Poetry
‹ 10 · Outline
11.The poet's themes and self-reflection
11a.Verse as immortality and monument
See also: Honor 11b
Homer, The OdysseyVol. 22
- p. 113The gods weave death for men so that there may be song for people of aftertime.read · scan
Virgil, The AeneidVol. 13
- p. 305The poet's verse is said to give the friends immortal life and fame.read · scan
Pliny the Younger, Letters of PlinyVol. 9
- p. 248Pliny values Martial's verse and the never-fading praise it confers, though he doubts the poems will survive.read · scan
Stories from the Thousand and One NightsVol. 16
- p. 81–82The ape writes verses praising the noble and warning that a writer's words endure to the resurrection.read · scan
- p. 299–301The palace inscription is in verse, lamenting fallen lords.read · scan
- p. 301–302Moral verses inscribed on doors and tombs.read · scan
- p. 312Verses inscribed on the tablet lament the vanished kings in rhetorical questions.read · scan
Dante Alighieri, HellVol. 20
- p. 67–69Dante swears by his verses, hoping they find favor to latest times, and addresses the reader before describing the marvelous shape.read · scan
Dante Alighieri, ParadiseVol. 20
- p. 423Dante asks for power to leave one sparkle of God's glory to future readers in his verse.read · scan
Miguel de Cervantes, The History of Don Quixote of the Mancha, Part IVol. 14
- p. 344–345Anselmo resolves to write verses in Camilla's praise to make her name famous in future ages.read · scan
Edmund Spenser, PoemsVol. 40
- p. 232–233Hopes some brave muse may sing his fame to following ages.read · scan
- p. 250–251Poet vows his verse will immortalise the beloved's name against death and time.read · scan
Samuel Daniel, Beauty, Time, and Love: Sonnets; To SleepVol. 40
- p. 222Poet rejects tales of knights for verse on his beloved, hoping his verse will be authentic and outlast time as her monument.read · scan
William Shakespeare, Songs and SonnetsVol. 40
- p. 268–270The poet claims his eternal lines will give the beloved life beyond death and time.read · scan
- p. 271–273Poet's verse will outlive marble and monuments; asks to be read for love, not style, beside better poets.read · scan
- p. 273–274Verse in black ink is the only miracle that can preserve the beloved against time.read · scan
- p. 278Old rhymes in praise of dead beauties only prophesy the beloved; present tongues lack skill to praise.read · scan
- p. 279–280Poet's rhyme gives the beloved a monument outlasting tyrants' crests and brass tombs.read · scan
John Milton, Samson AgonistesVol. 4
- p. 415Samson's acts to be enrolled in legend or sweet lyric song.read · scan
John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's ProgressVol. 15
- p. 244–246Monument inscription in verse commemorates the battle.read · scan
- p. 288–290Great-heart writes commemorative verses on a marble stone.read · scan
William Cowper, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 535–537Poet wants a better lyre to record Mary's worth in immortalizing verse.read · scan
- p. 539–541Tears of bards or narrators alike immortalize the dead.read · scan
- p. 543He honors her with his numbers, a frail but sincere memorial.read · scan
Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The School for ScandalVol. 18
- p. 122–124Sir Benjamin's vanity about circulating satires and lampoons privately, and his elegies promising Maria immortality like Petrarch's Laura.read · scan
Robert Burns, Poems and SongsVol. 6
- p. 269–271A thoughtful bard's mourning notes are carried off on the wind; poet and song shall perish alike.read · scan
- p. 364–365The bard witnesses the contest, promises immortal rhyme and laurel and bay.read · scan
Walter Savage Landor, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 898–900Verses will outlast; a crown from Athens; cities that scorn the Muse will rue it.read · scan
- p. 900–902Delight in singing and praising; tributes to Shakespeare and Browning; hope to win the Delphic bays; writing a name that outlasts.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, The PoetVol. 5
- p. 171The poet's songs are deathless offspring detached from the soul, winged by beauty, outliving censures and piercing infinite time.read · scan
Hans Christian Andersen, TalesVol. 17
- p. 301–302Poets write magnificent poems about the Nightingale; books spread its fame.read · scan
James Russell Lowell, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1378–1379The poet doubts whether trivial song can honor fallen heroes, yet holds that feathered words can save memory from oblivion.read · scan
Walter Bagehot, John MiltonVol. 28
- p. 175Milton's words have a soul and sublimity, solemn music, and the world will not let them die.read · scan
11b.Love, the beloved and the poet's song
See also: Love 3d · Chivalry 5a · Beauty 5a
Stories from the Thousand and One NightsVol. 16
- p. 8–10Poets are quoted warning men against women's wiles and perfidy.read · scan
- p. 15–16The merchant laments in verse on the alternation of bright and gloomy days.read · scan
- p. 25–26He voices his misfortune in verses of a poet.read · scan
- p. 36–37The sage greets the king with verses of thanks, unaware of his fate.read · scan
- p. 57–58Verses quoted on keeping secrets.read · scan
- p. 82–83The ape writes playful verses to Kunafeh, the sweet dish.read · scan
- p. 111She addresses her husband in verse, pleading for pity as death nears.read · scan
- p. 134–135Lovers speak in improvised verses.read · scan
- p. 194–195Verses praise the vizier and describe the damsel.read · scan
- p. 227–228Characters answer each other by quoting poets' sayings.read · scan
- p. 231–232He voices his complaint in verse.read · scan
- p. 285–286He cites a poet's verses about leaving a place of oppression and enduring calamity.read · scan
- p. 337A quoted verse speaks of weeping and passion for So'da and who wept first.read · scan
Dante Alighieri, PurgatoryVol. 20
- p. 242Buonaggiunta recognizes Dante as inventor of the new love lay, 'Ladies, ye that con the lore of love'.read · scan
William Roper, The Life of Sir Thomas MoreVol. 36
- p. 114–125He writes verses with a coal on receiving the Secretary's flattering message.read · scan
Miguel de Cervantes, The History of Don Quixote of the Mancha, Part IVol. 14
- p. 82–83The song is a conventional pastoral love complaint with catalogue of services.read · scan
- p. 96–97Poets' extravagant attributes for their mistresses are echoed in his praise, and Orlando's verses quoted.read · scan
- p. 97–98Chrysostom's papers are to be preserved as a document; Vivaldo takes 'A Ditty of Despair'.read · scan
- p. 98–101Chrysostom's despairing verses are read aloud, a lament in song of the poet's sorrows and his beloved's cruelty.read · scan
- p. 101–102Lament poem summons the roars of beasts and infernal sounds as accompaniment to the lover's sorrow.read · scan
- p. 102–103Verses of lament continue the despairing ditty.read · scan
- p. 104Chrysostom's canzone is read and criticized as inconsistent with Marcela's reputation; Ambrosio defends it as product of absence.read · scan
- p. 108–109Ambrosio's epitaph in verse commemorates the lover and accuses Marcela of tyranny.read · scan
- p. 189–191Quixote reads aloud a sonnet found in the tablet, a lover's complaint about Love's cruelty.read · scan
- p. 201Cardenio composes amorous verses and letters to express the secrets of his soul more freely than the tongue can.read · scan
- p. 218–220Quixote argues that poets' Amaryllises and Phyllises were mostly feigned subjects for verse, to show the authors amorous and courageous.read · scan
- p. 222The letter is written in conventional courtly-lyric style, mocked gently by Sancho's admiration.read · scan
- p. 226–228Quixote carves verses of lament on trees, praising Dulcinea and mourning her absence.read · scan
- p. 228–229Quixote's lament stanzas, with the comic addition of 'Toboso' to fit the rhyme, show his verse-making and its absurdity.read · scan
- p. 329Anselmo asks for verses in praise of Chloris as a ruse.read · scan
- p. 329–331Lothario composes a sonnet to Chloris; the Muses visit him and verses feign love while addressing Camilla.read · scan
- p. 331–332Sonnets of a lover's plaint; Lothario says poets as lovers speak truth only as far as enamoured; Camilla delights in them.read · scan
- p. 431–432Love song in verse with nautical allegory; its effect on listeners.read · scan
- p. 432–433The lover's verses on hope and effort.read · scan
- p. 500–501Vincent makes ballads of a league and a half on every trifle, giving copies away, and they enchant Leandra.read · scan
- p. 501The lovers make a pastoral Arcadia, singing Leandra's praises or dispraises among the trees.read · scan
- p. 501–503Anselmo sings doleful verses to the rebec, showing the excellence of his conceit.read · scan
Edmund Spenser, PoemsVol. 40
- p. 233–234Poet calls on the Muses to lay aside laments and help him sing his own love's praises, as Orpheus did.read · scan
- p. 244–246The Muses and Graces play and sing to honor Elisa; the song is offered as ornament.read · scan
Sir Philip Sidney, PoemsVol. 40
- p. 210–211The Muse's song begins and ends in the beloved.read · scan
- p. 213–214Sonnets address Sleep and the Moon in the lover's complaint.read · scan
Samuel Daniel, Beauty, Time, and Love: Sonnets; To SleepVol. 40
- p. 219–220Her unkindness woke his Muse.read · scan
Thomas Campion, PoemsVol. 40
- p. 284–285The poet's songs are all dedicated to her praise, and he wishes his notes to die for her delight.read · scan
Thomas Dekker, The Shoemaker's HolidayVol. 47
- p. 494–496Hammon mocks the lover-rhymer's conventions of railing on Cupid.read · scan
- p. 502–503A May song of love opens the scene.read · scan
Thomas Heywood, Pack, Clouds, AwayVol. 40
- p. 316–317The lover borrows notes from the birds to sing his greeting.read · scan
Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, Philaster, or Love Lies A-BleedingVol. 47
- p. 688Megra praises the prince's neat poetry that won a kiss; he sings her lips as twinned cherries.read · scan
William Browne, On the Countess Dowager of PembrokeVol. 40
- p. 333She is the subject of all verse.read · scan
Izaak Walton, The Life of Mr. George HerbertVol. 15
- p. 376–377Donne left a verse character of her, in 'The Autumnal Beauty' elegy.read · scan
Thomas Carew, PoemsVol. 40
- p. 351–352The poet claims his verse gave Celia fame and power; wise poets wrap truth in tales.read · scan
Richard Crashaw, Wishes for the Supposed Mistress; Upon the Book and Picture of the Seraphical Saint TeresaVol. 40
- p. 362–364Verses are made to live and carry her flame through all tongues; wishes are fictions but her story true.read · scan
Abraham Cowley, PoemsVol. 40
- p. 365–366The lyre is bidden to tell his tale in prevailing sounds, but its virtue fails.read · scan
John Dryden, All for Love; or, The World Well LostVol. 18
- p. 69–71Cleopatra dismisses praise of her beauty as mere poetry borrowed from Roman love poets.read · scan
Matthew Prior, PoemsVol. 40
- p. 396–398The poet writes verses, tunes his lyre and sings to disguise his real flame; verse as vehicle of courtship.read · scan
Edmund Burke, A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and BeautifulVol. 24
- p. 78Odes and elegies describing love and its object never mention proportion, showing it is not the chief component of beauty.read · scan
Robert Graham of Gartmore, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 531–532He strives to sing for her alone.read · scan
Robert Burns, Poems and SongsVol. 6
- p. 69–70The beloved's name inspires his verse, the muse and Pegasus running fine.read · scan
- p. 189–192Verse of thanks for a gift book from a lady, praising her taste and heart.read · scan
- p. 403–405Poet doubts his unskilled powers can rehearse her charms and drops the lyre in mute admirationread · scan
- p. 441–443Lyric songs celebrating rustic life and a beloved.read · scan
- p. 478–480Maria inspires the poet's vocal shell, and his praise is truthful.read · scan
- p. 552–553The Bard presents a volume of songs to Jessy with a poet's prayer.read · scan
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 703–704Verse and Poesy accompany youth; the lover sings songs that make her grieve.read · scan
- p. 705–707Song and ballad move the listener and convey the singer's love.read · scan
Robert Tannahill, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 593–594Pastoral love song in dialect, with singing birds echoing the lover's praise.read · scan
William Hazlitt, Of Persons One Would Wish to Have SeenVol. 27
- p. 269–271A love elegy quoted as beautiful poetry moving its reader.read · scan
Percy Bysshe Shelley, A Defence of PoetryVol. 27
- p. 347Provencal troubadours, Petrarch, Dante's Vita Nuova and the Divine Comedy are held up as the glorious poetry of love.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, BeautyVol. 5
- p. 309Poets rightly deck their mistresses with spoils of landscape, since beauty points to identity; a phrase of poetry gives us wings.read · scan
Hans Christian Andersen, TalesVol. 17
- p. 357One person writes a poem saying the bell sounds like a mother's voice to a dear child.read · scan
Elizabeth Barrett Browning, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 924Contrasts her own lonely singing with his high poems and music at palace pageants.read · scan
- p. 930–931The beloved poet's music heals mankind; she asks how she may serve his song as hope, memory, shade or grave.read · scan
- p. 939–940Her music heard through the prison wall; he, an artist, listens to her sobbing voice.read · scan
- p. 940–941Sends her unfolded thoughts as poems, like flowers, to the beloved; the poet's harp is mentioned.read · scan
William Makepeace Thackeray, Jonathan SwiftVol. 28
- p. 24His cold rhyme kindles into poetry in contemplating Stella's goodness.read · scan
- p. 25–26Swift's poem to Stella is quoted as a tribute of friendship and gratitude.read · scan
Robert Browning, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1094–1095Browning offers his fifty poems to his beloved and imagines Raphael's sonnets as more precious than his Madonnas.read · scan
- p. 1096–1097Browning says verse alone is left to him to give his love.read · scan
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1161–1162Catherine asks him to sing the song he made in captivity.read · scan
- p. 1163–1164The king sings his own poem, the minstrel's heart-strings in the harp; song of love mixed with foreboding.read · scan
- p. 1177–1178The poet seeks a word to explore love's depths through song and rhythm.read · scan
11c.Elegy and tribute to poets
See also: Life and Death 9c
Pliny the Younger, Letters of PlinyVol. 9
- p. 246–248Pliny mourns Martial, praises his wit and quotes verses; poets once rewarded for celebrating persons.read · scan
Geoffrey Chaucer, The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales; The Nun's Priest's TaleVol. 40
- p. 46Narrator invokes the poet Gaufred as a master of lament and wishes for his skill.read · scan
Benvenuto Cellini, The Autobiography of Benvenuto CelliniVol. 31
- p. 57The room is full of sonnets sent to Michel Agnolo, and Diego reads them aloud gracefully.read · scan
- p. 165–166Varchi composes a sonnet on Cellini's supposed death.read · scan
- p. 168Varchi's sonnet mourns Cellini as supreme in art, sent to heaven, his skill expressing the form of God.read · scan
- p. 400–401Sonnets, Latin and Greek verses are nailed to the door by scholars and painters like Bronzino praising the statue.read · scan
Miguel de Cervantes, The History of Don Quixote of the Mancha, Part IVol. 14
- p. 389–390Don Pedro de Aguilar, soldier and poet, composed two sonnets as epitaphs for the Goleta and the fort, to be recited.read · scan
- p. 391–392Two sonnets serving as epitaphs for the fallen soldiers of Goleta and its fort.read · scan
Ben Jonson, PoemsVol. 40
- p. 297–299The poet imagines his Muse and urges a sleeping poet to take up the lyre, scorning false balladry and the stage.read · scan
- p. 301Jonson praises Shakespeare as soul of the age, above Lyly, Kyd, Marlowe and the Greek and Roman dramatists.read · scan
Francis Beaumont, On the Tombs in Westminster Abbey; Master Francis Beaumont's Letter to Ben JonsonVol. 40
- p. 319–320Beaumont writes of drink, wit and the sonnet's strain, praising Mermaid Tavern wit and Ben Jonson's Muse.read · scan
- p. 321Beaumont recalls the Mermaid wit and hopes to taste wine with Jonson when their plays are perfect and drink his Muse's health.read · scan
Izaak Walton, The Life of Dr. John DonneVol. 15
- p. 343–344Chidley's funeral elegy in verse praises Donne's wit transplanted from love-poetry to piety.read · scan
John Milton, Poems Written at School and at College, 1624-1632Vol. 4
- p. 18–20Classical myth of Apollo and Hyacinth is used to console and elevate the elegy.read · scan
- p. 25–26Shakespeare's verse is his own monument, needing no stone tomb; his lines impress hearts with wonder.read · scan
- p. 27Poet offers flowers, bays and tears from Helicon and the Cam as tribute to her memory.read · scan
John Milton, Poems Written at Horton, 1632-1638Vol. 4
- p. 72The poet plucks the laurels to sing for Lycidas, who himself knew how to build the lofty rhyme; Muses invoked.read · scan
Abraham Cowley, PoemsVol. 40
- p. 366–368Poetry, among the arts they loved together.read · scan
John Dryden, PoemsVol. 40
- p. 384–385Ode honors Anne Killigrew as poetess and painter, born into a tuneful strain with her verse, praised by a mortal Muse.read · scan
Joseph Addison, Westminster AbbeyVol. 27
- p. 79Epitaphs written with elegance of expression and justness of thought; poets without monuments and monuments without poets.read · scan
Robert Burns, Poems and SongsVol. 6
- p. 42–44Burns summons the bards of Doon and Ayr to join the lament in a mock-elegy.read · scan
- p. 217–220Bard of rustic song mourned with fellow feelingread · scan
- p. 256–258Epitaph for Fergusson mourns a poet starved by the wealthy who admired him; song outlives art's monuments; Burns recalls the wish to sing.read · scan
- p. 417–418Crowning Thomson's bust with bays, honoring the poet of the seasonsread · scan
- p. 430–432Lament for the ill-fated genius Fergusson, dying young.read · scan
Percy Bysshe Shelley, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 855–857The poet creates from simple sights forms more real than living man; the elegy mourns Keats, poet and 'sire of immortal strain.'read · scan
- p. 857–858The dreams and thoughts he fed and taught his music to now droop around his cold heart.read · scan
- p. 859–860All he loved and moulded into thought laments him; Echo feeds on his remembered lay.read · scan
- p. 863–864Fellow poets, including Byron, Moore and Shelley himself, come as mourners; love taught grief to fall like music.read · scan
- p. 864–866Elegy for the poet Adonais (Keats), mourning the silenced lyre and attacking the hostile critic who wounded him.read · scan
- p. 867–869Poets gather in a Heaven of Song awaiting the new poet.read · scan
John Stuart Mill, AutobiographyVol. 25
- p. 86Coleridge's 'Dejection' lines exactly describe his state.read · scan
John Greenleaf Whittier, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1340–1342Elegy praising the dead man's wit, pathos and romance and song.read · scan
Giuseppe Mazzini, Byron and GoetheVol. 32
- p. 381–382Byron, finding no poetry in Greece or Italy, sings the death-song of his age.read · scan
Robert Browning, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1098–1100Homer, Keats, Dante and Raphael are remembered; the beloved is called moon of poets.read · scan
Walt Whitman, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1413–1414The poet offers his song and lilac as tribute, chanting to death.read · scan
- p. 1414–1416Poet asks how to warble and deck his song for the dead, perfuming the grave with his chant.read · scan
- p. 1417–1418The bird's carol and the poet's soul tally in song; he floats a chant of joy to death.read · scan
- p. 1419–1420The poet ceases his song but keeps the chant as memory of the beloved dead.read · scan
Matthew Arnold, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1128–1130Sonnet honors Shakespeare's self-secure genius.read · scan
- p. 1136–1138Wordsworth's healing voice restores feeling and youth to an iron age; the sea's sadness heard by Sophocles echoes in the poet's thought.read · scan
Coventry Patmore, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1112Elegiac lyric of personal loss.read · scan
William Johnson Cory, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1113–1114Elegy for the poet Heraclitus, whose 'nightingales' (poems) survive.read · scan
11d.The poet's modest self-portrait
See also: Pleasure and Pain 5a
Martin Luther, Address to the Christian Nobility of the German NationVol. 36
- p. 334–335Luther uses the metaphor of singing a lofty strain and another song to describe his writing against Rome.read · scan
Benvenuto Cellini, The Autobiography of Benvenuto CelliniVol. 31
- p. 13Father's simple natural vein of poetry produces an epigram under the Medici arms that is read by all Florence.read · scan
- p. 235–236He composes verse with brick-dust paste on the Bible's blank pages.read · scan
- p. 243–244He works wax and writes a sonnet to the castellan to portray the vision.read · scan
- p. 244–245Cellini's sonnet, whose sanity persuades the castellan, pleads his case and vows art would raise a monument to heaven.read · scan
- p. 247–248He continues writing his Capitolo on the prison, adding daily events.read · scan
- p. 254–256He wrote verse in the margins of a book with mud ink, recounting his torments in the Capitolo.read · scan
- p. 258He takes pleasure in rewriting the Capitolo after his release.read · scan
- p. 399Cellini, cooling from rage, avenges an insult by composing and posting satirical verses on Bernardone, which amuse the palace and crowds.read · scan
Richard Edwardes, Amantium IraeVol. 40
- p. 201–202The speaker takes pen and ink to record the mother's proverb.read · scan
Michel de Montaigne, Of the Institution and Education of ChildrenVol. 32
- p. 29He reflects on his own craft as writer, comparing his weak inventions with Plutarch's and others' and on borrowing from authors.read · scan
- p. 29He discusses his own writing's borrowings from ancient authors, the contrast with his weaker style, and Epicurus's not quoting.read · scan
- p. 29Montaigne reflects on his own authorship, contrasting his self-portraying essays with patchwork rhapsodies and compilations of others' matter.read · scan
Michel de Montaigne, Of BookesVol. 32
- p. 87He reflects on his craft of borrowing and ornamenting others' words in his essays.read · scan
Miguel de Cervantes, The History of Don Quixote of the Mancha, Part IVol. 14
- p. 5Author likens his book to a child of his wit, begotten of a barren imagination, and begs the reader's indulgence for its faults.read · scan
- p. 6Author frets over writing a preface and his plain book lacking the learned quotations, sonnets and annotations that adorn other books.read · scan
- p. 6–7Author resolves to omit borrowed citations and commendatory sonnets from grand names, confessing his little learning and laziness.read · scan
- p. 86Chrysostom made verses, Christmas carols and Corpus Christi plays that the village praised.read · scan
- p. 236–237Unseen singer's courtly verses, not rustic; shepherd-poets are called a poetical endearment rather than truth.read · scan
William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of DenmarkVol. 46
- p. 126–128Hamlet's verse says he is ill at these numbers and has not art to reckon his groans.read · scan
Izaak Walton, The Life of Mr. George HerbertVol. 15
- p. 384–385Poem 'Affliction' quoted, laments his life.read · scan
Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Life Is a DreamVol. 26
- p. 7Rosaura and Fife banter in rhyme, joking about singing one's own sorrows, Pegasus, the 'luxury of woe' and the poet's craft.read · scan
John Milton, Poems Written at School and at College, 1624-1632Vol. 4
- p. 23–25Poet reflects on tuning his song to sorrow and on the poem left unfinished as beyond his years.read · scan
- p. 29Poet laments lack of inward ripeness and achievement in his late spring.read · scan
John Milton, Poems Written at Horton, 1632-1638Vol. 4
- p. 72–76Frame closes on the uncouth swain warbling his Doric lay until evening.read · scan
Abraham Cowley, Of AgricultureVol. 27
- p. 68–69Cowley cites Horace and modestly excuses translating and imitating great poets.read · scan
Andrew Marvell, PoemsVol. 40
- p. 372–374The youth must forsake his Muses and singing to take up arms.read · scan
John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's ProgressVol. 15
- p. 5Bunyan tells how his book unexpectedly grew from an allegory begun for his own pleasure, and how he decided to print it despite divided advice.read · scan
- p. 167–169The author sends forth his second book in verse, speaking to it as a messenger.read · scan
Alexander Pope, Solitude; On a Certain Lady at Court; Essay on ManVol. 40
- p. 440The poet thanks his friend and guide for turning his verse from sounds to things, from fancy to the heart, and hopes to be remembered.read · scan
Benjamin Franklin, His AutobiographyVol. 1
- p. 9–10Peter Folger's plain verse declares he hates libelling and signs his name.read · scan
Thomas Gray, PoemsVol. 40
- p. 445–447The poet recounts the artless tale of the dead and imagines his own epitaph.read · scan
Oliver Goldsmith, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 509Elegiac pastoral lament on the deserted village.read · scan
William Blake, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 583–585The piper is bidden to write his happy songs in a book so every child may hear them.read · scan
Robert Burns, Poems and SongsVol. 6
- p. 27–28Mocks himself as a poet dressed braw.read · scan
- p. 52–54The poet says his muse can scarcely spread her wing and sends rhyming ware.read · scan
- p. 65–66Poet sits by winter fire spinning rhyme in homely western jingle to pass the time.read · scan
- p. 78–80Burns tells Lapraik how a song stirred him and how he fell to rhyming early, rude and rough.read · scan
- p. 82–84Burns, weary from labor, is prodded by conscience to write a reply to Lapraik, in rhyme or prose.read · scan
- p. 85–87Burns modestly disclaims a place beside Fergusson and other Scots poets; rustic reed gives him ease.read · scan
- p. 91–94Robin lashes cares away with rhyme and song; the poet's self-portrait.read · scan
- p. 102–104Burns says whisky stills and brewster wives are his muses, not heathen ones.read · scan
- p. 104–106Bard wishes for Pope's satire to expose rascals; his muse fears anathema.read · scan
- p. 106–108Rhyme is Burns's chief pleasure and treasure; the muse never leaves a man, however poor; bards are thoughtless but happy.read · scan
- p. 118–120Poem's humane address to a creature shows the poet's sympathy.read · scan
- p. 128–130The bard compares himself to Homer, a wandering ballad-singer, and says the muse suggested his song.read · scan
- p. 130–132Homer as oldest ballad-singer; Burns claims drink as his Helicon rather than Castalia.read · scan
- p. 143–145Poet invokes Scotch drink as his muse, rejecting other poets' Bacchus and vines.read · scan
- p. 145–147Whisky inspires the poet's verses, which would be tuneless without it.read · scan
- p. 166–168Burns explains why he rhymes: for fun, not for cash or fame, and doubts lasting renown.read · scan
- p. 168–170He prays only for a constant supply of rhymes and real wit, content with scanty meal.read · scan
- p. 171–173Burns rhymes away against misfortune, laments youth wasted stringing rhymes, and is visited by the Scottish Muse.read · scan
- p. 180–181Holly crown of the rustic muse contrasted with the laurelled classic Nine.read · scan
- p. 192–194The simple bard is compared to the crushed daisy, unskilled in prudent lore.read · scan
- p. 215–217The Muse was all the departing bard took pride inread · scan
- p. 224–226The lowly bard sings of love and procreation rather than heroes and wars.read · scan
- p. 226–228Poet's birthday hopes for future rhymes; mounting Pegasus up Parnassus; the Muse gives a friend his due.read · scan
- p. 232–233The unknown poor bard, inspired by whim or care, wanders and narrates.read · scan
- p. 240–242Rhymer Robin narrates his meeting; a prayer from the Muse.read · scan
- p. 246–248Rhyming epistle in which the poet calls himself Sir Bard and modestly disparages his rhymes.read · scan
- p. 274–276The muses will sing the dead patriot; the poet mocks classical inspiration, preferring Edinburgh's rhyme-inspiring lasses.read · scan
- p. 305–307Poet excuses lack of an epistle, unable to rhyme amid gloom and peat smoke.read · scan
- p. 339–341Ploughman poet submits his verse to a newspaper among the favourites of the Muses.read · scan
- p. 353–354Burns pictures himself as poet whose muse, though a tipsy gipsy, calls the clergy no worse than they are.read · scan
- p. 354–356He calls on no fabled Muse, a bard who feigns, but speaks plain heartfelt gratitude.read · scan
- p. 365–367Epistle to a friend: Burns jokes about Parnassian muses disdaining him as an exciseman and about his silly rhyme.read · scan
- p. 377–379Poet jokingly mounts Pegasus to ride, choosing where his verse may go without offence.read · scan
- p. 384–386Poet calls on nature to join his wailing numbers, contrasting former canty strains with tales of woe.read · scan
- p. 545–547Sickness leaves the poet little heart to climb Parnassus.read · scan
William Wordsworth, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 614–615The poet tells the homely tale for natural hearts and for youthful poets who will succeed him.read · scan
James Hogg, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 763The singer admits his voice and harp would fail to tell sights surpassing nature's law.read · scan
John Henry Newman, The Idea of a UniversityVol. 28
- p. 46–47Lipsius breaks into verse hailing Louvain as the Athens of Belgium.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, WorshipVol. 5
- p. 273–274Emerson speaks of his own writing, dipping his pen in blackest ink without fear.read · scan
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1273–1275The speaker asks for humble, heartfelt poets rather than grand masters to soothe care like a benedictionread · scan
Charles Kingsley, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1062Complains of odes to every zephyr but no verse to the North-easter.read · scan
Walter Bagehot, John MiltonVol. 28
- p. 172–173Milton recounts reading the elegiac poets and resolving how he would judge and choose subjects for his own verse.read · scan
William Morris, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1192–1193The poet calls himself the idle singer of an empty day, unable to console but singing remembered names.read · scan
- p. 1193–1195Morris calls himself an idle singer, dreamer born out of due time, whose rhyme tells an escapist tale of an earthly paradise.read · scan
‹ 10 · Outline