Polish Experiences During the Insurrection of 1863-4

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Macmillan and Company, 1864 - Poland - 350 pages
 

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Page 343 - What thou art we know not; What is most like thee? From rainbow clouds there flow not Drops so bright to see As from thy presence showers a rain of melody. Like a Poet hidden In the light of thought, Singing hymns unbidden Till the world is wrought 40 To sympathy with hopes and fears it heeded not...
Page 342 - It is high time that the claims of such really remarkable poets as Mickiewicz and Krasinski were at least laid before the English reader. "Were we but superficially acquainted with the masterpieces of Polish literature, we should not need the excitement of an insurrection to turn our thoughts towards, and remind us of the continued existence of, that unfortunate nation. It should be borne in mind that the Poles do not die when the newspapers cease to write about them. That unintelligent sympathy,...
Page 350 - Clothed in thp flowing purple of thy blood, This thought of thine shall be as a flood of light, A judgment of God gleaming on high Over the base herds of the ungodly. , Then shall withstand it Neither men, nor deeds, Nor lies, nor shams, Nor genius, nor praise, Nor kings, nor peoples ; And on the third day, Over the grave of thy sufferings, Out of the gulf of calamities, Of the flood of events, The unborn shall be born — Righteousness shall arise ! WHB DEAD MEN WHOM I HAVE KNOWN ; OR, KECOLLECTIONS...
Page 344 - Jeremiah, or of a Dante, than of a poet produced by, or rather in spite of, the nineteenth century. Krasinski's highest aspiration is the moral education of his countrymen ; and the constant aim of his poems is to teach them to make nothing of their present sufferings in comparison of the glorious recompense in store for them.
Page 87 - It was evident that up to lately there had been a large notice board in front of the balcony. It had, however, been roughly torn away, the uprights which had supported it still remaining. Behind the rails of the balcony I saw there were some loose boards, whose raw edges looked white. I would have given a good deal to have been able to see the notice board intact, as it would, perhaps, have given some clue to the ownership of the house.
Page 8 - ... than renounce the dream of renewing the glories of the Jagellons. But in such an undertaking they cannot count upon the sympathy -of Europe. The memory of the persecuting slaveowners, whose corrupt and factious anarchy was trampled out by Catherine, is not a felicitous topic for those to dilate upon who are asking for the aid of free and order-loving Englishmen.
Page 342 - Mickiewicz, who disputes with Krasinski the first place in the estimation of his countrymen, after reading a French translation of his poems, laid the book down with a sigh, exclaiming that from henceforth he renounced all claim to be considered a poet. It is, indeed, a matter of surprise that in these days, when Englishmen scour land and sea in search of something new, and unearth Norse tales, Icelandic legends, and Servian ballads, for the benefit of the British public, they should with one accord...
Page 172 - Augustine the double procession of the Spirit from the Father and the Son, and, without consulting the East, put it into the Creed. The first clear trace of the...
Page 157 - Since then a succession of scenes has been enacted, of which the world never saw the like. Even cannibals would revolt from the crimes which Poles have committed. Do you not know that they have hung up Russian soldiers by their own entrails, and performed hell-dances over the bodies of our generals whom they have killed? Helpless women, too, have been murdered in cold blood, and churches have been converted into manufactories of arms.

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