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It had been agreed between my friend Mr. Carlyle and me, that before I left England, we should make an excursion together to Stonehenge, which neither of us had seen; and the project pleased my fancy with the double attraction of the monument and the companion...

Hear what British Merlin sung,Of keenest eye and truest tongue.Say not, the chiefs who first arriveUsurp the seats for which all strive;The forefathers this land who foundFailed to plant the vantage-ground;Ever from one who comes to-morrowMen wait their good...

To these menThe landscape is an armory of powers,Which, one by one, they know to draw and use. They harness beast, bird, insect, to their work; They prove the virtues of each bed of rock, And, like the chemist mid his loaded jars, Draw from each stratum its ...

I reached the middle of the mountUp which the incarnate soul must climb, And paused for them, and looked around,With me who walked through space and time.Five rosy boys with morning lightHad leaped from one fair mother's arms, Fronted the sun with hope as br...

For whom the Muses smile upon, And touch with soft persuasion,His words, like a storm-wind, can bring Terror and beauty on their wing;In his every syllableLurketh nature veritable;And though he speak in midnight dark, – In heaven no star, on earth no spark, ...

I framed his tongue to music,I armed his hand with skill, I moulded his face to beautyAnd his heart the throne of Will. All departments of life at the present day – Trade, Politics, Letters, Science, or Religion – seem to feel, and to labor to express, t...

We flee away from cities, but we bringThe best of cities with us, these learned classifiers, Men knowing what they seek, armed eyes of experts. We praise the guide, we praise the forest life: But will we sacrifice our dear-bought lore Of books and arts and t...

Seyd melted the days like cups of pearl,Served high and low, the lord and churl,Loved harebells nodding on a rock,A cabin hung with curling smoke,Ring of axe or hum of wheelOr gleam which use can paint on steel,And huts and tents; nor loved he lessStately lo...

Was never form and never faceSo sweet to SEYD as only graceWhich did not slumber like a stoneBut hovered gleaming and was gone.Beauty chased he everywhere,In flame, in storm, in clouds of air.He smote the lake to feed his eyeWith the beryl beam of the broken...

This is he, who, felled by foes,Sprung harmless up, refreshed by blows:He to captivity was sold,But him no prison-bars would hold:Though they sealed him in a rock,Mountain chains he can unlock:Thrown to lions for their meat,The crouching lion kissed his feet...

In these comments on an old journey now revised after seven busy yearse much changed men and things in England, I have abstained from reference to persons, except in the last chapter, and in one or two cases where the fame of the parties seemed to have given t...

Grace, Beauty, and CapriceBuild this golden portal;Graceful women, chosen menDazzle every mortal:Their sweet and lofty countenanceHis enchanting food;He need not go to them, their formsBeset his solitude.He looketh seldom in their face,His eyes explore the g...

Flow, flow the waves hated,Accursed, adored,The waves of mutation:No anchorage is.Sleep is not, death is not;Who seem to die live.House you were born in,Friends of your spring-time,Old man and young maid,Day’s toil and its guerdon,They are all vanishing,Flee...

Can rules or tutors educateThe semigod whom we await?He must be musical,Tremulous, impressional,Alive to gentle influenceOf landscape and of sky,And tender to the spirit-touchOf man’s or maiden’s eye:But, to his native centre fast,Shall into Future fuse the ...

Who shall tell what did befall,Far away in time, when once,Over the lifeless ball,Hung idle stars and suns?What god the element obeyed?Wings of what wind the lichen bore,Wafting the puny seeds of power,Which, lodged in rock, the rock abrade?And well the prim...

His tongue was framed to music,And his hand was armed with skill,His face was the mould of beauty,And his heart the throne of will. There is not yet any inventory of a man’s faculties, any more than a bible of his opinions. Who shall set a limit to the in...

Delicate omens traced in airTo the lone bard true witness bare;Birds with auguries on their wingsChanted undeceiving thingsHim to beckon, him to warn;Well might then the poet scornTo learn of scribe or courierHints writ in vaster character;And on his mind, a...

A few days after my arrival at Manchester, in November, 1847, the Manchester Athenaeum gave its annual Banquet in the Free-Trade Hall. With other guests, I was invited to be present, and to address the company. In looking over recently a newspaper-report of my...

England is the best of actual nations. It is no ideal framework, it is an old pile built in different ages, with repairs, additions, and makeshifts; but you see the poor best you have got. London is the epitome of our times, and the Rome of to-day. Broad-front...

Daughters of Time, the hypocritic Days,Muffled and dumb like barefoot dervishes,And marching single in an endless file,Bring diadems and fagots in their hands.To each they offer gifts after his will,Bread, kingdoms, stars and sky that holds them all.I, in my...