The Masters of English LiteratureMacmillan, 1904 - 423 pages |
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Page vii
... 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 at least to be concealed ; and secondly , that 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 at least to be concealed ; and secondly , that the ...
Page viii
... writer would not recommend as agree- able reading to any lover of literature . If any concession has been made to public fame in this respect , it has been in the case of authors such as Thomson , who are specially significant in the ...
... writer would not recommend as agree- able reading to any lover of literature . If any concession has been made to public fame in this respect , it has been in the case of authors such as Thomson , who are specially significant in the ...
Page xi
... 21 CHAPTER III SHAKESPEARE 41 CHAPTER IV BEN JONSON AND HERRICK BACON CHAPTER V 68 888 8883 CHAPTER VI MILTON 96 CHAPTER VII PURITANISM AND THE REACTION 127 CHAPTER VIII DRYDEN AND THE PROSE WRITERS OF THE RESTORA- xi.
... 21 CHAPTER III SHAKESPEARE 41 CHAPTER IV BEN JONSON AND HERRICK BACON CHAPTER V 68 888 8883 CHAPTER VI MILTON 96 CHAPTER VII PURITANISM AND THE REACTION 127 CHAPTER VIII DRYDEN AND THE PROSE WRITERS OF THE RESTORA- xi.
Page 3
... writers , Chaucer is no primitive poet ; there is no analogy between his work and that of the Homeric poems , the supreme example of a well - marked literary class . Primitive literature there is in English , but the English sagas ...
... writers , Chaucer is no primitive poet ; there is no analogy between his work and that of the Homeric poems , the supreme example of a well - marked literary class . Primitive literature there is in English , but the English sagas ...
Page 4
... writer , he chose to write in English . But to a writer in English there was still another choice open . He might employ the metrical system common to all the Teutonic races , which depended not on rhyme and syllabic measurement , but ...
... writer , he chose to write in English . But to a writer in English there was still another choice open . He might employ the metrical system common to all the Teutonic races , which depended not on rhyme and syllabic measurement , but ...
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admirable ballad beauty Ben Jonson blank verse Bonny Dundee born Burns Byron Canterbury Tales century character charm Chaucer chronicle plays Coleridge colour comedy contemporary couplet criticism death described Dickens drama Dryden England English literature essays expression eyes Faerie Queene Falstaff fame famous genius heart heaven honour human humour Johnson Keats King lady later less lines literary living London Lord lyric Lyrical Ballads master metre Milton mind narrative nature never night novel o'er Paradise Lost passage passion perhaps persons play poem poet poetry Pope prose published reader rhyme satire Scott sense Shakespeare Shelley song sonnets Spenser spirit stanzas story style sweet Swift tale Tamburlaine tell thee Theseus things thou thought tion tragedy Troilus and Cressida truth uncle Toby verse whole wife woman words Wordsworth writing written wrote young
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.