The Poems of William Cowper

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Methuen and Company, 1905 - 741 pages

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Page 407 - My mother ! when I learned that thou wast dead, Say, wast thou conscious of the tears I shed ? Hovered thy spirit o'er thy sorrowing son, Wretch even then, life's journey just begun ? Perhaps thou gavest me, though unfelt, a kiss : Perhaps a tear, if souls can weep in bliss— Ah, that maternal smile ! It answers—Yes.
Page 304 - imprisoned wranglers free, And give them voice and utterance once again. Now stir the fire, and close the shutters fast, Let fall the curtains, wheel the sofa round, And while the bubbling and loud hissing urn Throws up a steamy column, and the cups That cheer but not inebriate, wait on each, 40
Page 683 - compares Paradise Lost, v. 285 :— " Like Maia's son he stood And shook his plumes, that heavenly fragrance filled The circuit wide." P. 174, 1. 446. Cf. Paradise Lost, iv. 156 :— " Gentle gales Fanning their odoriferous wings, dispense Native perfumes, and whisper whence they stole Those balmy spoils.
Page 266 - BRIDGE Lands intersected by a narrow frith Abhor each other. Mountains interposed Make enemies of nations who had else Like kindred drops been mingled into one. Thus man devotes his brother, and destroys ; 20 And, worse than all and most to be deplored, As human nature's broadest, foulest blot,
Page 340 - And as the mind is pitched the ear is pleased With melting airs or martial, brisk or grave : Some chord in unison with what we hear Is touched within us, and the heart replies. How soft the music of those village bells Falling at intervals upon the ear In cadence sweet
Page 59 - of my life, to thee I call. Afflicted at thy feet I fall ; When the great water-floods prevail Leave not my trembling heart to fail ! Friend of the friendless and the faint, Where should I lodge my deep complaint i Where but with thee whose open door Invites the helpless and the poor
Page 275 - May feel it too ; affectionate in look, And tender in address, as well becomes A messenger of grace to guilty men. Behold the picture ! Is it like ?—Like whom ? The things that mount the rostrum with a skip, And then skip down again ; pronounce a text, 410
Page 504 - by constant heed I know, How oft the sadness that I show Transforms thy smiles to looks of woe, My Mary ! And should my future lot be cast With much resemblance of the past, Thy worn-out heart will break at last, My Mary ! MONTES GLACIALES IN OCEANO GERMANICO NATANTES EN, quae prodigia, ex oris aliata
Page 432 - BY DESIRE OF LADY AUSTEN, WHO WANTED WORDS TO THE MARCH IN "SCIPIO." TOLL for the brave ! The brave that are no more ! All sunk beneath the wave, Eight hundred of the brave, Whose courage well was tried, Had made the vessel heel, And laid her on her side.
Page 288 - Dissolve in pity, and account the learn'd, If this be learning, most of all deceived. Great crimes alarm the conscience, but it sleeps While thoughtful man is plausibly amused, " Defend me therefore, common sense," say I, " From reveries so airy, from the toil Of dropping buckets into empty wells, And growing old in drawing nothing up !

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