The Tale of a Modern Genius, Or, The Miseries of Parnassus: In a Series of Letters, Volume 3

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J. Andrews, 1827
 

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Page 81 - Sometimes with secure delight The upland hamlets will invite, When the merry bells ring round, And the jocund rebecks sound To many a youth and many a maid, Dancing in the chequered shade...
Page 103 - Tis listening Fear, and dumb Amazement all : When to the startled eye the sudden Glance Appears far south, eruptive through the cloud ; And following slower, in explosion vast, The Thunder raises his tremendous voice.
Page xiii - AH ! who can tell how hard it is to climb The steep where Fame's proud temple shines afar; Ah! who can tell how many a soul sublime Has felt the influence of malignant star, And waged with Fortune an eternal war; Check'd by the scoff of Pride, by Envy's frown, And Poverty's unconquerable bar, In life's low vale remote has pined alone, Then dropt into the grave, unpitied and unknown...
Page 93 - Nor drum was heard, nor trumpet's angry sound; Nor swords were forged ; but void of care and crime. The soft creation slept away their time. The teeming earth, yet guiltless of the plough, And unprovoked, did fruitful stores allow : Content with food which nature freely bred, On wildings and on strawberries they fed; Cornels and bramble-berries gave the rest, And falling acorns furnished out a feast The flowers, unsown, in fields and meadows reigned ; And western winds immortal spring maintained.
Page 34 - The flower hangs its heavy head, waving, at times, to the gale. ' Why dost thou awake me, O gale?' it seems to say, ' I am covered with the drops of heaven. The time of my fading is near, the blast that shall scatter my leaves. To-morrow shall the traveller come ; he that saw me in my beauty shall come. His eyes will search the field, but they will not find me.
Page 93 - Beneath the smoking sirloin, stretch'd immense From side to side ; in which, with desperate knife, They deep incision make...
Page 104 - And following slower, in explosion vast, The Thunder raises his tremendous voice. At first, heard solemn o'er the verge of Heaven, The tempest growls ; but as it nearer comes, And rolls its awful burden on the wind, The lightnings flash a larger curve, and more The noise astounds : till over head a sheet Of livid flame discloses wide; then shuts, And opens wider ; shuts and opens still Expansive, wrapping ether in a blaze. Follows the loosen'd aggravated roar, Enlarging, deepening, mingling ; peal...
Page 80 - Come forth, come forth, my maidens, the hedgerows all are green, And the little birds are singing the opening leaves between ; And let us all go forth together, to gather trefoil by the stream, Ere the face of Guadalquivir glows beneath the strengthening beam.
Page 139 - Gratiano speaks an infinite deal of nothing, more than any man in all Venice. His reasons are as two grains of wheat hid in two bushels of chaff : you shall seek all day ere you find them, and when you have them, they are not worth the search.

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