There is no wisdom that can take the place of humanity, and we find that in Chaucer. We can expand at last in his breadth, and we ...think that we could have been that man's acquaintance. He was worthy to be a citizen of England, while Petrarch and Boccaccio lived in Italy, and Tell and Tamerlane in Switzerland and in Asia, and Bruce in Scotland, and Wickliffe and Gower and Edward the Third and John of Gaunt and the Black Prince were his own countrymen as well as contemporaries; all stout and stirring names. The fame of Roger Bacon came down from the preceding century, and the name of Dante still possessed the influence of a living presence.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I know of only one mystical poem that is satisfactorily successful, The Obscure Night of the Soul, by St. John of the Cross. In th...at amazing poem, what is said counts for almost nothing, but is sublimated into the purposed significance. The artist does not intend to go so far as that, but in seeking an incorruptible unity, he is always something of a mystic. Unlike the mystic, he clings to the world of things, though he transmutes it. He can never say the whole of what he means, but the mystic cannot say at all what he means; for his meaning is something singular and indivisible, something absolute in its inexpressibility. The simple lover in Cyrano can only say "I love you," but the poet Cyrano can say the same thing in a hundred elaborate ways.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
This happy breed of men, this little world, This precious stone set in the silver sea,... Which serves it in the office of a wall, Or as a moat defensive to a house, Against the envy of less happier lands, This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
They say the tongues of dying men Enforce attention like deep harmony.... Where words are scarce, they are seldom spent in vain, For they breathe truth that breathe their words in pain.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
This blessèd plot, this earth, this realm, this England This nurse, this teeming womb of royal kings,... . . . This land of such dear souls, this dear dear land.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle, This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,... This other Eden, demi-paradise, This fortress built by nature for herself Against infection and the hand of war, This happy breed of men, this little world, This precious stone set in the silver sea, Which serves it in the office of a wall, Or as a moat defensive to a house Against the envy of less happier lands; This blessèd plot, this earth, this realm, this England.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »