History of American Literature

Front Cover
American Book Company, 1911 - 431 pages
This volume describes the greatest achievements in American literature, from the earliest times to the present. Special attention has been paid to the individual works of great authors, but also to literary movements, ideals, and animating principles, and the relation of all these to English literature. The author hopes this book will inspire students to investigate for themselves the remarkable American record of spirituality, initiative, and democratic accomplishment contained in our national literature.
 

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Page 67 - I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided ; and that is the lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging of the future but by the past.
Page 135 - The hills Rock-ribbed and ancient as the sun,— the vales Stretching in pensive quietness between; The venerable woods— rivers that move In majesty, and the complaining brooks That make the meadows green; and, poured round all, Old Ocean's gray and melancholy waste,— Are but the solemn decorations all Of the great tomb of man.
Page 192 - I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.
Page 310 - As the marsh-hen secretly builds on the watery sod, Behold I will build me a nest on the greatness of God: I will fly in the greatness of God as the marsh-hen flies In the freedom that fills all the space 'twixt the marsh and the skies: By so many roots as the marsh-grass sends in the sod I will heartily lay me a-hold on the greatness of God...
Page 45 - So dear to Heaven is saintly chastity, That, when a soul is found sincerely so, A thousand liveried angels lackey her, Driving far off each thing of sin and guilt...
Page 294 - DURING THE WHOLE of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country; and at length found myself, as the shades of the evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher.
Page 195 - I learned this, at least, by my experiment -, that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.
Page 64 - THE SACRED RIGHTS OF MANKIND ARE NOT TO BE RUMMAGED FOR AMONG OLD PARCHMENTS OR MUSTY RECORDS. THEY ARE WRITTEN, AS WITH A SUNBEAM, IN THE WHOLE VOLUME OF HUMAN NATURE, BY THE HAND OF THE DIVINITY ITSELF ; AND CAN NEVER BE ERASED OR OBSCURED BY MORTAL POWER.
Page 15 - I'd divide, And burn in many places ; on the topmast, The yards and bowsprit, would I flame distinctly, Then meet, and join. Jove's lightnings, the precursors O...
Page 61 - These are the times that try men's souls : The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it Now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.

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