Book detail: The poetical works of James Russell Lowell is presented as a focused source page for quotations connected with this book, collection, transcript, or source record.
This book includes a selection of poems written by James Russell Lowell, showcasing his contributions to American poetry during the 19th century.
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“Not what we give, but what we share, for the gift without the giver is bare.”
Source: The poetical works of James Russell Lowell
“Not as all other women are
Is she that to my soul is dear;
Her glorious fancies come from far,
Beneath the silver evening star,
And yet her heart is ever near.”
Source: The poetical works of James Russell Lowell
“Evil springs up, and flowers, and bears no seed, And feeds the green earth with its swift decay, Leaving it richer for the growth of truth.”
Source: The poetical works of James Russell Lowell
“He mastered whatever was not worth the knowing.”
Source: The poetical works of James Russell Lowell
“To put more faith in lies and hate than truth and love, is the true atheism.”
Source: The poetical works of James Russell Lowell
“Beauty hath no true glass, except it be in the sweet privacy of loving eyes.”
Source: The poetical works of James Russell Lowell
“Who speaks the truth stabs falsehood to the heart.”
Source: The poetical works of James Russell Lowell
“Old events have modern meanings; only that survives of past history which finds kindred in all hearts and lives.”
Source: The poetical works of James Russell Lowell
“Granting our wish is one of Fate's saddest jokes.”
Source: The poetical works of James Russell Lowell
“Such power there is in clear-eyed self-restraint.”
Source: The poetical works of James Russell Lowell
“And I honor the man who is willing to sink half his present repute for the freedom to think, and, when he has thought, be his cause strong or weak, Will risk t' other half for the freedom to speak.”
Source: The poetical works of James Russell Lowell
“Each day the world is born anew for him who takes it rightly.”
Source: The poetical works of James Russell Lowell
“Then to side with Truth is noble when we share her wretched crust, Ere her cause bring fame and profit, and 't is prosperous to be just; Then it is the brave man chooses, while the coward stands aside, Doubting in his abject spirit, till his Lord is crucified.”
Source: The poetical works of James Russell Lowell
“No price is set on the lavish summer;
June may be had by the poorest comer.”
Source: The poetical works of James Russell Lowell
“The dandelions and buttercups gild all the lawn: the drowsy bee stumbles among the clover tops, and summer sweetens all to me.”
Source: The poetical works of James Russell Lowell
“When I was a beggarly boy, And lived in a cellar damp, I had not a friend nor a toy, But I had Aladdin's lamp.”
Source: The poetical works of James Russell Lowell
“Some day the soft Ideal that we wooed confronts us fiercely, foe-beset, pursued, and cries reproachful: Was it then my praise, and not myself was loved? Prove now thy truth; I claim of thee the promise of thy youth.”
Source: The poetical works of James Russell Lowell
“And the poorest twig on the elm-tree was ridged inch deep with pearl.”
Source: The poetical works of James Russell Lowell
“As one lamp lights another, nor grows less,So nobleness enkindleth nobleness.”
Source: The poetical works of James Russell Lowell
“They are slaves who fear to speak, for the fallen and the weak.”
Source: The poetical works of James Russell Lowell
“His heart kep' goin' pity-pat, But hern went pity-Zekle.”
Source: The poetical works of James Russell Lowell
“To win the secret of a weed's plain heart.”
Source: The poetical works of James Russell Lowell
“No man is born into the world whose work is not born with him. There is always work, and tools to work with, for those who will, and blessed are the horny hands of toil. The busy world shoves angrily aside the man who stands with arms akimbo until occasion tells him what to do; and he who waits to have his task marked out shall die and leave his errand unfulfilled.”
Source: The poetical works of James Russell Lowell
“They enslave their children's children who make compromise with sin.”
Source: The poetical works of James Russell Lowell
“Life seems a jest of Fate's contriving.”
Source: The poetical works of James Russell Lowell
“I love her with a love as still As a broad river's peaceful might, Which by high tower and lowly mill, Goes wandering at its own will, And yet does ever flow aright.”
Source: The poetical works of James Russell Lowell
“It may be glorious to write Thoughts that shall glad the two or three High souls, like those far stars that come in sight Once in a century.”
Source: The poetical works of James Russell Lowell
“Not only around our infancy Doth heaven with all its splendors lie; Daily, with souls that cringe and plot, We Sinais climb and know it not.”
Source: The poetical works of James Russell Lowell
“Here was a type of the true elder race, And one of Plutarch's men talked with us face to face.”
Source: The poetical works of James Russell Lowell
“I tell ye wut, my judgment is you're pooty sure to fail, Ez long 'z the head keeps turnin' back for counsel to the the tail.”
Source: The poetical works of James Russell Lowell
“Nature, they say, doth dote, And cannot make a man Save on some worn-out plan, Repeating us by rote.”
Source: The poetical works of James Russell Lowell
“We kind o' thought Christ went agin war an' pillage.”
Source: The poetical works of James Russell Lowell
“Like streams that keep a summer mind Snow-hid in Jenooary.”
Source: The poetical works of James Russell Lowell
“Laborin' man an' laborin' woman Hev one glory an' one shame; Ev'y thin' thet' s done inhuman Injers all on 'em the same.”
Source: The poetical works of James Russell Lowell
“Over our manhood bend the skies; Against our fallen and traitor lives The great winds utter prophecies; With our faint hearts the mountain strives, Its arms outstretched, the druid wood Waits with its benedicite And to our ages drowsy blood Still shouts the inspiring sea.”
Source: The poetical works of James Russell Lowell
“My soul is not a palace of the past.”
Source: The poetical works of James Russell Lowell
“Suddenly all the sky is hid As with the shutting of a lid, One by one great drops are falling Doubtful and slow, Down the pane they are crookedly crawling, And the wind breathes low; Slowly the circles widen on the river, Widen and mingle, one and all; Here and there the slenderer flowers shiver, Struck by an icy rain-drop’s fall.”
Source: The poetical works of James Russell Lowell
“Again, now, now, again Plashes the rain in heavy gouts, The crinkled lightning Seems ever brightening... And loud and long Again the thunder shouts His battle-song, - One quivering flash, One wildering crash, Followed by silence dead and dull, As if the cloud, let go, Leapt bodily below To whelm the earth in one mad overthrow, And then a total lull.”
Source: The poetical works of James Russell Lowell
“The pale and quiet moon Makes her calm forehead bare, And the last fragments of the storm, Like shattered rigging from a fight at sea, Silent and few, are drifting over me.”
Source: The poetical works of James Russell Lowell
“The time is ripe, and rotten-ripe, for change... [Truth's] mirror is turned forward, to reflect The promise of the future, not the past.”
Source: The poetical works of James Russell Lowell
“And the choice goes by forever 'twixt that darkness and that light.”
Source: The poetical works of James Russell Lowell
“Whom the heart of man shuts out, Sometimes the heart of God takes in, And fences them all round about With silence mid the worlds loud din.”
Source: The poetical works of James Russell Lowell
“Those who love are but one step from heaven.”
Source: The poetical works of James Russell Lowell
“Ah, men do not know how much strength is in poise, That he goes the farthest who goes far enough.”
Source: The poetical works of James Russell Lowell
“Ah, in this world, where every guiding thread Ends suddenly in the one sure centre, death, The visionary hand of Might-have-been Alone can fill Desire's cup to the brim!”
Source: The poetical works of James Russell Lowell
“Men! whose boast it is that ye Come of fathers brave and free, If there breathe on earth a slave, Are ye truly free and brave?”
Source: The poetical works of James Russell Lowell
“Tyrants are but the spawn of Ignorance, Begotten by the slaves they trample on.”
Source: The poetical works of James Russell Lowell
“For only by unlearning Wisdom comes.”
Source: The poetical works of James Russell Lowell
“Who knows whither the clouds have fled? In the unscarred heaven they leave no wake; And the eyes forget the tears they have shed, The heart forgets its sorrow and ache.”
Source: The poetical works of James Russell Lowell
“Count me o'er earth's chosen heroes, - they were souls that stood alone, While the men they agonized for hurled the contumelious stone, Stood serene, and down the future saw the golden beam incline To the side of perfect justice, mastered by their faith divine, By one man's plain truth to manhood and to God's supreme design.”
Source: The poetical works of James Russell Lowell