Their only labour was to kill the time;
And labour dire it is, and weary woe,
They sit, they loll, turn o'er some idle rhyme,
Then, rising sudden, to the glass they go,
Or saunter forth, with tottering steps and slow.
Idleness
Quotes, by James Thomson (1) , Source: Castle of Indolence (canto I, 72)
|
|
When autumn scatters his departing gleams,
Warn'd of approaching winter, gather'd, play
The swallow-people; and toss'd wide around,
O'er the calm sky, in convolution swift,
The feather'd eddy floats; rejoicing once,
Ere to their wintry slumbers they retire.
Swallows
Quotes, by James Thomson (1) , Source: Seasons--Autumn (l. 836)
|
|
|
The Redbreast, sacred to the household gods,
Wisely regardful of the embroiling sky,
In joyless fields and thorny thickets leaves
His shivering mates, and pays to trusted Man
His annual visit.
Robins
Quotes, by James Thomson (1) , Source: Seasons--Winter (l. 246)
|
Invite the rook who high amid the boughs,
In early spring, his airy city builds,
And ceaseless caws amusive.
Rooks
Quotes, by James Thomson (1) , Source: Seasons--Spring (l. 756)
|
Think, oh, grateful think!
How good the God of Harvest is to you;
Who pours abundance o'er your flowing fields,
While those unhappy partners of you kind
Wide-hover round you, like the fowls of heaven,
And ask their humble dole.
Harvest
Quotes, by James Thomson (1) , Source: Autumn (l. 169)
|
So stands the statue that enchants the world,
So bending tries to veil the matchless boast,
The mingled beauties of exulting Greece.
Sculpture
Quotes, by James Thomson (1) , Source: Seasons--Summer (l. 1,346)
|
|
|
|
But through the heart
Should Jealousy its venom once diffuse,
'Tis then delightful misery no more,
But agony unmix'd, incessant gall,
Corroding every thought, and blasting all
Love's paradise.
Jealousy
Quotes, by James Thomson (1) , Source: Seasons--Spring (l. 1,073)
|
Slow let us trace the matchless vale of Thames;
Fair winding up to where the Muses haunt
In Twit'nham bowers, and for their Pope implore.
Thames river
Quotes, by James Thomson (1) , Source: Seasons--Summer (l. 1,425)
|
For nothing human foreign was to him.
Humanity
Quotes, by James Thomson (1) , Source: To the Memory of Lord Talbot, translation of "Humani nihil a me alienum puto"
|
|
