British Poet Quotes

Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Aleister Crowley

Hilaire Belloc

Robert Southey

Rupert Brooke

Gerard Manley Hopkins

James I of Scotland

Five minutes! Zounds! I have been five minutes too late all my life-time!

When all is said and done, monotony may after all be the best condition for creation.

Lady Margaret Sackville

Do no sinful action, speak no angry word; ye belong to Jesus, children of the Lord.

Cecil Frances Alexander

The within is ceaselessly becoming the without. From the state of a man's heart doth proceed the conditions of his life; his thoughts blossom into deeds, and his deeds bear the fruitage of character and destiny.

Ye generous maids, revenge your sex's wrong; Let not the mean destroyer e'er approach Your sacred charms. Now muster all your pride, Contempt and scorn, that, shot from Beauty's eye, Confounds the mighty impudent, and smites The front unknown to shame.

And His that gentle voice we hear,
Soft as the breath of even.

For ivy climbs the crumbling hall To decorate decay.

Philip James Bailey

To be so closely caught up in the teeth of things that they kill you, no matter how infinitesimally kill you, is, truly, to be a poet: and to be a poet in fact it is additionally necessary that you should possess the tongues and instruments with which to record this series of infinitesimal deaths.

As I go musing through this mournful land
Soothed by the pine-tree's solemn harmony,
Thy well-loved image comes and walks by me.
I seem to hold thee by the gentle hand
And talk of things I dimly understand,
That thy dear spirit set to mine may be
As to an intricate lock the simple key.

What men have done can still be done
And shall be done today.

As a friend to the children commend me the Yak. You will find it exactly the thing: It will carry and fetch, you can ride on its back, Or lead it about with a string.

Professor Dewar
Is a better man than you are,
None of you asses
Can condense gases.

Of James Dewar

Edmund Clerihew Bentley

Come, swift-wing'd Fancy, airy maid,
In varied, dazzling vest array'd,
Inspire thy vot'ry's lay;
Grant me thy flow'ry walks to tread,
To range thy summer-painted mead,
Or near thy fountain play.
Now led by thy resistless hand,
Or guided by thy fairy wand,
O'er yet untrodden space;
Or on thy pinions borne along,
The bright Ideas' flitting throngs
Pursue th' aerial race.

Elizabeth Bentley

For him no silver cressets shed their light,
No eager joy-bells sounded through the night
From city minster, or from village tower;
No loud "hurrahs," sent from deep-chested men,
Lifted the midnight mist from off the glen
In celebration of his natal hour.

John Stanyan Bigg

The best-concerted schemes men lay for fame, Die fast away: only themselves die faster. The far-fam'd sculptor, and the laurell'd bard, Those bold insurancers of deathless fame, Supply their little feeble aids in vain.

Strange to the world, he wore a bashful look, The fields his study, nature was his book.

Robert Bloomfield

I came to Jesus as I was, weary and worn and sad; I found in Him a resting place, and he has made me glad.

Good free verse is not at all easy to write, for there is no repetitive beat to lull the reader's critical faculty, much pattern and discipline is to be found in it, though the pattern of sounds and choice of exact words, gives it its beauty.

Marjorie Boulton

The Night has a thousand eyes,
And the Day but one;
Yet the light of the bright world dies
With the dying sun. The mind has a thousand eyes,
And the heart but one;
Yet the light of a whole life dies
When love is done.

Francis William Bourdillon

From Universal Mind the first-born atoms draw their function, whose rich chemistry the plants transmute to make organic life, whereon animals feed to fashion sight and sense and give service to man, who sprung from them is conscient in his last degree of ministry unto God, the Universal Mind, whither all effect returneth whence it first began.

Love is a breach in the walls, a broken gate, Love sells the proud heart's citadel to fate.

Name and date split in soft slate a few months obliterate. 166

Embla lies with each thing,
Ask looks and knows.
Understanding
without explanation
they depart and separate.

John Carder Bush

But ah! disasters have their use; And life might e'en be too sunshiny...

Charles Stuart Calverley

Never wedding, ever wooing, Still a lovelorn heart pursuing, Read you not the wrong you're doing In my cheek's pale hue? All my life with sorrow strewing; Wed or cease to woo.

Thomas Campbell