502 quotes
While rocking winds are piping loud.
Il Penseroso (1631)
Awake, arise, or be forever fall'n!
Now conscience wakes despair
That slumber'd, wakes the bitter memory
Of what he was, what is, and what must be
Worse; of worse deeds worse sufferings must ensue!
While the bee with honied thigh,
That at her flowery work doth sing,
And the waters murmuring
With such a consort as they keep,
Entice the dewy-feather'd sleep.
Il Penseroso (1631)
Danger will wink on opportunity.
Comus (1637)
Confusion heard his voice, and wild uproar
Stood ruled, stood vast infinitude confined;
Till at his second bidding darkness fled,
Light shone, and order from disorder sprung.
Shepherd, I take thy word,
And trust thy honest offer'd courtesy,
Which oft is sooner found in lowly sheds
With smoky rafters, than in tap'stry halls,
And courts of princes.
Comus (1637)
For other things mild Heav'n a time ordains,
And disapproves that care, though wise in show,
That with superfluous burden loads the day,
And, when God sends a cheerful hour, refrains.
Fame, if not double fac'd, is double mouth'd,
And with contrary blast proclaims most deeds;
On both his wings, one black, the other white,
Bears greatest names in his wild aery flight.
Samson Agonistes (1671)
Who best
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best: his state
Is kingly; thousands at his bidding speed,
And post o'er land and ocean without rest;
They also serve who only stand and wait.
If weakness may excuse,
What murderer, what traitor, parricide,
Incestuous, sacrilegious, but may plead it?
All wickedness is weakness; that plea, therefore,
With God or man will gain thee no remission.
Samson Agonistes (1671)
But oh! as to embrace me she inclined,
I waked, she fled, and day brought back my night.
On His Deceased Wife (1658)
But O! as to embrace me she inclin'd,
I wak'd, she fled, and day brought back my night.
On His Deceased Wife (1658)
Blind mouths! That scarce themselves know how to hold
A sheep-hook.
Lycidas (1637)
Here may we reign secure, and in my choice
To reign is worth ambition, though in Hell.
Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven.
And the jocund rebecks sound
To many a youth, and many a maid,
Dancing in the checkered shade.
And young and old come forth to play
On a sunshine holiday.
L'Allegro (1631)
Awake,
My fairest, my espous'd, my latest found,
Heaven's last best gift, my ever new delight!
He touch'd the tender stops of various quills,
With eager thought warbling his Doric lay.
Lycidas (1637)
At last he rose, and twitched his mantle blue:
Tomorrow to fresh woods and pastures new.
Lycidas (1637)
Methought I saw my late espousèd saint
Brought to me like Alcestis from the grave.
On His Deceased Wife (1658)