17 quotes
A man cannot command his own motions while he reads this; the very verses are alive; and the reader is transported out of himself.
The art and triumph of poetry are in nothing more seen and felt than in moving the passions.
The Preface to The Aeneis of Virgil (1718)
Poetry itself being the music of thoughts and words, as music is the poetry of sounds.
The Preface to The Aeneis of Virgil (1718)
Aurora, from Tithonus' saffron bed
Now rising, sprinkled over the world with light.
The Aeneis of Virgil, Translated Into Blank Verse (1718)
Of mine the world will and ought to be judge, whatever I say or think, and its judgment in these matters is never erroneous.
The Preface to The Aeneis of Virgil (1718)
Her Amazonian files with lunar shields
Penthesilea leads, and in the midst
Of thousand storms, beneath her naked pap
Her golden belt she buckles, warlike maid,
And, though a virgin, dares engage with men.
The Aeneis of Virgil, Translated Into Blank Verse (1718)
Some beauties are the more so, for not being capable of explanation. I feel it, though I cannot account for it.
The elegance of the page would be diminished by notes.
He who says he values no translation of this or that poem because he understands the original, has indeed no true relish, that is, in effect, no true understanding of either.
The Preface to The Aeneis of Virgil (1718)
Two gates of sleep there are: the one of horn,
Through which with ease the real phantoms pass;
With polished elephant the other shines,
Through which the manes send false dreams to light.
The Aeneis of Virgil, Translated Into Blank Verse (1718)
If Helenus has any skill,
If any faith, and if Apollo right
Inspires his prophet: one thing, goddess-born,
One thing, above the rest, I will advise,
and oft repeat it: with religious prayer
First Juno's deity adore; to her
Pay willing sacrifices, and with vows,
Suppliant, overpower the mighty queen of heaven.
The Aeneis of Virgil, Translated Into Blank Verse (1718)
Confounded with the crowd of various thoughts,
And stiffening with amaze, the hero stood,
In silence deep: within his bosom boils
Disdainful shame, and grief to madness wrought,
And love inflamed with rage, and conscious worth.
The Aeneis of Virgil, Translated Into Blank Verse (1718)
As when, complaining in melodious groans,
Sweet Philomel, beneath a poplar shade,
Mourns her lost young, which some rough village hind
Observing, from their nest, unfledged, has stole:
She weeps all night; and, perched upon a bough,
With plaintive notes repeated fills the grove.
The Works of Virgil: Translated Into English Blank Verse (1731)
When in her turn the moon obscure withdraws
Her light, and setting stars persuade to sleep:
Lonely she pines within the empty court,
Lies on the couch which just before []he left;
Him absent, absent still she hears and sees.
The Works of Virgil: Translated Into English Blank Verse (1731)
However poetry may have been dishonoured by the follies of some and the vices of others, the abuse or corruption of the best things being always the worst, it will notwithstanding be ever regarded, as it ever has been, by the wisest and most judicious of men as the very flower of human thinking, the most exquisite spirit that can be extracted from the wit and learning of mankind.
The Preface to The Aeneis of Virgil (1718)
If some gentlemen are resolved that blank verse shall be prose, they have my free leave to enjoy their saying, provided I may have theirs to think they mean nothing by it, unless they can prove that rhyme is essential to metre; consequently that the Goths and monks were the first inventers of verse, and that Homer and Virgil, as well as Milton, wrote nothing but prose.
The Preface to The Aeneis of Virgil (1718)
The king, observing with judicious eyes
The state of both his universities,
To Oxford sent a troop of horse, and why?
That learned body wanted loyalty;
To Cambridge books, as very well discerning
How much that loyal body wanted learning.
Attributed