The Classic Myths in English Literature: Based Chiefly on Bulfinch's "Age of Fable". (1855).

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Page 64 - QUEEN and huntress, chaste and fair, Now the sun is laid to sleep ; Seated in thy silver chair, State in wonted manner keep. Hesperus entreats thy light, Goddess excellently bright ! Earth, let not thy envious shade Dare itself to interpose : Cynthia's shining orb was made Heaven to clear when day did close. Bless us then with wished sight, Goddess excellently bright ! Lay thy bow of pearl apart, And thy crystal shining quiver ; Give unto the flying hart Space to breathe, how short soever : Thou...
Page 418 - Sheer o'er the crystal battlements : from morn To noon he fell, from noon to dewy eve, A summer's day ; and with the setting sun Dropt from the zenith like a falling star...
Page 249 - Fillet of a fenny snake, In the cauldron boil and bake ; Eye of newt and toe of frog, Wool of bat and tongue of dog...
Page 421 - The oracles are dumb, No voice or hideous hum Runs through the arched roof in words deceiving. Apollo from his shrine Can no more divine, With hollow shriek the steep of Delphos leaving. No nightly trance or breathed spell Inspires the pale-eyed priest from the prophetic cell.
Page 76 - Flush'd with a purple grace He shows his honest face: Now give the hautboys breath; he comes, he comes ! Bacchus, ever fair and young, Drinking joys did first ordain ; Bacchus...
Page 132 - ... careless words their law. They knew not how he learned at all, For idly, hour by hour, He sat and watched the dead leaves fall, Or mused upon a common flower. It seemed the loveliness of things Did teach him all their use, For, in mere weeds, and stones, and springs, He found a healing power profuse. Men granted that his speech was wise, But, when a glance they caught Of his slim grace and woman's eyes, They laughed, and called him good-fornaught. Yet after he was dead and gone, And e'en his...
Page 16 - Towards the crescent moon, with grateful heart Called on the lovely wanderer who bestowed That timely light, to share his joyous sport : And hence, a beaming goddess with her nymphs, Across the lawn and through the darksome grove (Not unaccompanied with tuneful notes By echo multiplied from rock or cave) Swept in the storm of chase, as moon and stars Glance rapidly along the clouded heaven, When winds are blowing strong.
Page 143 - ARETHUSA arose From her couch of snows In the Acroceraunian mountains, — From cloud and from crag, With many a jag, Shepherding her bright fountains. She leapt down the rocks, With her rainbow locks Streaming among the streams ; Her steps paved with green The downward ravine Which slopes to the western gleams : And gliding and springing She went, ever singing In murmurs as soft as sleep. The Earth seemed to love her, And Heaven smiled above her, As she lingered towards the deep.
Page 335 - IT little profits that an idle king, By this still hearth, among these barren crags, Matched with an aged wife, I mete and dole* Unequal laws unto a savage race, That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me...
Page 15 - In that fair clime, the lonely herdsman, stretched On the soft grass through half a summer's day, With music lulled his indolent repose : And, in some fit of weariness, if he, When his own breath was silent, chanced to hear A distant strain, far sweeter than the sounds Which his poor skill could make, his fancy fetched, Even from the blazing chariot of the sun, A beardless Touth, who touched a golden lute, And filled the illumined groves with ravishment.

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