An Outline History of English Literature

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G. Bell and Sons, 1913 - English literature - 314 pages

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Page 220 - Poems was to choose incidents and situations from common life, and to relate or describe them, throughout, as far as was possible in a selection of language really used by men, and, at the same time, to throw over them a certain colouring of imagination, whereby ordinary things should be presented to the mind in an unusual aspect...
Page 132 - Itself unseen, but in th' effects remains. Some, to whom Heav'n in wit has been profuse, Want as much more, to turn it to its use ; For wit and judgment often are at strife, Tho' meant each other's aid, like man and wife. Tis more to guide, than spur the Muse's steed; Restrain his fury, than provoke his speed: The winged courser, like a gen'rous horse, Shows most true mettle when you check his course. Those Rules of old discover'd, not...
Page 220 - The principal object, then, proposed in these Poems was to choose incidents and situations from common life, and to relate or describe them, throughout, as far as was possible in a selection of language really used by men...
Page 216 - Europe at that time was thrilled with joy. France standing on the top of golden hours, And human nature seeming born again.
Page 92 - When I was preparing to pass over into Sicily and Greece, the melancholy intelligence which I received of the civil commotions in England made me alter my purpose; for I thought it base to be travelling for amusement abroad while my fellow-citizens were fighting for liberty at home.
Page 103 - Their thoughts are often new, but seldom natural ; they are not obvious, but neither are they just ; and the reader, far from wondering that he missed them, wonders more frequently by what perverseness of industry they were ever found.
Page 215 - The Genius of Poetry must work out its own salvation in a man. It cannot be matured by law and precept, but by sensation and watchfulness in itself. That which is creative must create itself.
Page 220 - Humble and rustic life was generally chosen, because in that condition the essential passions of the heart find a better soil in which they can attain their maturity, are less under restraint, and speak a plainer and more emphatic language; because in that condition of life our elementary feelings coexist in a state of greater simplicity and consequently may be more accurately contemplated and more forcibly communicated...
Page 255 - Secondly, however, we may say, these Historical Novels have taught all men this truth, which looks like a truism, and yet was as good as unknown to writers of history and others, till so taught: that the bygone ages of the world were actually filled by living men, not by protocols, statepapers, controversies and abstractions of men.
Page 253 - I had nourished the ambitious desire of composing a tale of chivalry, which was to be in the style of the Castle of Otranto, with plenty of Border characters, and supernatural incident.

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