“A mighty pain to love it is,
And 't is a pain that pain to miss;
But of all pains, the greatest pain
It is to love, but love in vain.”
Source: The Poems of Abraham Cowley
“What shall I do to be forever know,
And make the Age to come my own?
I shall like Beasts or Common People dy,
Unless you write my Elegy;
Whilst others great by being born are grown,
Their Mothers Labour, not their own.
In this scale Gold, in th' other Fame does ly,
The weight of that mounts this so high.
These men are Fortunes Jewels, moulded bright; Brought forth with their own fire and light.
If I, her vulgar stone for either look,
Out of my self it must be strook.”
Source: The Poems of Abraham Cowley
“What shall I do to be forever known,
And make the Age to come my own?
I shall like Beasts or Common People dy,
Unless you write my Elegy;
Whilst others great by being born are grown,
Their Mothers Labour, not their own.
In this scale Gold, in th' other Fame does ly,
The weight of that mounts this so high.
These men are Fortunes Jewels, moulded bright;
Brought forth with their own fire and light.
If I, her vulgar stone for either look,
Out of my self it must be strook.”
Source: The Poems of Abraham Cowley
“And sure we may
The same too of the Present say,
If Past, and Future Times do thee obey.
Thou stopst this Current, and dost make
This running River settle like a Lake,
Thy certain hand holds fast this slippery Snake.
The Fruit which does so quickly wast,
Men scarce can see it, much less tast,
Thou Comfitest in Sweets to make it last.
This shining piece of Ice
Which melts so soon away
With the Suns ray,
Thy Verse does solidate and Chrystallize.
Till it a lasting Mirror be;
Nay thy Immortal Rhyme
Makes this one short Point of Time,
To fill up half the Orb of Round Eternity.”
“"We may talk what we please," he cries in his enthusiasm for the oldest of the arts, "of lilies, and lions rampant, and spread eagles, in fields d'or or d'argent; but, if heraldry were guided by reason, a plough in a field arable would be the most noble and ancient arms."”
“Thus each extreme to equal danger tends, Plenty, as well as Want, can sep'rate friends.”
“Gold begets in brethren hate; Gold in families debate; Gold does friendship separate; Gold does civil wars create.”
Source: ([2], lxviii, 372 p.)
“Happy insect! what can be In happiness compared to thee? Fed with nourishment divine, The dewy morning's gentle wine! Nature waits upon thee still, And thy verdant cup does fill; 'Tis fill'd wherever thou dost tread, Nature's self's thy Ganymede.”
Source: Select works of mr. A. Cowley [ed. by R. Hurd].
“For the whole world, without a native home, Is nothing but a prison of larger room.”
Source: The Poems of Cowley
“Stones of small worth may lie unseen by day, But night itself does the rich gem betray.”
Source: The Works ... Re-edited. - London, G. Kearsley 1806
“Who lets slip fortune, her shall never find: Occasion once past by, is bald behind.”
Source: The Complete Works in Verse and Prose of Abraham Cowley
“Poets by Death are conquer'd but the wit Of poets triumphs over it.”
Source: The Works of the English Poets. With Prefaces, Biographical and Critical, by Samuel Johnson
“Ah, yet, e'er I descend to th' grave, May I a small House and a large Garden have. And a few Friends, and many Books both true, Both wise, and both delightful too. And since Love ne'er will from me flee, A mistress moderately fair, And good as Guardian angels are, Only belov'd and loving me.”
“But what is woman? Only one of nature's agreeable blunders.”
“Why to mute fish should'st thou thyself discoverAnd not to me, thy no less silent lover?”
Source: The Works of the English Poets. With Prefaces, Biographical and Critical, by Samuel Johnson
“When Israel was from bondage led,Led by the Almighty's handFrom out of foreign land,The great sea beheld and fled.”
Source: The Poems of Abraham Cowley ...
“Awake, awake, my Lyre!And tell thy silent master's humble taleIn sounds that may prevail;Sounds that gentle thoughts inspire:Though so exalted sheAnd I so lowly beTell her, such different notes make all thy harmony.”
“The Sunflow'r, thinking 'twas for him foul shame To nap by daylight, strove t' excuse the blame; It was not sleep that made him nod, he said, But too great weight and largeness of his head.”
“Curs'd be that wretch (Death's factor sure) who brought Dire swords into the peaceful world, and taught Smiths (who before could only make The spade, the plough-share, and the rake) Arts, in most cruel wise Man's left to epitomize!”
“Thus would I double my life's fading space;For he that runs it well, runs twice his race.”
Source: Poems and other pieces published by the late Lord Bishop of Rochester; with some account of his life and writings
“The present is an eternal now.”
“The present is all the ready money Fate can give.”
“Neither the praise nor the blame is our own.”
“Does not the passage of Moses and the Israelites into the Holy Land yield incomparably more poetic variety than the voyages of Ulysses or Aeneas?”
Source: The Works of Mr. Abraham Cowley ...: Consisting of Those which Were Formerly Printed, and Those which He Design'd for the Press, Publish'd Out of the Author's Original Copies ; with The Cutter of Coleman-street
“It is a hard and nice subject for a man to speak of himself: it grates his own heart to say anything of disparagement, and the reader's ear to hear anything of praise from him.”
Source: Essays and Selected Verse: With an Introd
“Nay, in death's hand, the grape-stone proves
As strong as thunder is in Jove's.”
Source: The works
“Hope! fortune's cheating lottery; when for one prize an hundred blanks there be!”
“As for being much known by sight, and pointed out, I cannot comprehend the honor that lies withal; whatsoever it be, every mountebank has it more than the best doctor.”
“Books should, not Business, entertain the Light;
And Sleep, as undisturb'd as Death, the Night.”
Source: The works of Mr. Abraham Cowley ...: Consisting of those which were formerly printed; and those which he design'd for the press, publish'd out of the author's original copies. With The cutter of Coleman-street ...
“There is some help for all the defects of fortune; for, if a man cannot attain to the length of his wishes, he may have his remedy by cutting of them shorter.”
Source: Prose works of Abraham Cowley ; including his essays in prose and verse
“Nothing in Nature's sober found,
But an eternal Health goes round.
Fill up the Bowl then, fill it high--
Fill all the Glasses there; for why
Should every Creature Drink but I?
Why, Man of Morals, tell me why?”
“There have been fewer friends on earth than kings.”
Source: The Works ... Re-edited. - London, G. Kearsley 1806
“Man is too near all kinds of beasts,--a fawning dog, a roaring lion, a thieving fox, a robbing wolf, a dissembling crocodile, a treacherous decoy, and a rapacious vulture.”
Source: The Poems of Abraham Cowley ...
“Water and air He for the Tenor chose,
Earth made the Base, the Treble Fame arose,
To th' active Moon a quick brisk stroke he gave,
To Saturn's string a touch more sore and grave.
The motions strait, and round, and swift, and slow,
And short and long, were mixt and woven so,
Did in such artful Figures smoothly fall,
As made this decent measur'd dance of all.
And this is Musick.”
“Much will always wanting be
To him who much desires.”
Source: The Works of Mr Abraham Cowley: Consisting of Those which Were Formerly Printed : and Those which He Design'd for the Press
“Our yesterday's to-morrow now is gone,
And still a new to-morrow does come on.
We by to-morrow draw out all our store,
Till the exhausted well can yield no more.”
Source: The Works of Mr. A. Cowley: In Prose and Verse
“The getting out of doors is the greatest part of the journey.”
Source: The Works of Mr. Abraham Cowley ...: Consisting of Those which Were Formerly Printed, and Those which He Design'd for the Press, Publish'd Out of the Author's Original Copies ; with The Cutter of Coleman-street
“Who that has reason, and his smell,
Would not among roses and jasmin dwell?”
Source: Prose works of Abraham Cowley ; including his essays in prose and verse
“What a brave privilege is it to be free from all contentions, from all envying or being envied, from receiving or paying all kinds of ceremonies!”
Source: Prose works of Abraham Cowley ; including his essays in prose and verse
“All the world's bravery that delights our eyes is but thy several liveries.”
Source: The Works of the English Poets. With Prefaces, Biographical and Critical, by Samuel Johnson
“To-day is ours; what do we fear?
To-day is ours; we have it here.
Let's treat it kindly, that it may
Wish, at least, with us to stay.
Let's banish business, banish sorrow;
To the gods belong to-morrow.”
Source: The Works of Mr Abraham Cowley: Consisting of Those which Were Formerly Printed : and Those which He Design'd for the Press
“Why dost thou heap up wealth, which thou must quit,
Or what is worse, be left by it?
Why dost thou load thyself when thou 'rt to fly,
Oh, man! ordain'd to die?
Why dost thou build up stately rooms on high,
Thou who art under ground to lie?
Thou sow'st and plantest, but no fruit must see,
For death, alas! is reaping thee.”
Source: Prose works of Abraham Cowley ; including his essays in prose and verse
“All this world's noise appears to me a dull, ill-acted comedy!”
Source: The works of Mr. Abraham Cowley ...: Consisting of those which were formerly printed; and those which he design'd for the press, publish'd out of the author's original copies. With The cutter of Coleman-street ...
“Unbind the charms that in slight fables lie and teach that truth is truest poesy.”
Source: The Poems of Abraham Cowley ...
“Sleep is a god too proud to wait in palaces, and yet so humble too as not to scorn the meanest country cottages.”
Source: The Poems of Abraham Cowley ...
“Fill the bowl with rosy wine, around our temples roses twine, And let us cheerfully awhile, like wine and roses, smile.”
Source: The Poetical Works of Abraham Cowley ...
“The world's a scene of changes.”
“I confess I love littleness almost in all things. A little convenient estate, a little cheerful house, a little company, and a little feast.”
Source: The Poems of Abraham Cowley
“Begin, be bold, and venture to be wise,
He who defers this work from day to day,
Does on a river's bank expecting stay,
Till the whole stream, which stopped him, should be gone,
That runs, and as it runs, for ever will run on.”
Source: Select works [ed. by R. Hurd].
“Nothing is there to come, and nothing past,
But an eternal Now does always last.”
Source: The Works of Mr Abraham Cowley: Consisting of Those which Were Formerly Printed : and Those which He Design'd for the Press
