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Handy Dictionary of Poetical Quotations

F.

Reading edition

Fabric.

Anon out of the earth a fabric huge

Rose, like an exhalation.

652

MILTON:

Par. Lost,

Bk. i., Line 710.

Face.

Your face, my Thane, is as a book, where men

May read strange matters.

653

SHAKS.:

Macbeth,

Act i., Sc. 5.

The light upon her face

Shines from the windows of another world.

Saints only have such faces.

654

LONGFELLOW:

Michael Angelo,

Pt. ii., 6.

Can't I another's face commend,

And to her virtues be a friend,

But instantly your forehead lowers,

As if

her

merit lessen'd

yours

?

655

MOORE:

The Farmer, the Spaniel, and the Cat,

Fable ix.

Behind a frowning providence

He hides a shining face.

656

COWPER:

Light Shining out of Darkness.

Fair.

Fair is foul, and foul is fair.

657

SHAKS.:

Macbeth,

Act i., Sc. 1.

Exceeding fair she was not; and yet fair

In that she never studied to be fairer

Than Nature made her; beauty cost her nothing,

Her virtues were so rare.

658

GEORGE CHAPMAN:

All Fools,

Act i., Sc. 1.

Fairies.

This is the fairy land; O spite of spites,

We talk with goblins, owls, and elvish sprites.

659

SHAKS.:

Com. of Errors,

Act ii., Sc. 2.

Faith.

If faith produce no works, I see

That faith is not a living tree.

660

HANNAH MORE:

Dan and Jane.

Whose faith, has centre everywhere,

Nor cares to fix itself to form.

661

TENNYSON:

In Memoriam,

Pt. xxxiii., St. 1.

'Tis hers to pluck the amaranthine flower

Of faith, and round the sufferer's temples bind

Wreaths that endure affliction's heaviest shower,

And do not shrink from sorrow's keenest wind.

662

WORDSWORTH:

Weak is the Will of Man.

For modes of faith let graceless zealots fight;

His can't be wrong whose life is in the right.

663

POPE:

Essay on Man,

Epis. iii., Line 303.

Fall.

He that is down, needs fear no fall.

664

BUNYAN:

The Author's Way of Sending forth his

Second Part of the Pilgrim,

Pt. ii.

Falsity.

As false

As air, as water, as wind, as sandy earth;

As fox to lamb; as wolf to heifer's calf;

Pard to the hind, or stepdame to her son.

665

SHAKS.:

Troil. and Cress.,

Act iii., Sc. 2.

Fame.

Let fame, that all hunt after in their lives,

Live register'd upon our brazen tombs.

666

SHAKS.:

Love's L. Lost,

Act i., Sc. 1.

Fame, if not double-faced, is double-mouthed,

And with contrary blast proclaims most deeds:

On both his wings, one black, the other white,

Bears greatest names in his wild aery flight.

667

MILTON:

Samson Agonistes,

Line 971.

What's fame? a fancied life in others' breath,

A thing beyond us, even before our death.

668

POPE:

Essay on Man,

Epis. iv., Line 237.

There was a morning when I longed for fame,

There was a noontide when I passed it by.

There is an evening when I think not shame

Its substance and its being to deny.

669

JEAN INGELOW:

The Star's Monument,

St. 81.

Ah! who can tell how hard it is to climb

The steep where Fame's proud temple shines afar?

670

BEATTIE:

Minstrel,

Bk. i., St. 1.

Or ravish'd with the whistling of a name,

See Cromwell, damn'd to everlasting fame!

671

POPE:

Essay on Man,

Epis. iv., Line 281.

Family.

Birds in their little nest agree;

And 'tis a shameful sight

When children of one family

Fall out, and chide, and fight.

672

WATTS:

Divine Songs,

Song xvii.

Famine.

Famine is in thy cheeks.

673

SHAKS.:

Rom. and Jul.,

Act v., Sc. 1.

Fancy.

Tell me, where is fancy bred;

Or in the heart, or in the head?

How begot, how nourishéd?

Reply, reply.

It is engendered in the eyes,

With gazing fed: and fancy dies

In the cradle where it lies.

674

SHAKS.:

M. of Venice,

Act iii., Sc. 2.

Song.

She's all my fancy painted her;

She's lovely, she's divine.

675

WILLIAM MEE:

Alice Gray.

Farewell.

Farewell! Farewell! Through keen delights

It strikes two hearts, this word of woe.

Through every joy of life it smites,—

Why, sometime they will know.

676

MARY CLEMMER:

Farewell.

Farewell! a word that must be, and hath been:

A sound which makes us linger;—yet—farewell!

677

BYRON:

Ch. Harold,

Canto iv., St. 186.

Fashion.

The fashion wears out more apparel than the man.

678

SHAKS.:

Much Ado,

Act iii., Sc. 3.

Fate.

What fates impose, that men must needs abide;

It boots not to resist both wind and tide.

679

SHAKS.:

3 Henry VI.,

Act iv., Sc. 3.

All human things are subject to decay,

And when fate summons, monarchs must obey.

680

DRYDEN:

MacFlecknoe,

Line 1.

Things are where things are, and, as fate has willed,

So shall they be fulfilled.

681

ROBERT BROWNING:

Agamemnon.

And binding Nature fast in fate,

Left free the human will.

682

POPE:

The Universal Prayer,

St. 3.

For fate has wove the thread of life with pain,

And twins ev'n from the birth are misery and man!

683

POPE:

Odyssey,

Bk. vii., Line 263.

Father.

It is a wise father that knows his own child.

684

SHAKS.:

M. of Venice,

Act ii., Sc. 2.

Father of all! in every age,

In every clime adored,

By saint, by savage, and by sage,

Jehovah, Jove, or Lord.

685

POPE:

The Universal Prayer,

St. 1.

Fault—Faults.

Condemn the fault, and not the actor of it?

686

SHAKS.:

M. for M.,

Act ii., Sc. 2.

Dare to be true: nothing can need a lie;

A fault which needs it most, grows two thereby.

687

HERBERT:

The Church Porch.

In vain my faults ye quote;

I write as others wrote

On Sunium's hight.

688

WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR:

The Last Fruit of an Old Tree,

Epigram cvi.

Favor.

Poor wretches, that depend

On greatness' favor, dream as I have done;

Wake, and find nothing. But, alas, I swerve.

Many dream not to find, neither deserve,

And yet are steep'd in favors.

689

SHAKS.:

Cymbeline,

Act v., Sc. 4.

Fawning.

And crook the pregnant hinges of the knee,

Where thrift may follow fawning.

690

SHAKS.:

Hamlet,

Act iii., Sc. 2.

Fear.

Why, what should be the fear?

I do not set my life at a pin's fee;

And, for my soul, what can it do to that,

Being a thing immortal as itself?

691

SHAKS.:

Hamlet,

Act i., Sc. 4.

Of all base passions fear is most accurs'd.

692

SHAKS.:

1 Henry VI.,

Act v., Sc. 2.

Desponding fear, of feeble fancies full,

Weak and unmanly, loosens ev'ry power.

693

THOMSON:

Seasons, Spring,

Line 286.

The fear o' hell's a hangman's whip

To hand the wretch in order;

But where ye feel your honor grip,

Let that aye be your border.

694

BURNS:

Ep. to a Young Friend.

Feasting.

Blest be those feasts with simple plenty crown'd,

Where all the ruddy family around

Laugh at the jests or pranks that never fail,

Or sigh with pity at some mournful tale.

695

GOLDSMITH:

Traveller,

Line 17.

Swinish gluttony

Ne'er looks to heav'n amidst his gorgeous feast,

But with besotted base ingratitude

Crams, and blasphemes his feeder.

696

MILTON:

Comus,

Line 776.

February.

Come when the rains

Have glazed the snow and clothed the trees with ice,

While the slant sun of February pours

Into the bowers a flood of light.

697

WILLIAM COLLEN BRYANT:

A Winter Piece.

Feeling.

But spite of all the criticising elves,

Those who would make us feel, must feel themselves.

698

CHURCHILL:

Rosciad,

Line 961.

Feet.

Like snails did creep her pretty feet

A little out, and then,

As if they played at bo-peep,

Did soon draw in again.

699

HERRICK:

Aph. Upon Her Feet.

Fellow.

In all thy humors, whether grave or mellow,

Thou 'rt such a touchy, testy, pleasant fellow,

Hast so much wit and mirth and spleen about thee,

There is no living with thee, nor without thee.

700

ADDISON:

Spectator.

No. 68.

Female.

But who is this, what thing of sea or land,—

Female of sex it seems.

701

MILTON:

Samson Agonistes,

Line 710.

Fickleness.

Who o'er the herd would wish to reign,

Fantastic, fickle, fierce, and vain!

Vain as the leaf upon the stream,

And fickle as a changeful dream.

702

SCOTT:

Lady of the Lake,

Canto v., St. 10.

Fiction.

When fiction rises pleasing to the eye,

Men will believe, because they love the lie;

But truth herself, if clouded with a frown,

Must have some solemn proof to pass her down.

703

CHURCHILL:

Epis. to Hogarth,

Line 291.

And truth severe, by fairy fiction drest.

704

GRAY:

The Bard,

Pt. iii., St. 3.

Fidelity.

Master, go on, and I will follow thee

To the last gasp, with truth and loyalty.

705

SHAKS.:

As You Like It,

Act ii., Sc. 3.

To God, thy country, and thy friend be true.

706

HENRY VAUGHAN:

Rules and Lessons,

St. 8.

Fields.

Wept o'er his wounds, or tales of sorrow done,

Shoulder'd his crutch, and show'd how fields were won.

707

GOLDSMITH:

Des. Village.

Fiend.

Like one that on a lonesome road

Doth walk in fear and dread,

And having once turned round walks on,

And turns no more his head,

Because he knows a frightful fiend

Doth close behind him tread.

708

COLERIDGE:

The Ancient Mariner,

Pt. v.

Fighting.

I'll fight, till from my bones my flesh be hack'd.

709

SHAKS.:

Macbeth,

Act v., Sc. 3.

He who fights and runs away,

May live to fight another day;

But he who is in battle slain

Can never rise and fight again.

710

GOLDSMITH:

Art of Poetry.

Fire.

From beds of raging fire to starve in ice

Their soft ethereal warmth, and there to pine,

Immovable, infix'd, and frozen round,

Periods of time; thence hurried back to fire.

711

MILTON:

Par. Lost,

Bk. ii., Line 592.

Firmament.

Now glow'd the firmament

With living sapphires.

712

MILTON:

Par. Lost,

Bk. iv., Line 598.

The spacious firmament on high,

With all the blue ethereal sky,

And spangled heavens, a shining frame,

Their great Original proclaim.

713

ADDISON:

Ode.

Flag.

Flag of the free heart's hope and home!

By angel hands to valor given;

Thy stars have lit the welkin dome,

And all thy hues were born in heaven.

714

JOSEPH RODMAN DRAKE:

The American Flag.

The meteor flag of England

Shall yet terrific burn,

Till danger's troubled night depart,

And the star of peace return.

715

CAMPBELL:

Mariners of England.

Flame.

Glory pursue, and gen'rous shame,

Th' unconquerable mind, and freedom's holy flame.

716

GRAY:

Prog, of Poesy,

Pt. ii., St. 2, Line 10.

The flame that lit the battle's wreck

Shone round him o'er the dead.

717

HEMANS:

Casablanca.

Flattery.

By heav'n I cannot flatter: I do defy

The tongues of soothers; but a braver place

In my heart's love, hath no man than yourself;

Nay, task me to my word; approve me, lord.

718

SHAKS.:

1 Henry IV.,

Act iv., Sc. 1.

'Tis an old maxim in the schools,

That flattery 's the food of fools;

Yet, now and then, your men of wit

Will condescend to take a bit.

719

SWIFT:

Cadenus and Vanessa,

Line 755.

Can honor's voice provoke the silent dust,

Or flatt'ry soothe the dull cold ear of death?

720

GRAY:

Elegy,

St. 11.

Flea.

So, naturalists observe, a flea

Has smaller fleas that on him prey;

And these have smaller still to bite 'em;

And so proceed

ad infinitum.

721

SWIFT:

Poetry, A Rhapsody.

Flesh.

Oh, that this too too solid flesh would melt,

Thaw and resolve itself into a dew!

722

SHAKS.:

Hamlet,

Act v., Sc. 1.

Flirtation.

Never wedding, ever wooing,

Still a love-lorn heart pursuing,

Read you not the wrong you're doing,

In my cheek's pale hue?

All my life with sorrow strewing,

Wed, or cease to woo.

723

CAMPBELL:

Maid's Remonstrance.

Flood.

Darest thou, Cassius, now

Leap in with me into this angry flood,

And swim to yonder point?

724

SHAKS.:

Jul. Cæsar,

Act i., Sc. 2.

Flowers.

The gentle race of flowers

Are lying in their lowly beds.

725

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT:

Death of the Flowers.

Flowers preach to us if we will hear.

726

CHRIS. G. ROSSETTI:

Consider the Lilies of the Field.

In Eastern lands they talk in flowers,

And they tell in a garland their loves and cares;

Each blossom that blooms in their garden bowers

On its leaves a mystic language bears.

727

J.G. PERCIVAL:

Language of the Flowers.

Ye living flowers that skirt the eternal frost.

728

COLERIDGE:

Hymn in the Vale of Chamouni.

Foe.

Give me the avowed, the erect, the manly foe,

Bold I can meet,—perhaps may turn his blow!

But of all plagues, good Heaven, thy wrath can send,

Save, save, oh save me from the

candid friend

!

729

GEORGE CANNING:

New Morality.

Folly.

Fools, to talking ever prone,

Are sure to make their follies known.

730

GAY:

Fables,

Pt. i., Fable 44.

Whether the charmer sinner it, or saint it,

If folly grow romantic, I must paint it.

731

POPE:

Moral Essays,

Epis. ii., Line 15.

Where lives the man that has not tried

How mirth can into folly glide,

And folly into sin!

732

SCOTT:

Bridal of Triermain,

Canto i., St. 21.

When lovely woman stoops to folly,

And finds too late that men betray,

What charm can soothe her melancholy?

What art can wash her guilt away?

733

GOLDSMITH:

The Hermit,

Ch. xxiv.

Fools.

Fools are my theme, let satire be my song.

734

BYRON:

English Bards and Scotch Reviewers,

Line 6.

Since call'd

The Paradise of Fools, to few unknown.

735

MILTON:

Par. Lost,

Bk. iii., Line 495.

And ever since the Conquest have been fools.

736

EARL OF ROCHESTER:

Artemisia in the Town to Chloe in the Country.

For fools rush in where angels fear to tread.

737

POPE:

E. on Criticism,

Pt. iii., Line 66.

Footprints.

Lives of great men all remind us

We can make our lives sublime,

And departing, leave behind us

Footprints on the sands of time.

738

LONGFELLOW:

A Psalm of Life.

Forbearance.

The kindest and the happiest pair

Will find occasion to forbear;

And something, every day they live,

To pity, and perhaps forgive.

739

COWPER:

Mutual Forbearance.

Force.

Who overcomes

By force, hath overcome but half his foe.

740

MILTON:

Par. Lost,

Bk. i., Line 648.

Forest.

Summer or winter, day or night,

The woods are an ever-new delight;

They give us peace, and they make us strong,

Such wonderful balms to them belong:

So, living or dying, I'll take mine ease

Under the trees, under the trees.

741

R.H. STODDARD:

Under the Trees.

This is the forest primeval.

742

LONGFELLOW:

Evangeline,

Introduction.

Forgetfulness.

Not in entire forgetfulness,

And not in utter nakedness,

But trailing clouds of glory, do we come

From God, who is our home.

743

WORDSWORTH:

Intimations of Immortality.

God of our fathers, known of old—

Lord of our far-flung battle line—

Beneath whose awful hand we hold

Dominion over palm and pine—

Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,

Lest we forget—lest we forget.

744

RUDYARD KIPLING:

Recessional.

Forgiveness.

Good nature and good sense must ever join;

To err is human, to forgive divine.

745

POPE:

E. on Criticism,

Pt. ii., Line 324.

They who forgive most shall be most forgiven.

746

BAILEY:

Festus,

Sc.

Home.

Good, to forgive;

Best to forget!

747

ROBERT BROWNING:

La Saisiaz,

Prologue.

Form.

She was a form of life and light

That seen, became a part of sight,

And rose, where'er I turn'd mine eye,

The morning-star of memory!

748

BYRON:

Giaour,

Line 1127.

Fortitude.

True fortitude is seen in great exploits

That justice warrants, and that wisdom guides;

All else is tow'ring frenzy and distraction.

749

ADDISON:

Cato,

Act ii., Sc. 1.

Fortune.

Will fortune never come with both hands full,

But write her fair words still in foulest letters?

She either gives a stomach, and no food,—

Such as are the poor in health; or else a feast,

And takes away the stomach,—such are the rich,

That have abundance, and enjoy it not.

750

SHAKS.:

2 Henry IV.,

Act iv., Sc. 4.

Fortune is female: from my youth her favors

Were not withheld, the fault was mine to hope

Her former smiles again at this late hour.

751

BYRON:

Mar. Faliero,

Act v., Sc. 1.

Forever, Fortune, wilt thou prove

An unrelenting foe to love;

And when we meet a mutual heart,

Come in between and bid us part?

752

THOMSON:

Song.

Frailty.

Frailty, thy name is Woman!

753

SHAKS.:

Hamlet,

Act i., Sc. 2.

I am the cygnet to this pale faint swan,

Who chants a doleful hymn to his own death,

And from the organ-pipe of frailty sings

His soul and body to their lasting rest.

754

SHAKS.:

King John,

Act v., Sc. 7.

France.

'Tis better using France, than trusting France;

Let us be back'd with God, and with the seas,

Which he hath given for fence impregnable,

And with their helps only defend ourselves;

In them, and in ourselves, our safety lies.

755

SHAKS.:

3 Henry VI.,

Act iv., Sc. 1.

Fraternity.

There are bonds of all sorts in this world of ours,

Fetters of friendship and ties of flowers,

And true-lovers' knots, I ween;

The girl and the boy are bound by a kiss,

But there 's never a bond, old friend, like this,

We have drunk from the same canteen.

756

CHARLES G. HALPINE ("MILES O'REILLY"):

The Canteen.

Freedom.

We must be free or die, who speak the tongue

That Shakespeare spake; the faith and morals hold

Which Milton held.

757

WORDSWORTH:

Sonnet. It is not to be thought of, etc.

Oh, FREEDOM! thou art not, as poets dream,

A fair young girl, with light and delicate limbs,

And wavy tresses gushing from the cap

With which the Roman master crowned his slave

When he took off the gyves. A bearded man,

Armed to the teeth, art thou; one mailèd hand

Grasps the broad shield, and one the sword; thy brow,

Glorious in beauty though it be, is scarred

With tokens of old wars.

758

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT:

Antiquity of Freedom.

My angel,—his name is Freedom,—

Choose him to be your king;

He shall cut pathways east and west,

And fend you with his wing.

759

EMERSON:

Boston Hymn.

Then Freedom sternly said: "I shun

No strife nor pang beneath the sun,

When human rights are staked and won."

760

WHITTIER:

The Watchers.

When Freedom from her mountain-height

Unfurled her standard to the air,

She tore the azure robe of night,

And set the stars of glory there.

761

JOSEPH RODMAN DRAKE:

The American Flag.

Freeman.

He is the freeman whom the truth makes free.

762

COWPER:

Task,

Bk. v., Line 733.

Friendship.

I count myself in nothing else so happy,

As in a soul rememb'ring my good friends.

763

SHAKS.:

Richard II.,

Act ii., Sc. 3.

The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,

Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel;

But do not dull thy palm with entertainment

Of each new-hatch'd unfledged comrade.

764

SHAKS.:

Hamlet,

Act i., Sc. 3.

Oh, be my friend, and teach me to be thine!

765

EMERSON:

Forbearance.

The friendships of the world are oft

Confederacies in vice, or leagues of pleasure.

766

ADDISON:

Cato,

Act iii., Sc. 1.

Two friends, two bodies with one soul inspir'd.

767

POPE:

Iliad,

Bk. xvi., Line 267.

Officious, innocent, sincere,

Of every friendless name the friend.

768

DR. JOHNSON:

Verses on the Death of Mr, Robert Levet,

St. 2.

Small service is true service while it lasts.

Of humblest friends, bright creature! scorn not one:

The daisy, by the shadow that it casts,

Protects the lingering dewdrop from the sun.

769

WORDSWORTH:

To a Child.

Front.

His fair large front and eye sublime declar'd

Absolute rule.

770

MILTON:

Par. Lost,

Bk. iv., Line 297.

Frost.

All the panes are hung with frost,

Wild wizard-work of silver lace.

771

T.B. ALDRICH:

Latakia.

What miracle of weird transforming

Is this wild work of frost and light,

This glimpse of glory infinite!

772

WHITTIER:

The Pageant,

St. 8

But, oh! fell death's untimely frost

That nipt my flower sae early.

773

BURNS:

Highland Mary.

Fruit.

The ripest fruit first falls.

774

SHAKS.:

Richard II.,

Act ii., Sc. 1.

Fury.

Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned,

Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned.

775

CONGREVE:

Mourning Bride,

Act iii., Sc. 8.

Beware the fury of a patient man.

776

DRYDEN:

Absalom and Achitophel,

Pt. i., Line 1005.

Futurity.

The dread of something after death,

The undiscover'd country, from whose bourn

No traveller returns, puzzles the will;

And makes us rather bear those ills we have,

Than fly to others that we know not of.

777

SHAKS.:

Hamlet,

Act iii., Sc. 1.

O Death, O Beyond,

Thou art sweet, thou art strange!

778

MRS. BROWNING:

Rhapsody of Life's Progress.

Ah Christ, that it were possible

For one short hour to see

The souls we loved, that they might tell us

What and where they be.

779

TENNYSON:

Maud,

Pt. xxvi., St. 3.

Trust no future, howe'er pleasant!

Let the dead Past bury its dead!

780

LONGFELLOW:

Psalm of Life.

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