Poetical Quotations from Chaucer to Tennyson

'Tis from high life high characters are drawn: A saint in crape is twice a saint in lawn; A judge is just, a chanc'llor juster still;

A gown-man, learn'd; a bishop, what you will; Wise, if a minister; but if a king,

Wise Plato said the world with men was stored
That succour each to other might afford.
SIR J. DENHAM.

Godlike his unwearied bounty flows;

More wise, more learn'd, more just, more ev'ry First loves to do, then loves the good he does.

thing.

SIR J. DENHAM. From thy new hope, and from thy growing store, Now lend assistance, and relieve the poor.

DRYDEN.

Yet was she not profuse, but fear'd to waste, And wisely managed that the stock might last; That all might be supplied, and she not grieve, When crowds appear'd, she had not to relieve; Which to prevent, she still increased her store; Laid up, and spared, that she might give the

more.

DRYDEN.

In such charities she pass'd the day 'Twas wondrous how she found an hour to pray. DRYDEN.

The wanting orphans saw with wat❜ry eyes Their founder's charity in the dust laid low. DRYDEN.

A parish priest was of the pilgrim train, An awful, reverend, and religious man; His eyes diffused a venerable grace, And charity itself was in his face.

DRYDEN.

Who, should they steal for want of his relief, He judged himself accomplice with the thief.

DRYDEN.

I never had the confidence to beg a charity. DRYDEN.

Heaven-born charity! thy blessings shed; Bid meagre want uprear her sickly head

GAY.

His house was known to all the vagrant train;
He chid their wand'rings, but relieved their pain;
The long-remember'd beggar was his guest,
Whose beard descending swept his aged breast.
GOLDSMITH.

The liberal are secure alone;
For what we frankly give, forever is our own.
GRANVILLE.

Half his earn'd pittance to poor neighbours went: They had his alms, and he had his content. WALTER HARTE.

Still from his little he could something spare
To feed the hungry, and to clothe the bare.
WALTER HARTE.
Only add

Deeds to thy knowledge answerable; add faith,
Add virtue, patience, temperance; add love,
By name to come call'd charity,—the soul
Of all the rest.

MILTON.

By thee,

Founded in reason, loyal, just, and pure,
Relations dear, and all the charities
Of father, son, and brother, first were known.
MILTON.

In faith and hope the world will disagree,
But all mankind's concern is charity:
All must be false that thwart this one great end;
And all of God, that bless mankind or mend.
POPE.
Constant at church and 'change; his gains were

sure;

His givings rare, save farthings to the poor.

POPE.

Faith and hope themselves shall die, While deathless charity remains.

PRIOR.

Yet, gracious charity! indulgent guest!
Were not thy pow'r exerted in my breast,
My speeches would send up unheeded pray'r:
The scorn of life would be but wild despair:
A tymbal's sound were better than my voice,
My faith were form, my eloquence were noise.
PRIOR.

How few, like thee, inquire the wretched out,
And court the offices of soft humanity!
Like thee, reserve their raiment for the naked,
Reach out their bread to feed the crying orphan,
Or mix the pitying tears with those that weep!
Rowe.

Think not the good,

The gentle deeds of mercy thou hast done,
Shall die forgotten all: the poor, the pris'ner,
The fatherless, the friendless, and the widow,
Who daily own the bounty of thy hand,
Shall cry to heav'n, and pull a blessing on thee.
Rowe.

He hath a tear for pity, and a hand
Open as day for melting charity:

Who feeds that alms-house neat, but void of Yet notwithstanding, being incensed, he's flint;

This game the Persian magi did invent,
The force of Eastern wisdom to express:
From thence to busy Europeans sent,
And styled by modern Lombards pensive chess.
SIR J. DENHAM.

So have I seen a king on chess,
(His rooks and knights withdrawn,
His queen and bishops in distress,)
Shifting about, grow less and less,
With here and there a pawn.

DRYDEN.

Do ye hear the children weeping, O my brothers,
Ere the sorrow comes with years?

They are leaning their young heads against their
mothers,

And that cannot stop their tears.

E. B. BROWNING.

At length his lonely cot appears in view,
Beneath the shelter of an aged tree;
Th' expectant wee things todlin stacher through
To meet their dad, wi' flichtering noise and
glee.

BURNS.

Thy little brethren, which, like fairy sprights,
Oft skip into our chamber those sweet nights,
And kiss'd and dandled on thy father's knee,
Were bribed next day to tell what they did see.
DONNE.
The little children when they learn to go

And cards are dealt, and chess-boards brought, By painful mothers daded to and fro.
To ease the pain of coward thought.

CHIDING.

PRIOR.

DRAYTON.
He struggles first for breath, and cries for aid
Then helpless in his mother's lap is laid :
He creeps, he walks, and, issuing into man,
Grudges their life from whence his own began;

Winds murmur'd through the leaves your long Retchless of laws, affects to rule alone.

delay,

DRYDEN.

He next essays to walk, but, downward press'd,
On four feet imitates his brother beast;
By slow degrees he gathers from the ground
His legs, and to the rolling chair is bound.
DRYDEN.

The babe had all that infant care beguiles,
And early knew his mother in her smiles;
At his first aptness the maternal love
Those rudiments of reason did improve.
DRYDEN.

Begin, auspicious boy, to cast about
Thy infant eyes, and with a smile thy mother
single out.

DRYDEN.

In their tender nonage, while they spread
Their springing leaves, and lift their infant head,
Indulge their childhood, and the nursling spare.
DRYDEN.

His cares are eased with intervals of bliss:
His little children, climbing for a kiss,
Welcome their father's late return at night.
DRYDEN.

He grieved, he wept; the sight an image brought
Of his own filial love, a sadly pleasing thought.
DRYDEN.

On parent knees, a naked new-born child, Weeping thou sat'st, while all around thee smiled;

So live, that, sinking in thy last long sleep, Calm thou may'st smile, while all around thee weep.

SIR W. JONES: from the Persian.
Seldom have I ceased to eye

Thy infancy, thy childhood, and thy youth.
MILTON.

On thy foot thou stood'st at last,
Though comfortless as when a father mourns
His children, all in view destroy'd at once.
MILTON.

When I was yet a child, no childish play
To me was pleasing; all my mind was set
Serious to learn and know.

MILTON.

Of all the joys that brighten suffering earth, What joy is welcomed like a new-born child? MRS. NORTON.

Children blessings seem, but torments are: When young, our folly, and when old, our fear. OTWAY: Don Carlos.

Britain, changeful as a child at play,
Now calls in princes, and now turns away.
POPE.

My sons their old unhappy sire despise,

Thirsts with each heat, and coughs with ev'ry Spoil'd of his kingdom, and deprived of eyes.

rain.

POPE.

PRIOR.

Condemn'd to sacrifice his childish years
To babbling ign'rance and to empty fears.
PRIOR.

Leave to thy children tumult, strife, and war, Portions of toil, and legacies of care.

PRIOR.

One that has newly learn'd to speak and go Loves childish plays.

ROSCOMMON.

The tear down childhood's cheek that flows
Is like the dew-drop on the rose;
When next the summer breeze comes by,
And waves the bush, the flower is dry.

SCOTT.

Libros

Poetical Quotations from Chaucer to Tennyson: With Copious Indexes ...