The History of English Poetry: From the Eleventh to the Seventeenth Century

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G. P. Putnam & sons, 1870 - English poetry - 1032 pages

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Page 189 - Numbers of all diseased, all maladies Of ghastly spasm, or racking torture, qualms Of heart-sick agony; all feverous kinds, Convulsions, epilepsies, fierce catarrhs, Intestine stone and ulcer, colic pangs, Demoniac frenzy, moping melancholy, And moon-struck madness, pining atrophy, Marasmus, and wide-wasting pestilence, Dropsies, and asthmas, and joint-racking rheums.
Page 189 - Dire was the tossing, deep the groans : Despair Tended the sick, busiest from couch to couch ; And over them triumphant Death his dart Shook, but delay'd to strike, though oft invoked With vows, as their chief good, and final hope.
Page 638 - Or brightest day the darkest night. And thereto hath a troth as just As had Penelope the fair ; For what she saith, ye may it trust...
Page 772 - And first within the porch and jaws of Hell Sat deep Remorse of Conscience, all besprent With tears: and to herself oft would she tell Her wretchedness, and cursing never stent...
Page 714 - But canst Thou, tender Maid, canst Thou sustain Afflictive Want, or Hunger's pressing Pain ? Those Limbs, in Lawn and softest Silk array'd, From Sun-beams guarded, and of Winds afraid ; Can they bear angry JOVE ? Can they resist The parching Dog-star, and the bleak North-East ? When...
Page 562 - Sometime, we see a cloud that's dragonish, A vapour, sometime, like a bear, or lion, A tower'd citadel, a pendant rock, A forked mountain, or blue promontory With trees upon't, that nod unto the world, And mock our eyes with air: thou hast seen these signs; They are black vesper's pageants.
Page 744 - And where heretofore there hath been great diversity in saying and singing in churches within this realm, some following Salisbury use, some Hereford use, some the use of Bangor, some of York, and some of Lincoln, now from henceforth all the whole realm shall have but one use.
Page 634 - Italie, and there tasted the sweete and stately measures and stile of the Italian Poesie...
Page 775 - With visage grim, stern look, and blackly hued : In his right hand a naked sword he had, That to the hilts was all with blood imbrued; And in his left (that kings and kingdoms rued) Famine and fire he held, and therewithal He razed towns, and threw down towers and all...
Page 797 - Now is the winter of our discontent Made glorious summer by this sun of York ; And all the clouds that lour'd upon our house In the deep bosom of the ocean buried. Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths ; Our bruised arms hung up for monuments ; Our stern alarums changed to merry meetings, Our dreadful marches to delightful measures.

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