The Sonnets of William Wordsworth Collected in One Volume |
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Common terms and phrases
ancient aught Bard Battle of Waterloo beauty behold blest bold Bothwell Castle bowers breathe bright brook brow Calais cheer clouds crown dark dear death divine doth dread dream Duddon Dunolly Castle dwell earth England eternal fade fair faith Fancy fear flowers gentle glory grace green happy hath heard heart heaven hill holy honour hope Inglewood Forest Isle King land Liberty light live Loch Etive meek memory MERRY ENGLAND mighty mind morn mountain murmur Muse Nature Nature's numbers o'er peace pensive poem poet praise pure Rill RIVER DUDDON River Eden River Greta round sacred scorn shade shine sight silent Simplon Pass sleep smile soft Sonnet sorrow soul sound spirit Staffa stars Stream sweet sword temples thee thine things thou thought Toussaint L'Ouverture towers truth vale Venetian Republic verse Viriatus voice wild wind wing
Popular passages
Page xxvii - IT is a beauteous evening, calm and free, The holy time is quiet as a nun Breathless with adoration ; the broad sun Is sinking down in its tranquillity ; The gentleness of heaven broods o'er the sea : Listen ! the mighty Being is awake, And doth with his eternal motion make A sound like thunder everlastingly.
Page xxix - Homer ruled as his demesne ; Yet did I never breathe its pure serene Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold : Then felt I like some watcher of the skies When a new planet swims into his ken ; Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes He...
Page 5 - Will murmur by the hour in foxglove bells : In truth the prison, unto which we doom Ourselves, no prison is : and hence for me, In sundry moods, 'twas pastime to be bound Within the Sonnet's scanty plot of ground ; Pleased if some Souls (for such there needs must be) Who have felt the weight of too much liberty, Should find brief solace there, as I have found.
Page xvi - Past reason hated, as a swallow'd bait On purpose laid to make the taker mad; Mad in pursuit, and in possession so; Had, having, and in quest...
Page xvii - And summer's lease hath all too short a date ; Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimm'd ; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd. But thy eternal summer shall not fade Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest ; Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou growest.
Page 68 - ONCE did she hold the gorgeous east in fee ; And was the safeguard of the west : the worth Of Venice did not fall below her birth, Venice, the eldest child of liberty. She was a maiden city, bright and free ; No guile seduced, no force could violate ; And, when she took unto herself a mate, She must espouse the everlasting sea.
Page 73 - Roused though it be full often to a mood Which spurns the check of salutary bands, — That this most famous Stream in bogs and sands Should perish; and to evil and to good Be lost for ever.
Page xxxv - Mysterious Night! when our first parent knew Thee from report divine and heard thy name, Did he not tremble for this lovely frame, This glorious canopy of light and blue ? Yet 'neath a curtain of translucent dew Bathed in the rays of the great setting flame Hesperus with the host of Heaven came And, lo ! creation widened in man's view.
Page 68 - ... east in fee; And was the safeguard of the west: the worth Of Venice did not fall below her birth, Venice, the eldest Child of Liberty. She was a maiden City, bright and free; No guile seduced, no force could violate; And, when she took unto herself a Mate, She must espouse the everlasting Sea. And what if she had seen those glories fade, Those titles vanish, and that strength decay; Yet shall some tribute of regret be paid When her long life hath reached its final day: Men are we, and must grieve...
Page xxv - ANOTHER year ! — another deadly blow ! Another mighty Empire overthrown ! And We are left, or shall be left, alone ; The last that dare to struggle with the Foe. Tis well ! from this day forward we shall know That in ourselves our safety must be sought ; That by our own right hands it must be wrought, That we must stand unpropped, or be laid low.