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In ancient times, the sacred Plough employ'd
The Kings and awful Fathers of mankind:
And some, with whom compared your insect-tribes
Are but the beings of a summer's day,
Have held the Scale of Empire, ruled the Storm
Of mighty War; then, with victorious hand,
Disdaining little delicacies, seized
The Plough, and, greatly independent, scorned
All the vile stores corruption can bestow.
Topic: Agriculture
Source: Seasons--Spring (l. 58)
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O fair undress, best dress! it checks no vein,
But every flowing limb in pleasure drowns,
And heightens ease with grace.
Topic: Apparel
Source: Castle of Indolence (canto I, st. 26)
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Her polish'd limbs,
Veil'd in a simple robe, their best attire;
Beyond the pomp of dress; for Loveliness
Needs not the foreign aid of ornament,
But is, when unadorn'd the most.
Topic: Apparel
Source: Seasons--Autumn (l. 202)
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Distrust any enterprise that requires new clothes.
Topic: Apparel
Source: Seasons--Autumn (l. 202)
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Even from the body's purity, the mind
Receives a secret sympathetic aid.
Topic: Chastity
Source: Seasons--Summer (l. 1,269)
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At the throng'd levee bends the venal tribe:
With fair but faithless smiles each varnish'd o'er,
Each smooth as those that mutually deceive,
And for their falsehood each despising each.
Topic: Courtiers
Source: Liberty (pt. V, l. 190)
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While I deduce,
From the first note the hollow cuckoo sings,
The symphony of spring.
Topic: Cuckoos
Source: Seasons--Spring (l. 576)
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Base envy withers at another's joy,
And hates that excellence it cannot reach.
Topic: Envy
Source: Seasons--Spring (l. 28)
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'Tis silence all,
And pleasing expectation.
Topic: Expectation
Source: Seasons--Spring (l. 160)
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Among the crooked lanes, on every hedge,
The glow-worm lights his gem; and through the dark,
A moving radiance twinkles.
Topic: Glowworms
Source: Seasons--Summer (l. 1,682)
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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.
Topic: Harvest
Source: Autumn (l. 169)
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Ah! what avail the largest gifts of Heaven,
When drooping health and spirits go amiss?
How tasteless then whatever can be given!
Health is the vital principle of bliss,
And exercise of health.
Topic: Health
Source: Castle of Indolence (canto II, st. 55)
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For nothing human foreign was to him.
Topic: Humanity
Source: To the Memory of Lord Talbot, translation of "Humani nihil a me alienum puto"
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Cruel as death, and hungry at the grave.
Topic: Hunger
Source: Seasons--Winter (l. 393)
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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.
Topic: Idleness
Source: Castle of Indolence (canto I, 72)
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Hail! Independence, hail! Heaven's next best gift,
To that of life and an immortal soul!
Topic: Independence
Source: Liberty (pt. V, l. 124)
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Island of bliss! amid the subject Seas,
That thunder round thy rocky coasts, set up,
At once the wonder, terror, and delight
Of distant nations; whose remotest shore
Can soon be shaken by thy naval arm;
Not to be shook thyself, but all assaults
Baffling, like thy hoar cliffs the loud sea-wave.
Topic: Islands
Source: Seasons--Summer (l. 1,597)
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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.
Topic: Jealousy
Source: Seasons--Spring (l. 1,073)
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Up springs the lark,
Shrill-voiced, and loud, the messenger of morn;
Ere yet the shadows fly, he mounted sings
Amid the dawning clouds, and from their haunts
Calls up the tuneful nations.
Topic: Larks
Source: Seasons--Spring (l. 587)
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Linnets . . . sit
On the dead tree, a dull despondent flock.
Topic: Linnets
Source: Seasons--Autumn (l. 974)
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Falsely luxurious, will not man awake?
Topic: Luxury
Source: Seasons--Summer
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Among the changing months, May stands confest
The sweetest, and in fairest colors dressed.
Topic: May
Source: On May
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The glad circle round them yield their souls
To festive mirth, and wit that knows no gall.
Topic: Merriment
Source: Seasons--Summer (l. 403)
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He saw her charming, but he saw not half
The charms her downcast modesty conceal'd.
Topic: Modesty
Source: Seasons--Autumn (l. 229)
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Whoe'er amidst the sons
Of reason, valor, liberty and virtue,
Displays distinguished merit, is a noble
Of Nature's own creating.
Topic: Nobility
Source: Coriolanus (act III, sc. 3)
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Scroundrel maxim.
Topic: Proverbs (General)
Source: The Castle of Indolence (canto I, st. 50)
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The Clouds consign their treasures to the fields;
And, softly shaking on the dimpled pool
Prelusive drops, let all their moisture flow
In large effusion, o'er the freshen'd world.
Topic: Rain
Source: Seasons--Spring (l. 173)
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Amid the roses, fierce Repentance rears
Her snaky crest; a quick-returning pang
Shoots through the conscious heart.
Topic: Repentance
Source: Seasons--Spring (l. 995)
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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.
Topic: Robins
Source: Seasons--Winter (l. 246)
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Invite the rook who high amid the boughs,
In early spring, his airy city builds,
And ceaseless caws amusive.
Topic: Rooks
Source: Seasons--Spring (l. 756)
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So stands the statue that enchants the world,
So bending tries to veil the matchless boast,
The mingled beauties of exulting Greece.
Topic: Sculpture
Source: Seasons--Summer (l. 1,346)
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Of evening tinct,
The purple-streaming Amethyst is thine.
Topic: Sky
Source: Seasons--Summer (l. 150)
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Soft-buzzing Slander; silly moths that eat
An honest name.
Topic: Slander
Source: Liberty (pt. IV, l. 609)
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At first, heard solemn o'er the verge of Heaven,
The Tempest growls; but as it nearer comes,
And rolls its awful burden on the wind,
The Lightnings flash a larger curve, and more
The Noise astounds; till overhead a sheet
Of livid flame discloses wide, then shuts,
And opens wider; shuts and opens still
Expansive, wrapping ether in a blaze.
Follows the loosen'd aggravated Roar,
Enlarging, deepening, mingling, peal on peal,
Crush'd, horrible, convulsing Heaven and Earth.
Topic: Storms
Source: Seasons--Summer (l. 1,133)
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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.
Topic: Swallows
Source: Seasons--Autumn (l. 836)
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The swallow sweeps
The slimy pool, to build his hanging house.
Topic: Swallows
Source: Seasons--Spring (l. 651)
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The stately-sailing swan
Gives out his snowy plumage to the gale;
And, arching proud his neck, with oary feet
Bears forward fierce, and guards his osier isle,
Protective of his young.
Topic: Swans
Source: Seasons--Spring (l. 775)
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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.
Topic: Thames River
Source: Seasons--Summer (l. 1,425)
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He ceased; but still their trembling ears retained
The deep vibrations of his witching song.
Topic: Voice
Source: Castle of Indolence (canto I, st. 20)
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