in dread of death.

176

	My boat is on the shore,
	And my bark is on the sea:
	But, before I go, Tom Moore,
	Here’s a double health to thee!

177

	My days are in the yellow leaf;
	The flowers and fruits of love are gone;
	The worm, the canker, and the grief
	Are mine alone!

178

	My pen is at the bottom of a page,
	Which being finished, here the story ends;
	’Tis to be wish’d it had been sooner done,
	But stories somehow lengthen when begun.

179

	My sole resources in the path I trod,
	Were these—my bark—my sword—my love—my God.
	The last I left in youth—He leaves me now—
	And man but works His will to lay me low.
	I have no thought to mock His throne with prayer,
	Wrung from the coward crouching of despair;
	It is enough—I breathe—and I can bear.

180

	My spirit shrunk not to sustain
	The searching throes of ceaseless pain;
	Nor sought the self-accorded grave
	Of ancient fool and modern knave.

181

	My very chains and I grew friends,
	So much a long communion tends
	To make us what we are; even I
	Regain’d my freedom with a sigh.

182

	No words suffice the secret soul to show,
	And truth denies all eloquence to woe.

183

	None are so desolate but something dear,
	Dearer than self, possesses or possess’d
	A thought, and claims the homage of a tear.

184

	Nor all that heralds rake from coffin’d clay,
	Nor florid prose, nor honied lies of rhyme,
	Can blazon evil deeds, or consecrate a crime.

185

	Nor ear can hear nor tongue can tell
	The tortures of that inward hell!

186

	Nor florid prose, nor honied lies of rhyme,
	Can blazon evil deeds, or consecrate a crime.

187

	Not all the blood at Talavera shed,
	Not all the marvels of Barossa’s fight,
	Not Albuera lavish of the dead,
	Have won for Spain her well-asserted right.
	When shall her olive-branch be free from blight?
	When shall she breathe her from the blushing toil?
	How many a doubtful day shall sink in night,
	Ere the Frank robber turn him from his spoil,
	And Freedom’s stranger-tree grow native of the soil!

188

	Not much he kens, I ween, of woman’s breast,
	Who thinks that wanton thing is won by sighs.

189

	Now Laura moves along the joyous crowd,
	Smiles in her eyes, and simpers in her lips;
	To some she whispers, others speaks aloud;
	To some she curtsies, and to some she dips.

190

	O thou beautiful
	And unimaginable ether! and
	Ye multiplying masses of increased
	And still increasing lights! what are ye? what
	Is this blue wilderness of interminable
	Air, where ye roll along, as I have seen
	The leaves along the limpid streams of Eden?
	Is your course measur’d for ye? Or do ye
	Sweep on in your unbounded revelry
	Through an aërial universe of endless
	Expansion,—at which my soul aches to think,—
	Intoxicated with eternity?

191

	O Time! the beautifier of the dead,
	Adorner of the ruin, comforter
	And only healer when the heart hath bled—
	Time! the corrector where our judgments err,
	The test of truth, love,—sole philosopher!

192

	O Time! Why dost not pause? Thy scythe so dirty
	With rust, should surely cease to hack and hew.
	Reset it; shave more smoothly, also slower,
	If but to keep thy credit as a mower.

193

	O ye! who teach the ingenious youth of nations,
	Holland, France, England, Germany or Spain,
	I pray ye flog them upon all occasions,
	It mends their morals, never mind the pain.

194

	O’er the glad waters of the dark blue sea,
	Our thoughts as boundless, and our souls as free,
	Far as the breeze can bear, the billows foam,
	Survey our empire, and behold our home!

195

	Of all appeals,—although
	I grant the power of pathos, and of gold,
	Of beauty, flattery, threats, a shilling,—no
	Methods more sure at moments to take hold,
	Of the best feelings of mankind, which grow
	More tender, as we every day behold,
	Than that all-softening, overpow’ring knell,
	The tocsin of the soul—the Dinner Bell.

196

	Of all tales ’tis the saddest—and more sad,
	Because it makes us smile.

197

	Of all the horrid, hideous notes of woe,
	Sadder than owl-songs or the midnight blast;
	Is that portentous phrase, “I told you so.”

198

	Of all
	The fools who flock’d to swell or see the show,
	Who car’d about the corpse? The funeral
	Made the attraction, and the black the woe;
	There throbb’d not there a thought which pierc’d the pall.

199

	Oh ye, who teach th’ ingenuous youth of nations—
	Holland, France, England, Germany, or Spain—
	I pray ye flog them upon all occasions;
	It mends their morals; never mind the pain.

200

	Oh, Christ! it is a goodly sight to see
	What Heaven hath done for this delicious land!

201

	Oh, God! it is a fearful thing
	To see the human soul take wing
	In any shape, in any mood!

202

Oh, who can tell, save he whose heart hath tried?

203

	Oh! in that future let us think
	To hold each heart the heart that shares;
	With them the immortal waters drink,
	And, soul in soul, grow deathless theirs!

204

	Oh! nature’s noblest gift—my grey goose quill:
	Slave of my thoughts, obedient to my will,
	Torn from thy parent bird to form a pen,
	That mighty instrument of little men!

205

	Oh! too convincing—dangerously dear—
	In woman’s eye the unanswerable tear!
	That weapon of her weakness she can wield,
	To save, subdue—at once her spear and shield.

206

	On with the dance! let joy be unconfined!
	No sleep till morn, when youth and pleasure meet,
	To chase the glowing hours with flying feet.

207

	Once more upon the waters! yet once more!
	And the waves bound beneath me as a steed
	That knows his rider.

208

	One struggle more, and I am free
	From pangs that rend my heart in twain;
	One last long sigh to love and thee,
	Then back to busy life again.

209

	Ours are the tears, though few, sincerely shed,
	While ocean shrouds and sepulchres our dead.

210

	Out upon Time! it will leave no more
	Of the things to come than the things before!
	Out upon Time! who forever will leave
	But enough of the past for the future to grieve.

211

	Parting day
	Dies like the dolphin, whom each pang imbues
	With a new color at it gasps away,
	The last still loveliest, till—’tis gone—and all is gray.

212

	Perhaps he hath great projects in his mind,
	To build a college, or to found a race,
	An hospital, a church—and leave behind
	Some dome surmounted by his meagre face,
	Perhaps he fain would liberate mankind
	Even with the very ore which makes them base;
	Perhaps he would be wealthiest of his nation,
	Or revel in the joys of calculation.

213

	Perhaps the early grave
	Which men weep over may be meant to save.

214

	“Petticoat influence” is a great reproach,
	Which e’en those who obey would fain be thought
	To fly from, as from hungry pikes a roach;
	But since beneath it upon earth we’re brought
	By various joltings of life’s hackney coach,
	I for one venerate a petticoat—
	A garment of mystical sublimity,
	No matter whether russet, silk, or dimity.

215

	Roll on, thou deep and dark blue Ocean—roll!
	Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain;
	Man marks the earth with ruin—his control
	Stops with the shore.

216

	Romances paint at full length people’s wooings,
	But only give a bust of marriages:
	For no one cares for matrimonial cooings,
	There’s nothing wrong in a connubial kiss.
	Think you, if Laura had been Petrarch’s wife,
	He would have written sonnets all his life?

217

	Self-defence is a virtue,
	Sole bulwark of all right.

218

	Shaggy shade
	Of desert-loving pine, whose emerald scalp
	Nods to the storm.

219

	She bears her down majestically near,
	Speed on her prow, and terror in her tier.

220

	She had resolved that be should travel through
	All European climes, by land or sea,
	To mend his former morals, and get new,
	Especially in France and Italy,
	(At least this is the thing most people do).

221

	She walks in beauty, like the night
	Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
	And all that’s best of dark and bright
	Meet in her aspect and her eyes;
	Thus mellow’d to that tender light
	Which Heaven to gaudy day denies.

222

	She walks the waters like a thing of life,
	And seems to dare the elements to strife.

223

	She was a good deal shock’d; not shock’d at tears.
	For women shed and use them at their liking;
	But there is something when man’s eye appears
	Wet, still more disagreeable and striking.

224

	She was a soft landscape of mild earth,
	Where all was harmony, and calm, and quiet,
	Luxuriant, budding; cheerful without mirth,
	Which, if not happiness, is much more nigh it
	Than are your mighty passions.

225

	She was his life,
	The ocean to the river of his thoughts,
	Which terminated all.

226

	Ships, wealth, general confidence—
	All were his;
	He counted them at break of day,
	And when the sun set! where were they?

227

	Shrine of the mighty! can it be,
	That this is all remains of thee?

228

	Skilled by a touch to deepen scandal’s tints,
	With all the kind mendacity of hints,
	While mingling truth with falsehood, sneers with smiles,
	A thread of candor with a web of wiles;
	A plain blunt show of briefly-spoken seeming,
	To hide her bloodless heart’s soul-harden’d scheming;
	A lap of lies, a face formed to conceal;
	And, without feeling, mock at all who feel:
	With a vile mask the Gorgon would disown,
	A cheek of parchment, and an eye of stone.

229

	So bright the tear in Beauty’s eye,
	Love half regrets to kiss it dry;
	So sweet the blush of Bashfulness,
	Even Pity scarce can wish it less!

230

	So do the dark in soul expire,
	Or live like scorpion girt by fire;
	So writhes the mind remorse hath riven,
	Unfit for earth, undoom’d for heaven,
	Darkness above, despair beneath,
	Around it flame, within it death.

231

	So for a good old-gentlemanly vice,
	I think I must take up with avarice.

232

	So let him stand, through ages yet unborn,
	Fix’d statue on the pedestal of scorn!

233

	So sweet the blush of bashfulness
	Even pity scarce can wish it less.

234

	So the struck eagle stretch’d upon the plain,
	No more through rolling clouds to soar again,
	View’d his own feather on the fatal dart,
	And wing’d the shaft that quivered in his heart:
	Keen were his pangs, but keener far to feel
	He nurs’d the pinion which impelled the steel.

235

	Society is now one polished horde,
	Formed of two mighty tribes, the Bores and Bored.

236

	Society itself, which should create
	Kindness, destroys what little we had got:
	To feel for none is the true social art
	Of the world’s stoics—men without a heart.

237

	Sofas ’twas half a sin to sit upon,
	So costly were they; carpets, every stitch
	Of workmanship so rare, they make you wish
	You could glide o’er them like a golden fish.

238

	Some hoisted out the boats, and there was one
	That begged Pedrillo for an absolution,
	Who told him to be damn’d,—in his confusion.

239

	Some waltz; some draw; some fathom the abyss
	Of metaphysics; others are content
	With music; the most moderate shine as wits,
	While others have a genius turn’d for fits.

240

	Sooner shall this blue ocean melt to air,
	Sooner shall earth resolve itself to sea,
	Than I resign thine image, Oh my fair!
	Or think of anything, excepting thee.

241

	Sorrow preys upon
	Its solitude and nothing more diverts it
	From its sad visions of the other world
	Than calling it at moments back to this.
	The busy have no time for tears.

242

	Strange state of being! (for ’tis still to be)
	Senseless to feel, and with seal’d eyes to see.

243

	Such is your cold coquette, who can’t say “No,”
	And won’t say “Yes,” and keeps you on and off-ing
	On a lee-shore, till it begins to blow,
	Then sees your heart wreck’d, with an inward scoffing.

244

	Take time enough—all other graces
	Will soon fill up their proper places.

245

	That all-softening, overpowering knell,
	The tocsin of the soul—the dinner bell.

246

	That anxious torture may I never feel,
	Which doubtful, watches o’er a wandering heart.
	O, who that bitter torment can reveal,
	Or tell the pining anguish of that smart!

247

	That awful pause, dividing life from death
	Struck for an instant on the hearts of men,
	Thousands of whom were drawing their last breath!
	A moment all will be life again.
	* * * * one moment more,
	The death-cry drowning in the battle’s roar.

248

	That music in itself, whose sounds are song,
	The poetry of speech.

249

	The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold,
	And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold.

250

	The best of remedies is a beefsteak
	Against sea-sickness; try it, sir, before
	You sneer, and I assure you this is true,
	For I have found it answer—so may you.

251

	The circle smil’d, then whisper’d, and then sneer’d;
	The misses bridled, and the matrons frown’d;
	Some hoped things might not turn out as they fear’d;
	Some would not deem such women could be found;
	Some ne’er believ’d one half of what they heard;
	Some look’d perplex’d, and others look’d profound;
	And several pitied, with sincere regret,
	Poor Lord Augustus Fitz-Plantagenet.

252

	The death-shot hissing from afar—
	The shock—the shout—the groan of war—
	Reverberate along that vale,
	More suited to the shepherd’s tale:
	Though few the numbers—theirs the strife,
	That neither spares, nor speaks for life.

253

	The devil hath not, in all his quiver’s choice,
	An arrow for the heart like a sweet voice.

254

	The drying up a single tear has more
	Of honest fame than shedding seas of gore.

255

	The earth has nothing like a she epistle,
	And hardly heaven—because it never ends.
	I love the mystery of a female missal,
	Which, like a creed, ne’er says all it intends.
	* * * * * You had better
	Take care what you reply to such a letter.

256

	The fall of waters! rapid as the light,
	The flashing mass foams shaking the abyss;
	The hell of waters! where they howl and hiss,
	And boil in endless torture; while the sweat
	Of their great agony, wrung out from this
	Their Phlegethon, curls round the rocks of jet
	That gird the gulf around, in pitiless horror set,
	And mounts in spray the skies, the thence again
	Returns in an unceasing shower, which round,
	With its unemptied clouds of gentle rain,
	Is an eternal April to the ground,
	Making it all one emerald:—how profound
	The gulf! and how the giant element
	From rock to rock leaps with delirious bound,
	Crushing the cliffs, which, downward worn and rent
	With his fierce footsteps, yield in chasms a fearful vent
	To the broad column which rolls on.

257

	The first dark day of nothingness,
	The last of danger and distress.

258

	The heart is like the sky, a part of heaven,
	But changes, night and day, too, like the sky;
	Now o’er it clouds and thunder must be driven,
	And darkness and destruction as on high;
	But when it hath been scorch’d and pierc’d and riven,
	Its storms expire in water-drops; the eye
	Pours forth, at last, the heart’s blood turn’d to tears.

259

	The heart ran o’er
	With silent worship of the great of old!—
	The dead, but sceptred sovereigns, who still rule
	Our spirits from their urns.

260

	The hearts within thy valleys bred,
	The fiery souls that might have led
	Thy sons to deeds sublime,
	Now crawl from cradle to the grave,
	Slaves—nay, the bondsmen of a slave,
	And callous, save to crime.

261

	The image of Eternity—the throne
	Of the Invisible; even from out thy slime
	The monsters of the deep are made; each zone
	Obeys thee; thou goest forth, dread, fathomless, alone.

262

	The incessant fever of that arid thirst
	Which welcomes as a well the clouds that burst
	Above their naked heads, and feels delight
	In the cold drenchings of the stormy night.

263

	The isles of Greece, the isles of Greece!
	Where burning Sappho loved and sung,
	Where grew the arts of war and peace—
	Where Delos rose, and Phœbus sprung!
	Eternal summer gilds them yet,
	But all, except their sun, is set.

264

	The light of love, the purity of grace,
	The mind, the music breathing from her face,
	The heart whose softness harmonized the whole—
	And, oh! that eye was in itself a soul!

265

	The morn is up again, the dewy morn,
	With breath all incense, and with cheek all bloom,
	Laughing the clouds away with playful scorn,
	And living as if earth contain’d no tomb,—
	And glowing into day.

266

	The mountains look on Marathon,
	And Marathon looks on the sea;
	And musing there an hour alone
	I dream’d that Greece might still be free.
	For standing on the Persians’ grave
	I could not deem myself a slave.

267

	The music, and the banquet, and the wine—
	The garlands, the rose odors, and the flowers,
	The sparkling eyes, and flashing ornaments—
	The white arms and the raven hair—the braids,
	And bracelets; swan-like bosoms, and the necklace,
	An India in itself, yet dazzling not.

268

	The panting thirst, which scorches in the breath
	Of those that die the soldier’s fiery death,
	In vain impels the burning mouth to crave
	One drop—one last—to cool it for the grave.

269

	The quiet night, now dappling, ’gan to wane,
	Dividing darkness from the dawning main.

270

	The seventh day this; the jubilee of man:
	London! right well thou know’st the day of prayer:
	Then thy spruce citizen, wash’d artisan,
	And smug apprentice gulp their weekly air:
	The coach of hackney, whiskey, one-horse chair,
	And humblest gig, through sundry suburbs whirl;
	To Hampstead, Brentford, Harrow, make repair;
	Till the tired jade the wheel forgets to hurl,
	Provoking envious gibe from each pedestrian churl.

271

	The silver light, which, hallowing tree and tower,
	Sheds beauty and deep softness o’er the whole,
	Breathes also to the heart, and o’er it throws
	A loving languor which is not repose.

272

	The sky is changed!—and such a change! O night,
	And storm, and darkness, ye are wondrous strong,
	Yet lovely in your strength, as is the light
	Of a dark eye in woman! Far along,
	From peak to peak the rattling crags among
	Leaps the live thunder!

273

	The sky
	Is overcast, and musters muttering thunder,
	In clouds that seem approaching fast, and show
	In forked flashes a commanding tempest.

274

	The sky
	Spreads like an ocean hung on high,
	Bespangled with those isles of light
	So wildly, spiritually bright.
	Whoever gaz’d upon them shining,
	And turn’d to earth without repining,
	Nor wish’d for wings to flee away,
	And mix with their eternal ray?

275

	The stars are forth, the moon above the tops
	Of the snow-shining mountains—Beautiful!
	I linger yet with nature, for the night
	Hath been to me a more familiar face
	Than that of man; and in her starry shade
	Of dim and solitary loveliness,
	I learn’d the language of another world.

276

	The tenor’s voice is spoilt by affectation,
	And for the bass, the beast can only bellow;
	In fact, he had no singing education,
	An ignorant, noteless, timeless, tuneless fellow;
	But being the prima donna’s near relation,
	Who swore his voice was very rich and mellow,
	They hired him, though to hear him you’d believe
	An ass was practicing recitative.

277

	The thorns which I have reap’d are of the tree
	I planted,—they have torn me, and I bleed:
	I should have known what fruit would spring from such a seed.

278

	The truly brave,
	When they behold the brave oppressed with odds,
	Are touched with a desire to shield and save—
	A mixture of wild beasts and demi-gods
	Are they—now furious as the sweeping wave,
	Now moved with pity; even as sometimes nods
	The rugged tree unto the summer wind,
	Compassion breathes along the savage mind.

279

	The very first
	Of human life must spring from woman’s breast:
	Your first small words are taught you from her lips;
	Your first tears quench’d by her, and your last sighs
	Too often breath’d out in a woman’s hearing,
	When men have shrunk from the ignoble care
	Of watching the last hour of him who led them.

280

	The wish, which ages have not yet subdued
	In man, to have no master save his mood.

281

	The wither’d frame, the ruin’d mind,
	The wreck by passion left behind,
	A shrivell’d scroll, a scatter’d leaf,
	Sear’d by the autumn blast of grief!

282

	Their poet, a sad trimmer, but no less
	In company a very pleasant fellow,
	Had been the favorite of full many a mess
	Of men, and made them speeches when half mellow;
	And though his meaning they could rarely guess,
	Yet still they deign’d to hiccup or to bellow
	The glorious meed of popular applause,
	Of which the first ne’er knows the second cause.

283

	Then fare thee well, deceitful maid,
	’Twere vain and fruitless to regret thee;
	Nor hope nor memory yield their aid,
	But time may teach me to forget thee.

284

	Then rose from sea to sky the wild farewell—
	Then shriek’d the timid, and stood still the brave,
	Then some leap’d overboard with dreadful yell,
	As eager to anticipate their grave;
	And the sea yawn’d around her like a hell,
	And down she suck’d with her the whirling wave,
	Like one who grapples with his enemy,
	And strives to strangle him before he die.

285

	There are things
	Which make revenge a virtue by reflection,
	And not an impulse of mere anger; though
	The laws sleep, justice wakes, and injur’d souls
	Oft do a public right with private wrong.

286

	———there is a fire and motion of the soul,
	But once kindled, quenchless evermore.

287

	There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
	There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
	There is society where none intrudes
	By the deep Sea, and music in its roar.

288

	There is a tear for all that die,
	A mourner o’er the humblest grave;
	But nations swell the funeral cry,
	And Triumph weeps above the brave.

289

	There is a temple in ruin stands,
	Fashion’d by long forgotten hands:
	Two or three columns, and many a stone,
	Marble and granite, with grass o’ergrown!

290

	There is given
	Unto the things of earth, which Time hath bent,
	A spirit’s feeling, and where he hath leant
	His hand, but broke his scythe, there is a power
	And magic in the ruined battlement;
	For which the palace of the present hour
	Must yield its pomp, and wait till ages are its dower.

291

	There is nothing gives a man such spirits,
	Leavening his blood as cayenne doth a curry,
	As going at full speed—no matter where its
	Direction be, so ’tis but in a hurry,
	And merely for the sake of its own merits;
	For the less cause there is for all this flurry,
	The greater is the pleasure in arriving
	At the great end of travel—which is driving.

292

	There shrinks no ebb in that tideless sea,
	Which changeless rolls eternally;
	So that wildest of waves, in their angriest mood,
	Scarce break on the bounds of the land for a rood;
	And the powerless moon beholds them flow,
	Heedless if she come or go.

293

	There was a general whisper, toss, and wiggle,
	But etiquette forbade them all to giggle.

294

	There was a laughing devil in his sneer,
	That rais’d emotions both of rage and fear;
	And where his frown of hatred darkly fell,
	Hope withering fled, and mercy sigh’d farewell.

295

	There was a sound of revelry by night,
	And Belgium’s capital had gather’d then
	Her Beauty and her Chivalry, and bright
	The lamps shone o’er fair women and brave men.

296

	There’s nothing in the world like etiquette
	In kingly chambers, or imperial halls,
	As also at the race and county balls.

297

	There’s nought in this bad world like sympathy:
	’Tis so becoming to the soul and face—
	Sets to soft music the harmonious sigh,
	And robes sweet friendship in a Brussels lace.

298

	They did not know how hate can burn
	In hearts once changed from soft to stern;
	Nor all the false and fatal zeal
	The convert of revenge can feel.

299

	They never fail who die,
	In a great cause: the block may soak their gore,
	Their heads may sodden in the sun; their limbs
	Be strung to city gates and castle walls;—
	But still their spirit walks abroad. Though years
	Elapse, and others share as dark a doom,
	They but augment the deep and sweeping thoughts
	Which overpower all others, and conduct
	The world at last to freedom.

300

	Thine are the hours and days when both are cheering
	And innocent.

301

	Think you, if Laura had been Petrarch’s wife,
	He would have written sonnets all his life.

302

	Think’st thou existence doth depend on time?
	It doth; but actions are our epochs; mine
	Have made my days and nights imperishable,
	Endless, and all alike.

303

	Think’st thou that I could bear to part
	With thee, and learn to halve my heart?
	* * * * *
	Years have not seen, time shall not see
	The hour that tears my soul from thee.

304

	Think’st thou there is no tyranny but that
	Of blood and chains? The despotism of vice—
	The weakness and the wickedness of luxury—
	The negligence—the apathy—the evils
	Of sensual sloth—produce ten thousand tyrants,
	Whose delegated cruelty surpasses
	The worst acts of one energetic master,
	However harsh and hard in his own bearing.

305

	Tho’ modest, on his unembarrass’d brow
	Nature had written—“Gentleman.”

306

	Thou material God!
	And representative of the Unknown,
	Who chose thee for His shadow! Thou chief star!
	Centre of many stars!—which mak’st our earth
	Endurable, and temperest the hues
	And hearts of all who walk within thy rays!
	Sire of the seasons! Monarch of the climes,
	And those who dwell in them! for near or far,
	Our inborn spirits have a tint of thee,
	Even as our outward aspects,—thou dost rise,
	And shine and set in glory!

307

	Thou need’st not answer; thy confession speaks,
	Already redd’ning in thy guilty cheeks.

308

	Thou shalt not write, in short, but what I choose.
	This is true criticism, and you may kiss,
	Exactly as you please, or not, the rod.

309

	Thou who hast
	The fatal gift of beauty.

310

	Though sages may pour out their wisdom’s treasure,
	There is no sterner moralist than pleasure.

311

	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 snare.

312

	Though thy slumber may be deep,
	Yet thy spirit will not sleep;
	There are shades that will not vanish,
	There are thoughts thou canst not banish.

313

	Three hundred cannon threw up their emetic,
	And thirty thousand muskets flung their pills
	Like hail, to make a bloody diuretic;
	Mortality! thou hast thy monthly bills!
	Thy plagues, thy famines, thy physicians, yet tick,
	Like the death-watch, within our ears the ills,
	Past, present, and to come; but all may yield
	To the true portrait of one battle-field.

314

	Thus, as the stream and ocean greet,
	With waves that madden as they meet—
	Thus join the bands whom mutual wrong,
	And fate and fury drive along.

315

	Thy day without a cloud hath pass’d,
	And thou wert lovely to the last;
	Extinguish’d not decay’d!
	As stars that shoot along the sky
	Shine brightest as they fall from high.

316

	Thy fanes, thy temple, to the surface bow,
	Commingling slowly with heroic earth,
	Broke by the share of every rustic plough:
	So perish monuments of mortal Birth,
	To perish all in turn, save well-recorded Worth.

317

	Till taught by pain,
	Men really know not what good water’s worth:
	If you had been in Turkey or in Spain,
	Or with a famish’d boat’s crew had your berth,
	Or in the desert heard the camel’s bell,
	You’d wish yourself where truth is—in a well.

318

	Time writes no wrinkle on thine azure brow,—
	Such as creation’s dawn beheld, thou rollest now.

319

	’Tis an old lesson; time approves it true,
	And those who know it best, deplore it most;
	When all is won that all desire to woo,
	The paltry prize, is hardly worth the cost.

320

	’Tis enough—
	Who listens once will listen twice;
	Her heart be sure is not of ice,
	And one refusal no rebuff.

321

	’Tis pity wine should be so deleterious,
	For tea and coffee leave us much more serious.

322

	’Tis pleasant purchasing our fellow-creatures;
	And all are to be sold, if you consider
	Their passions, and are dext’rous; some by features
	Are bought up, others by a warlike leader;
	Some by a place—as tend their years of natures;
	The most by ready cash—but all have prices,
	From crowns to kicks, according to their vices.

323

	’Tis pleasant, sure, to see one’s name in print;
	A book’s a book, although there’s nothing in ’t.

324

	’Tis pleasing to be school’d in a strange tongue
	By female lips and eyes—that is, I mean,
	When both the teacher and the taught are young,
	As was the case, at least, where I have been;
	They smile so when one’s right; and when one’s wrong
	They smile still more.

325

	’Tis said the lion will turn and flee
	From a maid in the pride of her purity.

326

	’Tis sweet to hear the watch-dog’s honest bark
	Bay deep-mouthed welcome as we draw near home;
	’Tis sweet to know there is an eye will mark
	Our coming, and look brighter when we come.

327

	’Tis sweet to hear
	At midnight, on the blue and moonlight deep,
	The song and oar of Adria’s gondolier,
	By distance mellow’d, o’er the waters sweep;
	’Tis sweet to see the evening star appear;
	’Tis sweet to listen as the night winds creep
	From leaf to leaf; ’tis sweet to view on high
	The rainbow, based on ocean, span the sky.
	Sweet is the vintage, when the showering grapes
	In Bacchanal profusion reel to earth,
	Purple and gushing; sweet are our escapes
	From civic revelry to rural mirth;
	Sweet to the miser are his glittering heaps;
	Sweet to the father is his first born’s birth;
	Sweet is revenge—especially to women,
	Pillage to soldiers, prize-money to seamen.

	’Tis sweet to hear the watch-dog’s honest bark
	Bay deep-mouth’d welcome as we draw near home:
	’Tis sweet to know there is an eye will mark
	Our coming, and look brighter when we come:
	’Tis sweet to be awaken’d by the lark,
	Or lull’d by falling waters; sweet the hum
	Of bees, the voice of girls, the song of birds,
	The lisp of children and their earliest words.

328

	’Tis sweet to listen as the night winds creep
	From leaf to leaf; ’tis sweet to view on high
	The rainbow, based on ocean, span the sky.

329

	To aid thy mind’s development to watch
	Thy dawn of little joys, to sit and see
	Almost thy very growth, to view thee catch
	Knowledge of objects—wonders yet to thee!
	To hold thee lightly on a gentle knee,
	And print on thy soft cheek a parent’s kiss.

330

	To no men are such cordial greetings given
	As those whose wives have made them fit for heaven.

331

	To the mind,
	Which is itself, no changes bring surprise.

332

	To what gulfs
	A single deviation from the track
	Of human duties leads!

333

	’Twas a public feast and public day—
	Quite full, right dull, guests hot, and dishes cold,
	Great plenty, much formality, small cheer,
	And everybody out of their own sphere.

334

	’Twas strange—in youth all action and all life,
	Burning for pleasure, not averse from strife;
	Woman—the field—the ocean—all that gave
	Promise of gladness, peril of a grave,
	In turn he tried—he ransack’d all below,
	And found his recompense in joy or woe,
	No tame trite medium; for his feelings sought
	In that intenseness an escape from thought:
	The tempest of his heart in scorn had gazed
	On that the feebler elements hath rais’d;
	The rapture of his heart had look’d on high,
	And ask’d if greater dwelt beyond the sky:
	Chain’d to excess, the slave of such extreme,
	How woke he from the wildness of that dream,
	Alas! he told not—but he did awake
	To curse the wither’d heart that would not break.

335

	’Twas twilight, and the sunless day went down
	Over the waste of waters; like a veil,
	Which, if withdrawn, would but disclose the frown
	Of one whose hate is masked but to assail.

336

	’Twere vain to speak, to weep, to sigh;
	Oh, more than tears of blood can tell
	When wrung from guilt’s expiring eye,
	Are in the word farewell—farewell.

337

	Tyranny
	Is far the worst of treasons. Dost thou deem
	None rebels except subjects? The prince who
	Neglects or violates his trust is more
	A brigand than the robber-chief.

338

	Upon her face there was the tint of grief,
	The settled shadow of an inward strife,
	And an unquiet drooping of the eye,
	As if its lid were charged with unshed tears.

339

	Venice once was dear,
	The pleasant place of all festivity,
	The revel of the earth, the masque of Italy.

340

	War’s a brain-spattering, windpipe-slitting art,
	Unless her cause by right be sanctified.

341

	We two parted
	In silence and tears,
	Half broken-hearted
	To sever for years.

342

	We will renew the times of peace and justice,
	Condensing in a fair free commonwealth;
	Not rash equality, but equal rights,
	Proportion’d like the columns of the temple
	Giving and taking strength reciprocal,
	And making firm the whole with grace and beauty;
	So that no part could be removed without
	Infringement of the general symmetry.

343

	Well, well, the world must turn upon its axis,
	And all mankind turn with it, heads or tails,
	And live and die, make love and pay our taxes,
	And as the veering winds shift, shift our sails.

344

	Were ’t the last drop in the well,
	As I gasp’d upon the brink,
	Ere my fainting spirit fell,
	’Tis to thee that I would drink.

345

	What a strange thing is man! and what a stranger
	Is woman! What a whirlwind is her head,
	And what a whirlpool full of depth and danger
	Is all the rest about her.

346

	What boots the oft-repeated tale of strife,
	The feast of vultures, and the waste of life?
	The varying fortune of each separate field,
	The fierce that vanquish, and the faint that yield?
	The smoking ruin and the crumbled wall?
	In this the struggle was the same with all.

347

	What deep wounds ever closed without a scar?
	The heart’s bleed longest, and but heal to wear
	That which disfigures it.

348

	What exile from himself can flee?
	To zones, though more and more remote,
	Still, still pursues, where’er I be,
	The blight of life—the demon Thought.

349

	What gem hath dropp’d and sparkles o’er his chain?
	The tear most sacred, shed for other’s pain,
	That starts at once—bright—pure—from pity’s mine,
	Already polish’d by the Hand Divine.

350

	What is the worst of woes that wait on age?
	What stamps the wrinkle deeper on the brow?
	To view each loved one blotted from life’s page,
	And be alone on earth as I am now.

351

	What of them is left, to tell
	Where they lie, and how they fell?
	Not a stone on their turf, nor a bone in their graves:
	But they live in the Verse that immortally saves.

352

	Whatsoe’er thy birth,
	Thou wert a beautiful thought and softly bodied forth.

353

	When dinner has oppress’d one,
	I think it is perhaps the gloomiest hour
	Which turns up out of the sad twenty-four.

354

	When falls the Coliseum, Rome shall fall;
	And when Rome falls—the world.

355

	When friendship or love our sympathies move,
	When truth in a glance should appear,
	The lips may beguile with a dimple or smile,
	But the test of affection’s a tear.

356

	When knaves and fools combin’d o’er all prevail,
	When justice halts, and right begins to fail,
	E’en then the boldest start from public sneers,
	Afraid of shame—unknown to other fears.
	More darkly sin, by satire kept in awe,
	And shrink from ridicule, though not from law.

357

	When Youth and Pleasure meet
	To chase the glowing Hours with flying feet.

358

	Where is honor,
	Innate and precept-strengthen’d, ’tis the rock
	Of faith connubial: where it is not—where
	Light thoughts are lurking, or the vanities
	Of worldly pleasure rankle in the heart,
	Or sensual throbs convulse it.

359

	“Where is the world?” cries Young, at eighty. “Where
	The world in which a man was born?” Alas!
	Where is the world of eight years past? ’Twas there—
	I look for it—’tis gone, a globe of glass
	Cracked, shivered, vanished, scarcely gazed on ere
	A silent change dissolves the glittering mass.
	Statesmen, chiefs, orators, queens, patriots, kings,
	And dandies, all are gone on the wind’s wings.

360

	Who doth not feel, until his failing sight
	Faints into dimness with its own delight,
	His changing cheek, his sinking heart confess,
	The might—the majesty of Loveliness?

361

	Who falls from all he knows of bliss,
	Cares little into what abyss.

362

	Whose game was empires, and whose stakes were thrones;
	Whose table earth, whose dice were human bones.

363

	With common men
	There needs too oft the show of war to keep
	The substance of sweet peace, and for a king,
	’Tis sometimes better to be fear’d than lov’d.

364

	With eyes that look’d into the very soul—
	* * * * *
	Bright—and as black and burning as a coal.

365

	Wives in their husbands’ absences grow subtler,
	And daughters sometimes run off with the butler.

366

	Words are things; and a small drop of ink,
	Falling like dew upon a thought, produces
	That which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think.

367

	Would you teach her to love?
	For a time seem to rove;
	At first she may frown in a pet;
	But leave her awhile,
	She shortly will smile,
	And then you may win your coquette.

368

	Ye glorious Gothic scenes! how much ye strike
	All phantasies, not even excepting mine:
	A gray wall, a green ruin, rusty pike,
	Make my soul pass the equinoctial line
	Between the present and past worlds, and hover
	Upon their airy confines, half-seas over.

369

	Ye stars! which are the poetry of heaven,
	If in your bright leaves we would read the fate
	Of men and empires,—’tis to be forgiven,
	That in our aspirations to be great,
	Our destinies o’erleap their mortal state,
	And claim a kindred with you; for ye are
	A beauty and a mystery, and create
	In us such love and reverence from afar,
	That fortune, fame, power, life, have named themselves a star.

370

	Years have not seen, Time shall not see,
	The hour that tears my soul from thee.

371

	Years steal
	Fire from the mind, as vigour from the limb;
	And life’s enchanted cup but sparkles near the brim.

372

	Yes—it was love—if thoughts of tenderness,
	Tried in temptation, strengthen’d by distress,
	Unmov’d by absence, firm in every clime,
	And yet—oh more than all! untired by time,
	Which nor defeated hope, nor baffled wile,
	Could render sullen were she near to smile,
	Nor rage could fire, nor sickness fret to vent
	On her one murmur of his discontent;
	Which still would meet with joy, with calmness part,
	Lest that his look of grief should reach her heart;
	Which nought removed, nor menaced to remove—
	If there be love in mortals—this was love!

373

	Yes—the same sin that overthrew the angels,
	And of all sins most easily besets
	Mortals the nearest to the angelic nature:
	The vile are only vain; the great are proud.

374

	“Yet doth he live!” exclaims th’ impatient heir,
	And sighs for sables which he must not wear.

375

	Yet he was jealous, though he did not show it,
	For jealousy dislikes the world to know it.

376

	Yet still there whispers the small voice within,
	Heard thro’ gain’s silence, and o’er glory’s din;
	Whatever creed be taught or land be trod,
	Man’s conscience is the oracle of God!

377

	Yet, it is love—if thoughts of tenderness,
	Tried in temptation, strengthened by distress,
	Unmov’d by absence, firm in every clime,
	And yet—oh! more than all!—untir’d by time.

378

	Yon sun that sets upon the sea
	We follow in his flight;
	Farewell awhile to him and thee,
	My native Land—Good-night!

379

	Your thief looks
	Exactly like the rest, or rather better;
	’Tis only at the bar, and in the dungeon,
	That wise men know your felon by his features.

380

A change came o’er the spirit of my dream.

381

A drop of ink may make a million think.

382

A gilded halo hovering round decay.

383

A long, long kiss, a kiss of youth, and love.

384

A pretty woman is a welcome guest.

385

A quill hath proved the noblest gift to man.

386

A rose with all its sweetest leaves yet folded.

387

A schoolboy’s tale, the wonder of an hour!

388

A thousand years scarce serves to form a State; an hour may lay it in the dust.

389

Adversity is the first path to truth.

390

Age shakes Athena’s tower, but spares gray Marathon.

391

Ah! happy years! once more who would not be a boy!

392

Ah! surely nothing dies but something mourns.

393

Alas! the breast that inly bleeds has nought to fear from outward blow.

394

Alas! there is no instinct like the heart!

395

All is to be feared where all is to be lost.

396

All our advantages are those of fortune; birth, wealth, health, beauty, are her accidents; and when we cry out against fate, it were well we should remember fortune can take naught save what she gave.

397

Ambiguous things that ape goats in their visage, women in their shape.

398

Among them, but not of them.

399

And both were young, and one was beautiful.

400

And mammon wins his way where seraphs might despair.

401

And not a breath crept through the rosy air, and yet the forest leaves seemed stirred with prayer.

402

And the whole world would henceforth be a wider prison unto me.

403

And they were canopied by the blue sky, so cloudless, clear, and purely beautiful, that God alone was to be seen in heaven.

404

And whispering, “I will ne’er consent”—consented.

405

As twilight melts beneath the moon away.

406

Away! we know that tears are vain, that death ne’er heeds nor hears distress.

407

Battle’s magnificently stern array!

408

Be thou the rainbow to the storms of life! the evening beam that smiles the clouds away and tints to-morrow with prophetic ray!

409

Beautiful spirit, with thy hair of light and dazzling eyes of glory!

410

Before decay’s effacing fingers have swept the lines where beauty lingers.

411

Blood only serves to wash Ambition’s hands.

412

Born to be ploughed with years, and sown with cares, and reaped by Death, lord of the human soil.

413

But quiet to quick bosoms is a hell.

414

But still her lips refused to say, farewell; for in that word, that fatal word, howe’er we promise, hope, believe, there breathes despair.

415

By satire kept in awe, shrink from ridicule, though not from law.

416

Cervantes smiled Spain’s chivalry away.

417

Circumstance, that unspiritual god and miscreator, makes and helps along our coming evils.

418

Cleverness and cunning are incompatible.

419

Constant thought will overflow in words unconsciously.

420

Danger levels man and brute, and all are fellows in their need.

421

Dead scandals form good subjects for dissection.

422

Dead! God, how much there is in that little word!

423

Decayed in thy glory and sunk in thy worth.

424

Deep in my shut and silent heart.

425

Despair defies even despotism; there is that in my heart would make its way through hosts with leveled spears.

426

Eden revives in the first kiss of love.

427

Ennui is a growth of English root, though nameless in our language.

428

Eternity forbids thee to forget.

429

Every fool describes in these bright days his wondrous journey to some foreign court, and spawns his quarto, and demands your praise.

430

Experience has taught me that the only friends we can call our own, who can have no change, are those over whom the grave has closed; the seal of death is the only seal of friendship.

431

Experience, that chill touchstone whose sad proof reduces all things from their hue.

432

Fame is the thirst of youth.

433

Flowers whose wild odors breathe but agonies.

434

Folly loves the martyrdom of fame.

435

Fools are my theme, let satire be my song.

436

For violets plucked, the sweetest showers will ne’er make grow again.

437

Formed of two mighty tribes, the bores and bored.

438

Friendship is love without his wings!

439

Glory long has made the sages smile; ’tis something, nothing, words, illusion, wind.

440

Gone, glimmering through the dream of things that were.

441

Half dust, half deity, alike unfit to sink or soar.

442

He makes a solitude and calls it peace!

443

He who is only just is cruel.

444

He who surpasses or subdues mankind must look down on the hate of those below.

445

Heart on her lip and soul within her eyes.

446

Heaven gives its favorites early death.

447

Heaven in sunshine will requite the kind.

448

Her lips, whose kisses pout to leave their nest.

449

Her stature tall—I hate a dumpy woman.

450

Hide thy tears,—I do not bid thee not to shed them,—it were easier to stop Euphrates at its source than one tear of a true and tender heart.

451

His bold brow bears but the scars of mind, the thoughts of years, not their decrepitude.

452

His heart was one of those which most enamours us—wax to receive, and marble to retain.

453

How peaceful and how powerful is the grave!

454

How the giant element from rock to rock leaps with delirious bound!

455

I awoke one morning and found myself famous.

456

I loathe that low vice, curiosity.

457

I should have known what fruit would spring from such a seed.

458

Immortality o’ersweeps all pains, all tears, all time, all fears, and peals, like the eternal thunder of the deep, into my ears this truth: Thou livest forever!

459

In aught that tries the heart, how few withstand the proof.

460

In her first passion, woman loves her lover; in all the others, all she loves is love.

461

In her starry shade of dim and solitary loveliness, I learn the language of another world.

462

In solitude, where we are least alone.

463

In that corroding secrecy which gnaws the heart to show the effect, but not the cause.

464

In woman’s eye the unanswerable tear.

465

It is solitude should teach us how to die.

466

It is strange, but true; for truth is always strange, stranger than fiction.

467

It is to be hoped that, with all the modern improvements, a mode will be discovered of getting rid of bores; for it is too bad that a poor wretch can be punished for stealing your pocket-handkerchief or gloves, and that no punishment can be inflicted on those who steal your time, and with it your temper and patience, as well as the bright thoughts that might have entered into your mind (like the Irishman who lost the fortune before he had got it), but were frightened away by the bore.

468

“Kiss” rhymes to “bliss” in fact, as well as verse.

469

Know ye not who would be free themselves must strike the blow? by their right arms the conquest must be wrought?

470

Knowledge is not happiness, and science but an exchange of ignorance for that which is another kind of ignorance.

471

Lord of himself,—that heritage of woe!

472

Love has made its best interpreter a sigh.

473

Love is old, old as eternity, but not outworn; with each new being born or to be born.

474

Mammon wins his way where seraphs might despair.

475

Man’s conscience is the oracle of God!

476

Many a withering thought lies hid, not lost, in smiles that least befit those who wear them most.

477

Melancholy is a fearful gift. What is it but the telescope of truth!

478

Melancholy spreads itself betwixt heaven and earth, like envy between man and man, and is an everlasting mist.

479

Men are the sport of circumstances, when circumstances seem the sport of men.

480

Men love in haste, but they detest at leisure.

481

Methinks a being that is beautiful becometh more so as it looks on beauty, the eternal beauty of undying things.

482

Might shake the saintship of an anchorite.

483

Music arose with its voluptuous swell.

484

My native land, good-night!

485

Next to dressing for a rout or ball, undressing is a woe.

486

Night’s sepulchre.

487

No hand can make the clock strike for me the hours that are passed.

488

None are all evil.

489

O Rome! my country! city of the soul!

490

Oh for a forty-parson power!

491

Oh! Nature’s noblest gift—my gray-goose quill!

492

One hates an author that is all author; fellows in foolscap uniform turned up with ink.

493

One last long sigh to love and thee, then back to busy life again.

494

Parent of golden dreams—romance!

495

Passion raves herself to rest, or flies.

496

Prolonged endurance tames the bold.

497

Put himself upon his good behavior.

498

Ready money is Aladdin’s lamp.

499

Revenge is lost in agony, and remorse to rage succeeds.

500

Scandal has something so piquant, it is a sort of cayenne to the mind.

501

She turned to him and smiled, but in that sort which makes not others smile.

502

She was a good deal shocked,—not shocked at tears, for women shed and use them at their liking.

503

Skilled by a touch to deepen scandal’s tints with all the high mendacity of hints.

504

Sleep hath its own world, a boundary between the things misnamed death and existence.

505

Slight withal may be the things which bring back on the heart the weight which it would fling aside forever.

506

So let them ease their hearts with prate of equal rights, which man never knew.

507

So writhes the mind remorse hath riven.

508

Solitude has but one disadvantage—it is apt to give one too high an opinion of one’s self. In the world we are sure to be often reminded of every known or supposed defect we may have.

509

Soon or late love is his own avenger.

510

Sorrow is knowledge; they who know thee most must mourn the deepest over the fatal truth, the tree of knowledge is not that of life.

511

Striking the electric chain wherewith we are darkly bound.

512

Such partings break the heart they fondly hope to heal.

513

Suspicion is a heavy armor, and with its own weight impedes more than protects.

514

Sweet is revenge—especially to women.

515

Sweetest memorial, the first kiss of love.

516

That curse shall be—forgiveness!

517

The best of prophets of the future is the past.

518

The bloom or blight of all men’s happiness.

519

The busy have no time for tears.

520

The deceptions which the two sexes play off upon each other bring as many ill-sorted couples into the bonds of Hymen as ever could be done by the arbitrary pairing of a legal matchmaker.

521

The dew of compassion is a tear.

522

The dewy morn, with breath all incense and with cheek all bloom.

523

The dome of Thought, the palace of the Soul.

524

The drying up a single tear has more of honest fame than shedding seas of gore.

525

The feast of vultures, and the waste of life.

526

The heart will break, yet broken live on.

527

The light of love, the purity of grace, the mind, the music, breathing in her face.

528

The madness of the heart.

529

The many still must labor for the one! It is nature’s doom.

530

The mind, the music breathing from her face.

531

The night shows stars and women in a better light.

532

The nightingale, their only vesper-bell, sung sweetly to the rose the day’s farewell.

533

The only pleasure of fame is that it proves the way to pleasure; and the more intellectual our pleasure, the better for the pleasure and for us too.

534

The parted bosom clings to wonted home, if aught that’s kindred cheer the welcome hearth.

535

The poetry of speech.

536

The power of thought—the magic of the mind.

537

The precious porcelain of human clay.

538

The ship from Ceylon, Inde, or far Cathay, unloads for him the fragrant produce of each trip.

539

The starlight dews all silently their tears of love instill.

540

The tocsin of the soul—the dinner bell!

541

The truly brave are soft of heart and eyes, and feel for what their duty bids them do.

542

The truth in masquerade.

543

There comes forever something between us and what we deem our happiness.

544

There is a very life in our despair.

545

There is music in all things, if men had ears.

546

There is no future pang can deal that justice on the self-condemned he deals on his own soul.

547

There is no god but God!—to prayer—lo! God is great!

548

There is no sterner moralist than pleasure.

549

There is no traitor like him whose domestic treason plants the poniard within the breast which trusted to his truth.

550

There is not a joy the world can give like that it takes away.

551

There should always be some foundation of fact for the most airy fabric; and pure invention is but the talent of a deceiver.

552

These blasted pines, wrecks of a single winter, barkless, branchless, a blighted trunk upon a cursed root.

553

They truly mourn that mourn without a witness.

554

Think not I am what I appear.

555

Thou more than stone of the philosopher!

556

Thou pendulum betwixt a smile and tear.

557

Thou true magnetic pole, to which all hearts point duly north, like trembling needles!

558

Though fame is smoke, its fumes are frankincense to human thoughts.

559

Thus ever fade my fairy dreams of bliss.

560

Time, the corrector when our judgments err, the test of truth and love; sole philosopher, for all besides are sophists.

561

’T is a base abandonment of reason to resign our right of thought.

562

’Tis sweet to hear the watchdog’s honest bark bay deep-mouthed welcome as we draw near home.

563

’Tis sweet to know there is an eye will mark our coming, and look brighter when we come.

564

To fly from, need not be to hate, mankind; all are not fit with them to stir and toil.

565

To pass their lives on fountains and on flowers, and never know the weight of human hours.

566

To sanction vice and hunt decorum down.

567

To what gulfs a single deviation from the track of human duties leads!

568

Truth is a gem that is found at a great depth; whilst on the surface of this world all things are weighed by the false scale of custom.

569

Tully was not so eloquent as thou, thou nameless column with the buried base.

570

Vice, that digs her own voluptuous tomb!

571

Voluptuous as the first approach of sleep.

572

War, war is still the cry; “War even to the knife!”

573

We ne’er forget, tho’ there we are forgot.

574

What careth she for hearts when once possessed?

575

What exile from himself can flee?

576

What is the end of fame? it is but to fill a certain portion of uncertain paper.

577

When all is past, it is humbling to tread o’er the weltering field of the tombless dead.

578

When Youth and Pleasure meet to chase the glowing hours with flying feet.

579

Where are the forms the sculptor’s soul hath seized? In him alone. Can nature show as fair?

580

Where there is mystery, it is generally supposed that there must also be evil.

581

Who falls from all he knows of bliss, cares little into what abyss.

582

Who listens once will listen twice; her heart be sure is not of ice, and one refusal no rebuff.

583

Who upon earth could live were all judged justly?

584

Whom the gods love die young, was said of yore.

585

Wisdom, knowledge, power,—all combined.

586

With just enough of learning to misquote.

587

With pleasure dragged he almost longed for woe.

588

Ye stars! which are the poetry of heaven.

589

Years steal fire from the mind as vigor from the limb.

590

Yes, Honor decks the turf that wraps their clay.

591

You have greatly ventured, but all must do so who would greatly win.

592

CONTENTS · BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

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