Begin when the slow waggoner descends,
Nor cease your sowing till midwinter ends.
John Dryden Quotes
1631–1700 England
John Dryden (19 August [O.S. 9 August] 1631 – 12 May [O.S. 1 May] 1700) was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who in 1668 was appointed England's first Poet Laureate.
- England
- Essayists
- Playwrights
- Poets
- Translators
Also known as: Dryden
537 quotes
For flax and oats will burn the tender field,
And sleepy poppies harmful harvests yield.
Disputed Poetical Quotations from Chaucer to Tennyson (1880)
But various are the ways to change the state,
To plant, to bud, to graft, to inoculate.
Disputed Poetical Quotations from Chaucer to Tennyson (1880)
Suffering not the yellow beards to rear,
He tramples down the spikes, and intercepts the ear.
Disputed Poetical Quotations from Chaucer to Tennyson (1880)
Their morning milk the peasants press at night;
Their evening milk before the rising light.
Disputed Poetical Quotations from Chaucer to Tennyson (1880)
The peaceful peasant to the wars is prest,
The fields lie fallow in inglorious rest.
Disputed Poetical Quotations from Chaucer to Tennyson (1880)
Your farm requites your pains,
Though rushes overspread the neighb’ring plains.
Disputed Poetical Quotations from Chaucer to Tennyson (1880)
Rocks lie cover’d with eternal snow;
Thin herbage in the plains, and fruitless fields.
Disputed Poetical Quotations from Chaucer to Tennyson (1880)
T’ unload the branches, or the leaves to thin
That suck the vital moisture of the vine.
Disputed Poetical Quotations from Chaucer to Tennyson (1880)
In vain the barns expect their promised load;
Nor barns at home, nor ricks are heap’d abroad.
Disputed Poetical Quotations from Chaucer to Tennyson (1880)
Disputed Poetical Quotations from Chaucer to Tennyson (1880)
Be mindful
With iron teeth of rakes and prongs to move
The crusted earth.
Disputed Poetical Quotations from Chaucer to Tennyson (1880)
Let thy hand supply the pruning-knife,
And crop luxuriant stragglers.
Disputed Poetical Quotations from Chaucer to Tennyson (1880)
Here the marshy grounds approach your fields,
And there the soil a stony harvest yields.
Disputed Poetical Quotations from Chaucer to Tennyson (1880)
While the reaper fills his greedy hands,
And binds the golden sheaves in brittle bands.
Disputed Poetical Quotations from Chaucer to Tennyson (1880)
Some through ambition, or through thirst of gold,
Have slain their brothers, and their country sold.
Disputed Poetical Quotations from Chaucer to Tennyson (1880)
Those who to empire by dark paths aspire,
Still plead a call to what they most desire.
Disputed Poetical Quotations from Chaucer to Tennyson (1880)
Disputed Poetical Quotations from Chaucer to Tennyson (1880)
Why does Antony dream out his hours,
And tempts not fortune for a noble day?
Disputed Poetical Quotations from Chaucer to Tennyson (1880)
Disputed Poetical Quotations from Chaucer to Tennyson (1880)
Attribution
Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: John Dryden (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.