Oracles from the Poets: A Fanciful Diversion for the Drawing Room
General
Oracles from the Poets: A Fanciful Diversion for the Drawing Room
Amusements; Fortune-telling; Quotations, English
52. In our hours of ease,
Uncertain, coy, and hard to please;
When pain and sickness rend the brow,
A ministering angel thou.
SCOTT.
53. Ever art thou fair,
Ev'n in the city's gaudy tumult, fair;
Yet he who marks thee only as the charm
And worship of gay crowds, in festive halls,
Knows but thy living image, not thy soul,
Joyless in that cold pomp.
DR. BROWN--_Bower of Spring_.
54. Thine is the heart that is gentle and kind,
And light as the feather that sports in the wind.
HOGG--_Queen's Wake_.
55. Your person is a paradise, and your soul the cherub to guard it.
DRYDEN.
56. Your two red lips _affected_ zephyrs blow,
To cool the Hyson, and inflame the beau;
While one white finger and a thumb conspire
To lift the cup, and make the world admire.
YOUNG.
57. More than a sermon love you the touch'd string,
You love to tinkling tunes your feet to fling.
ALLAN CUNNINGHAM.
58. Coquet and coy at once your air,
Both studied, though both seem neglected;
Careless you are with artful care,
Affecting to seem unaffected.
CONGREVE.
59. Your sweet humor
Is easy as a calm, and peaceful too.
All your affections like the dew on roses,--
Fair as the flowers themselves, as sweet and gentle.
BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER--_The Pilgrim_.
60. Grateful we find you, patient of control;
A most bewitching gentleness of soul
Makes pleasure of what work you have to do.
BLOOMFIELD--_The Miller's Maid_.
WHAT IS THE PERSONAL APPEARANCE OF YOUR LADY-LOVE?
Must you have my picture?
You will enjoin me to a strange punishment.
With what a compell'd face a woman sits
While she is drawing! I have noted divers
Either to fain smiles, or suck in the lips,
To have a little mouth; ruffle the cheeks,
To have the dimple seen; and so disorder
The face with affectation, at next sitting
It has not been the same.
--But indeed
If ever I would have mine drawn to the life,
I would have a painter steal it at such a time
I were devoutly kneeling at my prayers;
There is then a heavenly beauty in't, the _soul_
Moves in the superficies.
JOHN WEBSTER--
_The Devil's Law Case. A Tragi-Comedy._
From Lamb's Specimens of Dramatic Poets.
WHAT IS THE PERSONAL APPEARANCE OF YOUR LADY-LOVE?
1. Her eyes are shadowy, full of thought and prayer,
And with long lashes o'er a white rose cheek
Drooping.
MRS. HEMANS.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account