The Correspondence of Thomas Gray and William Mason ; with Letters to the Rev. James Brown

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Bentley, 1853 - 485 pages
 

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Page x - Yet even these bones," are to me original : I have never seen the notions in any other place ; yet he that reads them here persuades himself that he has always felt them.
Page 81 - A voice, as of the cherub-choir, Gales from blooming Eden bear; And distant warblings lessen on my ear, That lost in long futurity expire. Fond impious man, think'st thou yon sanguine cloud, Rais'd by thy breath, has quench'd the orb of day? To-morrow he repairs the golden flood, And warms the nations with redoubled ray. Enough for me; with joy I see The dirf'rent doom our fates assign. Be thine despair, and scept'red care, To triumph, and to die, are mine.
Page 347 - I speak ; the Lowlands are worth seeing once, but the mountains are ecstatic, and ought to be visited in pilgrimage once a year. None but those monstrous creatures of God know how to join so much beauty with so much horror.
Page 17 - I know what it is to lose persons that one's eyes and heart have long been used to ; and I never desire to part with the remembrance of that loss, nor would wish you should.
Page x - The Church-yard abounds with images which find a mirror in every mind, and with sentiments to which every bosom returns an echo.
Page 113 - Serjeant trumpeter or pinmaker to the palace. Nevertheless I interest myself a little in the history of it, and rather wish somebody may accept it that will retrieve the credit of the thing, if it be retrievable, or ever had any credit.
Page 81 - Taliessin, hear; They breathe a soul to animate thy clay. Bright Rapture calls, and soaring as she sings, Waves in the eye of Heaven her many-colour'd wings.
Page 128 - Extreme conciseness of expression, yet pure, perspicuous, and musical, is one of the grand beauties of lyric poetry. This I have always aimed at, and never could attain...
Page 164 - High tower'd his helmed head : I mark'd his mail, I mark'd his shield, I 'spy'd the sparkling of his spear, I saw his giant arm the falchion wield ; Wide wav'd the bick'ring blade, and fir'd the angry air.
Page 113 - I make you rat-catcher to his Majesty, with a salary of £300 a year and two butts of the best Malaga ; and though it has been usual to catch a mouse or two, for form's sake, in public once a year, yet to you, sir, we shall not stand upon these things...

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