English Poet Quotes

Let man's soul be a sphere, and then, in this, The intelligence that moves, devotion is.

I cried for madder music and for stronger wine, But when the feast is finished and the lamps expire, Then falls thy shadow, Cynara! the night is thine.

It is your virtue, being men, to try;
And it is ours, by virtue to deny.

Michael Drayton

Some have too much, yet still do crave;
I little have, and seek no more:
They are but poor, though much they have,
And I am rich with little store:
They poor, I rich; they beg, I give;
They lack, I have; they pine, I live.

Sex suppressed will go berserk, But it keeps us all alive. It's a wonderful change from wives and work And it ends at half past five.

There's Carol like a rolling car, And Martin like a flying bird, And Adam like the Lord's First Word, And Raymond like the Harvest Moon, And Peter like a piper's tune, And Alan like the flowing on Of water. And there's John, like John.

Eleanor Farjeon

I sometimes think that never blows so red
The rose as where some buried Caesar bled.

Edward FitzGerald

I have followed my ear and my heart, which may be false. I hope not.

What though I cannot meet my bills?
What though I suffer toothache's ills?
What though I swallow countless pills?

A king may spille, a king may save; A king may make of lorde a knave; And of a knave a lorde also.

The radiant sun sends from above ten thousand blessings down, nor is he set so high for show alone.

George Granville, 1st Baron Lansdowne

Guide Thou my hand within that hand of Thine —
Thy wounded hand! — until its tremblings take
Strength from Thy touch.

Much that is natural, to the will must yield.
Men manufacture both machine and soul,
And use what they imperfectly control
To dare a future from the taken routes.

The kiss of the sun for pardon,
The song of the birds for mirth,
One is nearer God's Heart in a garden
Than anywhere else on Earth.

Dorothy Frances Gurney

There is strength deep bedded in our hearts, of which we reck but little till the shafts of heaven have pierced its fragile dwelling. Must not earth be rent before her gems are found?

What though the sea be calm? trust to the shore, Ships have been drown'd, where late they danc'd before.

But now I see well the old proverb is true: That parish priest forgetteth that ever he was a clerk!

Everything that I write is a kind of battle won—or lost—against silence and incoherence.

Now that Fate
Has brought me what so long, I so desired,
It is too late,
I am too tired.

Alas, so all things now do hold their peace:
Heaven and earth disturbed in no thing:
The beasts, the air, the birds their song do cease;
The nightes chare the stars about doth bring.

Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey

And the elephant sings deep in the forest-maze
About a star of deathless and painless peace
But no astronomer can find where it is.

Sombre and rich, the skies;
Great glooms, and starry plains.
Gently the night wind sighs;
Else a vast silence reigns.

And shade the violets, That they may bind the moss in leafy nets.

Look in, and see Christ's chosen saint In triumph wear his Christ-like chain; No fear lest he should swerve or faint; "His life is Christ, his death is gain.

Al the povere peple tho pescoddes fetten; Benes and baken apples thei broghte in hir lappe, Chibolles and chervelles and ripe chiries manye, And profrede Piers this present to plese with Hunger.

William Langland