"This dull product of a scoffer's pen."

The Excursion. Book ii.

"With battlements that on their restless fronts Bore stars."

The Excursion. Book ii.

"Wisdom is ofttimes nearer when we stoop Than when we soar."

The Excursion. Book iii.

"Wrongs unredressed, or insults unavenged."

The Excursion. Book iii.

"Monastic brotherhood, upon rock Aerial."

The Excursion. Book iii.

"The intellectual power, through words and things, Went sounding on a dim and perilous way!"

The Excursion. Book iii.

"Society became my glittering bride, And airy hopes my children."

The Excursion. Book iii.

"And the most difficult of tasks to keep Heights which the soul is competent to gain."

The Excursion. Book iv.

"There is a luxury in self-dispraise; And inward self-disparagement affords To meditative spleen a grateful feast."

The Excursion. Book iv.

"Recognizes ever and anon The breeze of Nature stirring in his soul."

The Excursion. Book iv.

"Pan himself, The simple shepherd's awe-inspiring god!"

The Excursion. Book iv.

"I have seen A curious child, who dwelt upon a tract Of inland ground, applying to his ear The convolutions of a smooth-lipped shell, To which, in silence hushed, his very soul Listened intensely; and his countenance soon Brightened with joy, for from within were heard Murmurings, whereby the monitor expressed Mysterious union with his native sea."

The Excursion. Book iv.

"So build we up the being that we are."

The Excursion. Book iv.

"One in whom persuasion and belief Had ripened into faith, and faith become A passionate intuition."

The Excursion. Book iv.

"Spires whose "silent finger points to heaven.""

The Excursion. Book vi.

"Ah, what a warning for a thoughtless man, Could field or grove, could any spot of earth, Show to his eye an image of the pangs Which it hath witnessed,--render back an echo Of the sad steps by which it hath been trod!"

The Excursion. Book vi.

"And when the stream Which overflowed the soul was passed away, A consciousness remained that it had left Deposited upon the silent shore Of memory images and precious thoughts That shall not die, and cannot be destroyed."

The Excursion. Book vii.

"Wisdom married to immortal verse."

The Excursion. Book vii.

"A man he seems of cheerful yesterdays And confident to-morrows."

The Excursion. Book vii.

"The primal duties shine aloft, like stars; The charities that soothe and heal and bless Are scattered at the feet of man like flowers."

The Excursion. Book ix.

"By happy chance we saw A twofold image: on a grassy bank A snow-white ram, and in the crystal flood Another and the same!"

The Excursion. Book ix.

"The gods approve The depth, and not the tumult, of the soul."

Laodamia.

"Mightier far Than strength of nerve or sinew, or the sway Of magic potent over sun and star, Is Love, though oft to agony distrest, And though his favorite seat be feeble woman's breast."

Laodamia.

"Elysian beauty, melancholy grace, Brought from a pensive though a happy place."

Laodamia.

"He spake of love, such love as spirits feel In worlds whose course is equable and pure; No fears to beat away, no strife to heal,-- The past unsighed for, and the future sure."

Laodamia.

"Of all that is most beauteous, imaged there In happier beauty; more pellucid streams, An ampler ether, a diviner air, And fields invested with purpureal gleams."

Laodamia.

"Yet tears to human suffering are due; And mortal hopes defeated and o'erthrown Are mourned by man, and not by man alone."

Laodamia.

"But shapes that come not at an earthly call Will not depart when mortal voices bid."

Dion.

"But thou that didst appear so fair To fond imagination, Dost rival in the light of day Her delicate creation."

Yarrow Visited.

"'T is hers to pluck the amaranthine flower Of faith, and round the sufferer's temples bind Wreaths that endure affliction's heaviest shower, And do not shrink from sorrow's keenest wind."

Weak is the Will of Man.

"We bow our heads before Thee, and we laud And magnify thy name Almighty God! But man is thy most awful instrument In working out a pure intent."

Ode. Imagination before Content.

"Sad fancies do we then affect, In luxury of disrespect To our own prodigal excess Of too familiar happiness."

Ode to Lycoris.

"That kill the bloom before its time, And blanch, without the owner's crime, The most resplendent hair."

Lament of Mary Queen of Scots.

"The sightless Milton, with his hair Around his placid temples curled; And Shakespeare at his side,--a freight, If clay could think and mind were weight, For him who bore the world!"

The Italian Itinerant.

"Meek Nature's evening comment on the shows That for oblivion take their daily birth From all the fuming vanities of earth."

Sky-Prospect from the Plain of France.

"Turning, for them who pass, the common dust Of servile opportunity to gold."

Desultory Stanza.

"Babylon, Learned and wise, hath perished utterly, Nor leaves her speech one word to aid the sigh That would lament her."

Ecclesiastical Sonnets. Part i. xxv. Missions and Travels.

"As thou these ashes, little brook, wilt bear Into the Avon, Avon to the tide Of Severn, Severn to the narrow seas, Into main ocean they, this deed accursed An emblem yields to friends and enemies How the bold teacher's doctrine, sanctified By truth, shall spread, throughout the world dispersed."

Ecclesiastical Sonnets. Part ii. xvii. To Wickliffe.

"The feather, whence the pen Was shaped that traced the lives of these good men, Dropped from an angel's wing."

Ecclesiastical Sonnets. Part iii. v. Walton's Book of Lives.

"Meek Walton's heavenly memory."

Ecclesiastical Sonnets. Part iii. v. Walton's Book of Lives.

"But who would force the soul tilts with a straw Against a champion cased in adamant."

Ecclesiastical Sonnets. Part iii. vii. Persecution of the Scottish Covenanters.

"Where music dwells Lingering and wandering on as loth to die, Like thoughts whose very sweetness yieldeth proof That they were born for immortality."

Ecclesiastical Sonnets. Part iii. xliii. Inside of King's Chapel, Cambridge.

"Or shipwrecked, kindles on the coast False fires, that others may be lost."

To the Lady Fleming.

"But hushed be every thought that springs From out the bitterness of things."

Elegiac Stanzas. Addressed to Sir G. H. B.

"To the solid ground Of Nature trusts the mind that builds for aye."

A Volant Tribe of Bards on Earth.

"Soft is the music that would charm forever; The flower of sweetest smell is shy and lowly."

Not Love, not War.

"True beauty dwells in deep retreats, Whose veil is unremoved Till heart with heart in concord beats, And the lover is beloved."

To ----. Let other Bards of Angels sing.

"Type of the wise who soar but never roam, True to the kindred points of heaven and home."

To a Skylark.

"A Briton even in love should be A subject, not a slave!"

Ere with Cold Beads of Midnight Dew.

"Scorn not the sonnet. Critic, you have frowned, Mindless of its just honours; with this key Shakespeare unlocked his heart."

Scorn not the Sonnet.