John Dryden
John Dryden
John Drydenwas an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who was made England's first Poet Laureate in 1668...
heart numbers grows
Courage from hearts and not from numbers grows.
women hunting design
And that one hunting, which the Devil design'd For one fair female, lost him half the kind.
sweet flower sun
All flowers will droop in the absence of the sun that waked their sweets.
imagination might shut-up
Imagination in a poet is a faculty so wild and lawless that, like a high ranging spaniel, it must have clogs tied to it, lest it outrun the judgment. The great easiness of blank verse renders the poet too luxuriant. He is tempted to say many things which might better be omitted, or, at least shut up in fewer words.
memories reading insolent
I am reading Jonson's verses to the memory of Shakespeare; an insolent, sparing, and invidious panegyric...
foe
As one that neither seeks, nor shuns his foe.
gold glitter appearance
All, as they say, that glitters is not gold.
brave soul treasure
That gloomy outside, like a rusty chest, contains the shoring treasure of a soul resolved and brave.
anger men elephants
The elephant is never won by anger; nor must that man who would reclaim a lion take him by the teeth.
doubt age care
These are the effects of doting age,--vain doubts and idle cares and over caution.
advice firsts ill
They first condemn that first advised the ill.
views ideas causes
When we view elevated ideas of Nature, the result of that view is admiration, which is always the cause of pleasure.
travel home restless
Restless at home, and ever prone to range.
atheist vices triumph
Virtue in distress, and vice in triumph make atheists of mankind.