HANDY DICTIONARY

OF

POETICAL QUOTATIONS

COMPILED BY

GEORGE W. POWERS

AUTHOR OF "IMPORTANT EVENTS," ETC.

NEW YORK

THOMAS Y. CROWELL & CO.

PUBLISHERS

1901

BY T.Y. CROWELL & COMPANY.

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Henry W. Longfellow

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Table of Contents

[Transcriber's note: The original text did not contain a table of contents. It has been added for the reader's convenience.]

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PREFACE.

It has been the aim of the compiler of this little book to present a Dictionary of Poetical Quotations which will be a ready reference to many of the most familiar stanzas and lines of the chief poets of the English language, with a few selections from Continental writers; and also some less familiar selections from more modern poets, which may in time become classic, or which at least have a contemporary interest. Readers of English literature are aware that the few great poets of our language have struck perhaps every chord of human sentiment capable of illustration in verse, and even these few have borrowed the ideas, and sometimes almost the exact words, of predecessors or contemporaries.

But often old ideas in a new dress are welcome to readers who might not have been attracted by the old forms; and each generation has its peculiar modes of expression if not its new lines of thought. It is hoped that this mingling of the old and the new will not be without interest. To carry out the plan of making this a "handy" dictionary of quotations and, at the same time, as comprehensive as the space permitted, it has been necessary to confine the illustration of the topics selected to brief extracts from each author. Of course, in all books of quotations the great name of Shakespeare fills the largest space; and the compiler of this book, as well as all students of Shakespeare, is under obligation to the painstaking compilers of the concordances to this poet, and especially to Mr. Bartlett's monumental work. To many other compilers of quotations, especially to the Poetical Quotations of Anna L. Ward (published by Messrs. T.Y. Crowell & Co.), the author is under obligations; while he has made an independent examination of the more recent poets, as well as many of the older ones. The topics illustrated number 2138, selected from the writings of 255 authors. The indexes, which will be found full and complete, were prepared by Mrs. Grace E. Powers, who has also rendered valuable assistance in preparing the copy for the press and in reading the proofs.

G.W.P.

DORCHESTER, MASS., July, 1901.

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id="QUOTATIONS"/>

HANDY DICTIONARY OF POETICAL

QUOTATIONS.

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It, Act ii., Sc. 1.

A wretched soul, bruis'd with adversity,
We bid be quiet, when we hear it cry;
But were we burthen'd with like weight of pain,
As much, or more, we should ourselves complain.
38
SHAKS.: Com. of Errors, Act ii., Sc. 1.

I am not now in fortune's power:
He that is down can fall no lower.
39
BUTLER: Hudibras, Pt. i., Canto iii., Line 877.

For of fortunes sharpe adversite,
The worst kind of infortune is this,—
A man that hath been is prosperite,
And it remember whan it passed is.
40
CHAUCER: Troilus and Creseide, Bk. iii., Line 1625.


Advice.

Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice;
Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment.
41
SHAKS.: Hamlet, Act i., Sc. 3.

Know when to speak—for many times it brings
Danger, to give the best advice to kings.
42
HERRICK: Aph. Caution in Council.

The worst men often give the best advice.
43
BAILEY Festus, Sc. A Village Feast.

'Twas good advice, and meant, my son, Be good.
44
CRABBE: The Learned Boy.


Affectation.

There affectation, with a sickly mien,
Shows in her cheek the roses of eighteen;
Practis'd to lisp, and hang the head aside;
Faints into airs, and languishes with pride;
On the rich quilt sinks with becoming woe,
Wrapt in a gown, for sickness, and for show.
45
POPE: R. of the Lock, Canto iv., Line 31.


Affection.

Why, she would hang on him,
As if increase of appetite had grown
By what it fed on.
46
SHAKS.: Hamlet, Act i., Sc. 2.

Affection is a coal that must be cool'd,
Else, suffer'd, it will set the heart on fire.
47
SHAKS.: Venus and A., Line 387.


Affliction.

Affliction is the good man's shining scene;
Prosperity conceals his brightest ray;
As night to stars, woe lustre gives to man.
48
YOUNG: Night Thoughts, Night ix., Line 406.

Now let us thank the Eternal Power: convinced
That Heaven but tries our virtue by affliction.
49
JOHN BROWN: Barbarossa, Act v., Sc. 3.


Affronts.

Young men soon give and soon forget affronts;
Old age is slow in both.
50
ADDISON: Cato, Act ii., Sc. 5.


Age.

When the age is in, the wit is out.
51
SHAKS.: Much Ado, Act iii., Sc. 5

His silver hairs
Will purchase us a good opinion,
And buy men's voices to commend our deeds;
It shall be said,—his judgment rul'd our hands.
52
SHAKS.: Jul. Cæsar, Act ii., Sc. 1.

Manhood, when verging into age, grows thoughtful.
53
CAPEL LOFFT'S Aphorisms. Published in 1812.

I am declin'd into the vale of years.
54
SHAKS.: Othello, Act iii., Sc. 3.

Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale
Her infinite variety; other women
Cloy th' appetites they feed; but she makes hungry
Where most she satisfies.
55
SHAKS.: Ant. and Cleo., Act ii., Sc. 2.

An old man, broken with the storms of State,
Is come to lay his weary bones among ye;
Give him a little earth for charity!
56
SHAKS.: Henry VIII., Act iv., Sc. 2.

We see time's furrows on another's brow...
How few themselves in that just mirror see!
57
YOUNG: Night Thoughts, Night v., Line 627.

O, sir! I must not tell my age.
They say women and music should never be dated.
58
GOLDSMITH: She Stoops to Con., Act iii.

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.
59
BYRON: Ch. Harold, Canto ii., St. 98.

Old age comes on apace to ravage all the clime.
60
BEATTIE: The Minstrel, Bk. i., St. 25.

But an old age serene and bright,
And lovely as a Lapland night,
Shall lead thee to thy grave.
61
WORDSWORTH: To a Young Lady.


Agony.

A solitary shriek, the bubbling cry
Of some strong swimmer in his agony.
62
BYRON: Don Juan, Canto ii., St. 53.


Agreement.

Could we forbear dispute and practise love,
We should agree as angels do above.
63
WALLER: Divine Love, Canto iii.

Where order in variety we see,
And where, though all things differ, all agree.
64
POPE: Windsor Forest, Line 13.


Aim.

Better have failed in the high aim, as I,
Than vulgarly in the low aim succeed.
65
ROBERT BROWNING: The Inn Album, iv.


Air.

When he speaks,
The air, a chartered libertine, is still
66
SHAKS.: Henry V., Act i., Sc. 1.


Alacrity.

I have a kind of alacrity in sinking.
67
SHAKS.: Mer. W. of W., Act iii., Sc. 5.


Ale.

Then to the spicy nut-brown ale.
68
MILTON: L'Allegro, Line 100.

A Rechabite poor Will must live,
And drink of Adam's ale.
69
PRIOR: The Wandering Pilgrim.


Alexandrine.

A needless Alexandrine ends the song,
That, like a wounded snake, drags its slow length along.
70
POPE: E. on Criticism, Pt. ii., Line 156.


Alone.

Alone, alone,—all, all alone;
Alone on a wide, wide sea.
71
COLERIDGE: The Ancient Mariner, Pt. iv.


Amazement.

But look! Amazement on thy mother sits;
O step between her and her fighting soul:
Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works.
72
SHAKS.: Hamlet, Act iii., Sc. 4.


Amber.

Pretty! in amber to observe the forms
Of hairs, or straws, or dirt, or grubs, or worms!
The things, we know, are neither rich nor rare,
But wonder how the devil they got there.
73
POPE: Epis. to Arbuthnot, Line 169.


Ambition.

Fling away ambition;
By that sin fell the angels: how can man then,
The image of his Maker, hope to win by it?
74
SHAKS.: Henry VIII., Act iii, Sc. 2.

I have no spur
To prick the sides of my intent, but only
Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself,
And falls on the other.
75
SHAKS.: Macbeth, Act i, Sc. 7.

Ambition has but one reward for all:
A little power, a little transient fame,
A grave to rest in, and a fading name.
76
WILLIAM WINTER: Queen's Domain.

To reign is worth ambition, though in hell:
Better to reign in hell, than serve in heaven.
77

MILTON: Par. Lost, Bk. i., Line 262.

Such joy ambition finds.
78
MILTON: Par. Lost, Bk. iv., Line 92.


America.

America! half brother of the world!
With something good and bad of every land;
Greater than thee have lost their seat—
Greater scarce none can stand.
79
BAILEY: Festus, Sc. The Surface.


Anarchy.

Where eldest Night
And Chaos, ancestors of Nature, hold
Eternal anarchy amidst the noise
Of endless wars, and by confusion stand.
80
MILTON: Par. Lost, Bk. ii., Line 894.


Ancestry.

The sap which at the root is bred
In trees, through all the boughs is spread;
But virtues which in parents shine
Make not like progress through the line.
81
WALLER: To Zelinda.

What can ennoble sots, or slaves, or cowards?
Alas! not all the blood of all the Howards.
82
POPE: Essay on Man, Epis. iv., Line 215.


Angels.

Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
83
POPE: E. on Criticism, Pt. iii., Line 66.

The angels come and go, the messengers of God.
84
R.H. STODDARD: Hymn to the Beautiful.

The good he scorn'd
Stalk'd off reluctant, like an ill-used ghost,
Not to return; or if it did, in visits
Like those of angels, short and far between.
85
BLAIR: The Grave, Pt. ii., Line 586.


Anger.

Anger's my meat; I sup upon myself,
And so shall starve with feeding.
86
SHAKS.: Coriolanus, Act iv., Sc. 2.

Never anger made good guard for itself.
87
SHAKS.: Ant. and Cleo., Act iv., Sc. 1.


Angling.

The pleasant'st angling is to see the fish
Cut with her golden oars the silver stream,
And greedily devour the treacherous bait.
88
SHAKS.: Much Ado, Act iii., Sc. 1.

'Twas merry when
You wager'd on your angling; when your diver
Did hang a salt-fish on his hook, which he
With fervency drew up.
89
SHAKS.: Ant. and Cleo., Act ii., Sc. 5.


Anticipation.

Peace, brother, be not over-exquisite
To cast the fashion of uncertain evils;
For, grant they be so, while they rest unknown,
What need a man forestall his date of grief,
And run to meet what he would most avoid?
90
MILTON: Comus, Line 359.


Antiquity.

O good old man! how well in thee appears
The constant service of the antique world,
When service sweat for duty, not for meed!
Thou art not for the fashion of these times,
Where none will sweat, but for promotion.
91
SHAKS.: As You Like It, Act ii., Sc. 3.

Nor rough, nor barren, are the winding ways
Of hoar antiquity, but strewn with flowers.
92
WARTON: Written on a Blank Leaf of Dugdale's Monasticon.


Apathy.

In lazy apathy let stoics boast
Their virtue fix'd; 'tis fixed as in a frost.
93
POPE: Essay on Man, Epis. ii., Line 101.


Apparel.

Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
But not expressed in fancy; rich, not gaudy:
For the apparel oft proclaims the man.
94
SHAKS.: Hamlet, Act i., Sc. 3.


Apparitions.

How fading are the joys we dote upon!
Like apparitions seen and gone.
95
JOHN NORRIS: The Parting.


Appeal.

I have done the state some service, and they know it.
No more of that; I pray you in your letters,
When you shall these unlucky deeds relate,
Speak of me as I am, nothing extenuate,
Nor set down aught in malice.
96
SHAKS.: Othello, Act v., Sc. 2.


Appearances.

All that glisters is not gold,
Gilded tombs do worms infold.
97
SHAKS.: M. of Venice, Act ii., Sc. 7.

Appearances to save, his only care;
So things seem right no matter what they are.
98
CHURCHILL: Rosciad, Line 299.


Appetite.

Now good digestion wait on appetite,
And health on both.
99
SHAKS.: Macbeth, Act iii., Sc. 4.

His thirst he slakes at some pure neighboring brook,
Nor seeks for sauce where appetite stands cook.
100
CHURCHILL: Gotham, iii., Line 133.


Applause.

I would applaud thee to the very echo,
That should applaud again.
101
SHAKS.: Macbeth, Act v., Sc. 3

Oh popular applause! what heart of man
Is proof against thy sweet, seducing charms?
102
COWPER: Task, Bk. ii., Line 481.

The applause of list'ning senates to command.
103
GRAY: Elegy, St. 16


April.

Whanne that Aprille with his shoures sote
The droughte of March hath perced to the rote.
104
CHAUCER: Canterbury Tales, Prologue, Line 1.

April cold with dropping rain
Willows and lilacs brings again,
The whistle of returning birds,
And trumpet-lowing of the herds.
105
EMERSON: May-day, Line 124.

When aince Aprile has fairly come,
An' birds may bigg in winter's lum,
An' pleisure's spreid for a' and some
O' whatna state,
Love, wi' her auld recruitin' drum,
Than taks the gate.
106
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON: Underwoods, Bk. ii., iii.


Argument.

In arguing, too, the parson owned his skill,
For e'en though vanquish'd, he could argue still.
107
GOLDSMITH: Des. Village, Line 211


Aristocracy.

'Tis from high life high characters drawn;
A saint in crape is twice a saint in lawn.
108
POPE: Moral Essays, Epis. i., Line 135.


Art.

Seraphs share with thee
Knowledge: But art, O man, is thine alone!
109
SCHILLER: Artists, St 2.

Art is the child of Nature; yes,
Her darling child, in whom we trace
The features of the mother's face,
Her aspect and her attitude.
110
LONGFELLOW: Kéramos.


Artist.

In framing an artist, art hath thus decreed,
To make some good, but others to exceed.
111
SHAKS.: Pericles, Act ii., Sc. 3.


Aspect.

With grave
Aspect he rose, and in his rising seem'd
A pillar of state.
112
MILTON: Par. Lost, Bk. ii., Line 300.


Aspiration.

'Tis he, I ken the manner of his gait;
He rises on the toe; that spirit of his
In aspiration lifts him from the earth.
113
SHAKS.: Troil. and Cress., Act iv., Sc. 5.


Assurance.

I'll make assurance double sure,
And take a bond of fate.
114
SHAKS.:

Macbeth, Act iv., Sc. 1.


Atheism.

By night an atheist half believes a God.
115
YOUNG: Night Thoughts, Night v., Line 176.


Athens.

Ancient of days! august Athena! where,
Where are thy men of might, thy grand in soul?
Gone—glimmering through the dream of things that were
First in the race that led to glory's goals
They won, and pass'd away.
116
BYRON: Ch. Harold, Canto ii., St. 2.

Athens, the eye of Greece, mother of arts
And eloquence.
117
MILTON: Par. Regained, Bk. iv., Line 240.


Attempt.

The attempt and not the deed
Confounds us.
118
SHAKS.: Macbeth, Act ii., Sc. 2.


Attention.

The tongues of dying men
Enforce attention like deep harmony.
119
SHAKS.: Richard II., Act ii., Sc. 1.


Audience.

Still govern thou my song,
Urania, and fit audience find, though few.
120
MILTON: Par. Lost, Bk. vii., Line 30,


August.

Rejoice! ye fields, rejoice! and wave with gold,
When August round her precious gifts is flinging;
Lo! the crushed wain is slowly homeward rolled:
The sunburnt reapers jocund lays are singing.
121
RUSKIN: The Months.


Aurora.

Aurora now, fair daughter of the dawn,
Sprinkled with rosy light the dewy lawn.
122
POPE: Iliad, Bk. viii., Line 1.


Author.

Most authors steal their works, or buy;
Garth did not write his own Dispensary,
123
POPE: E. on Criticism, Pt. iii., Line 59.

No author ever spar'd a brother.
124
GAY: Fables, The Elephant and the Bookseller.

How many great ones may remember'd be,
Which in their days most famously did flourish,
Of whom no word we hear, nor sign now see,
But as things wip'd out with a sponge do perish.
125
SPENSER: Ruins of Time, St. 52.


Authority.

Man, proud man,
Drest in a little brief authority,
Most ignorant of what he's most assur'd,
His glassy essence—like an angry ape,
Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven
As make the angels weep!
126
SHAKS.: M. for M., Act ii., Sc. 2.


Autumn.

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness!
Close bosom friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With, fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run;
To bend with apples the moss'd cottage trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core.
127
KEATS: To Autumn.

Divinest autumn! who may paint thee best,
Forever changeful o'er the changeful globe?
Who guess thy certain crown, thy favorite crest,
The fashion of thy many-colored robe?
128
R.H. STODDARD: Autumn.

Autumn wins you best by this its mute
Appeal to sympathy for its decay.
129
ROBERT BROWNING: Paracelsus, Sc. i.

The lands are lit
With all the autumn blaze of Golden Rod;
And everywhere the Purple Asters nod
And bend and wave and flit.
130
HELEN HUNT: Asters and Golden Rod.

I saw old Autumn in the misty morn
Stand shadowless like silence, listening
To silence, for no lonely bird would sing
Into his hollow ear from woods forlorn,
Nor lowly hedge nor solitary thorn.
131
HOOD: Autumn.


Avarice.

The lust of gold succeeds the rags of conquest:
The lust of gold, unfeeling and remorseless!
The last corruption of degenerate man.
132
DR. JOHNSON: Irene, Act i., Sc. 1.

So for a good old-gentlemanly vice,
I think I must take up with avarice.
133
BYRON: Don Juan, Canto i., St. 216.

That disease
Of which all old men sicken,—avarice.
134
MIDDLETON: Roaring Girl, Act i., Sc. 1.


Awkwardness.

Awkward, embarrassed, stiff, without the skill
Of moving gracefully, or standing still,
One leg, as if suspicious of his brother,
Desirous seems to run away from t'other.
135
CHURCHILL: Rosciad, Line 438.

Line 123.

When the battle rages loud and long,
And the stormy winds do blow.
149
CAMPBELL: Ye Mariners of England.


Beads.

The hooded clouds, like friars,
Tell their beads in drops of rain.
150
LONGFELLOW: Midnight Mass.


Beams.

And like a lane of beams athwart the sea,
Thro' all the circle of the golden year.
151
TENNYSON: The Golden Year.


Beard.

His beard was as white as snow,
All flaxen was his poll.
152
SHAKS.: Hamlet, Act iv., Sc. 5.

His tawny beard was th' equal grace
Both of his wisdom and his face;
In cut and die so like a tile,
A sudden view it would beguile;
The upper part thereof was whey;
The nether, orange mix'd with grey.
153
BUTLER: Hudibras, Pt. i., Canto i., Line 241.


Beast.

A beast, that wants discourse of reason.
154
SHAKS.; Hamlet, Act i., Sc. 2.


Beauty.

My beauty, though but mean,
Needs not the painted flourish of your praise;
Beauty is bought by judgment of the eye,
Not utter'd by base sale of chapmen's tongues.
155
SHAKS.: Love's L. Lost, Act ii., Sc. 1.

Beauty is but a vain and doubtful good;
A shining gloss that fadeth suddenly;
A flower that dies, when first it 'gins to bud;
A brittle glass that's broken presently;
A doubtful good, a gloss, a glass, a flower,
Lost, faded, broken, dead within an hour.
156
SHAKS.: Pass. Pilgrim, St. 11

Beauty stands
In the admiration only of weak minds
Led captive; cease to admire, and all her plumes
Fall flat and shrink into a trivial toy,
At every sudden slighting quite abash'd.
157
MILTON: Par. Regained, Bk. ii., Line 220.

Old as I am, for ladies' love unfit,
The power of beauty I remember yet.
158
DRYDEN: Cym. and Iph., Line 1.

A thing of beauty is a joy forever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.
159
KEATS: Endymion, Bk. i., Line 1.

What is this thought or thing
Which I call beauty? is it thought or thing?
Is it a thought accepted for a thing?
Or both? or neither—a pretext?—a word?
160
MRS. BROWNING: Drama of Ex. Extrem. of Sword-Glare.

If eyes were made for seeing,
Then Beauty is its own excuse for being.
161
EMERSON: The Rhodora.

Fair tresses man's imperial race insnare,
And beauty draws us with a single hair.
162
POPE: R. of the Lock, Canto ii., Line 27.

True beauty dwells in deep retreats,
Whose veil is unremoved
Till heart with heart in concord beats,
And the lover is beloved.
163
WORDSWORTH: To ——. Let Other Bards of Angels Sing.


Bed.

In bed we laugh, in bed we cry,
And born in bed, in bed we die;
The near approach a bed may show
Of human bliss and human woe.
164
ISAAC DE BENSERADE: Trans. by Dr. Johnson.


Bees.

So work the honey-bees;
Creatures, that by a rule in nature, teach
The act of order to a peopled kingdom.
165
SHAKS.: Henry V., Act i., Sc. 2.

The moan of doves in immemorial elms,
And murmuring of innumerable bees.
166
TENNYSON: The Princess, Pt. vii., Line 203.


Beggars.

Beggars, mounted, run their horse to death.
167
SHAKS.: 3 Henry VI., Act i., Sc. 4.

When beggars die, there are no comets seen;
The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes.
168
SHAKS.: Jul. Cæsar, Act ii., Sc. 2.


Behavior.

And puts himself upon his good behavior.
169
BYRON: Don Juan, Canto v., St. 47.


Belial.

When night
Darkens the streets, then wander forth the sons
Of Belial, flown with insolence and wine.
170
MILTON: Par. Lost, Bk. i., Line 500.


Bells.

Those evening bells! those evening bells!
How many a tale their music tells
Of youth, and home, and that sweet time,
When last I heard their soothing chime!
171
MOORE: Those Evening Bells.

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky!

Ring out old shapes of foul disease,
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.

Ring in the valiant man and free,
The larger heart, the kindlier hand;
Ring out the darkness of the land,
Ring in the Christ that is to be.
172
TENNYSON: In Memoriam, Pt. cv.

Hear the mellow wedding bells,
Golden bells!
What a world of happiness their harmony foretells!
173
EDGAR ALLAN POE: The Bells.


Benediction.

The thought of our past years in me doth breed
Perpetual benediction.
174
WORDSWORTH: Intimations of Immortality, St. 9.


Bible.

A glory gilds the sacred page,
Majestic like the sun;
It gives a light to every age;
It gives, but borrows none.
175
COWPER: Olney Hymns, No. 30.


Bigotry.

Christians have burnt each other, quite persuaded
That all the Apostles would have done as they did.
176
BYRON: Don Juan, Canto i., St. 83.


Birds.

You call them thieves and pillagers; but know
They are the winged wardens of your farms,
Who from the cornfields drive the insidious foe,
And from your harvests keep a hundred harms.
177
LONGFELLOW: Birds of Killingworth, St. 19.


Birth.

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
The soul that rises with us our life's star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar.
178
WORDSWORTH: Intimations of Immortality, St. 5.

While man is growing, life is in decrease;
And cradles rock us nearer to the tomb.
Our birth is nothing but our death begun.
179
YOUNG: Night Thoughts, Night v., Line 717.


Birthday.

A birthday:—and now a day that rose
With much of hope, with meaning rife—
A thoughtful day from dawn to close:
The middle day of human life.
180
JEAN INGELOW. A Birthday Walk.


Bivouac.

On Fame's eternal camping-ground
Their silent tents are spread,
And Glory

guards with solemn round
The bivouac of the dead.
181
THEODORE O'HARA: Bivouac of the Dead.


Blasphemy.

Great men may jest with saints; 'tis wit in them;
But, in the less, foul profanation.

---

That in the captain's but a choleric word,
Which in the soldier is flat blasphemy.
182
SHAKS.: M. for M., Act ii., Sc. 2.


Bleakness.

A naked house, a naked moor,
A shivering pool before the door,
A garden bare of flowers and fruit,
And poplars at the garden foot:
Such is the place that I live in,
Bleak without and bare within.
183
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON: The House Beautiful.


Blessings.

How blessings brighten as they take their flight!
184
YOUNG: Night Thoughts, Night ii., Line 602.

For blessings ever wait on virtuous deeds,
And though a late, a sure reward succeeds.
185
CONGREVE: Mourning Bride, Act v., Sc. 12.


Blindness.

O dark, dark, dark, amid the blaze of noon;
Irrecoverably dark! total eclipse,
Without all hope of day.
186
MILTON: Samson Agonistes, Line 80.

O, loss of sight, of thee I most complain!
Blind among enemies, O worse than chains,
Dungeons, or beggary, or decrepit age!
Light, the prime work of God, to me 's extinct,
And all her various objects of delight
Annul'd, which might in part my grief have eas'd,
187
MILTON: Samson Agonistes, Line 67.


Bliss.

Condition, circumstance, is not the thing;
Bliss is the same in subject or in king.
188
POPE: Essay on Man, Epis. iv., Line 57.

Vain, very vain, my weary search to find
That bliss which only centres in the mind.
189
GOLDSMITH: Traveller, Line 423.


Blood.

When the blood burns, how prodigal the soul
Lends the tongue vows.
190
SHAKS.: Hamlet, Act i., Sc. 3.

A ruddy drop of manly blood
The surging sea outweighs;
The world uncertain comes and goes,
The lover rooted stays.
191
EMERSON: Epigraph to Friendship.

Blood is a juice of very special kind.
192
GOETHE: Faust (Swanwick's Trans.), Line 1386.


Bloom.

O'er her warm cheek and rising bosom move
The bloom of young Desire and purple light of Love.
193
GRAY: Prog. of Poesy, Pt. i., St. 1, Line 3.


Blossoms.

Who in life's battle firm doth stand
Shall bear hope's tender blossoms
Into the silent land.
194
J.G. VON SALIS: The Silent Land.


Bluntness.

I have neither wit, nor words, nor worth,
Action, nor utterance, nor the power of speech,
To stir men's blood: I only speak right on.
195
SHAKS.: Jul. Cæsar, Act iii., Sc. 2.


Blushing.

Girls blush, sometimes, because they are alive,
Half wishing they were dead to save the shame.
The sudden blush devours them, neck and brow;
They have drawn too near the fire of life, like gnats,
And flare up boldly, wings and all.
What then?
Who's sorry for a gnat ... or girl?
196
MRS. BROWNING: Aurora Leigh, Bk. ii., Line 732.


Boasting.

Here's a large mouth, indeed,
That spits forth death, and mountains, rocks, and seas;
Talks as familiarly of roaring lions,
As maids of thirteen do of puppy dogs.
197
SHAKS.: King John, Act ii., Sc. 2.


Boat.

Oh swiftly glides the bonnie boat;
Just parted from the shore,
And to the fisher's chorus-note
Soft moves the dipping oar.
198
BAILLIE: Oh Swiftly Glides the Bonnie Boat.


Boldness.

In conversation boldness now bears sway,
But know, that nothing can so foolish be
As empty boldness.
199
HERBERT: Temple, Church Porch, St. 34.


Bond.

I'll have my bond; I will not hear thee speak;
I'll have my bond; and therefore speak no more.
200
SHAKS.: M. of Venice, Act iii., Sc. 3.


Bones.

Cursed be he that moves my bones.
201
SHAKS.: Shakespeare's Epitaph.

Rattle his bones over the stones!
He's only a pauper, whom nobody owns!
202
THOMAS NOEL: The Pauper's Ride.


Books.

A book! O rare one!
Be not, as is our fangled world, a garment
Nobler than that it covers.
203
SHAKS.: Cymbeline, Act v., Sc. 4.

That place that does contain
My books, the best companions, is to me
A glorious court, where hourly I converse
With the old sages and philosophers;
And sometimes, for variety, I confer
With kings and emperors, and weigh their counsels.
204
BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER: The Elder Brother, Act i., Sc. 2.

Books cannot always please, however good;
Minds are not ever craving for their food.
205
CRABBE: The Borough, Letter xxiv.

Dreams, books, are each a world; and books, we know,
Are a substantial world, both pure and good;
Round these, with tendrils strong as flesh and blood,
Our pastime and our happiness will grow.
206
WORDSWORTH: Personal Talk.

Deep vers'd in books, and shallow in himself.
207
MILTON: Par. Regained, Bk. iv., Line 327.

Some books are lies frae end to end.
208
BURNS: Death and Dr. Hornbook.


Bores.

Society is now one polish'd horde,
Formed of two mighty tribes, the Bores and Bored.
209
BYRON: Don Juan, Canto xiii., St. 95.

Again I hear that creaking step!—
He's rapping at the door!—
Too well I know the boding sound
That ushers in a bore.
210
J.G. SAXE: My Familiar.


Borrowing.

Neither a borrower nor a lender be,
For loan oft loses both itself and friend;
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
This above all,—to thine own self be true;
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
211
SHAKS.: Hamlet, Act i., Sc. 3.


Boston.

Solid men of Boston, banish long potations!
Solid men of Boston, make no long orations!
212
CHARLES MORRIS: American Song. From Lyra Urbanica.


Bough.

Cut is the branch that might have grown full straight,
And burned is Apollo's laurel bough,
That sometime grew within this learned man.
213
MARLOWE: Faustus.


Bounds.

There's nothing situate under Heaven's eye,
But hath, his bound, in earth, in sea, in sky.
214
SHAKS.:

Com. of Errors, Act ii., Sc. 1


Bounty.

For his bounty,
There was no winter in 't; an autumn 't was,
That grew the more by reaping.
215
SHAKS.: Ant. and Cleo., Act v., Sc. 2

Large was his bounty, and his soul sincere,
Heaven did a recompense as largely send;
He gave to mis'ry (all he had) a tear,
He gain'd from Heav'n ('t was all he wish'd) a friend.
216
GRAY: Elegy, The Epitaph.


Bourn.

The undiscover'd country from whose bourn
No traveller returns.
217
SHAKS.: Hamlet, Act iii., Sc. 1.


Bower.

I'd be a butterfly born in a bower,
Where roses and lilies and violets meet.
218
THOMAS HAYNES BAYLY: I'd be a Butterfly.


Bowl.

There St. John mingles with my friendly bowl,
The feast of reason and the flow of soul.
219
POPE: Satire i., Line 6.


Boyhood.

The whining schoolboy, with his satchel,
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school.
220
SHAKS.: As You Like It, Act ii., Sc. 7.

The smiles, the tears,
Of boyhood's years,
The words of love then spoken.
221
MOORE: Oft in the Stilly Night.


Braes.

We twa hae run about the braes,
And pu'd the gowans fine.
222
BURNS: Auld Lang Syne.


Braggart.

I know them, yea,
And what they weigh, even to the utmost scruple:
Scrambling, outfacing, fashion-monging boys,
That lie, and cog, and flout, deprave, and slander,
Go anticly, and show outward hideousness,
And speak off half a dozen dangerous words,
How they might hurt their enemies if they durst;
And this is all.
223
SHAKS.: Much Ado, Act v., Sc. 1.


Brains.

The times have been
That, when the brains were out, the man would die,
And there an end; but now they rise again,
With twenty mortal murders on their crowns,
And push us from our stools.
224
SHAKS.: Macbeth, Act iii., Sc. 4.


Bravery.

'Tis more brave
To live, than to die.
225
OWEN MEREDITH: Lucile, Pt. ii., Canto vi., St. 11.

None but the brave deserves the fair.
226
DRYDEN: Alex. Feast, St. 1.

How sleep the brave, who sink to rest,
By all their country's wishes blest!
227
COLLINS: Lines in 1764.


Breach.

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more,
Or close the wall up with our English dead!
228
SHAKS.: Henry V., Act ii., Sc. 4.


Bread.

O God! that bread should be so dear,
And flesh and blood so cheap!
229
HOOD: The Song of the Shirt.


Breast.

The yielding marble of her snowy breast.
230
WALLER: On a Lady passing through a Crowd of People.

A word in season spoken
May calm the troubled breast.
231
CHARLES JEFFERYS: A Word in Season.


Breath.

When the good man yields his breath
(For the good man never dies).
232
JAMES MONTGOMERY: The Wanderer of Switzerland, Pt. v.


Breeches.

But the old three-cornered hat,
And the breeches, and all that,
Are so queer!
233
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES: The Last Leaf.


Breezes.

Breezes of the South!
Who toss the golden and the flame-like flowers,
And pass the prairie-hawk that, poised on high,
Flaps his broad wings, yet moves not—ye have played
Among the palms of Mexico and vines
Of Texas, and have crisped the limpid brooks
That from the fountains of Sonora glide
Into the calm Pacific—have ye fanned
A nobler or a lovelier scene than this?
234
WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT: The Prairies.


Brevity.

Since brevity is the soul of wit,
And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes—
I will be brief.
235
SHAKS.: Hamlet, Act ii., Sc. 2.

For brevity is very good,
When we are, or are not, understood.
236
BUTLER: Hudibras, Pt. i., Canto i., Line 669.


Bribes.

What! shall one of us,
That struck the foremost man of all this world,
But for supporting robbers;—shall we now
Contaminate our fingers with base bribes?
And sell the mighty space of our large honors
For so much trash as may be grasped thus?
I'd rather be a dog, and bay the moon,
Than such a Roman.
237
SHAKS.: Jul. Cæsar, Act iv., Sc. 3.


Bride.

You are just a sweet bride in her bloom,
All sunshine, and snowy, and pure.
238
THOMAS B. ALDRICH: An Untimely Thought.


Bridge.

By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April's breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattl'd farmers stood,
And fired the shot heard round the world.
239
EMERSON: Hymn sung at the Completion of the Battle Monument.


Brooks.

A silvery brook comes stealing
From the shadow of its trees,
Where slender herbs of the forest stoop
Before the entering breeze.
240
WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT: The Unknown Way.


Brotherhood.

I have shot mine arrow o'er the house,
And hurt my brother.
241
SHAKS.: Hamlet, Act v., Sc. 2.

Affliction's sons are brothers in distress;
A brother to relieve,—how exquisite the bliss!
242
BURNS: A Winter Night.


Bubbles.

The earth hath bubbles as the water has,
And these are of them.
243
SHAKS.: Macbeth, Act i., Sc. 3.


Bucket.

The old oaken bucket, the iron-bound bucket,
The moss-covered bucket, which hung in the well.
244
WOODWORTH: The Old Oaken Bucket.


Bud.

The bud is on the bough again.
The leaf is on the tree.
245
CHARLES JEFFERYS: The Meeting of Spring and Summer


Bugle.

Blow, bugle, blow! set the wild echoes flying!
And answer, echoes, answer! dying, dying, dying.
246
TENNYSON: The Princess, Pt. iii., Line 360.


Building.

The hand that rounded Peter's dome,
And groined the aisles of Christian Rome,
Wrought in a sad sincerity;
Himself from God he could not free;
He

builded better than he knew:
The conscious stone to beauty grew.
247
EMERSON: The Problem.


Burden.

A sacred burden is this life ye bear:
Look on it, lift it, bear it solemnly,
Stand up and walk beneath it steadfastly.
248
FRANCES ANNE KEMBLE: To the Young
Gentlemen leaving Lenox Academy, Mass.


Bush.

For what are they all in their high conceit,
When man in the bush with God may meet?
249
EMERSON: Good-Bye.


Business.

Let thy mind still be bent, still plotting, where
And when, and how thy business may be done,
Slackness breeds worms; but the sure traveller,
Though he alights sometimes, still goeth on.
250
HERBERT: Temple, Church Porch, St. 57.


Buttercups.

All will be gay when noontide wakes anew
The buttercups, the little children's dower.
251
ROBERT BROWNING: Home-Thoughts, From Abroad.