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Index: Reference Archive

Metaphor and poetic mendacity.

Sunday, 13 May 2012

Roden Noel: When…we attribute to nature a sympathy with our moods, whether of joy or sorrow, we are not under an amiable delusion; the intuition is true, although the shape it assumes may not always be scientifically correct. Nature, like man, has her bright, rich, joyous, and her desolate, decaying phases; in joy we feel the former most, in sorrow we feel and discern more especially the latter. We may indulge these feelings to a morbid degree and see things too brightly or too gloomily; but the sense of a sympathy in nature has its basis in fact.

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The Bibliomania.

Wednesday, 21 December 2011

John Ferriar: Proudly he shews, with many a smile elate,
The scrambling subjects of the private plate;
While Time their actions and their names bereaves,
They grin forever in the guarded leaves.

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The evolution of mystery.

Saturday, 3 December 2011

Maurice Maeterlinck: There is a hopefulness in man which renders him unwilling to grant that the cause of his misfortune may be as transparent as that of the wave which dies away in the sand or is hurled on the cliff, of the insect whose little wings gleam for an instant in the light of the sun till the passing bird absorbs its existence.

Also filed in Chronicle & Notices, Philosophy & Education, Theology | | Comments (0)

· Dulce et Decorum Est.

Friday, 11 November 2011

Owen: In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

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On ancestor worship and other peculiar beliefs.

Saturday, 5 November 2011

Herbert Spencer: The rudimentary form of all religion is the propitiation of dead ancestors, who are supposed to be still existing, and to be capable of working good or evil to their descendants.

Also filed in History, Anthropology & Travel, Politics & Culture | Tagged | Comments (0)

Coleridge as a poet.

Saturday, 29 October 2011

Edward Dowden: Coleridge broke with tradition in the vulgar sense of the word; he broke with tradition in theology, philosophy, politics; yet he did so in a spirit more truly loyal to the past than was the common orthodoxy in theology or philosophy, or the common Toryism in politics.

Also filed in Books & Publishing, Notes & Comment, Poetry & Fiction, Principal Articles, The Fortnightly Review of Books | | Comments (0)

A Voice from the Nile.

Wednesday, 26 October 2011

By James Thomson [B.V.]. I COME FROM mountains under other stars Than those reflected in my waters here; Athwart broad realms, beneath large skies, I flow, Between the Libyan and Arabian hills, And merge at last into the great Mid-Sea; And make this land of Egypt.

Also filed in Poetry & Fiction | Tagged | Comments (0)

The Fly-fishers’ Club.

Saturday, 29 May 2010

Basil Field: In the happy days of old, when fish were foolish, and fishermen were few, one, two, three, or more flies were fastened at intervals on a line; a cast was made across the stream, the rod-point was depressed, and the flies allowed to sink as they drifted down the current. When the line became fully extended, the flies began to rise to the surface, and to sweep round in a curve towards the bank on which the angler stood, the fly nearest him, called the “bob-fly,” tripping and dancing as it skimmed the water.

Also filed in Politics & Culture, Principal Articles, Sport & Fashion | | Comments (0)