John Dryden
John Dryden
John Drydenwas an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who was made England's first Poet Laureate in 1668...
years heaven plot
From plots and treasons Heaven preserve my years, But save me most from my petitioners. Unsatiate as the barren womb or grave; God cannot grant so much as they can crave.
lost mankind altered
Mankind is ever the same, and nothing lost out of nature, though everything is altered.
sex curiosity maids
The poorest of the sex have still an itch To know their fortunes, equal to the rich. The dairy-maid inquires, if she shall take The trusty tailor, and the cook forsake.
silence secret guilt
Secret guilt by silence is betrayed.
taught genius born
Genius must be born, it can't be taught.
wind breaths
The winds are out of breath.
real essence fiction
Fiction is of the essence of poetry as well as of painting; there is a resemblance in one of human bodies, things, and actions which are not real, and in the other of a true story by fiction.
fear sweat water
I feel my sinews slackened with the fright, and a cold sweat trills down all over my limbs, as if I were dissolving into water.
men omnipotence bears
For granting we have sinned, and that the offence Of man is made against Omnipotence, Some price that bears proportion must be paid, And infinite with infinite be weighed.
infinity finite
But how can finite grasp Infinity?
art vices slave
If thou dost still retain the same ill habits, the same follies, too, still thou art bound to vice, and still a slave.
death morning dying
He was exhaled; his great Creator drew His spirit, as the sun the morning dew.
age taste youth
For age but tastes of pleasures youth devours.
love past storm
Calms appear, when Storms are past; Love will have his Hour at last: Nature is my kindly Care; Mars destroys, and I repair; Take me, take me, while you may, Venus comes not ev'ry Day.