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Some bold adventurers disdain
The limits of their little reign,
And unknown regions date descry.
Topic: Adventure
Source: Ode to a Distant Prospect of Eton College
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Thou tamer of the human breast,
Whose iron scourge and tort'ring hour
The bad affright, afflict the best!
Topic: Adversity
Source: Hymn to Adversity (st. 1)
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A favorite has no friend!
Topic: Advice / Experience / Wisdom
Source: None
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Oft did the harvest to their sickle yield:
Their furrow oft the stubborn glebe has broke:
How jocund did they drive their team a-field!
How bow'd the woods beneath their sturdy stroke!
Topic: Agriculture
Source: Elegy in a Country Churchyard (st. 7)
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Not all that tempts your wandering eyes
And heedless hearts is lawful prize,
Not all that glisters gold.
Topic: Appearance
Source: Old on a Favorite Cat
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Rich windows that exclude the light,
And passages that lead to nothing.
Topic: Architecture
Source: A Long Story
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To warm their little loves the birds complain.
Topic: Birds
Source: Sonnet on the Death of Richard West
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Too poor for a bribe, and too proud to importune,
He had not the method of making a fortune.
Topic: Bribery
Source: On His Own Character
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From Helicon's harmonious springs
A thousand rills their mazy progress take.
Topic: Brooks
Source: The Progress of Poesy (I, i, l. 3)
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What female heart can gold despise?
What cat's averse to fish?
Topic: Cats
Source: On the Death of a Favorite Cat
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No farther seek his merits to disclose,
Or draw his frailties from their dread abode
(There they alike in trembling hope repose),
The bosom of his Father and his God.
Topic: Charity
Source: Elegy in a Country Churchyard--Epitaph
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When your courtyard twists, do not pour the water abroad.
Topic: Charity
Source: Elegy in a Country Churchyard--Epitaph
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Alas! regardless of their doom,
The little victims play;
No sense have they of ills to come,
Nor care beyond to-day.
Topic: Childhood
Source: On a Distant Prospect of Eton College (st. 6)
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The Attic warbler pours her throat
Responsive to the cuckoo's note.
Topic: Cuckoos
Source: Ode on the Spring
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To brisk notes in cadence beating
Glance their many-twinkling feet.
Topic: Dancing
Source: Progress of Poesy (pt. I, st. 3, l. 10)
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Tho' he inherit
Not the pride, nor ample pinion,
That the Theban eagle bear,
Sailing with supreme dominion
Thro' the azure deep of air.
Topic: Eagles
Source: Progress of Poesy
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The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea,
The ploughman homeward plods his weary way,
And leaves the world to darkness and to me.
Topic: Evening
Source: Elegy in a Country Churchyard
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Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire.
Topic: Fire
Source: Elegy (46)
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E'en from the tomb the voice of nature cries,
E'en in our ashes live their wonted fires.
Topic: Fire
Source: Elegy in a Country Churchyard (st. 23), Gray says it was suggested by Plutarch
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There scatter'd oft the earliest of ye Year
By Hands unseen are showers of Vi'lets found;
The Redbreast loves to build and warble there,
And little Footsteps lightly print the ground.
Topic: Footsteps
Source: Elegy in a Country Churchyard, his manuscript
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Too poor for a bribe, and too proud to importune,
He had not the method of making a fortune.
Topic: Fortune
Source: On His Own Character
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The paths of glory lead but to the grave.
Topic: Glory
Source: Elegy in a Country Churchyard (st. 9)
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What female heart can gold despise?
What cat's averse to fish?
Topic: Gold
Source: On the Death of a Favorite Cat
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The still small voice of gratitude.
Topic: Gratitude
Source: For Music (st. 5)
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Some village Hampden, that, with dauntless breast,
The little tyrant of his fields withstood,
Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest,
Some Cromwell guiltless of his country's blood.
Topic: Grave
Source: Elegy in a Country Churchyard
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The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power,
And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave,
Await alike th' inevitable hour,
The paths of glory lead but to the grave.
Topic: Grave
Source: Elegy in a Country Churchyard
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Loose his beard, and hoary hair
Stream's, like a meteor, to the troubled air.
Topic: Hair
Source: The Bard (I, 2, l. 5)
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They had finished her own crown in glory, and she couldn't stay
away from the coronation.
Topic: Heaven
Source: Enigmas of Life
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Weave the warp, and weave the woof,
The winding sheet of Edward's race;
Give ample room and verge enough
The characters of Hell to trace.
Topic: Hell
Source: Bard (canto II)
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Hell is full of good intentions.
[Sp., El infierno es lleno de buenas intenciones.]
Topic: Hell
Source: Bard (canto II)
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And read their history in a nation's eyes.
Topic: History
Source: Elegy in a Country Churchyard (st. 16)
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Where ignorance is bliss,
'Tis folly to be wise.
Topic: Ignorance
Source: On a Distant Prospect of Eton College (st. 10)
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. . where ignorance is bliss, 'Tis folly to be wise.
Topic: Ignorance
Source: None
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They hear a voice in every wind,
And snatch a fearful joy.
Topic: Joy
Source: On a Distant Prospect of Eton College (st. 4)
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Blasted with excess of light.
Topic: Light
Source: Progress of Poesy
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Yet ah! why should they know their fate?Since sorrow never comes too late,And happiness too swiftly flies.Thought would destroy their paradise.No more; where ignorance is bliss,'Tis folly to be wise. - Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College.
Topic: Literature
Source: None
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And shut the gates of mercy on mankind.
Topic: Mercy
Source: Elegy in a Country Churchyard (st. 17)
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Grim-visaged, comfortless despair.
Topic: Misery
Source: Ode on Eton College
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Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.
Topic: Obscurity
Source: Elegy in a Country Churchyard (st. 14)
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Full many a gem of purest ray serene,
The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear.
Topic: Ocean
Source: Elegy in a Country Churchyard (st. 14)
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The meanest floweret of the vale,
The simplest note that swells the gale,
The common sun, the air, the skies,
To him are open paradise.
Topic: Paradise
Source: Ode on the Pleasure Arising from Vicissitudes (l. 53)
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Scatter plenty o'er a smiling land.
Topic: Philanthropy
Source: Elegy in a Country Churchyard (st. 16)
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Large was his bounty, and his soul sincere,
Heaven did a recompense as largely send;
He gave to misery (all he had) a tear,
He gain'd from Heaven ('twas all he wish'd) a friend.
Topic: Philanthropy
Source: Elegy--The Epitaph
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As to posterity, I may ask (with somebody whom I have forgot)
what has it ever done to oblige me?
Topic: Posterity
Source: Letter to Dr. Wharton
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Chill penury repress'd their noble rage,
And froze the genial current of the soul.
Topic: Poverty
Source: Elegy in a Country Churchyard (st. 13)
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Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife.
Topic: Privacy
Source: None
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Where ignorance is bliss,
'Tis folly to be wise.
Topic: Proverbs
Source: On a Distant Prospect of Eton College (st. 10)
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When iron scourge, and tort'ring hour
The bad affright, afflict the best.
Topic: Repentance
Source: Ode to Adversity
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Nor cast one longing, ling'ring look behind.
Topic: Resolution
Source: Elegy in a Country Churchyard (st. 22)
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While bright-eyed science watches round.
Topic: Science
Source: Ode for Music--Chorus (l. 11)
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