"Oh, but the heavenly grammar did I hold Of that high speech which angels' tongues turn gold! So should her deathless beauty take no wrong, Praised in her own great kindred's fit and cognate tongue, Or if that language yet with us abode Which Adam in the garden talked with God! But our untempered speech descends—poor heirs! Grimy and rough-cast still from Babel's brick layers: Curse on the brutish jargon we inherit, Strong but to damn, not memorise, a spirit! A cheek, a lip, a limb, a bosom, they Move with light ease in speech of working-day; And women we do use to praise even so."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Francis Thompson, Her Portrait.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Speech
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Speech
135 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Speech →
Related Quotes
"He mouths a sentence as curs mouth a bone."
"Ipse dixit."
"Nullum simile quatuor pedibus currit."
"Speech that only wise people understand: Illness is destiny, treatment is a Speech. Marriage is destiny, divorce is a…"
"Speech is like medicine, a small dose of which cures, but an excess of which kills."
"Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt."
"But though I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge."
"Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech."
"Think all you speak; but speak not all you think: Thoughts are your own; your words are so no more. Where Wisdom stee…"
"Sermo hominum mores et celat et indicat idem."