Aspects of Poetry: Being Lectures Delivered at Oxford |
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Page 3
... feels more . There is a larger field of things over which his feelings range , and in which he takes vivid interest . If , as we have been often told , sympathy is the secret of all insight , this holds especially true of poetic insight ...
... feels more . There is a larger field of things over which his feelings range , and in which he takes vivid interest . If , as we have been often told , sympathy is the secret of all insight , this holds especially true of poetic insight ...
Page 8
... feeling , and deep reflection : above all , he must have a hold of the great central truth of things . When these many con- ditions are present , then and then only can his imagina- tion work widely , benignly , and for all time ; then ...
... feeling , and deep reflection : above all , he must have a hold of the great central truth of things . When these many con- ditions are present , then and then only can his imagina- tion work widely , benignly , and for all time ; then ...
Page 9
... feelings , however vivid , cool down passions , however fervid . How many poets have reiterated Byron's lament , that " The early glow of thought declines in feeling's dull decay " ! How much of the poetry of all ages is filled with pas ...
... feelings , however vivid , cool down passions , however fervid . How many poets have reiterated Byron's lament , that " The early glow of thought declines in feeling's dull decay " ! How much of the poetry of all ages is filled with pas ...
Page 10
... feeling , as few have done , regret for a brightness gone which nothing could restore , was able to let all these experiences melt into his being , and enrich it , till his soul became human ized by distress , and by the thoughts that ...
... feeling , as few have done , regret for a brightness gone which nothing could restore , was able to let all these experiences melt into his being , and enrich it , till his soul became human ized by distress , and by the thoughts that ...
Page 11
... feels is his one sufficient motive , and to attain to this expression is itself his end and his reward . While the inspiration is at its trongest , the thought of giving pleasure to others or of • winning praise for himself is weakest ...
... feels is his one sufficient motive , and to attain to this expression is itself his end and his reward . While the inspiration is at its trongest , the thought of giving pleasure to others or of • winning praise for himself is weakest ...
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Common terms and phrases
Æneid ancient artistic ballads bards beauty Ben Doran blank verse breath Burns called Carlyle Cebriones Celtic century character Coleridge criticism deep delight divine doubt DUNCAN MACINTYRE earth emotion English English poetry epic expression feeling felt Gael Gaelic genius Georgics Glen Glen Etive heart heaven heroic Highland Homer human ideal Iliad imagination impulse inspiration language less light literary literature living look Lucretius MacPherson melody mind modern moral mountain native nature never noble Ossian outward overmastering passage passed passion perfect perhaps poems poet's poetic poetry poets prose religious Rylstone scene Scotland Scott Scottish song seen sense sentiment Shakespeare Shelley Shelley's side singing Sophocles sorrow soul speak spirit strong style tender thee things thou thought tion touched true truth turn utter verse Virgil Walter Scott White Doe whole wonderful words Wordsworth Yarrow
Popular passages
Page 123 - Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail: And mid these dancing rocks at once and ever It flung up momently the sacred river. Five miles meandering with a mazy motion Through wood and dale the sacred river ran, Then reached the caverns measureless to man, And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean: And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from far Ancestral voices prophesying war!
Page 70 - Alas ! alas ! Why, all the souls that were, were forfeit once; And He that might the vantage best have took, Found out the remedy: How would you be, If he, which is the top of judgment, should But judge you as you are? O, think on that; And mercy then will breathe within your lips, Like man new made.
Page 189 - ... sound ; With it Camoens soothed an exile's grief ; The Sonnet glittered a gay myrtle leaf Amid the cypress with which Dante crowned His visionary brow : a glow-worm lamp, It cheered mild Spenser, called from Faeryland To struggle through dark ways ; and, when a damp Fell round the path of Milton, in his hand The Thing became a trumpet ; whence he blew Soul-animating strains — alas, too few...
Page 202 - That light whose smile kindles the universe, That beauty in which all things work and move, That benediction which the eclipsing curse Of birth can quench not, that sustaining Love Which, through the web of being blindly wove By man and beast and earth and air and sea, Burns bright or dim, as each are mirrors of The fire for which all thirst, now beams on me, Consuming the last clouds of cold mortality.
Page 64 - What soul was his, when, from the naked top Of some bold headland, he beheld the sun Rise up, and bathe the world in light...
Page 302 - Comes gliding in with lovely gleam, Comes gliding in serene and slow, Soft and silent as a dream, A solitary Doe! White she is as lily of June, And beauteous as the silver moon When out of sight the clouds are driven And she is left alone in heaven ; Or like a ship some gentle day In sunshine sailing far away, A glittering ship, that hath the plain Of ocean for her own domain.
Page 216 - Yet now despair itself is mild, Even as the winds and waters are; I could lie down like a tired child, And weep away the life of care Which I have borne and yet must bear, Till death like sleep might steal on me, And I might feel in the warm air My cheek grow cold, and hear the sea Breathe o'er my dying brain its last monotony.
Page 277 - ... clouds, or weeping rain, Nor of the setting sun's pathetic light Engendered, hangs o'er Eildon's triple height : Spirits of power, assembled there, complain For kindred power departing from their sight ; While Tweed, best pleased in chanting a blithe strain, Saddens his voice again, and yet again. Lift up your hearts, ye mourners ! for the might Of the whole world's good wishes with him goes ; Blessings and prayers in nobler retinue Than sceptred king or laurelled conqueror knows, Follow this...
Page 293 - WHEN first, descending from the Moorlands, I saw the Stream of Yarrow glide Along a bare and open valley, The Ettrick Shepherd was my guide. When last along its banks I wandered, Through groves that had begun to shed Their golden leaves upon the pathways, My steps the Border-minstrel led. The Mighty Minstrel breathes no longer, Mid mouldering ruins low he lies ; And death upon the braes of Yarrow, Has closed the Shepherd-poet's eyes...
Page 214 - I pursued a maiden and clasped a reed. Gods and men, we are all deluded thus! It breaks in our bosom and then we bleed: All wept, as I think both ye now would, If envy or age had not frozen your blood, At the sorrow of my sweet pipings.