A History of American Literature |
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American Literature appeared Atlantic beauty become born Boston Bryant called Cambridge century chapter character Compare complete continued Cooper criticism death developed drama early edition editor Emerson England English essay evidence experience expression fact feeling fiction field final followed four friends give hand History human idea influence interest Irving John journal kind later leading less Letters lines literary lived Longfellow Lowell Magazine Mark material matter mind monthly nature never novels original passages passed period play poems poet poetic poetry present printed prose published Puritan Read reader record representative seems sense social song sort South spirit Stedman story success things thought town verse volume Whitman whole writing written wrote York young
Popular passages
Page 206 - A nation of men will for the first time exist, because each believes himself inspired by the Divine Soul which also inspires all men.
Page 52 - ... our Pride, and four times as much by our Folly; and from these Taxes the Commissioners cannot ease or deliver us by allowing an Abatement. However let us hearken to good Advice, and something may be done for us; God helps them that help themselves, as Poor Richard says, in his Almanack of 1733.
Page 165 - TO him who in the love of nature holds Communion with her visible forms, she speaks A various language; for his gayer hours She has a voice of gladness, and a smile And eloquence of beauty, and she glides Into his darker musings, with a mild And healing sympathy, that steals away Their sharpness, ere he is aware.
Page 248 - The point of view in which this Tale comes under the Romantic definition, lies in the attempt to connect a bygone time with the very Present that is flitting away from us. It is a Legend, prolonging itself, from an epoch now gray in the distance, down into our own broad daylight, and bringing along with it some of its legendary mist...
Page 63 - He is an American, who, leaving behind him all his ancient prejudices and manners, receives new ones from the new mode of life he has embraced, the new government he obeys, and the new rank he holds.
Page 148 - O Woman ! in our hours of ease, Uncertain, coy, and hard to please, And variable as the shade By the light quivering aspen made, When pain and anguish wring the brow, A ministering angel thou ! — Scarce were the piteous accents said, When, with the Baron's casque, the maid To the nigh streamlet ran.
Page 53 - But mark how luxury will enter families and make a progress in spite of principle. Being called one morning to breakfast, I found it in a china bowl with a spoon of silver! They had been bought for me without my knowledge by my wife, and had cost her the enormous sum of...
Page 205 - If it were only for a vocabulary, the scholar would be covetous of action. Life is our dictionary. Years are well spent in country labors ; in town, — in the insight into trades and manufactures ; in frank intercourse with many men and women ; in science ; in art ; to the one end of mastering in all their facts a language by which to illustrate and embody our perceptions.
Page 358 - Oh, what is abroad in the marsh and the terminal sea ? Somehow my soul seems suddenly free From the weighing of fate and the sad discussion of sin, By the length and the breadth and the sweep of the marshes of Glynn.
Page 358 - 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...
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Bibliographic information
| Title | A History of American Literature |
| Author | Percy Holmes Boynton |
| Publisher | Ginn, 1919 |
| Original from | the University of California |
| Digitized | 1 Jun 2007 |
| ISBN | 0827438443, 9780827438446 |
| Length | 513 pages |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |