Selected Poems of Robert Southey

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W. Scott, 1888 - 304 pages
 

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Page 135 - They sin who tell us Love can die. With life all other passions fly, All others are but vanity. In Heaven Ambition cannot dwell, Nor Avarice in the vaults of Hell ; Earthly these passions of the Earth, They perish where they have their birth ; But Love is indestructible. Its holy flame for ever burneth, From Heaven it came, to Heaven returneth...
Page 303 - With them I take delight in weal, And seek relief in woe ; And while I understand and feel How much to them I owe, My cheeks have often been bedew'd With tears of thoughtful gratitude.
Page 303 - My days among the Dead are past; Around me I behold, Where'er these casual eyes are cast, The mighty minds of old: My never-failing friends are they, With whom I converse day by day.
Page 282 - No STIR in the air, no stir in the sea: The ship was still as she could be; Her sails from heaven received no motion; Her keel was steady in the ocean. Without either sign or sound of their shock, The waves flowed over the Inchcape Rock; So little they rose, so little they fell, They did not move the Inchcape Bell. The...
Page 285 - For from cock-crow he had been travelling, And there was not a cloud in the sky. He drank of the water so cool and clear, For thirsty and hot was he, And he sat down upon the bank Under the willow tree.
Page 272 - Edmund's scream. In vain, at midnight's silent hour, Sleep closed the murderer's eyes : In every dream the murderer saw Young Edmund's form arise. In vain, by restless conscience driven, Lord William left his home, Far from the scenes that saw his guilt, In pilgrimage to roam. To other climes the pilgrim fled, But could not fly despair ; He sought his home again, but peace Was still a stranger there.
Page 265 - twas a famous victory.' The Holly Tree. О reader ! hast thou ever stood to see The holly tree ? The eye that contemplates it, well perceives Its glossy leaves Ordered by an intelligence so wise As might confound the atheist's sophistries. Below, a circling fence, its leaves are seen Wrinkled and keen ; No grazing cattle through their prickly round Can reach to wound ; But as they grow where nothing is to fear, Smooth and unarmed the pointless leaves appear.
Page 285 - But has heard of the Well of St. Keyne. An oak and an elm-tree stand beside, And behind does an ash-tree grow, And a willow from the bank above Droops to the water below. A traveller came to the Well of St. Keyne...
Page 283 - Rover walked his deck, And he fixed his eye on the darker speck. He felt the cheering power of Spring ; It made him whistle, it made him sing ; His heart was mirthful to excess, But the rover's mirth was wickedness. His eye was on the Inchcape float ; Quoth he, " My men, put out the boat, And row me to the Inchcape rock, And I'll plague the abbot of Aberbrothok.
Page 91 - Quench'd in the unnatural light which might out-stare Even the broad eye of day ; And thou from thy celestial way Pourest, O Moon, an ineffectual ray ! For lo ! ten thousand torches flame and flare Upon the midnight air, Blotting the lights of heaven With one portentous glare. Behold the fragrant smoke in many a fold Ascending, floats along the fiery sky, And hangeth visible on high, A dark and waving canopy.

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