The poets of Great Britain complete from Chaucer to Churchill, Volume 411807 |
Common terms and phrases
Achilles Ajax appear armies arms bands battle bear bend beneath blood bold brave breast brother chariot chief combat command coursers daring dart death deep descends divine dreadful eyes fair fall fame fate fear field fierce fight fire flames fleet force Full fury gen'rous give glory goddess gods grace Grecian Greece Greeks ground hand haste head hear heard heart heav'n Hector heroes Homer honors host immortal Jove king lance light martial mighty monarch move Nestor night o'er once plain pow'rs prince proud race rage rest rise sacred sent shades shakes shield shining ships shore side sire skies slain sons soul spear spoke spread stand steeds stood strong Swift tent thee thou thro toils tow'rs train trembling Trojan troops Troy Ulysses voice walls warrior whole wound yield youth
Popular passages
Page 15 - ... circle, but for their judgment in having contracted it. For when the mode of learning changed in following ages, and science was delivered in a plainer manner ; it then became as reasonable in the more modern poets to lay it aside, as it was in Homer to make use of it.
Page 24 - Homer was the greater genius, Virgil the better artist. In one we most admire the man, in the other the work. Homer hurries and transports us with a commanding impetuosity, Virgil leads us with an attractive majesty. Homer scatters with a generous profusion, Virgil bestows with a careful magnificence.
Page 194 - Yet while my Hector still survives, I see My father, mother, brethren, all, in thee: Alas! my parents, brothers, kindred, all Once more will perish, if my Hector fall, Thy wife, thy infant, in thy danger share: Oh, prove a husband's and a father's care! That quarter most the skilful Greeks annoy, Where yon wild fig-trees join the wall of Troy; Thou, from this tower defend the...
Page 13 - ... destroy the unity of action, and lose their readers in an unreasonable length of time. Nor is it only in the main design that they have been unable to add to his invention, but they have followed him in every episode and part of story. If he has given a regular catalogue of an army, they all draw up their forces in the same order.
Page 57 - Nor mix'd in combat, nor in council join'd ; But wasting cares lay heavy on his mind : In his black thoughts revenge and slaughter roll, And scenes of blood rise dreadful in his soul. Twelve days were past, and now the dawning light 640 The gods had summon'd to th' Olympian height : Jove, first ascending from the watery bowers, Leads the long order of ethereal powers.
Page 181 - Like leaves on trees the race of man is found, Now green in youth, now withering on the ground; Another race the following spring supplies; They fall successive, and successive rise: So generations in their course decay; So flourish these, when those are pass'd away.
Page 10 - It is to the strength of this amazing invention we are to attribute that unequalled fire and rapture which is so forcible in Homer, that no man of a true poetical spirit is master of himself while he reads him.
Page 51 - Not so his loss the fierce Achilles bore ; But sad, retiring to the sounding shore, O'er the wild margin of the deep he hung, That kindred deep from whence his mother sprung : " There bathed in tears of anger and disdain, Thus loud lamented to the stormy main...
Page 40 - As for its being esteemed a close translation, I doubt not many have been led into that error by the shortness of it, which proceeds not from his following the original line by line, but from the contractions above mentioned.
Page 155 - So when th' embattled clouds, in dark array, Along the skies their gloomy lines display; When now the North his boisterous rage has spent, And peaceful sleeps the liquid element ; The low-hung vapours, motionless and still, Rest on the summits of the shaded hill ; Till the mass scatters as the winds arise, Dispersed and broken through the ruffled skies.