The Works of the English Poets, from Chaucer to Cowper: Including the Series Edited with Prefaces, Biographical and Critical, Volumen12

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J. Johnson, 1810 - 640 páginas

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Página 229 - Presume Thy bolts to throw, And deal damnation round the land On each I judge Thy foe. If I am right, Thy grace impart, Still in the right to stay ; If I am wrong, oh, teach my heart To find that better way.
Página 161 - Who haunt Parnassus but to please their ear, Not mend their minds; as some to church repair, Not for the doctrine, but the music there. These equal syllables alone require...
Página 229 - What conscience dictates to be done, Or warns me not to do, This, teach me more than hell to shun, That, more than heaven pursue. What blessings thy free bounty gives Let me not cast away; For God is paid when man receives — T
Página 447 - Wisely regardful of the* embroiling sky, In joyless fields and thorny thickets, leaves His shivering mates, and pays to trusted man His annual visit.
Página 243 - And when I die, be sure you let me know Great Homer died three thousand years ago. Why did I write? what sin to me unknown 125 Dipp'd me in ink, my parents', or my own? As yet a child, nor yet a fool to fame, I lisp'd in numbers, for the numbers came. I left no calling for this idle trade, No duty broke, no father disobey'd.
Página 169 - What time would spare, from steel receives its date, And monuments, like men, submit to fate ! Steel could the labour of the gods destroy, And strike to dust th' imperial powers of Troy ; Steel could the works of mortal pride confound, And hew triumphal arches to the ground.
Página 166 - What though no credit doubting wits may give, The fair and innocent shall still believe. Know then, unnumber'd spirits round thee fly, The light militia of the lower sky : These, though unseen, are ever on the wing, Hang o'er the box, and hover round the ring.
Página 105 - Dryden knew more of man in his general nature, and Pope in his local manners. The notions of Dryden were formed by comprehensive speculation ; and those of Pope by minute attention. There is more dignity in the knowledge of Dryden, and more certainty in that of Pope. Poetry was not the sole praise of either; for both excelled likewise in prose ; but Pope did not borrow his prose from his predecessor. The style of Dryden is capricious and varied; that of Pope is cautious and uniform. Dryden observes...
Página 219 - As full, as perfect, in a hair as heart ; As full, as perfect, in vile man that mourns, As the rapt seraph that adores and burns : To Him no high, no low, no great, no small ; He fills, He bounds, connects, and equals all.
Página 230 - Through this day's life or death ! This day, be bread and peace my lot All else beneath the sun, Thou know'st if best bestow'd or not, And let Thy will be done. To thee, whose temple is all space, Whose altar, earth, sea, skies! One chorus let all Being raise ! All Nature's incense rise ! MOEAL ESSAYS, m FOUR EPISTLES TO SEVERAL PERSONS.

Acerca del autor (1810)

Samuel Johnson was born in 1709, in Lichfield, England. The son of a bookseller, Johnson briefly attended Pembroke College, Oxford, taught school, worked for a printer, and opened a boarding academy with his wife's money before that failed. Moving to London in 1737, Johnson scratched out a living from writing. He regularly contributed articles and moral essays to journals, including the Gentleman's Magazine, the Adventurer, and the Idler, and became known for his poems and satires in imitation of Juvenal. Between 1750 and 1752, he produced the Rambler almost single-handedly. In 1755 Johnson published Dictionary of the English Language, which secured his place in contemporary literary circles. Johnson wrote Rasselas in a week in 1759, trying to earn money to visit his dying mother. He also wrote a widely-read edition of Shakespeare's plays, as well as Journey to the Western Isles of Scotland and Lives of the Poets. Johnson's writing was so thoughtful, powerful, and influential that he was considered a singular authority on all things literary. His stature attracted the attention of James Boswell, whose biography, Life of Johnson, provides much of what we know about its subject. Johnson died in 1784.

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