A story, in which native humour reigns,
Is often useful, always entertains;
A graver fact, enlisted on read more

A story, in which native humour reigns,
Is often useful, always entertains;
A graver fact, enlisted on your side,
May furnish illustration, well applied;
But sedentary weavers of long tales
Give me the fidgets, and my patience fails.

I hate
To tell again a tale once fully told.

I hate
To tell again a tale once fully told.

For seldom shall she hear a tale
So said, so tender, yet so true.

For seldom shall she hear a tale
So said, so tender, yet so true.

The things that have been and shall be no more,
The things that are, and that hereafter shall be,
read more

The things that have been and shall be no more,
The things that are, and that hereafter shall be,
The things that might have been, and yet were not,
The fading twilight of joys departed.

Wonder [said Socrates] is very much the affection of a
philosopher; for there is no other beginning of philosophy read more

Wonder [said Socrates] is very much the affection of a
philosopher; for there is no other beginning of philosophy than
this.

Long stood the noble youth oppress'd with awe,
And stupid at the wondrous things he saw,
Surpassing read more

Long stood the noble youth oppress'd with awe,
And stupid at the wondrous things he saw,
Surpassing common faith, transgressing nature's law.

Pretty! in amber to observe the forms
Of hairs, of straws, or dirt, or grubs, or worms!
read more

Pretty! in amber to observe the forms
Of hairs, of straws, or dirt, or grubs, or worms!
The things, we know, are neither rich nor rare,
But wonder how the devil they got there.

When thou dost tell another's jest, therein
Omit the oaths, which true wit cannot need;
Pick out read more

When thou dost tell another's jest, therein
Omit the oaths, which true wit cannot need;
Pick out of tales the mirth, but not the sin.

It will have blood, they say: blood will have blood.
Stones have been known to move and trees to read more

It will have blood, they say: blood will have blood.
Stones have been known to move and trees to speak;
Augures and understood relations have
By maggot-pies and choughs and rooks brought forth
The secret'st man of blood. What is the night?