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So bright the tear in Beauty's eye,
Love half regrets to kiss it dry.
Topic: Tears
Source: The Bride of Abydos (canto I, st. 8)
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Oh! too convincing--dangerously dear--
In woman's eye the unanswerable tear!
That weapon of her weakness she can wield,
To save, subdue--at once her spear and shield.
Topic: Tears
Source: Corsair (canto II, st. 15)
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What gem hath dropp'd, and sparkles o'er his chain?
The tear most sacred, shed for other's pain,
That starts at once--bright pure--from Pity's mine,
Already polish'd by the hand divine!
Topic: Tears
Source: Corsair (canto II, st. 15)
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She was a good deal shock'd; not shock'd at tears,
For women shed and use them at their liking;
But there is something when man's eye appears
Wet, still more disagreeable and striking.
Topic: Tears
Source: Don Juan (canto V, st. 118)
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There is a tear for all who die,
A mourner o'er the humblest grave.
- Lord Byron (George Gordon Noel Byron),
Topic: Tears
Source: Elegiac Stanzas--On the Death of Sir Peter Parker, Bart
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Kill a man's family, and he may brook it,
But keep your hands out of his breeches' pocket.
Topic: Thieving
Source: Don Juan (canto X, st. 79)
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I stood
Among them, but not of them: in a shroud
Of thoughts which were not their thoughts.
Topic: Thought
Source: Childe Harold (canto III, st. 113)
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Whatsoe'er thy birth,
Thou wert a beautiful thought and softly bodied forth.
Topic: Thought
Source: Childe Harold (canto IV, st. 115)
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What exile from himself can flee?
To zones, though more and more remote,
Still, still pursues, where'er I be,
The blight of life--the demon Thought.
Topic: Thought
Source: Childe Harold--To Inez (canto I, st. 84, l. 6)
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The power of Thought,--the magic of the Mind!
Topic: Thought
Source: Corsair (canto I, st. 8)
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My boat is on the shore,
And my bark is on the sea:
But, before I go, Tom Moore,
Here's a double health to thee!
Topic: Toasts
Source: to Thomas Moore
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Weren't the last drop in the well,
As I gasp'd upon the brink,
Ere my fainting spirit fell,
'Tis to thee that I would drink.
Topic: Toasts
Source: To Thomas Moore
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I depart,
Whither I know not; but the hour's gone by
When Albion's lessening shores could grieve or glad mine eye.
Topic: Traveling
Source: Childe Harold (canto III, st. 1)
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And angling too, that solitary vice,
What Izaak Walton sings or says:
The quaint, old, cruel coxcomb, in his gullet
Should have a hook, and a small trout to pull it.
Topic: Trout
Source: Don Juan (canto XIII, st. 106)
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Parting day
Dies like the dolphin, whom each pang imbues
With a new colour as it gasps away,
The last still loveliest, till--'tis gone--and all is gray.
Topic: Twilight
Source: Childe Harold (canto IV, st. 29)
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'Twas twilight, and the sunless day went down
Over the waste of waters; like a veil,
Which, if withdrawn, would but disclose the frown
Of one whose hate is mask'd but to assail.
Topic: Twilight
Source: Don Juan (canto II, st. 49)
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Think'st thou there is no tyranny but that
Of blood and chains? The despotism of vice--
The weakness and the wickedness of luxury--
The negligence--the apathy--the evils
Of sensual sloth--produces ten thousand tyrants,
Whose delegated cruelty surpasses
The worst acts of one energetic master,
However harsh and hard in his own bearing.
Topic: Tyranny
Source: Sardanapalus (act I, sc. 2)
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Tyranny
Is far the worst of treasons. Dost thou deem
None rebels except subjects? The prince who
Neglects or violates his trust is more
A brigand than the robber-chief.
Topic: Tyranny
Source: The Two Foscari (act II, sc. 1)
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Ecclesiastes said that "all is vanity,"
Most modern preachers say the same, or show it
By their examples of true Christianity:
In short, all know, or very short may know it.
Topic: Vanity
Source: Don Juan (canto VII, st. 6)
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I stood in Venice, on the Bridge of Sighs;
A palace and a prison on each hand;
I saw from out the wave of her structure's rise
As from the stroke of the enchanter's wand:
A thousand years their cloudy wings expand
Around me, and a dying Glory smiles
O'er the far times, when many a subject land
Look'd to the winged Lion's marble pines,
Where Venice sate in state, throned on her hundred isles.
Topic: Venice
Source: Childe Harold (canto IV, st. 1)
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In Venice, Tass's echoes are no more,
And silent rows the songless gondolier;
Her palaces are crumbling to the shore,
And music meets not always now the ear.
Topic: Venice
Source: Childe Harold (canto IV, st. 3)
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Venice once was dear,
The pleasant place of all festivity,
The revel of the earth, the masque of Italy.
Topic: Venice
Source: Childe Harold (canto IV, st. 3)
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To sanction Vice, and hunt Decorum down.
Topic: Vice
Source: English Bards and Scotch Reviewers (l. 621)
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The devil hath not, in all his quiver's choice,
An arrow for the heart like a sweet voice.
Topic: Voice
Source: Don Juan (canto XI, st. 13)
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While Washington's a watchword, such as ne'er
Shall sink while there's an echo left to air.
Topic: Washington, George
Source: Age of Bronze (st. 5)
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Where may the wearied eye repose,
When gazing on the Great;
Where neither guilty glory glows,
Nor despicable state?
Yes--one the first, the last, the best,
The Cincinnatus of the West
Whom envy dared not hate,
Bequeathed the name of Washington
To make man blush; there was but one.
Topic: Washington, George
Source: Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte, referring to George Washington
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Till taught by pain,
Men really know not what good water's worth;
If you had been in Turkey or in Spain,
Or with a famish'd boat's-crew had your berth,
Or in the desert heard the camel's bell,
You'd wish yourself where Truth is--in a well.
Topic: Water
Source: Don Juan (canto II, st. 84)
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As winds come whispering lightly from the West,
Kissing, not ruffling, the blue deep's serene.
Topic: Wind
Source: Childe Harold (canto II, st. 70)
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Few things surpass old wine; and they may preach
Who please, the more because they preach in vain,--
Let us have wine and women, mirth and laughter,
Sermons and soda-water the day after.
Topic: Wine and Spirits
Source: Don Juan (canto II, st. 178)
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Which cheers the sad, revives the old, inspires
The young, makes Weariness forget his toil,
And Fear her danger; opens a new world
When this, the present, palls.
Topic: Wine and Spirits
Source: Sardanapalus (act I, sc. 1)
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Sweet is old wine in bottles, ale in barrels.
Topic: Wine and Spirits
Source: Sweet Things (st. 5)
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But these are foolish things to all the wise,
And I love wisdom more than she loves me;
My tendency is to philosophise
On most things, from a tyrant to a tree;
But still the spouseless virgin Knowledge flies,
What are we? and whence come we? what shall be
Our ultimate existence? What's our present?
Are questions answerless, and yet incessant.
Topic: Wisdom
Source: Don Juan (canto VI, st. 63)
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Be thou the rainbow to the storms of life!
The evening beam that smiles the clouds away,
And tints to-morrow with prophetic ray!
Topic: Wives
Source: The Bride of Abydos (canto II, st. 20)
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A schoolboy's tale, the wonder of an hour!
Topic: Wonders
Source: Childe Harold (canto II, st. 2)
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If a man proves too clearly and convincingly to
himself . . . that a tiger is an optical illusion--well, he will
find out he is wrong. The tiger will himself intervene in the
discussion, in a manner which will be in every sense conclusive.
Topic: Wonders
Source: Childe Harold (canto II, st. 2)
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Do proper homage to thine idol's eyes;
But no too humbly, or she will despise
Thee and thy suit, though told in moving tropes:
Disguise even tenderness if thou art wise.
Topic: Wooing
Source: Childe Harold (canto II, st. 34)
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Not much he kens, I ween, of woman's breast,
Who thinks that wanton thing is won by sighs.
Topic: Wooing
Source: Childe Harold (canto II, st. 34)
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'Tis an old lesson; time approves it true,
And those who know it best, deplore it most;
When all is won that all desire to woo,
The paltry prize is hardly worth the cost.
Topic: Wooing
Source: Childe Harold (canto II, st. 35)
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And whispering, "I will ne'er consent," consented.
Topic: Wooing
Source: Don Juan (canto I, st. 117)
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There is a tide in the affairs of women
Which, taken at the flood, leads--God knows where.
Topic: Wooing
Source: Don Juan (canto VI, st. 2)
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Some are soon bagg'd but some reject three dozen.
'Tis fine to see them scattering refusals
And wild dismay, o'er every angry cousin
(Friends of the party) who begin accusals,
Such as--"Unless Miss (Blank) meant to have chosen
Poor Frederick, why did she accord perusals
To his billets? Why waltz with him? Why, I pray,
Look yes least night, and yet say No to-day?"
Topic: Wooing
Source: Don Juan (canto XII, st. 34)
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'Tis enough--
Who listens once will listen twice;
Her heart be sure is not of ice,
And one refusal no rebuff.
Topic: Wooing
Source: Mazeppa (st. 6)
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I have not loved the world, not the world me;
I have not flatter'd its rank breath, nor bow'd
To its idolatries a patient knee.
Topic: World
Source: Childe Harold (canto III, st. 113)
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The heart ran o'er
With silent worship of the great of old!--
The dead, but sceptred sovereigns, who still rule
Our spirits from their urns.
Topic: Worship
Source: Manfred (act III, sc. 4)
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What deep wounds ever closed without a scar?
The hearts bleed longest, and but heal to wear
That which disfigures it.
Topic: Wounds
Source: Childe Harold (canto III, st. 84)
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Ah! happy years! once more who would not be a boy!
Topic: Youth
Source: Childe Harold (canto II, st. 23)
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Her years
Were ripe, they might make six-and-twenty springs;
But there are forms which Time to touch forbears.
And turns aside his scythe to vulgar things.
Topic: Youth
Source: Don Juan (canto V, st. 98)
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And both were young, and one was beautiful.
Topic: Youth
Source: The Dream (st. 2)
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Where the light wings of Zephyr, oppress'd with perfume,
Wax faint o'er the gardens of Gul in her bloom.
Topic: Zephyrs
Source: Bride of Abydos (canto I, st. 1)
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