Epic Poetry

"And o'er the past Oblivion stretch her wing."

"The ruins of himself! now worn away With age, yet still majestic in decay."

"And rest at last where souls unbodied dwell, In ever-flowing meads of Asphodel."

"So ends the bloody business of the day."

"For dear to gods and men is sacred song. Self-taught I sing; by Heaven, and Heaven alone, The genuine seeds of poesy are sown."

"Dogs, ye have had your day!"

"Impatient straight to flesh his virgin sword."

"The fool of fate,—thy manufacture, man."

"But he whose inborn worth his acts commend, Of gentle soul, to human race a friend."

"A winy vapour melting in a tear."

"Yet taught by time, my heart has learn'd to glow For others' good, and melt at others' woe."

"Know from the bounteous heaven all riches flow; And what man gives, the gods by man bestow."

"Unbless'd thy hand, if in this low disguise Wander, perhaps, some inmate of the skies."

"In ev'ry sorrowing soul I pour'd delight, And poverty stood smiling in my sight."

"Whatever day Makes man a slave, takes half his worth away."

"And would'st thou evil for his good repay?"

"For love deceives the best of womankind."

"And taste The melancholy joy of evils past: For he who much has suffer'd, much will know."

"Discourse, the sweeter banquet of the mind."

"For too much rest itself becomes a pain."

"True friendship's laws are by this rule expressed, Welcome the coming, speed the parting guest."

"Who love too much, hate in the like extreme, And both the golden mean alike condemn."

"And wine can of their wits the wise beguile, Make the sage frolic, and the serious smile."

"Far from gay cities and the ways of men."

"The sex is ever to a soldier kind."

"It never was our guise To slight the poor, or aught humane despise."

"How prone to doubt, how cautious are the wise!"

"And bear unmov'd the wrongs of base mankind, The last and hardest conquest of the mind."

"His native home deep imag'd in his soul."

"He ceas'd; but left so pleasing on their ear His voice, that list'ning still they seem'd to hear."

"Better to rush at once to shades below, Than linger life away, and nourish woe!"

"And what so tedious as a twice-told tale."

"All, soon or late, are doom'd that path to tread."

"Gloomy as night he stands."

"There in the bright assemblies of the skies."

"Up the high hill he heaves a huge round stone."

"I turn’d my eye, and as I turn’d survey’d A mournful vision! the Sisyphian shade; With many a weary step, and many a groan, Up the high hill he heaves a huge round stone; The huge round stone, resulting with a bound, Thunders impetuous down, and smokes along the ground."

"And pines with thirst amidst a sea of waves."

"Rather I'd choose laboriously to bear A weight of woes, and breathe the vital air, A slave to some poor hind that toils for bread, Than reign the sceptred monarch of the dead."

"But sure the eye of time beholds no name So blest as thine in all the rolls of fame."

"What mighty woes To thy imperial race from woman rose!"

"Oh woman, woman! when to ill thy mind Is bent, all hell contains no fouler fiend."

"Soft as some song divine thy story flows."

"The first in glory, as the first in place."

"Heav'd on Olympus tott'ring Ossa stood; On Ossa, Pelion nods with all his wood."

"Who ne'er knew salt, or heard the billows roar."

"His cold remains all naked to the sky On distant shores unwept, unburied lie."

"Thin airy shoals of visionary ghosts."

"Born but to banquet, and to drain the bowl."

"Let him, oraculous, the end, the way, The turns of all thy future fate display."