Ovid's a rake, as half his verses show him,
Anacreon's morals are a still worse sample,
Catullus scarcely has a decent poem,
I don't think Sappho's Ode a good example,
Although Longinus tells us there is no hymn
Where the sublime soars forth on wings more ample;
But Virgil's songs are pure, except that horrid one
Being with "Formosum Pastor Corydon."
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The Helicon of too many poets is not a hill crowned with sunshine and visited by the Muses and the read more
The Helicon of too many poets is not a hill crowned with sunshine and visited by the Muses and the Graces, but an old, mouldering house, full of gloom and haunted by ghosts.
And poets by their sufferings grow,--
As if there were no more to do,
To make a read more
And poets by their sufferings grow,--
As if there were no more to do,
To make a poet excellent,
But only want and discontent.
Poets by Death are conquer'd but the wit
Of poets triumphs over it.
Poets by Death are conquer'd but the wit
Of poets triumphs over it.
God's prophets of the Beautiful,
These Poets were.
God's prophets of the Beautiful,
These Poets were.
The union of the mathematician with the poet, fervor with measure, passion with correctness, this surely is the ideal
The union of the mathematician with the poet, fervor with measure, passion with correctness, this surely is the ideal
A Poet without Love were a physical and metaphysical
impossibility.
A Poet without Love were a physical and metaphysical
impossibility.
Happy the poet who with ease can steer
From grave to gay, from lively to severe.
[Lat., read more
Happy the poet who with ease can steer
From grave to gay, from lively to severe.
[Lat., Heureux qui, dans ses vers, sait d'une voix legere
Passer du grave au doux, du plaisant au severe.]
Ages elapsed ere Homer's lamp appeared,
And ages ere the Mantuan Swan was heard;
To carry nature read more
Ages elapsed ere Homer's lamp appeared,
And ages ere the Mantuan Swan was heard;
To carry nature lengths unknown before,
To give a Milton birth, asked ages more.
The poet ranks far below the painter in the representation of visible things, and far below the musician in that read more
The poet ranks far below the painter in the representation of visible things, and far below the musician in that of invisible things.
