Bell's Edition: The Poets of Great Britain Complete from Chaucer to Churchill ...

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J. Bell, 1803 - English poetry
 

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Page 125 - Tis greatly wise to know before we're told The melancholy news that we grow old. Autumnal Lyce carries in her face Memento mori to each public place. O how your beating breast a mistress warms Who looks through spectacles to see your charms ! While rival undertakers hover round, And with his spade the sexton marks the ground, Intent not on her own, but others' doom, She plans new conquests and defrauds the tomb.
Page 152 - One to destroy is murder by the law, And gibbets keep the lifted hand in awe ; To murder thousands takes a specious name, War's glorious art, and gives immortal fame.
Page 135 - Think nought a trifle, though it small appear ; Small sands the mountain, moments make the year, And trifles life.
Page 27 - And with strong faith foment the holy fire ! Stretch out my soul in hope, and grasp the prize, Which in eternity's deep bosom lies ! At the great day of recompense behold, Devoid of fear, the fatal book unfold ! Then wafted upward to the blissful seat, From age to age, my grateful song repeat ; My light, my life, my God, my Saviour see, And rival angels in the praise of thee.
Page 133 - Thus strictly prov'd this virtuous, loving wife, Her husband's pain was dearer than her life. Anxious Melania rises to my view, Who never thinks her lover pays his due : Visit, present, treat, flatter, and adore ; Her majesty, to-morrow, calls for more. His wounded ears complaints eternal fill, As unoil'd hinges, querulously shrill. " You went last night with Celia to the ball.
Page 94 - For, lo ! Philander, of reproach afraid, In secret loves his wife, but keeps her maid. Some nymphs sell reputation ; others buy ; And love a market where the rates run high : Italian music's sweet, because 'tis dear ; Their vanity is tickled, not their ear : Their tastes would lessen, if the prices fell, And Shakespeare's wretched stuff do quite as well; Away the disenchanted fair would throng, And own that English is their mother tongue.
Page 124 - Across the room, and toss into the chair. So far their commerce with mankind is gone, They, for our manners, have exchang'd their own. The modest look, the castigated grace, The gentle movement, and slow-measur'd pace, For which her lovers died, her parents paid, Are indecorums with the modern maid.
Page 164 - With fame, in just proportion, envy grows ; The man that makes a character, makes foes : Slight, peevish insects round a genius rise, As a bright day awakes the world of flies ; With hearty malice, but with feeble wing, (To show they live) they flutter, and they sting : But as by depredations wasps proclaim The fairest fruit, so these the fairest fame.
Page 83 - Of court and town the noontide masquerade ; Where swarms of knaves the vizor quite disgrace, And hide secure behind a naked face ? Where nature's end of language is declin'd, And men talk only to conceal the mind...
Page 138 - On others' fame, thro' fondness for our own. Of rank and riches proud, Cleora frowns ; For are not coronets akin to crowns ? Her greedy eye, and her sublime address, The height of avarice and pride confess.

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