The Recreations of Christopher North, Volume 1William Blackwood & sons, 1842 - English essays |
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beautiful beneath birds blood bosom braes breathed bright Burns child Christopher North cliffs cloud Cottage Cottage ornée creature dead death delight divine dream dropt ears earth Ebenezer Elliot eyes face father fear feel felt flowers Furness Fells genius glen gloom glorious glory grave green hand happy head hear heard heart heaven hills hour human imagination Isle John Clare kirk knew lake light living Loch Loch Achray look lost at last Margaret Burnside melancholy moor Moorside morning mountains murder nature never night once parish passion pastimes perhaps pity Poem poet poetry poor racter Robert Bloomfield Robert Burns round Sabbath Scotland Scottish seemed seen shadows sight silent silvan sitting sleep smile song soul spirit sugh sunshine sweet tears thee thing thou thought tree Troutbeck voice whole wild Windermere wings woods young
Popular passages
Page 277 - All thoughts, all passions, all delights, Whatever stirs this mortal frame, All are but ministers of Love, And feed his sacred flame. Oft in my waking dreams do I Live o'er again that happy hour, When midway on the mount I lay, Beside the ruined tower.
Page 329 - An honest heart was almost all his stock ; His drink the living water from the rock : The milky dams supplied his board, and lent Their kindly fleece to baffle winter's shock ; And he, though oft with dust and sweat besprent, Did guide and guard their wanderings wheresoe'er they went.
Page 167 - Now, Spring returns ; but not to me returns The vernal joy my better years have known ; Dim in my breast life's dying taper burns, And all the joys of life with health are flown.
Page 329 - And sees, on high, amidst th' encircling groves, From cliff to cliff the foaming torrents shine: While waters, woods, and winds, in concert join, And echo swells the chorus to the skies. Would Edwin this majestic scene resign For aught the huntsman's puny craft supplies ? Ah ! no : he better knows great Nature's charms to prize.
Page 81 - ... so a Scotch mist becomes a shower — and a shower a flood — and a flood a storm — and a storm a tempest — and a tempest thunder and lightning — and thunder and lightning heaven-quake and earthquake — till the heart of poor wee Kit quaked, and almost died within him in the desert.
Page 371 - Methought there passed along the lawn the image of one now in his tomb ! The memory of that bright day returns, when Windermere glittered with all her sails in honour of the great Northern Minstrel, and of him the Eloquent, whose lips are now mute in the dust. Methinks we see his smile benign — that we hear his voice silver-sweet ! " But away with melancholy, Nor doleful changes ring" — as snch thoughts came like shadows, like shadows let them depart — and spite of that which happeneth to all...
Page 328 - There lived in Gothic days, as legends tell, A shepherd-swain, a man of low degree ; Whose sires, perchance, in Fairyland might dwell, Sicilian groves, or vales of Arcady ; But he, I ween, was of the north countrie;* A nation famed for song, and beauty's charms ; Zealous, yet modest; innocent, though free ; Patient of toil ; serene amidst alarms ; Inflexible in faith ; invincible in arms.
Page 75 - Be hush'd, my dark spirit ! for wisdom condemns When the faint and the feeble deplore ; Be strong as the rock of the ocean that stems A thousand wild waves on the shore ! Through the perils of chance, and the scowl of disdain, May thy front be...
Page 90 - There sometimes doth a leaping fish Send through the tarn a lonely cheer; The crags repeat the raven's croak, In symphony austere; Thither the rainbow comes — the cloud — And mists that spread the flying shroud; And sunbeams; and the sounding blast, That, if it could, would hurry past; But that enormous barrier holds it fast.
Page 333 - And Dryden, in immortal strain, Had raised the Table Round again,* But that a ribald King and Court Bade him toil on, to make them sport ; Demanded for their niggard pay, Fit for their souls, a looser lay, Licentious satire, song, and play ; The world defrauded of the high design, Profaned the God-given strength, and marr'd the lofty line.