Читать книгу English Verse - Raymond Macdonald Alden - Страница 8

Avoid extremes; and shun the fault of such

Who still are pleas'd too little or too much.

At every trifle scorn to take offence,

That always shows great pride, or little sense:

Those heads, as stomachs, are not sure the best,

Which nauseate all, and nothing can digest.

Yet let not each gay turn thy rapture move;

For fools admire, but men of sense approve:

As things seem large which we through mist descry,

Dulness is ever apt to magnify.

(Pope: Essay on Criticism, ll. 384–393.)

Louder, louder chant the lay—

Waken, lords and ladies gay!

Tell them youth and mirth and glee

Run a course as well as we;

Time, stern huntsman! who can baulk,

Staunch as hound and fleet as hawk;

Think of this, and rise with day,

Gentle lords and ladies gay!

(Scott: Hunting Song.)

Larger constellations burning, mellow moons and happy skies,

Breadths of tropic shade and palms in cluster, knots of Paradise.

(Tennyson: Locksley Hall.)

Wild April, enkindled to laughter and storm by the kiss of

the wildest of winds that blow,

Calls loud on his brother for witness; his hands that were

laden with blossom are sprinkled with snow.

(Swinburne: March.)