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
WORDSWORTH.
6. One whose life is like a star,
Without toil or rest to mar
Its divinest harmony,
Its God-given serenity.
JAMES ALDRICH.
7. She is wise, if I can judge of her,
And fair she is, if that mine eyes be true,
And true she is, as she hath proved herself.
_Merchant of Venice._
8. Right from the hand of God her spirit came
Unstain'd, and she hath ne'er forgotten whence
It came, nor wander'd far from thence,
But laboreth to keep her still the same,
Near to her place of birth, that she may not
Soil her white raiment with an earthly spot.
J. R. LOWELL.
9. With her mien she enamors the brave,
With her wit she engages the free,
With her modesty pleases the grave;
She is every way pleasing to thee.
SHENSTONE.
10. I would my horse had the speed of her tongue.
_Much Ado About Nothing._
11. As through the hedge-row shade the violet steals,
And the sweet air its modest leaf reveals,
Her softer charms, but by their influence known,
Surprise all hearts, and mould them to her own.
ROGERS.
12. Full many a lady
You have eyed with best regard, and many a time,
The harmony of their tongues hath into bondage
Brought your too diligent ear; for several virtues
You have liked several women; never any
With so full soul, but some defect in her
Did quarrel with the noblest grace she owed,
And put it to the foil: But she, O she,
So perfect and so peerless, is created
Of every creature's best!
_Tempest._
13. She is all simplicity,
A creature soft and mild;
Though on the eve of womanhood,
In heart a very child.
MRS. WELBY.
14. Who does not understand and love her,
With feeling thus o'erfraught?
Though silent as the sky above her,
Like that, she kindles thought.
DR. GILMAN.
15. Sacred and sweet is all I see in her.
_Taming of the Shrew._
16. She is
Happy in all endowments, which a poet
Could fancy in his mistress; being herself
A school of goodness, where chaste maids may learn,
By the example of her life and pureness,
To be, as she is, excellent.
MASSINGER.
17. She steps like some glad creature of the air,
As if she read her fate and knew it fair;
In truth, for fate at all she hath no care.
Yet hath she tears as well as gladness;
A butterfly in pain
Will make her weep for very sadness,
But straight she'll smile again.
A. M. WELLS.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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