The Art of Literary Study: An Approach to Literature for the Plain Man |
Common terms and phrases
action actor actual appear argument artist blank verse Browning's cloth gilt comedy Comedy of Manners completely conflict course criticism crown 8vo demy 8vo depict drama dramatic lyrics dramatist elements English epic Essay experience expressive capacity expressive power fact feeling Gentlemen of Verona give Hence hero human ideal illustrations incidents individual instance Keats Lawrence lines literary literature living lyric marble means Merchant of Venice merely metre mind modern stage narrative nature novel novelist object obviously ordinary ourselves particular passion Perhaps person picture PITMAN PRESS play poem poet poetic poetry present prose raw material reader realistic realized represent rhyme rhythm rhythmic Richard III romantic scene seek seen sense sentiment Shakespeare Shelley Shylock simile social Solitary Reaper sonnet sort sound speaker spirit stagecraft stanza story style syllables tale taste tell things tragedy universe virtue voice wants whole words Wordsworth
Popular passages
Page 193 - Poets are the hierophants of an unapprehended inspiration; the mirrors of the gigantic shadows which futurity casts upon the present; the words which express what they understand not; the trumpets which sing to battle, and feel not what they inspire; the influence which is moved not, but moves. Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.
Page 11 - While he from forth the closet brought a heap Of candied apple, quince, and plum, and gourd; With jellies soother than the creamy curd, And lucent syrops, tinct with cinnamon; Manna and dates, in argosy transferr'd From Fez; and spiced dainties, every one, From silken Samarcand to cedar'd Lebanon.
Page 77 - He scarce had ceased when the superior Fiend Was moving toward the shore, his ponderous shield, Ethereal temper, massy, large, and round, Behind him cast. The broad circumference Hung on his shoulders like the moon, whose orb Through optic glass the Tuscan artist views At evening, from the top of Fesole, Or in Valdarno, to descry new lands, 290 Rivers or mountains in her spotty globe.
Page 26 - The year's at the spring And day's at the morn; Morning's at seven; The hill-side's dew-pearled; The lark's on the wing; The snail's on the thorn: God's in his heaven — All's right with the world!
Page 39 - On gray paper with blunt type ! Simply glance at it, you grovel Hand and foot in Belial's gripe : If I double down its pages At the woeful sixteenth print...
Page 22 - MUCH have I travell'd in the realms of gold, And many goodly states and kingdoms seen ; Round many western islands have I been Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold. Oft of one wide expanse had I been told That deep-brow'd Homer ruled as his demesne ; Yet did I never breathe its pure serene Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold : Then felt I like some watcher of the skies When a new planet swims into his ken ; Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes He...
Page 2 - I'm glad of it with all my heart; I had rather be a kitten, and cry — mew, Than one of these same metre ballad-mongers...
Page 23 - Homer ruled as his demesne; Yet did I never breathe its pure serene Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold: Then felt I like some watcher of the skies When a new planet swims into his ken; Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes He stared at the Pacific— and all his men Looked at each other with a wild surmise— Silent, upon a peak in Darien.
Page 33 - Wise talk of the kind of weather, Sort of season, time of year: Not a plenteous cork-crop: scarcely Dare we hope oak-galls, I doubt: What's the Latin name for "parsley"?
Page 13 - For them no more the blazing hearth shall burn. Or busy housewife ply her evening care; No children run to lisp their sire's return, Or climb his knees the envied kiss to share.