Selections from the Poetical Works of Geoffry Chaucer: With a Concise Life of that Poet and Remarks Illustrative of His Genius

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Wiley and Putnam, 1847 - 296 pages

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Page 290 - As if here were those cooler shades of love. Can such delights be in the street " And open fields and we not see't ? Come, we'll abroad; and let's obey The proclamation made for May : And sin no more, as we have done, by staying; But, my Corinna, come, let's go a-Maying.
Page 290 - Come, let us go, while we are in our prime, And take the harmless folly of the time! We shall grow old apace, and die Before we know our liberty. Our life is short, and our days run As fast away as does the sun. And, as a vapour or a drop of rain, Once lost, can ne'er be found again, So when or you or I are made A fable, song, or fleeting shade, All love, all liking, all delight Lies drown'd with us in endless night.
Page 289 - Nay ! not so much as out of bed ? When all the birds have matins said And sung their thankful hymns, 'tis sin, Nay, profanation to keep in, Whenas a thousand virgins on this day Spring, sooner than the lark, to fetch in May.
Page 106 - Now the bright morning star, day's harbinger, Comes dancing from the East, and leads with her The flowery May, who from her green lap throws The yellow cowslip, and the pale primrose. Hail, bounteous May ! that dost inspire Mirth, and youth, and warm desire ; Woods and groves are of thy dressing; Hill and dale doth boast thy blessing. Thus we salute thee with our early song, And welcome thee, and wish thee long.
Page 41 - And more to lulle him in his slumber soft, A trickling streame from high rock tumbling downe, And ever-drizling raine upon the loft, Mixt with a murmuring winde, much like the sowne Of swarming Bees, did cast him in a swowne. No other noyse, nor peoples troublous cryes, As still are wont t...
Page 63 - He was a wel good wrighte, a carpenter. This reve sat up-on a ful good stot, That was al pomely grey, and highte Scot.
Page 114 - Yet many of his verses consist of ten syllables, and the words not much behind our present English ; as, for example, these two lines in the description of the carpenter's young wife : " Wincing she was, as is a jolly colt, Long as a mast, and upright as a bolt.
Page 46 - Where neither beast nor human kind repair; The fowl that scent afar the borders fly, And shun the bitter blast, and wheel about the sky. A cake of scurf lies baking on the ground, And prickly stubs, instead of trees, are found...
Page 112 - Thus passeth yere by yere, and day by day, Till it felle ones in a morwe of May That Emelie, that fayrer was to sene Than is the lilie upon his stalke grene, And fresher than the May with floures newe, (For with the rose colour strof hire hewe ; I n'ot which was the finer of hem two) Er it was day, as she was wont to do, She was arisen, and all redy dight.
Page 289 - Come, my Corinna, come; and coming, mark How each field turns a street; each street a park Made green, and trimm'd with trees: see how Devotion gives each house a bough Or branch: each porch, each door, ere this, An ark, a tabernacle is Made up of white-thorn neatly interwove; As if here were those cooler shades of love.

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