20 quotes
True beauty dwells in deep retreats,
Whose veil is unremoved
Till heart with heart in concord beats,
And the lover is beloved.
A cheerful life is what the Muses love,
A soaring spirit is their prime delight.
O dearer far than light and life are dear.
The unconquerable pang of despised love.
While all the future, for thy purer soul,
With "sober certainties" of love is blest.
My heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky:
So was it when my life began;
So is it now I am a man;
So be it when I shall grow old,
Or let me die!
The Child is father of the Man;
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.
Lady of the Mere,
Sole-sitting by the shores of old romance.
Lyrical Ballads (1798)
For old, unhappy, far-off things,
And battles long ago.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed (1919)
Through love, through hope, and faith's transcendent dower,
We feel that we are greater than we know.
Delivered from the galling yoke of time.
And you must love him, ere to you
He will seem worthy of your love.
A Poet's Epitaph (1799)
Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower.
But how can he expect that others should
Build for him, sow for him, and at his call
Love him, who for himself will take no heed at all?
Resolution and Independence (1807)
He sang of love, with quiet blending,
Slow to begin, and never ending;
Of serious faith, and inward glee;
That was the song,—the song for me!
Thou unassuming Common-place
Of Nature, with that homely face,
And yet with something of a grace,
Which Love makes for thee!
A Briton even in love should be
A subject, not a slave!
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed (1919)
I travelled among unknown men,
In lands beyond the sea;
Nor, England! did I know till then
What love I bore to thee.
For mightier far
Than strength of nerve or sinew, or the sway
Of magic potent over sun and star,
Is love, though oft to agony distrest,
And though his favourite be feeble woman's breast.
She dwelt among the untrodden ways
Beside the springs of Dove,
A maid whom there were none to praise
And very few to love
Lyrical Ballads (1798)
Why do not words, and kiss, and solemn pledge,
And nature that is kind in woman's breast,
And reason that in man is wise and good,
And fear of Him who is a righteous Judge,—
Why do not these prevail for human life,
To keep two hearts together, that began
Their spring-time with one love.