The Task: A Poem. In Six Books

Front Cover
B. D. Packard, 41 State-Street. Robert Packard, Printer., 1810 - English poetry - 193 pages
 

Selected pages

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 52 - Himself, as conscious of his awful charge, And anxious mainly that the flock he feeds May feel it too ; affectionate in look, And tender in address, as well becomes A messenger of grace to guilty men.
Page 41 - OH for a lodge in some vast wilderness, Some boundless contiguity of shade, Where rumour of oppression and deceit, Of unsuccessful or successful war Might never reach me more...
Page 46 - Happy the man who sees a God employ'd In all the good and ill that chequer life ! Resolving all events, with their effects And manifold results, into the will And arbitration wise of the Supreme. Did not his eye rule all things, and intend The least of our concerns (since from the least The greatest oft originate) ; could chance Find place in his dominion, or dispose One lawless particle to thwart his plan ; Then God might be surprised, and unforeseen Contingence might alarm him, and disturb The...
Page vi - My panting side was charged, when I withdrew To seek a tranquil death in distant shades. There was I found by one who had Himself Been hurt by th
Page 77 - Philosophy baptized In the pure fountain of eternal love Has eyes indeed ; and viewing all she sees As meant to indicate a God to man, Gives Him his praise, and forfeits not her own.
Page 103 - No powder'd pert proficient in the art Of sounding an alarm, assaults these doors Till the street rings ; no stationary steeds Cough their own knell, while, heedless of the sound, The silent circle fan themselves, and quake.
Page 42 - Slaves cannot breathe in England; if their lungs Receive our air, that moment they are free, They touch our country and their shackles fall.
Page 50 - There stands the messenger of truth : there stands The legate of the skies ! — His theme divine, His office sacred, his credentials clear. By him the violated law speaks out Its thunders ; and by him, in strains as sweet As angels use, the Gospel whispers peace.
Page 19 - Nor rural sights alone, but rural sounds Exhilarate the spirit, and restore The tone of languid nature. Mighty winds, That sweep the skirt of some far-spreading wood Of ancient growth, make music not unlike The dash of Ocean on his winding shore...
Page 99 - And, having dropped the expected bag, pass on. He whistles as he goes, light-hearted wretch, Cold and yet cheerful: messenger of grief Perhaps to thousands, and of joy to some, To him indifferent whether grief or joy. Houses in ashes, and the fall of stocks,. Births, deaths, and marriages, epistles wet With tears that trickled down the writer's cheeks Fast as the periods from his fluent quill, Or charged with amorous sighs of absent swains, Or nymphs responsive, equally affect His horse and him,...

Bibliographic information