The Task (poem)

"I sing the Sofa. I, who lately sang Truth, Hope, and Charity, and touch'd with awe The solemn chords, and with a trembling hand, Escap'd with pain from that advent'rous flight, Now seek repose upon an humbler theme."

"United yet divided, twain at once: So sit two kings of Brentford on one throne."

"Thus first necessity invented stools, Convenience next suggested elbow-chairs, And luxury the accomplished Sofa last."

"The nurse sleeps sweetly, hired to watch the sick, Whom snoring she disturbs."

"Nor rural sights alone, but rural sounds, Exhilarate the spirit, and restore The tone of languid nature."

"The earth was made so various, that the mind Of desultory man, studious of change And pleased with novelty, might be indulged."

"Doing good, Disinterested good, is not our trade."

"God made the country, and man made the town."

"Oh for a lodge in some vast wilderness, Some boundless contiguity of shade, Where rumor of oppression and deceit, Of unsuccessful or successful war, Might never reach me more."

"Mountains interposed Make enemies of nations, who had else Like kindred drops, been mingled into one."

"I would not have a slave to till my ground, To carry me, to fan me while I sleep And tremble when I wake, for all the wealth That sinews bought and sold have ever earn'd."

"We have no slaves at home. ─ Then why abroad?"

"Slaves cannot breathe in England; if their lungs Receive our air, that moment they are free! They touch our country, and their shackles fall."

"Fast-anchor'd isle."

"England, with all thy faults, I love thee still— My country! and, while yet a nook is left Where English minds and manners may be found, Shall be constrained to love thee."

"Presume to lay their hand upon the ark Of her magnificent and awful cause."

"Praise enough To fill the ambition of a private man, That Chatham's language was his mother tongue."

"There is a pleasure in poetic pains Which only poets know."

"Transforms old print To zigzag manuscript, and cheats the eyes Of gallery critics by a thousand arts."

"Reading what they never wrote, Just fifteen minutes, huddle up their work, And with a well-bred whisper close the scene."

"Whoe'er was edified, themselves were not."

"O Popular Applause! what heart of man Is proof against thy sweet seducing charms?"

"Variety's the very spice of life, That gives it all its flavour."

"She that asks Her dear five hundred friends."

"His head, Not yet by time completely silvered o'er, Bespoke him past the bounds of freakish youth, But strong for service still, and unimpaired."

"Domestic happiness, thou only bliss Of Paradise that has survived the fall!"

"I was a stricken deer that left the herd Long since."

"Dream after dream ensues; And still they dream that they shall still succeed; And still are disappointed."

"Charge His mind with meanings that he never had."

"Great contest follows, and much learned dust Involves the combatants; each claiming truth, And truth disclaiming both."

"Defend me, therefore, common sense, say I, From reveries so airy, from the toil Of dropping buckets into empty wells, And growing old in drawing nothing up."

"Newton, childlike sage! Sagacious reader of the works of God."

"Riches have wings, and grandeur is a dream."

"Detested sport, That owes its pleasures to another's pain."

"How various his employments whom the world Calls idle, and who justly in return Esteems that busy world an idler too!"

"Studious of laborious ease."

"Who loves a garden loves a greenhouse too."

"So manifold, all pleasing in their kind, All healthful, are the employs of rural life, Reiterated as the wheel of time, Runs round; still ending, and beginning still."

"To combat may be glorious, and success Perhaps may crown us, but to fly is safe."

"Now stir the fire, and close the shutters fast, Let fall the curtains, wheel the sofa round, And while the bubbling and loud-hissing urn Throws up a steamy column, and the cups That cheer but not inebriate wait on each, So let us welcome peaceful evening in."

"Which not even critics criticise."

"What is it but a map of busy life, Its fluctuations, and its vast concerns?"

"'Tis pleasant, through the loopholes of retreat, To peep at such a world,—to see the stir Of the great Babel, and not feel the crowd."

"While fancy, like the finger of a clock, Runs the great circuit, and is still at home."

"O Winter, ruler of the inverted year!"

"I crown thee king of intimate delights, Fire-side enjoyments, home-born happiness,"

"A Roman meal, Such as the mistress of the world once found Delicious, when her patriots of high note, Perhaps by moonlight, at their humble doors, And under an old oak’s domestic shade, Enjoyed—spare feast!—a radish and an egg."

"The slope of faces from the floor to th' roof, (As if one master-spring controlled them all), Relaxed into a universal grin."

"With spots quadrangular of diamond form, Ensanguined hearts, clubs typical of strife, And spades, the emblems of untimely graves."

"In indolent vacuity of thought."