Essentials of Poetry: Lowell Lectures, 1911Houghton Mifflin, 1912 - 282 pages |
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Common terms and phrases
abundant actual aginative appears Aristotle artistic balance of qualities beauty Burns Burns's Byron called characteristic classical clear Coleridge conception contrast criticism degree discussion dominant Duchess of Malfi effect eighteenth century elements of poetry emotion Essay on Criticism essential example exhibits expression external eyes faculties feeling George Crabbe history of poetry human nature humor ical ideal illustrate images imaginative element imitation instance intensity irony Jolly Beggars Keats Kubla Khan Laurence Sterne less literary literature lyric Lyrical Ballads masterpiece medieval ment merely method Molière mood neo-classical neo-classicism o'er observation passage passion period phrase picture poem poet's poetic Pope predominance present produced purely reader realistic reason regarded Renascence result return to nature romantic poets Romanticism roused satire scene sense of fact sentiment sentimentalist Shelley soul spirit stanzas tendency things thou tion truth verse vision vivid word Wordsworth writer
Popular passages
Page 123 - Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer, And without sneering, teach the rest to sneer; Willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike, Just hint a fault, and hesitate dislike...
Page 82 - Of travellers in some shady haunt, Among Arabian sands: A voice so thrilling ne'er was heard In spring-time from the Cuckoo-bird, Breaking the silence of the seas Among the farthest Hebrides.
Page 185 - St Agnes' Eve — Ah, bitter chill it was! The owl, for all his feathers, was a-cold ; The hare limp'd trembling through the frozen grass, And silent was the flock in woolly fold : Numb were the Beadsman's fingers, while he told His rosary, and while his frosted breath, Like pious incense from a censer old, Seem'd taking flight for heaven, without a death, Past the sweet Virgin's picture, while his prayer he saith...
Page 179 - Aonian mount, while it pursues Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme. And chiefly Thou, O Spirit, that dost prefer Before all temples the upright heart and pure, Instruct me, for Thou know'st ; Thou from the first Wast present, and with mighty wings outspread Dovelike satst brooding on the vast abyss...
Page 80 - Wordsworth, on the other hand, was to propose to himself as his object, to give the charm of novelty to things of every day, and to excite a feeling. analogous to the supernatural, by awakening the mind's attention from the lethargy of custom, and directing it to the loveliness and the wonders of the world before us...
Page 143 - Nor rural sights alone, but rural sounds, Exhilarate the spirit, and restore The tone of languid Nature. Mighty winds, That sweep the skirt of some far-spreading wood Of ancient growth, make music not unlike The dash of ocean on his winding shore...
Page 139 - A pleasing land of drowsy -head it was, Of dreams that wave before the half-shut eye ; And of gay castles in the clouds that pass, For ever flushing round a summer sky...
Page 95 - Therefore all seasons shall be sweet to thee, Whether the summer clothe the general earth With greenness, or the redbreast sit and sing Betwixt the tufts of snow on the bare branch Of mossy apple-tree...
Page 184 - All things that love the sun are out of doors; The sky rejoices in the morning's birth ; The grass is bright with rain-drops; — on the moors The hare is running races in her mirth ; And with her feet she from the plashy earth Raises a mist, that, glittering in the sun, Runs with her all the way, wherever she doth run.
Page 34 - Loose types of things through all degrees, Thoughts of thy raising; And many a fond and idle name I give to thee, for praise or blame As is the humour of the game, While I am gazing. A nun demure, of lowly port; Or sprightly maiden, of Love's court, In thy simplicity the sport Of all temptations; A queen in crown of rubies drest; A starveling in a scanty vest; Are all, as seems to suit thee best, Thy appellations.