The Iliad of Homer (Alexander Pope)

"The wrath of Peleus' son, the direful spring Of all the Grecian woes, O goddess sing!"

"Bold is the task, when subjects, grown too wise, Instruct a monarch where his error lies."

"The distant Trojans never injur'd me."

"Thou dog in forehead, but in heart a deer!"

"Words sweet as honey from his lips distill'd."

"Shakes his ambrosial curls, and gives the nod,— The stamp of fate, and sanction of the god."

"And unextinguish'd laughter shakes the skies."

"Ye gods, what dastards would our host command? Swept to the war, the lumber of a land."

"Thick as autumnal leaves or driving sand, The moving squadrons blacken all the strand."

"Chiefs who no more in bloody fights engage, But wise through time, and narrative with age, In summer-days like grasshoppers rejoice — A bloodless race, that send a feeble voice."

"She moves a goddess, and she looks a queen."

"Ajax the great… Himself a host."

"Plough the watery deep."

"The day shall come, that great avenging day, Which Troy's proud glories in the dust shall lay, When Priam's powers and Priam's self shall fall, And one prodigious ruin swallow all."

"First in the fight and every graceful deed."

"The first in banquets, but the last in fight."

"Gods! How the son degenerates from the sire!"

"With all its beauteous honours on its head."

"A wealthy priest, but rich without a fault."

"Not two strong men the enormous weight could raise,— Such men as live in these degenerate days."

"Whose little body lodg'd a mighty mind."

"He held his seat,—a friend to human race. Fast by the road, his ever-open door Obliged the wealthy, and relieved the poor."

"Like leaves on trees the race of man is found, Now green in youth, now withering on the ground; Another race the following spring supplies: They fall successive, and successive rise."

"Inflaming wine, pernicious to mankind."

"If yet not lost to all the sense of shame."

"'Tis man's to fight, but Heaven's to give success."

"The young Astyanax, the hope of Troy."

"Yet while my Hector still survives, I see My father, mother, brethren, all, in thee."

"May I lie cold before that dreadful day, Pressed with a load of monumental clay!"

"Andromache! my soul's far better part."

"He from whose lips divine persuasion flows."

"Not hate, but glory, made these chiefs contend; And each brave foe was in his soul a friend."

"I war not with the dead."

"Aurora now, fair daughter of the dawn, Sprinkled with rosy light the dewy lawn."

"As full-blown poppies, overcharg'd with rain, Decline the head, and drooping kiss the plain, — So sinks the youth; his beauteous head, depress'd Beneath his helmet, drops upon his breast."

"As when the moon, refulgent lamp of night, O'er heaven's clear azure spreads her sacred light, When not a breath disturbs the deep serene, And not a cloud o'ercasts the solemn scene; Around her throne the vivid planets roll, And stars unnumbered gild the glowing pole, O'er the dark trees a yellower verdure shed, And tip with silver every mountain's head; Then shine the vales, the rocks in prospect rise, A flood of glory bursts from all the skies."

"Who dares think one thing, and another tell, My heart detests him as the gates of hell."

"Life is not to be bought with heaps of gold: Not all Apollo's Pythian treasures hold, Or Troy once held, in peace and pride of sway, Can bribe the poor possession of a day."

"Short is my date, but deathless my renown."

"Injustice, swift, erect, and unconfin'd, Sweeps the wide earth, and tramples o'er mankind."

"A generous friendship no cold medium knows, Burns with one love, with one resentment glows; One should our interests, and our passions, be; My friend must hate the man that injures me."

"To labour is the lot of man below; And when Jove gave us life, he gave us woe."

"Content to follow when we lead the way."

"He serves me most, who serves his country best."

"Praise from a friend, or censure from a foe, Are lost on hearers that our merits know."

"The rest were vulgar deaths, unknown to fame."

"Without a sign his sword the brave man draws, And asks no omen but his country's cause."

"The life which others pay let us bestow, And give to fame what we to nature owe."

"And seem to walk on wings, and tread in air."

"The best of things beyond their measure cloy."