Great Throughts Treasury

"Fluttering and dancing in the breeze."

"For by superior energies; more strict affiance in each other; faith more firm in their unhallowed principles, the bad have fairly earned a victory over the weak, the vacillating, inconsistent good."

"For I have learned to look on nature, not as in the hour of thoughtless youth, but hearing oftentimes the still, sad music of humanity."

"For nature then (The coarser pleasures of my boyish days, and their glad animal movements all gone by) to me was all in all.? I cannot paint what then I was."

"For oft, when on my couch I lie in vacant or in pensive mood they flash upon that inward eye which is the bliss of solitude."

"For old, unhappy, far-off things, And battles long ago."

"For still, the more he works, the more do his weak ankles swell."

"For the gods approve the depth, and not the tumult, of the soul."

"Four years and thirty, told this very week, have I been now a sojourner on earth, and yet the morning gladness is not gone which then was in my mind."

"Free as a bird to settle where I will."

"Friend is the one who shows the way and walks a piece of road with us."

"From Stirling Castle we had seen the mazy Forth unraveled; had trod the banks of Clyde and Tay, and with the Tweed had travelled; and when we came to Clovenford, then said "my winsome marrow," "Whate'er betide, we'll turn aside, and see the braes of Yarrow.""

"From the sweet thoughts of home and from all hope I was forever hurled. For me ? farthest from earthiy port to roam was best, could I but shun the spot where man might come."

"Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers. Little we see in nature that is ours."

"Give all thou canst; high Heaven rejects the lore of nicely calculated less or more."

"Give unto me, made lowly wise, the spirit of self-sacrifice; the confidence of reason give, and in the light of truth thy bondman let me live!"

"Go to the poets, they will speak to thee more perfectly of purer creatures--"

"Golf is a day spent in a round of strenuous idleness."

"Great God! I 'd rather be a pagan suckled in a creed outworn, So might I, standing on this pleasant lea, Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn; Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea, or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn."

"Hail to thee, far above the rest in joy of voice and pinion! Thou, linnet! in thy green array, Presiding spirit here to-day, dost lead the revels of the May; And this is thy dominion."

"Happier of happy though I be, like them I cannot take possession of the sky, mount with a thoughtless impulse, and wheel there, one of a mighty multitude whose way and motion is a harmony and dance magnificent."

"He is by nature led to peace so perfect that the young behold with envy, what the old man hardly feels."

"He murmurs near the running brooks a music sweeter than their own."

"He spake of love, such love as spirits feel in worlds whose course is equable and pure; no fears to beat away, no strife to heal,? the past unsighed for, and the future sure."

"Hearing often-times the still, sad music of humanity, nor harsh nor grating, though of ample power to chasten and subdue."

"Hence in a season of calm weather though inland far we be, our souls have sight of that immortal sea which brought us hither, can in a moment travel thither, and see the children sport upon the shore, and hear the mighty waters rolling evermore."

"Her eyes as stars of twilight fair; like twilight's, too, her dusky hair."

"Here must thou be, O man, strength to thyself ? no helper hast thou here ?here keepest thou thy individual state: no other can divide with thee this work, no secondary hand can intervene to fashion this ability. 'Tis thine, the prime and vital principle is thine in the recesses of thy nature, far from any reach of outward fellowship, else 'tis not thine at all."

"His love was like the liberal air, embracing all, to cheer and bless."

"How does the Meadow flower its bloom unfold? Because the lovely little flower is free down to its root, and in that freedom bold."

"How fast has brother followed brother, from sunshine to the sunless land!"

"How gracious, how benign, is Solitude."

"How many undervalue the power of simplicity! But it is the real key to the heart."

"How men lived even next-door neighbors, as we say, yet still strangers, not knowing each the other's name."

"How the bold teacher's doctrine, sanctified By truth, shall spread, throughout the world dispersed."

"Huge and mighty forms that do not live like living men, moved slowly through the mind by day and were trouble to my dreams."

"Hunt half a day for a forgotten dream."

"I am already kindly disposed towards you. My friendship it is not in my power to give: this is a gift which no man can make, it is not in our own power: a sound and healthy friendship is the growth of time and circumstance, it will spring up and thrive li"

"I cannot paint what then I was."

"I feel the weight of chance-desires."

"I have said that poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility."

"I have seen a curious child, who dwelt upon a tract of inland ground, applying to his ear the convolutions of a smooth-lipped shell; to which, in silence hushed, his very soul listened intensely; for from within were heard murmurings whereby the monitor expressed mysterious union with its native sea. Even such a shell the universe itself is to the ear of faith; and there are times, i doubt not, when to you it doth impart authentic tidings of invisible things, of ebb and flow, and ever enduring power, and central peace, subsisting at the heart of endless agitation."

"I hear, I hear, with joy I hear!"

"I heard a thousand blended notes While in a grove I sate reclined, in that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts bring sad thoughts to the mind. To her fair works did Nature link the human soul that through me ran; and much it grieved my heart to think what Man has made of Man. Through primrose tufts, in that sweet bower, the periwinkle trail'd its wreaths; and 'tis my faith that every flower enjoys the air it breathes. The birds around me hopp'd and play'd, their thoughts I cannot measure,-- but the least motion which they made It seem'd a thrill of pleasure. The budding twigs spread out their fan to catch the breezy air; and I must think, do all I can, That there was pleasure there. If this belief from heaven be sent, if such be Nature's holy plan, Have I not reason to lament what Man has made of Man?"

"I listen'd, motionless and still; and, as I mounted up the hill, the music in my heart I bore, long after it was heard no more."

"I thought of Chatterton, the marvelous Boy, the sleepless Soul that perished in his pride; of Him who walked in glory and in joy following his plough, along the mountain-side: by our own spirits are we deified: we Poets in our youth begin in gladness; but thereof come in the end despondency and madness."

"I traveled among unknown men, In lands beyond the sea: Nor England! Did I know till then What love I bore to thee."

"I wandered lonely as a cloud that floats on high o'er vales and hills, when all at once I saw a crowd, a host, of golden daffodils; beside the lake, beneath the trees, fluttering and dancing in the breeze. Continuous as the stars that shine and twinkle on the milky way, they stretched in never-ending line along the margin of a bay: ten thousand saw I at a glance, tossing their heads in sprightly dance. The waves beside them danced; but they out-did the sparkling waves in glee: a poet could not but be gay, in such a jocund company: I gazed--and gazed--but little thought what wealth the show to me had brought: for oft, when on my couch I lie in vacant or in pensive mood, they flash upon that inward eye which is the bliss of solitude; and then my heart with pleasure fills, and dances with the daffodils."

"I would stand, if the night blackened with a coming storm, beneath some rock, listening to notes that are the ghostly language of the ancient earth, or make their dim abode in distant winds. Thence did I drink the visionary power; and deem not profitless those fleeting moods of shadowy exultation: not for this, that they are kindred to our purer mind and intellectual life; but that the soul, remembering how she felt, but what she felt remembering not, retains an obscure sense of possible sublimity."

"I'd rather be a Pagan suckled in a creed outworn; so might I, standing on this pleasant lea, have glimpses that would make me less forlorn; have sight of Proteus rising from the sea; or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn."