Life of Allan Cunningham: With Selections from His Works and Correspondence

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J. Anderson & son, 1875 - Poets - 373 pages
 

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Page 63 - Hos ego versiculos feci, tulit alter honores : \ Sic vos non vobis nidificatis aves ; Sic vos non vobis vellera fertis oves ; Sic vos non vobis mellificatis apes ; Sic vos non vobis fertis aratra boves.
Page 193 - Dumfries was like a besieged place. It was known he was dying, and the anxiety, not of the rich and the learned only, but of the mechanics and peasants, exceeded all belief. Wherever two or three people stood together, their talk was of Burns, and of him alone. They spoke of his history — of his person — of his works — of his family — of his fame — and of his untimely and approaching fate, with a warmth and an enthusiasm which will ever endear Dumfries to my remembrance. All that he said...
Page 216 - Nor mirth, nor sweetest song which flows To sober joys and soften woes, Can make my heart or fancy flee One moment, my sweet wife, from thee. Even while I muse, I see thee...
Page 178 - I know, on the part of one who has the truest respect for the manly independence of character which rests for its support on honest industry, instead of indulging the foolish fastidiousness formerly supposed to be essential to the poetical temperament, and which has induced some men of real talents to become coxcombs — some to become sots — some to plunge themselves into want — others into the equal miseries of dependence, merely because, forsooth, they were men of genius, and wise above the...
Page 197 - ... with a linen sheet drawn over his face, and on the bed, and around the body, herbs -and flowers were thickly strewn, according to the usage of the country. He was wasted somewhat by long illness ; but death had not increased the swarthy hue of his face, which was uncommonly dark and deeply marked — the dying...
Page 158 - places were dear and ill to get : I am told it was a magnificent scene : but having seen the procession of King Crispin at Dumfries, I was satisfied.' I said this with a smile : Scott took it as I meant it, and laughed heartily. ' That's not a bit better than Hogg,' he said. ' He stood balancing the matter whether to go to the coronation or the fair of Saint Boswell — and the fair carried it.
Page 158 - I am happy my effigy is to go with that of Wordsworth,* for (differing from him in very many points of taste) I do not know a man more to be venerated for uprightness of heart and loftiness of genius. Why he will sometimes choose to crawl upon all fours, when God has given him so noble a countenance to lift to heaven...
Page 216 - ... thee. Even while I muse, I see thee sit In maiden bloom and matron wit, Fair, gentle as when first I sued, Ye seem, but of sedater mood ; Yet my heart leaps as fond for thee As when, beneath Arbigland tree, We stayed and wooed, and thought the moon Set on the sea an hour too soon ; Or lingered 'mid the falling dew, When looks were fond and words were few.
Page 193 - Some may think it not unimportant to know, that he was at that time dressed in a blue coat with the undress nankeen pantaloons of the volunteers, and that his neck, which was inclining to be short, caused his hat to turn up behind, in the manner of the shovel hats of the Episcopal clergy. Truth obliges me to add, that he was not fastidious about his dress ; and that an officer, curious in the personal appearance and equipments of his company, might have questioned the military nicety of the poet's...

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