The Works of Cowper and Thomson: Including Many Letters and Poems Never Before Published in this Country : with a New and Interesting Memoir of the Life of Thomson

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Lippincott, Grambo & Company, 1851 - 537 pages
 

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Page 64 - Would I describe a preacher, such as Paul, ** Were he on earth, would hear, approve, and own, Paul should himself direct me. I would trace His master-strokes, and draw from his design. I would express him simple, grave, sincere; In doctrine uncorrupt; in language plain, ** And plain in manner; decent, solemn, chaste, And natural in gesture ; much impressed Himself, as conscious of his awful charge, And anxious mainly that the flock he feeds May feel it too; affectionate in look, ** And tender in...
Page 98 - One song employs all nations ; and all cry, ' Worthy the Lamb, for he was slain for us ! ' The dwellers in the vales and on the rocks Shout to each other, and the mountain tops From distant mountains catch the flying joy; Till, nation after nation taught the strain, Earth rolls the rapturous Hosanna round.
Page 133 - I seem to have lived my childhood o'er again ; To have renewed the joys that once were mine, Without the sin of violating thine : And, while the wings of Fancy still are free, And I can view this mimic show of thee, Time has but half succeeded in his theft — Thyself removed, thy power to soothe me left.
Page 112 - O tell me I yet have a friend, Though a friend I am never to see. How fleet is a glance of the mind! Compared with the speed of its flight, The tempest itself lags behind, And the swift-winged arrows of light.
Page 76 - tis the twanging horn ! O'er yonder bridge, That with its wearisome but needful length Bestrides the wintry flood, in which the moon Sees her unwrinkled face reflected bright...
Page 49 - THESE, as they change, Almighty Father, these Are but the varied God. The rolling year Is full of Thee. Forth in the pleasing Spring Thy beauty walks, Thy tenderness and love. Wide flush the fields ; the softening air is balm ; Echo the mountains round ; the forest smiles ; And every sense, and every heart is joy.
Page 77 - Tis pleasant, through the loopholes of retreat. To peep at such a world ; to see the stir Of the great Babel, and not feel the crowd ; To hear the roar she sends through all her gates At a safe distance, where the dying sound Falls a soft murmur on the uninjured ear.
Page 126 - Twas for your pleasure you came here, You shall go back for mine. Ah, luckless speech, and bootless boast ! For which he paid full dear, For while he spake a braying ass Did sing most loud and clear. Whereat his horse did snort as he Had heard a lion roar, And galloped off with all his might As he had done before.
Page 76 - And having dropped the expected bag — pass on. He whistles as he goes, light-hearted wretch, Cold and yet cheerful : messenger of grief Perhaps to thousands, and of joy to some, To him indifferent whether grief or joy.) Houses in ashes, and the fall of stocks, Births, deaths, and marriages, epistles wet With tears that trickled down the writer's cheeks Fast as the periods from his fluent quill, Or charged with amorous sighs of absent swains, Or nymphs responsive, equally affect His horse and him,...
Page 126 - And all the world would stare If wife should dine at Edmonton, And I should dine at Ware." So turning to his horse, he said "I am in haste to dine: Twas for your pleasure you came here, You shall go back for mine.

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