DOCSLIB.ORG

Letter and Spirit: the Devotional Poetry and Prose of Christina Rossetti

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Letter and Spirit: the Devotional Poetry and Prose of Christina Rossetti Letter and Spirit: The Devotional Poetry and Prose of Christina Rossetti For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. 1 Corinthians 13:12 Dinah Roe University College London, PhD, 2003 ProQuest Number: 10015827 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest. ProQuest 10015827 Published by ProQuest LLC(2016). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 ABSTRACT Tom Paulin recently commented on Christina Rossetti’s devotional poems: ‘Although it is helpful to know the biblical sources of these lines, I do not think that they, and indeed most of Rossetti’s poetry, are helped by that knowledge’. Despite advances made by feminist critics in the rediscovery and rehabilitation of Rossetti, there remains a critical reluctance to address the role of religion, and specifically of her reading of the bible, in the career of this famously devout poet. The purpose of my project is to demonstrate the effects of religious reading (both the reading of religious texts, and the religious reading of texts) to Rossetti’s poetry and thought. My thesis suggests that Rossetti’s lifelong practice of religious reading significantly affected her own writing, and the way she responded to the literary and aesthetic movements with which she came into contact - notably Romanticism, Pre-Raphaelitism, and the Tractarian movement, all of them the subject of chapters in my thesis. I also discuss her relationship with Dante as poet and precursor, and the questions his work raised for her of translation, allusion, and the relevance of poetry both to contemporary life and to God. The thesis places strong emphasis on Rossetti’s devotional prose as an intrinsic part of her achievement as a writer. Works such as Time Flies, Letter and Spirit, and The Face of the Deep combine biblical exegesis and autobiography in an attempt to make sense of the complex relationship of God to man and nature, and as a way of negotiating the equally complex task of representing their relationship in language. In both prose and poetry, Rossetti invites her reader to engage with a sophisticated network of biblical allusion, in which Christian doctrine is re-thought and sometimes re-forged. Unless we take this invitation seriously, the thesis argues, we will not take the true measure of Rossetti. Contents Abstract..................................................................................................................................... ii Contents...............................................................................................................................iii-iv Acknowledgements.................................................................................................................. v Preface............................................................................................................................... vi-xiii Note on Texts.................................................................................................................. xiv-xvi 1. Ont of Sight, In Mind’: The Tractarian Influence.................................................1-36 2. Decayed Branches from a Strong Stem’: Rossetti’s Keatsian Heritage.......................................................................................... 37-81 Rossetti’s ‘Amor Mundi ’ and Keats's ‘Where be ye going, you Devon maid?’ ............................................................37-42 Pre-Raphaelite and Romantic Tensions in Rossetti’s Early Poetry .............................42-69 Rossetti and Melancholy.................................................................................................. 69-81 3. ‘Great Love and Long Study’: Dante, Petrarch, and Manna Innominata..................................................................82-143 History of Rossetti family and Dante ............................................................................ 82-84 ‘Romantic’ and ‘Victorian’ Dante ..................................................................................84-93 Christina Rossetti and Beatrice....................................................................................93-101 Monna Innominata: The Preface................................................................................101-106 Monna Innominata: The Poem...................................................................................106-143 4. A Courteous Tilt in the Strong-Minded Woman Lists’: Rossetti, St. Paul, and Women..................................................................................144-200 Critical Survey ......................................................................................................... 144-156 Rossetti and St. Paul ................................................................................................ 156-165 Rossetti and Female Suffrage ..................................................................................165-170 Imagination and Responsibility ..............................................................................170-174 Rossetti and Eve ........................................................................................................174-184 Rossetti and Old Testament Women ....................................................................... 184-200 5. Spiritual Autobiography inTime Flies: A Reading Diary............................... 201-241 The Conflict Between Religious Authority and Spiritual Humility ..................... 205-215 Reconciling Artistic and Spiritual Responsibility ................................................. 215-229 Typology ...................................................................................................................229-23 8 Time and Eternity .................................................................................................... 238-241 6. Pattern and Textbook: Earth and Heaven inThe Face of the Deep............................................................242-274 Concluding Remarks..................................................................................................275-276 Works Consulted........................................................................................................ 277-288 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My gratitude is owed, first and foremost, to my parents, without whose example I never would have dared to attempt this project. Their continued emotional and financial support amounts to more than I can ever repay, but I will do my best. I should also thank the newest member of my family, James Kidd, for marrying me in the middle of both of our dissertations. His assistance on the poetry and letters of Keats was invaluable, as were his many intangible contributions to my life, work, and heart. Darren Cohen’s frequent flying visits deserve a mention, as they kept me going, along with our many trips to the BBC. The assistance of Paul Lancaster was much needed and endlessly appreciated, as were his encouragement and company. David Shelley was an incredible source of support from the beginning when I was a stranger to London. He has also given me more free meals during this process than I dare to contemplate, for which he has my undying gratitude. I also value tremendously the consistent help, sound advice, and editorial eagle eye of Danny Karlin. I would also like to thank him for telling me that scholarship is a worthy occupation, and then proving it. The British Library, Senate House Library, and in particular the wondrous London Library, were very generous in allowing me access to the best resources and most helpful staff that London has to offer. The patience and expertise of the staff at the UCL computer helpdesk is also gratefully acknowledged. For their financial assistance, I would like to thank the Graduate Fellowship Committee at Vassar College and the Overseas Research Student Awards Scheme. Thanks is also due to the English Department at UCL for giving me the opportunity to write about Rossetti. PREFACE The critical neglect of Rossetti’s devotional work is attributable to several causes involving both publishing history and critical reception in the century following the poet’s death in 1894. The first, and perhaps the most influential factor, is the lack of availability of her devotional prose works. Without easy access to these works, most readers are denied the opportunity to discover the ways in which Rossetti’s nineteenth-century status as a religious writer and spiritual person affected her view of poetry in general and her poems in particular. Although Rossetti herself collected the poems written for her prose-works in a separate volume {Verses, 1893) there is much to be gained from reading them in context. The ideology and aesthetics of these poems are often explained and contextualized by the prose passages following or preceding them, in which Rossetti tries to work out the complex relationships between God, nature, mankind, and art. Through the movement between prose and poetry, we catch a glimpse of the
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Poet Andrew Motion, Interviewed at National Portrait Gallery, London, 14 March 2014
    Picture the Poet – Fusion Digital Gallery audio transcript: Poet Andrew Motion, interviewed at National Portrait Gallery, London, 14 March 2014 For me, poems begin with a sense of, well, I think it is a sort of musical ache if that means anything to anybody else; it's a preverbal back-of-the-mind unlit part of the mind yearning to complete something. Robert Frost very beautifully says ‘a poem begins with a lump in the throat, a love sickness, a homesickness’. That has always meant a lot to me, that remark, partly because it catches the distress often involved in writing, lovesickness and homesickness being horrible things, but also because it allows us to think a little bit about preverbalness; a lump in the throat is not quite a verbalised thing yet. So, far back in my mind, I have a feeling of wanting to complete something that is unfinished, to satisfy something which is already disappointed, to complete the circle in some way; but what idea that might have to do with at that point, I really don’t know. And I then drag it to the slightly better-lit front of my mind, and in that process words, what we call ideas, concepts, phrases, allusions, references, bits of childhood etc. etc., all start to stick to it; so it becomes something that is recognisable as a poem. Writing poems for me, and I guess for most people, is a strange businesses of getting the side of your mind that knows what it's doing, that is calculating, that might go to a place to get inspiration, with the side of your mind that really doesn't know what it's up to at all; that is the expression of your ‘un’ or ‘sub’ conscious.
    [Show full text]
  • Professor Sir Andrew Motion
    Impact case study (REF3b) Institution: Royal Holloway, University of London Unit of Assessment: English Title of case study: Literature in Public Life: Professor Sir Andrew Motion. 1. Summary of the impact (indicative maximum 100 words) Professor Sir Andrew Motion works at the heart of the poetry sector in the UK and speaks for it at all levels of public discourse. His research into poetry through criticism and practice, and his tireless public engagement, lead to impacts on a wide range of users in cultural life and education, civil society, public discourses and public services. These are achieved through such positions as Director and Co-Founder of The Poetry Archive (since 2003) Chair of Arts Council Review Group (2009) Director of Poetry by Heart (from 2012). Widespread benefits are felt through the creation and identification of cultural capital influence on education and public policy (2008-13). 2. Underpinning research (indicative maximum 500 words) Professor Motion was appointed Professor of Creative Writing (0.5 FTE) in the English Department at Royal Holloway in 2003. He was already established in the Laureateship, occupying this high office in public life to serve Queen and Commonwealth, engaged in revitalizing the traditions of the role established by such figures as Wordsworth, Tennyson, Betjeman and Hughes. His writing continued to mark not simply Royal occasions, but also encompassed many commissions from Charities seeking his voice to promote their causes in verse. Beyond his work as poet and novelist, he is an influential biographer, editor, and literary critic, specializing in Romantic, twentieth-century and contemporary literature. These are all areas of activity which he has maintained since his appointment at Royal Holloway and since stepping down as Laureate (2009).
    [Show full text]
  • Andrew Motion's "Love in a Life"
    W&M ScholarWorks Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects 1993 "Such Closets to Search": Andrew Motion's "Love in a Life" Lisa Marie Haarlander College of William & Mary - Arts & Sciences Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Haarlander, Lisa Marie, ""Such Closets to Search": Andrew Motion's "Love in a Life"" (1993). Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects. Paper 1539625825. https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.21220/s2-8sd0-2t31 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects at W&M ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects by an authorized administrator of W&M ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. “SUCH CLOSETS TO SEARCH”: ANDREW MOTION’S LOVE IN A LIFE A Thesis Presented to The Faculty of the Department of English The College of William and Mary in Virginia In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts by Lisa Haarlander 1993 APPROVAL SHEET This thesis is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS Lj/sa Marie Haarlander Approved, July 1993 Henry Hart, Chair Willis, Jr. Thomas Heacox For those without whose enduring faith this may not have been ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The writer wishes to express her thanks to Professor Henry Hart for his encouragement and guidance in this venture. The author is also indebted to Professor J. H. Willis, Jr. and Professor Thomas Heacox for their thoughtful readings of both the thesis and the poems, and for their insightful comments.
    [Show full text]
  • U DP207 Correspondence Between Philip Larkin 1978-1985 and Andrew Motion
    Hull History Centre: Correspondence between Philip Larkin and Andrew Motion U DP207 Correspondence between Philip Larkin 1978-1985 and Andrew Motion Biographical Background: Andrew Motion was born in 1952, the son of Andrew Richard Motion and Catherine Gillian Motion. He graduated from University College, Oxford in 1974. Between 1977 and 1981 he worked as a lecturer in English at Hull University. His first collection of poems The Pleasure Steamers was published by Carcanet in 1978. He returned to Oxford as editor of Poetry Review 1981 to 1983, and worked as editorial director at Chatto & Windus from 1983 to 1989. He has published many collections of poems, novels and criticism and is currently Professor of Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia. He has also published Independence (1981); Secret Narratives (1983); Dangerous Plays: Poems 1974 - 1984 (1984); Natural Causes (1987) and Love in a Life (1991). He is the author of two critical books The Poetry of Edward Thomas (1980) and Philip Larkin (1982); novels, including the Pale Companion (1989) and biographies of The Lamberts: George Constant and Kit (1986) and Philip Larkin: a writer's life (1993). Andrew Motion married Joanna Jane Powell in 1973 and Janet Elizabeth Dalley in 1985. He has two sons Custodial history: Purchased from Professor Andrew Motion, 2 December 2002 Description: Comprises mostly continuous correspondence discussing both of their poetry, work and personal affairs. Arrangement: U DP207/1 - 36 Larkin to Motion U DP207/37 - 78 Motion to Larkin Extent: 105 items Related material: U DP165 Papers of Andrew Motion U DPL Papers of Philip Larkin Related material in other repositories: John Rylands Library (Manchester); National Sound Archives; Bodleian Library (Oxford); King's College (Cambridge); Eton School Library Access conditions: Access will be granted to any accredited reader page 1 of 12 Hull History Centre: Correspondence between Philip Larkin and Andrew Motion U DP207/1 Memorandum.
    [Show full text]
  • THE COLLECTED POEMS of HENRIK IBSEN Translated by John Northam
    1 THE COLLECTED POEMS OF HENRIK IBSEN Translated by John Northam 2 PREFACE With the exception of a relatively small number of pieces, Ibsen’s copious output as a poet has been little regarded, even in Norway. The English-reading public has been denied access to the whole corpus. That is regrettable, because in it can be traced interesting developments, in style, material and ideas related to the later prose works, and there are several poems, witty, moving, thought provoking, that are attractive in their own right. The earliest poems, written in Grimstad, where Ibsen worked as an assistant to the local apothecary, are what one would expect of a novice. Resignation, Doubt and Hope, Moonlight Voyage on the Sea are, as their titles suggest, exercises in the conventional, introverted melancholy of the unrecognised young poet. Moonlight Mood, To the Star express a yearning for the typically ethereal, unattainable beloved. In The Giant Oak and To Hungary Ibsen exhorts Norway and Hungary to resist the actual and immediate threat of Prussian aggression, but does so in the entirely conventional imagery of the heroic Viking past. From early on, however, signs begin to appear of a more personal and immediate engagement with real life. There is, for instance, a telling juxtaposition of two poems, each of them inspired by a female visitation. It is Over is undeviatingly an exercise in romantic glamour: the poet, wandering by moonlight mid the ruins of a great palace, is visited by the wraith of the noble lady once its occupant; whereupon the ruins are restored to their old splendour.
    [Show full text]
  • From the Editor Philip L
    Moebius Volume 1 Article 4 Issue 2 Privacy 4-1-2003 From the Editor Philip L. Fetzer California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/moebius Recommended Citation Fetzer, Philip L. (2003) "From the Editor," Moebius: Vol. 1: Iss. 2, Article 4. Available at: http://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/moebius/vol1/iss2/4 This Editorial Note is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Liberal Arts at DigitalCommons@CalPoly. It has been accepted for inclusion in Moebius by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@CalPoly. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Fetzer: From the Editor From the Editor We chose “privacy” as the theme for our spring issue because of its inherent importance to all people. In the early part of the 21st Century, the issue of pri­ vacy has taken on many forms. For example, how do we distinguish between what is “private” and what is “public”? Many of us appear to make no distinction whatsoever. We talk on cell phones while walking in a crowd. We make financial transactions on sidewalks. We “tell all” about virtually anything on television and radio. Among the subjects we discuss in this issue are the ways in which privacy issues affect many of our most important institutions: the media, our libraries, and the federal government. How is our country responding to the new chal­ lenges to privacy that have arisen since the attacks of September 11, 2001? How has the media responded to the changes in laws affecting privacy? What new reg­ ulations apply to library usage? What are our students’ perceptions of privacy as they experience dorm life? At the same, we are publishing this issue during a time of war.
    [Show full text]
  • Anthology of Named Poems and Study Guide
    AS (Paper 1) and A Level (Paper 3) English Literature Anthology of Named Poems and Study Guide Please note that biographical detail is included for information purposes only, to support you with your knowledge and possible further reading on each poet. There is no expectation that you would refer to any such materials in your assessment at either AS or A level. Contents Page in this Page in Poem Poet booklet Anthology Eat Me Patience Agbabi 3 3 Chainsaw Versus the Pampas Simon Armitage 7 6 Grass Material Ros Barber 11 10 Inheritance Eavan Boland 17 22 A Leisure Centre is Also a Sue Boyle 21 23 Temple of Learning History John Burnside 25 25 The War Correspondent Ciaran Carson 30 29 An Easy Passage Julia Copus 36 37 The Deliverer Tishani Doshi 41 43 The Map Woman Carol Ann Duffy 46 47 The Lammas Hireling Ian Duhig 53 51 To My Nine-Year-Old Self Helen Dunmore 58 52 A Minor Role U A Fanthorpe 62 57 The Gun Vicki Feaver 66 62 The Furthest Distances I’ve Leontia Flynn 70 64 Travelled Giuseppe Roderick Ford 74 66 Out of the Bag Seamus Heaney 78 81 Effects Alan Jenkins 85 92 The Fox in the National Robert Minhinnick 90 121 Museum of Wales Genetics Sinéad Morrissey 95 125 From the Journal of a Andrew Motion 99 127 Disappointed Man Look We Have Coming to Daljit Nagra 104 129 Dover! Fantasia on a Theme of James Sean O’Brien 108 130 Wright Please Hold Ciaran O’Driscoll 112 132 You, Shiva, and My Mum Ruth Padel 117 140 Song George Szirtes 122 168 On Her Blindness Adam Thorpe 126 170 Ode on a Grayson Perry Urn Tim Turnbull 131 172 Sample Assessment Questions 137 Sample Planning Diagrams 138 Assessment Grid 143 2 Patience Agbabi, ‘Eat Me’ Biography Patience Agbabi (b.
    [Show full text]
  • Poet Laureate Simon Armitage Receives First Bottles of His Own Specially Labelled Sherry
    Press Release: Immediate July 2020 Page 1 of 3 Poet Laureate Simon Armitage Receives first bottles of his own specially labelled Sherry. The Sherry producers of Jerez in Spain were delighted when Simon Armitage visited Jerez to choose his gift of Sherry and sign the barrel. The wine has now been delivered to him. On receiving the Sherry, Simon Armitage responded: “After the inevitable delay given current circumstances, I’m excited these special bottles have now arrived. I hope to put them to good use - as gifts and prizes to raise money in the name of poetry – now needed more than ever before. My wife drew the image of the cuckoo on the front label - the bird has a folklore connection with the village of Marsden where I grew up and where so many of my poems are rooted. My dialect poem “The Phoenix” appears on the reverse of the label and tells a version of the Marsden cuckoo story. There’s an annual Cuckoo Festival in the village - perhaps some sherry will be involved in forthcoming years and become part of the tradition itself!” Consejo Regulador de las Denominaciones de Origen “Jerez-Xérès-Sherry”, “Manzanilla-Sanlúcar de Barramdea” y “Vinagre de Jerez” Avda. Álvaro Domecq nº 2. 11405 Jerez de la Frontera (Cádiz). Tfno. 956 332 050 Fax 956 338 908 E-mail [email protected] Press Release: Immediate July 2020 Page 2 of 3 Poet Laureate Simon Armitage receives first bottles of his own specially labelled Sherry Notes: The Consejo Regulador de los Vinos de Jerez y Manzanilla (CRDO) is the regulating body of the Sherry industry representing all the interests concerned, whether they be growers, producers or exporters.
    [Show full text]
  • Ledbury Poetry Festival 2019 Annual Report
    1 2 Chair’s Report The 2019 Festival, celebrating its twenty second anniversary, was as vibrant, engaging and accessible as ever. Audiences were able to uncover genuine surprises as well as to experience well-established poets and writers like Margaret Atwood, Ali Smith, Roger McGough, Carol Ann Duffy, Andrew Motion and the new Poet Laureate, Simon Armitage. We would like to thank our many volunteers, our funders and sponsors, our schools and all our supporters for making the Festival what it is. We are particularly proud of our growing international links, our closer co-operation with small publishers and our developing and potential working partnerships. On a practical note, we are very pleased with growing ticket sales, which increased substantially. We are also very fortunate in our Board, and we are particularly pleased that the Festival will now have the skills and energy of a new trustee, Sandeep Parmar. Our staff too continue to work to the highest calibre, and we feel confident about the future and look forward to further promoting the enjoyment in the art of poetry by working with poets, sponsors and audiences locally, nationally and internationally. As the permanent sign at the railway station confirms: “Ledbury - Junction for Poetry”. Peter Arscott Artistic Director’s Report The 2019 Festival flexed its cultural might with an offering of 60 ticketed events, 24 free events, 4 exhibitions and 2 writing trails. High profile events included two exclusive appearances from Canada’s most respected living poet and writer Margaret Atwood, who also visited pupils at local John Masefield High School.
    [Show full text]
  • Carol Ann Duffy's Postmodern Satire
    MIXING GENRES AND GENDERS: CAROL ANN DUFFY’S POSTMODERN SATIRE: THE WORLD’S 1 WIFE Pilar Abad University of Valladolid INTRODUCTION The editors of the 1993 anthology entitled The New Poetry define the latter as a kind of poetry “… that is fresh in its attitudes, risk-taking in its address, and plural in its forms and voices…” (Hulse, Kennedy & Morley 1993:16). Most of this poetry is written by poets who, at the time, were officially appointed as New Gen Poets,2 and seven years later (2001) are considered solid assets,3 an appreciation which comes down to our day. Some of them were eight women- poets whose poetry has been summed up as “… moving, entertaining, technically innovative, often brilliant…”(Dunmore 1995) and among them is the one who will be the focus of attention in this exposé: Carol Ann Duffy (1955-). I have chosen Carol Ann Duffy as my subject as, undoubtedly, today’s most widely acclaimed mainstream British woman-poet: “… The figurehead of New Generation … Carol Ann has vindicated the faith people had in her then by becoming an indisputable popular poet alongside Heaney. The poet’s poet in 1994, she is quite clearly now the People’s (poet)…” (Forbes 2001:22). In 1999 she was candidate for the Laureate Poet’s throne (after Heaney’s resignation) and undeservedly relegated (in favour of Andrew Motion) mainly for political 1 Conferencia pronunciada en el XXVIII Congreso internacional AEDEAN. 2 See Longley, “How We Made the New Generation” (1994): 52-53; Forbes, “Talking About the New Generation” (1994): 4-6.
    [Show full text]
  • Philip Larkin Also by James Booth
    Philip Larkin Also by James Booth NEW LARKINS FOR OLD: Critical Essays (ed.) PHILIP LARKIN: Writer SYLLOGE OF COINS OF THE BRITISH ISLES 48: Northern Museums TROUBLE AT WILLOW GABLES AND OTHER FICTIONS by Philip Larkin (ed.) WRITERS AND POLITICS IN NIGERIA Philip Larkin The Poet’s Plight by James Booth © James Booth 2005 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2005 978-1-4039-1834-5 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his rights to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2005 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N. Y. 10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin’s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan® is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-51417-5 ISBN 978-0-230-59582-8 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9780230595828 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources.
    [Show full text]
  • Poems / by Samuel Rogers
    LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORWA RIVERSIDE POEMS BY SAMUEL ROGERS LONDON: PKINTED FOR T. CADELL, STRAND J ANJ) E. MOXON, DOVER-STREET. 1834. J_S5f ! ;; ; ; — Oh could my mind, unfolded in my page, Enlighten climes and mould a future age There as it glowed, with noblest frenzy fraught, Dispense the treasures of exalted thought To Virtue wake the pulses of the heart. And bid the tear of emulation start Oh could it still, thro' each succeeding year, My life, my manners, and my name endear And, when the poet sleeps in silent dust, Still hold communion with the wise and just ! Yet should this Verse, my leisure's best resource. When thro' the world it steals its secret course, Revive but once a generous wish supprest. Chase but a sigh, or charm a care to rest In one good deed a fleeting hour employ. Or flush one faded cheek with honest joy Blest were my lines, tho' limited their sphere, Tho' short their date, as his who traced them here. 1793. CONTENTS. PAGE The Pleasures of Memory 1 Human Life ol An Epistle to a Friend 115 Jacqueline 137 Ode to Superstition 157 Written to be spoken in a Theatre 165 169 On . • asleep From a Greek Epigram 1 70 From Euripides 170 From an Italian Sonnet 171 A Character 171 Captivity 172 A Farewell 1/3 The Sailor 174 To an old Oak 176 To two Sisters 179 On a Tear 180 vm PAGE To a Voice that had been lost 182 The Boy of Egremond 184 Written in a sick Chamber 187 To -.
    [Show full text]