The Masters of English LiteratureMacmillan, 1904 - 423 pages |
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Page vii
... period which sets so much value on specialised study . The writer would justify it by the view , first , that in English literature there are certain authors who may be classed as obligatory - concerning whom total ignorance is a defect ...
... period which sets so much value on specialised study . The writer would justify it by the view , first , that in English literature there are certain authors who may be classed as obligatory - concerning whom total ignorance is a defect ...
Page ix
... period , as more familiar , has been dismissed with very summary treatment . Generally speaking , the more quotable an author , the more he has been quoted ; and poetry therefore much more than prose . Also , since it was necessary in ...
... period , as more familiar , has been dismissed with very summary treatment . Generally speaking , the more quotable an author , the more he has been quoted ; and poetry therefore much more than prose . Also , since it was necessary in ...
Page 6
... considered his roughnesses , were in mere technical skill far the inferiors of this great beginner . ― - From a literary point of view , Chaucer's life . romances . falls into three periods . In the first 6 THE MASTERS OF ENGLISH ...
... considered his roughnesses , were in mere technical skill far the inferiors of this great beginner . ― - From a literary point of view , Chaucer's life . romances . falls into three periods . In the first 6 THE MASTERS OF ENGLISH ...
Page 7
Stephen Lucius Gwynn. romances . falls into three periods . In the first we see him as a translator and imitator of the French , employing the eight - syllable rhymed verse of the French His principal work as translator was undoubtedly a ...
Stephen Lucius Gwynn. romances . falls into three periods . In the first we see him as a translator and imitator of the French , employing the eight - syllable rhymed verse of the French His principal work as translator was undoubtedly a ...
Page 8
... period Chaucer was at best a fine derivative poet . He was certainly over forty before his full originality displayed itself in the great scheme of the Canterbury Tales . We can see him in the Hous of Fame and the Legende of Good Women ...
... period Chaucer was at best a fine derivative poet . He was certainly over forty before his full originality displayed itself in the great scheme of the Canterbury Tales . We can see him in the Hous of Fame and the Legende of Good Women ...
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Popular passages
Page 143 - Changed his hand, and check'd his pride. He chose a mournful muse, Soft pity to infuse: He sung Darius great and good! ~By too severe a fate, Fallen! fallen! fallen! fallen! Fallen from his high estate, And weltering in his blood!
Page 270 - Piping down the valleys wild, Piping songs of pleasant glee, On a cloud I saw a child, And he laughing said to me: "Pipe a song about a Lamb!' So I piped with merry cheer. 'Piper, pipe that song again;
Page 330 - But oft, in lonely rooms, and 'mid the din Of towns and cities, I have owed to them In hours of weariness, sensations sweet, Felt in the blood, and felt along the heart; And passing even into my purer mind. With tranquil restoration...
Page 112 - Thus with the year Seasons return; but not to me returns Day, or the sweet approach of even or morn, Or sight of vernal bloom, or summer's rose, Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine...
Page 100 - Oft, on a plat of rising ground, I hear the far-off curfew sound, Over some wide-watered shore Swinging slow with sullen roar; Or, if the air will not permit, Some still removed place will fit, Where glowing embers through the room Teach light to counterfeit a gloom, 80 Far from all resort of mirth, Save the cricket on the hearth, Or the bellman's drowsy charm To bless the doors from nightly harm.
Page 241 - Here Reynolds is laid, and to tell you my mind, He has not left a wiser or better behind : His pencil was striking, resistless, and grand : His manners were gentle, complying, and bland ; Still born to improve us in every part, His pencil our faces, his manners our heart...
Page 117 - O'er other creatures : yet when I approach Her loveliness, so absolute she seems, And in herself complete, so well to know Her own, that what she wills to do or say Seems wisest, virtuousest, discreetest, best...
Page 365 - He has outsoared the shadow of our night; Envy and calumny and hate and pain, And that unrest which men miscall delight, Can touch him not and torture not again...
Page 243 - In all my wanderings round this world of care, In all my griefs, — and God has given my share, — I still had hopes, my latest hours to crown, Amidst these humble bowers to lay me down ; To husband out life's taper at the close, And keep the flame from wasting by repose.
Page 344 - Lyrical Ballads^; in which it was agreed that my endeavours should be directed to persons and characters supernatural, or at least romantic; yet so as to transfer from our inward nature a human interest and a semblance of truth sufficient to procure for these shadows of imagination that willing suspension of disbelief for the moment, which constitutes poetic faith.