Читать книгу Oracles from the Poets: A Fanciful Diversion for the Drawing Room - Various - Страница 7
GENTLEMAN.
ОглавлениеAll our knowledge is ourselves to know.
Pope.
Oh, wad some power the giftie gie us,
To see oursels as others see us;
It wad frae monie a blunder free us
And foolish notion!
Burns.
WHAT IS YOUR CHARACTER?
GENTLEMAN.
You kiss not where you wish to kill,
You feign not love where most you hate,
You break no sleep to win your will,
You wait not at the mighty's gate.
Lord Vaux.
2. E'en your failings lean to virtue's side.
Goldsmith.
3. Polite, yet virtuous, you have brought away
The manners, not the morals of the day.
Cowper.
4. Thou art slow to science; the chart and letter'd page
Have in them no deep spell whereby thy spirit to engage;
But rather thou wouldst sail thy boat, or sound thy bugle-horn,
Or track the sportsman's triumph through the fields of waving corn,
Than o'er the ponderous histories of other ages bend,
Or dwell upon the sweetest page that ever poet penn'd.
Mrs. Norton.
5. A spider you may best be liken'd to,
Which creature is an adept, not alone
In workmanship of nice geometry,
But is beside a wary politician.
Taylor.
6. I know thee brave—
A counsellor subtle, and a leader proved—
With wisdom fitting for a king's right hand;
Firm in resolve, nor from thy purpose moved:
Then what lack'st thou to render thee beloved?
Thou'st wooed and won a gentle heart, and more—
Hast trampled it to dust.
Allan Cunningham.
7. I would rather wed a man of dough,
Such as some school-girl, when the pie is made,
To amuse her childish fancy, kneads at hazard
Out of the remnant paste.
John Tobin.
8. Thou, with a lofty soul, whose course
The thoughtless oft condemn,
Art touch'd by many airs from heaven
Which never breathe on them.
Moved too by many impulses,
Which they do never know,
Who round their earth-bound circles plod
The dusty paths below.
Albert G. Greene.
9. You look the whole world in the face,
For you owe not any man.
Longfellow.
10. You loiter, lounge, are lank and lazy,
Though nothing ails you, yet uneasy;
Your days insipid, dull, and tasteless,
Your nights unquiet, long, and restless;
And e'en your sports at balls and races,
Your galloping through public places,
Have sic parade, and pomp, and art,
The joy can scarcely reach the heart.
Burns—Twa Dogs.
11. Thou'st never bent at glory's shrine,
To wealth thou'st never bow'd the knee,
Beauty has heard no vows of thine,
Thou lovest ease.
R. H. Wilde.
12. A gentleman of all Temperance.
Measure for Measure.
13. You are positive and fretful,
Heedless, ignorant, forgetful.
Swift.
14. There is one rare, strange virtue in thy speeches,
The secret of their mastery—they're short.
Halleck.
15. For contemplation framed,
Shy and unpractised in the strife of phrase,
Yours is the language of the heavens, the power,
The thought, the image, and the silent joy.
Words are but under-agents in your soul.
Wordsworth.
16. You take delight in others' excellence,
A gift which nature rarely doth dispense;
Of all that breathe, 'tis you, perhaps, alone,
Would be well pleased to see yourself outdone.
Young—Epistles.
17. You are the Punch to stir up trouble,
You wriggle, fidge, and make a riot,
Put all your brother puppets out.
Swift.
18. You'd shake hands with a king upon his throne,
And think it kindness to his majesty.
Halleck.
19. The meanest thing, earth's feeblest worm,
You fear to scorn or hate;
But honor in a peasant's form
The equal of the great.
Ebenezer Elliott.
20. You may be thrown among the gay and reckless sons of life,
But will not love the revel scene or head the brawling strife.
Eliza Cook.
21. You are one,
Who can play off your smiles and courtesies
To every lady, of her lap-dog tired,
Who wants a plaything.
Southey.
22. Come, rouse thee now;—I know thy mind,
And would its strength awaken;
Proud, gifted, noble, ardent, kind.
Anna P. Dinnies.
23. In choice
Of morsels for the body, nice are you,
And scrupulous;—
And every composition know
Of cookery.
Pollok—Course of Time.
24. A man thou seem'st of cheerful yesterdays,
And confident to-morrows.
Wordsworth.
25. Sir, I confess you to be one well read
In men and manners, and that usually
The most ungovern'd persons, you being present,
Rather subject themselves unto your censure,
Than give you least occasion of distaste,
By making you the subject of their mirth.
Ben Jonson.
26. When nae real ills perplex you,
You make enow yoursel' to vex you.
Burns.
27. You speak an infinite deal of nothing.
Merchant of Venice.
28. Calm, serene,
Your thoughts are clear and honest, and your words,
Still chosen most gently, are not yet disguised
To please the ear of tingling vanity.
W. G. Simms.
29. Large is your bounty, and your soul sincere;
Heaven does a recompense as largely send:
You give to misery all you have—a tear;
You gain from heaven, 'tis all you ask—a friend.
Gray.
30. You worship God with inward zeal, and serve him in each deed;
Yet will not blame another's faith, nor have one martyr bleed.
Eliza Cook.
31. Silent when glad, affectionate though shy;
And now your look is most demurely sad;
And now you laugh aloud, yet none know why—
Some deem you wondrous wise, and some believe you mad.
Beattie—Minstrel.
32. You act upon the prudent plan,
"Say little, and hear all you can:"
Safe policy, but hateful.
Cowper.
