"I burn to set the imprison'd wranglers free, And give them voice and utterance once again. Now stir the fire, and close the shutters fast, Let fall the curtains, wheel the sofa round, And while the bubbling and loud-hissing urn Throws up a steamy column, and the cups That cheer but not inebriate wait on each, So let us welcome peaceful evening in."

The Task. Book iv. The Winter Evening. Line 34.

"Which not even critics criticise."

The Task. Book iv. The Winter Evening. Line 51.

"What is it but a map of busy life, Its fluctuations, and its vast concerns?"

The Task. Book iv. The Winter Evening. Line 55.

"And Katerfelto, with his hair on end At his own wonders, wondering for his bread. 'T is pleasant, through the loopholes of retreat, To peep at such a world,--to see the stir Of the great Babel, and not feel the crowd."

The Task. Book iv. The Winter Evening. Line 86.

"While fancy, like the finger of a clock, Runs the great circuit, and is still at home."

The Task. Book iv. The Winter Evening. Line 118.

"O Winter, ruler of the inverted year!"

The Task. Book iv. The Winter Evening. Line 120.

"With spots quadrangular of diamond form, Ensanguined hearts, clubs typical of strife, And spades, the emblems of untimely graves."

The Task. Book iv. The Winter Evening. Line 217.

"In indolent vacuity of thought."

The Task. Book iv. The Winter Evening. Line 297.

"It seems the part of wisdom."

The Task. Book iv. The Winter Evening. Line 336.

"All learned, and all drunk!"

The Task. Book iv. The Winter Evening. Line 478.

"Gloriously drunk, obey the important call."

The Task. Book iv. The Winter Evening, Line 510.

"Those golden times And those Arcadian scenes that Maro sings, And Sidney, warbler of poetic prose."

The Task. Book iv. The Winter Evening. Line 514.

"The Frenchman's darling."

The Task. Book iv. The Winter Evening. Line 765.

"Some must be great. Great offices will have Great talents. And God gives to every man The virtue, temper, understanding, taste, That lifts him into life, and lets him fall Just in the niche he was ordain'd to fill."

The Task. Book iv. The Winter Evening. Line 788.

"Silently as a dream the fabric rose, No sound of hammer or of saw was there."

The Task. Book v. The Winter Morning Walk. Line 144.

"But war 's a game which were their subjects wise Kings would not play at."

The Task. Book v. The Winter Morning Walk. Line 187.

"The beggarly last doit."

The Task. Book v. The Winter Morning Walk. Line 316.

"As dreadful as the Manichean god, Adored through fear, strong only to destroy."

The Task. Book v. The Winter Morning Walk. Line 444.

"He is the freeman whom the truth makes free."

The Task. Book v. The Winter Morning Walk. Line 733.

"With filial confidence inspired, Can lift to Heaven an unpresumptuous eye, And smiling say, My Father made them all!"

The Task. Book v. The Winter Morning Walk. Line 745.

"Give what thou canst, without Thee we are poor; And with Thee rich, take what Thou wilt away."

The Task. Book v. The Winter Morning Walk. Line 905.

"There is in souls a sympathy with sounds; And as the mind is pitch'd the ear is pleased. With melting airs or martial, brisk or grave; Some chord in unison with what we hear Is touch'd within us, and the heart replies. How soft the music of those village bells Falling at intervals upon the ear In cadence sweet!"

The Task. Book vi. Winter Walk at Noon. Line 1.

"Here the heart May give a useful lesson to the head, And Learning wiser grow without his books."

The Task. Book vi. Winter Walk at Noon. Line 85.

"Knowledge is proud that he has learn'd so much; Wisdom is humble that he knows no more. Books are not seldom talismans and spells."

The Task. Book vi. Winter Walk at Noon. Line 96.

"Some to the fascination of a name Surrender judgment hoodwink'd."

The Task. Book vi. Winter Walk at Noon. Line 101.

"I would not enter on my list of friends (Though graced with polish'd manners and fine sense, Yet wanting sensibility) the man Who needlessly sets foot upon a worm."

The Task. Book vi. Winter Walk at Noon. Line 560.

"An honest man, close-button'd to the chin, Broadcloth without, and a warm heart within."

Epistle to Joseph Hill.

"Shine by the side of every path we tread With such a lustre, he that runs may read."

Tirocinium. Line 79.

"What peaceful hours I once enjoy'd! How sweet their memory still! But they have left an aching void The world can never fill."

Walking with God.

"And Satan trembles when he sees The weakest saint upon his knees."

Exhortation to Prayer.

"God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform; He plants his footsteps in the sea And rides upon the storm."

Light shining out of Darkness.

"Behind a frowning providence He hides a shining face."

Light shining out of Darkness.

"Beware of desperate steps! The darkest day, Live till to-morrow, will have pass'd away."

The Needless Alarm. Moral.

"Oh that those lips had language! Life has pass'd With me but roughly since I heard thee last."

On the Receipt of my Mother's Picture.

"The son of parents pass'd into the skies."

On the Receipt of my Mother's Picture.

"The man that hails you Tom or Jack, And proves, by thumping on your back, His sense of your great merit, Is such a friend that one had need Be very much his friend indeed To pardon or to bear it."

On Friendship.

"A worm is in the bud of youth, And at the root of age."

Stanzas subjoined to a Bill of Mortality.

"Toll for the brave!-- The brave that are no more! All sunk beneath the wave, Fast by their native shore!"

On the Loss of the Royal George.

"There is a bird who by his coat, And by the hoarseness of his note, Might be supposed a crow."

The Jackdaw. (Translation from Vincent Bourne.)

"He sees that this great roundabout The world, with all its motley rout, Church, army, physic, law, Its customs and its businesses, Is no concern at all of his, And says--what says he?--Caw."

The Jackdaw. (Translation from Vincent Bourne.)

"For 't is a truth well known to most, That whatsoever thing is lost, We seek it, ere it come to light, In every cranny but the right."

The Retired Cat.

"He that holds fast the golden mean, And lives contentedly between The little and the great, Feels not the wants that pinch the poor, Nor plagues that haunt the rich man's door."

Translation of Horace. Book ii. Ode x.

"But strive still to be a man before your mother."

Connoisseur. Motto of No. iii.

"Soon shall thy arm, unconquer'd steam! afar Drag the slow barge, or drive the rapid car; Or on wide-waving wings expanded bear The flying chariot through the field of air."

The Botanic Garden. Part i. Canto i. Line 289.

"No radiant pearl which crested Fortune wears, No gem that twinkling hangs from Beauty's ears, Not the bright stars which Night's blue arch adorn, Nor rising suns that gild the vernal morn, Shine with such lustre as the tear that flows Down Virtue's manly cheek for others' woes."

The Botanic Garden. Part ii. Canto iii. Line 459.

"In sober state, Through the sequestered vale of rural life, The venerable patriarch guileless held The tenor of his way."

Death. Line 108.

"One murder made a villain, Millions a hero. Princes were privileged To kill, and numbers sanctified the crime."

Death. Line 154.

"War its thousands slays, Peace its ten thousands."

Death. Line 178.

"Teach him how to live, And, oh still harder lesson! how to die."

Death. Line 316.

"Labour to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire,--conscience."

Rule from the Copy-book of Washington when a schoolboy.