The Works of Mary Russell Mitford: Prose and Verse ...

Front Cover
James Crissy, 1841 - 666 pages
 

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 40 - When shepherds pipe on oaten straws And merry larks are ploughmen's clocks, When turtles tread, and rooks, and daws, And maidens bleach their summer smocks, The cuckoo then, on every tree...
Page 255 - Be still the unimaginable lodge For solitary thinkings; such as dodge Conception to the very bourne of heaven, Then leave the naked brain: be still the leaven, That spreading in this dull and clodded earth Gives it a touch ethereal — a new birth: Be still a symbol of immensity; A firmament reflected in a sea; An element filling the space between; An unknown — but no more : we humbly screen With uplift hands our foreheads, lowly bending, And giving out a shout most heaven-rending, Conjure thee...
Page 90 - Or through our hamlets thou wilt bear The sightless Milton, with his hair Around his placid temples curled ; And Shakspeare at his side — a freight, If clay could think and mind were weight, For him who bore the world...
Page 153 - Call for the robin redbreast, and the wren, Since o'er shady groves they hover, And with leaves and flowers do cover The friendless bodies of unburied men. Call unto his funeral dole The ant, the fieldmouse, and the mole, To rear him hillocks that shall keep him warm. And (when gay tombs are robbed) sustain no harm ; But keep the wolf far thence, that's foe to men.
Page 45 - But they were beaten sulky, and would not move — to my great disappointment ; I wanted to prolong the pleasure of success. What a glorious sensation it is to be for five hours together winning — winning — winning ! always feeling what a whist-player feels when he takes up four honours, seven trumps ! Who would think that a little bit of leather, and two pieces of wood, had such a delightful and delighting power ? The...
Page 82 - A better preest I trowe that nowher non is. He waited after no pompe ne reverence, Ne maked him no spiced conscience, But Cristes lore, and his apostles twelve, He taught, but first he folwed it himselve.
Page 40 - Some time thus spent, the young man grew at last Into a pretty anger ; that a bird, Whom art had never taught cliffs, moods, or notes, Should vie with him for mastery, whose study Had busied many hours to perfect practice : To end the controversy, in a rapture Upon his instrument he plays so swiftly, So many voluntaries, and so quick, That there was curiosity and cunning, Concord in discord, lines of differing...
Page 40 - To glorify their Tempe, bred in me Desire of visiting that paradise. To Thessaly I came ; and living private, Without acquaintance of more sweet companions Than the old inmates to my love, my thoughts, I day by day frequented silent groves And solitary walks.
Page 29 - ... about children, to jump over stiles, to scramble through hedges, to climb trees; and some of her knowledge of plants and birds may certainly have arisen from her delight in these boyish amusements. And which of us has not found that the strongest, the healthiest, and most flourishing acquirement has arisen from pleasure or accident, has been in a manner selfsown, like an oak of the forest? — Oh, she was a sad romp; as skittish as a wild colt, as uncertain as a butterfly, as uncatchable as a...
Page 254 - Or upward ragged precipices flit To save poor lambkins from the eagle's maw; Or by mysterious enticement draw...

Bibliographic information