When icicles hang by the wall. LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST V. 2. THE HE moon had just gone down, and the morning was pitchy-dark, and, as usual, piercingly cold. We soon entered the dismal wood, which I had already traversed, and through which we wended our way for some time, slowly and mournfully. Not a sound was to be heard save the trampling of the animals, not a breath of air moved the leafless branches. No animal stirred in the thickets, no bird, not even the owl, flew over our heads, all seemed desolate and dead, and, during my many and far wanderings, I never experienced a greater sensation of loneliness, and a greater desire for conversation and an exchange of ideas than then. GEORGE BORROW. In a drear-nighted December, Thy branches ne'er remember Their green felicity ; The North cannot undo them With a sleety whistle through them, KEATS. Now, the melancholy god protect thee; and the tailor make thy doublet of changeable taffeta, for thy mind is a very opal. HE TWELFTH NIGHt ii. 4. E wastes the first half of a day in deciding which of two courses to take, and the second half in blaming himself for not having taken the other. He is constantly late at entertainments, because he cannot make up his mind in proper time whether to go or to stay at home; hesitation whether he shall read in the red room or the library, loses him three of the best hours of a morning; the difficulty of early rising he finds to consist less in rising early, than in satisfying himself that the practice is wholesome; his mind is torn for a whole fortnight in an absurd contest with himself, whether he ought to indulge a strong wish to exercise his horse before dinner. JOHN MORLEY. HE who doubts from what he sees BLAKE. I do not know what 'poetical' is: is it honest? AS YOU LIKE IT iii. 3. NOW Ow, therein, of all sciences (I speak still of human) according to the human conceit, is our Poet the Monarch. For he doth not only show the way, but giveth so sweet a prospect into the way, as will entice any man to enter into it. Nay, he doth, as if your journey should lie through a fair vineyard, at the very first, give you a cluster of grapes, that, full of that taste, you may long to pass further. He beginneth not with obscure definitions, which must blur the margent with interpretations, and load the memory with doubtfulness; but he cometh to you with words set in delightful proportion, either accompanied with, or prepared for the well-enchanting skill of music, and with a tale, forsooth, he cometh unto you with a tale, which holdeth children from play, and old men from the chimney-corner. PHILIP SIDNEY. SYDNEIAN Showers Of sweet discourse, whose powers CRASHAW. Sap check'd with frost and lusty leaves quite gone, Beauty o'ersnow'd and bareness everywhere! THE SONN. V. HE giant shadows sleeping amid the wan yellow light of the December morning, looked like wrecks and scattered ruins of the long, long night. COLERIDGE. A WIDOW bird sate mourning for her love Upon a wintry bough ; The frozen wind crept on above, The freezing stream below. There was no leaf upon the forest bare, And little motion in the air Except the mill-wheel's sound. SHELLEY, For there was never yet fair woman but she made mouths in a glass. KING LEAR iii. 2. HOWEVER, what has spoiled her for a mistress has improved her as a companion; and she is far more conversable now as she has much less beauty than when I used to see her once a week triumphing in the drawing-room. For, as few women (whatever they may pretend) will value themselves upon their minds while they can gain admirers by their persons, Timoclea never thought of charming by her wit till she had no chance of making conquests by her beauty. MELMOTH. COULD art, or time, or nature bribe So bloom of youth can ever blind SWIFT. |