Byron in England: His Fame and After-fame

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John Murray, 1924 - 415 pages
 

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Page 231 - Foolish soul! What Act of Legislature was there that thou shouldst be Happy? A little while ago thou hadst no right to be at all. What if thou wert born and predestined not to be Happy, but to be Unhappy!
Page 186 - Not happy, in thy death thou surely wert ; Thy wish accomplished ; dying in the land Where thy young mind had caught ethereal fire : Dying in Greece, and in a cause so glorious. They in thy train — ah, little did they think, As round we went, that they so soon should sit Mourning beside thee, while a Nation...
Page 117 - The Pilgrim of Eternity, whose fame Over his living head like Heaven is bent, An early but enduring monument...
Page 1 - Tis but to fill A certain portion of uncertain paper. Some liken it to climbing up a hill, Whose summit, like all hills, is lost in vapour. For this men write, speak, preach, and heroes kill, And bards burn what they call their midnight taper, To have, when the original is dust, A name, a wretched picture, and worse bust.
Page 23 - As to the estimation of the English which you talk of, let them calculate what it is worth, before they insult me with their insolent condescension. " I have not written for their pleasure. If they are pleased, it is that they chose to be so ; I have never flattered their opinions, nor their pride ; nor will I. Neither will I make ' Ladies' books' ' al dilettar le femine e la plebe.
Page 186 - Tried as thou wert, and with thy soul of flame ; Pleasure, while yet the down was on thy cheek, Uplifting, pressing, and to lips like thine, Her charmed cup — ah, who among us all Could say he had not err'd as much, and more?
Page 108 - Liberalism ; but it appeared to me that the pleasure it afforded him, as a vehicle for displaying his wit and satire against individuals in office, was at the bottom of this habit of thinking, rather than any real conviction of the political principles on which he talked. He was certainly proud of his rank and...
Page 122 - Greeks have cause to miss him. He was to me offensive, and I never can make out his great power, which his admirers talk of. Why, a line of Wordsworth's is a lever to lift the immortal spirit ! Byrons can only move the Spleen. He was at best a Satyrist — in any other way he was mean enough.
Page 184 - With Nature's self He seemed an old acquaintance, free to jest At will with all her glorious majesty. He laid his hand upon "the Ocean's mane...
Page 230 - The Godlike has vanished from the world; and they, by the strong cry of their soul's agony, like true wonder-workers, must again evoke its presence. This miracle is their appointed task; which they must accomplish, or die wretchedly : this miracle has been accomplished by such : but not in our land ; oar land yet knows not of it.

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