Memoirs of the Loves of the Poets: Biographical Sketches of Women Celebrated in Ancient and Modern Poetry

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James R. Osgood and Company, 1875 - Women in literature - 517 pages

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Page 270 - Going to the Wars TELL me not, Sweet, I am unkind, That from the nunnery Of thy chaste breast, and quiet mind, To war and arms I fly. True; a new mistress now I chase, The first foe in the field; And with a stronger faith embrace A sword, a horse, a shield. Yet this inconstancy is such, As you too shall adore; I could not love thee, dear, so much, Loved I not honour more.
Page 253 - O'er other creatures : yet when I approach Her loveliness, so absolute she seems And in herself complete, so well to know • Her own, that what she wills to do or say Seems wisest, virtuousest, discreetest, best: All higher knowledge in her presence falls Degraded ; Wisdom in discourse with her Loses discountenanc'd, and like Folly shows...
Page 188 - No longer mourn for me when I am dead Than you shall hear the surly sullen bell Give warning to the world that I am fled From this vile world, with vilest worms to dwell : Nay, if you read this line, remember not The hand that writ it ; for I love you so That I in your sweet thoughts would be forgot If thinking on me then should make you woe.
Page 185 - The forward violet thus did I chide : Sweet thief, whence didst thou steal thy sweet that smells, If not from my love's breath ? The purple pride Which on thy soft cheek for complexion dwells In my love's veins thou hast too grossly dyed.
Page 268 - ASK me no more whither do stray The golden atoms of the day, For in pure love heaven did prepare Those powders to enrich your hair. Ask me no more...
Page 419 - Yet empty of all good, wherein consists Woman's domestic honour and chief praise; Bred only and completed to the taste Of lustful appetence, to sing, to dance, To dress, and troll the tongue, and roll the eye...
Page 457 - Why bade ye else, ye powers! her soul aspire Above the vulgar flight of low desire? Ambition first sprung from your blest abodes, The glorious fault of angels and of gods: Thence to their images on earth it flows, And in the breasts of kings and heroes glows.
Page 315 - ... grace In sight of Heaven, then, wherefore hath God made The world which we inhabit ? Better plea Love cannot have, than that in loving thee Glory to that eternal Peace is paid, Who such Divinity to thee imparts As hallows and makes pure all gentle hearts. His hope is treacherous only whose love dies With beauty, which is varying every hour : But, in chaste hearts uninfluenced by the power Of outward change, there blooms a deathless flower, That breathes on earth the air of paradise.
Page 271 - Enlarged winds, that curl the flood, Know no such liberty. Stone walls do not a prison make, Nor iron bars a cage; Minds innocent and quiet take That for an hermitage; If I have freedom in my love And in my soul am free, Angels alone, that soar above, Enjoy such liberty.
Page 462 - ... ear ; She who ne'er answers till a husband cools, Or, if she rules him, never shows she rules ; Charms by accepting, by submitting sways, Yet has her humour most when she obeys ; Let fops or fortune fly which way they will, Disdains all loss of tickets or codille ; Spleen, vapours, or smallpox, above them all, And mistress of herself, though china fall.

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