John Milton
Quips and Cranks and wanton Wiles, Nods and Becks and wreathèd Smiles.Collection: Nymphs
Where all life dies death lives.Collection: Death
Earth felt the wound; and Nature from her seat, Sighing through all her works, gave signs of woe That all was lost.Collection: Earth
But that from us aught should ascend to Heav'n So prevalent as to concern the mind Of God, high-bless'd, or to incline His will, Hard to belief may seem; yet this will prayer.Collection: Prayer
Abash'd the Devil stood, And felt how awful goodness is.Collection: Crow
With eyes Of conjugal attraction unreprov'd. Imparadised in one another's arms. With thee conversing I forget all time. And feel that I am happier than I know.Collection: Time
Sabrina fair, Listen where thou art sitting Under the glassy, cool, translucent wave, In twisted braids of lilies knitting The loose train of thy amber-dropping hair.Collection: Art
The spirits perverse with easy intercourse pass to and fro, to tempt or punish mortals.Collection: Spirit
Methought I saw my late espoused saint.Collection: Saint
In naked beauty more adorn'd, More lovely than Pandora.Collection: Beauty
Evil, be thou my good.Collection: Evil
The starry cope Of heaven.Collection: Heaven
And every shepherd tells his tale Under the hawthorn in the dale.Collection: Shepherds
Alas! What boots it with uncessant care To tend the homely slighted Shepherd's trade, And strictly meditate the thankless muse; Were it not better done as others use, To sport with Amaryllis in the shade, Or with the tangles of Neaera's hair? Fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise (That last infirmity of noble mind) To scorn delights, and live laborious days; But the fair guerdon when we hope to find, And think to burst out into sudden blaze, Comes the blind Fury with th'abhorred shears, And slits the thin-spun life.Collection: Sports
So on this windy sea of land, the Fiend Walked up and down alone bent on his prey.Collection: Sea
Nor think thou with wind Of æry threats to awe whom yet with deeds Thou canst not.Collection: Thinking
Th'invention all admir'd, and each, how he to be th'inventor miss'd; so easy it seem'd once found, which yet unfound most would have thought impossible.Collection: Science
For contemplation he and valour formed; / For softness she and sweet attractive grace, / He for God only, she for God in him: / His fair large front and eye sublime declared / Absolute rule.Collection: Sweet
The spirit of man, which God inspired, cannot together perish with this corporeal clod.Collection: Future
And storied windows richly dight, Casting a dim religious light.Collection: Religious
Rocks whereon greatest men have oftest wreck'd.Collection: Men
In discourse more sweet; For eloquence the soul, song charms the sense. Others apart sat on a hill retir'd, In thoughts more elevate, and reason'd high Of providence, foreknowledge, will, and fate, Fix'd fate, free-will, foreknowledge absolute; And found no end, in wand'ring mazes lost.Collection: Sweet
Was I deceiv'd, or did a sable cloud Turn forth her silver lining on the night?Collection: Night
God is decreeing to begin some newand great period in his Church, even to the reforming of Reformation itself. What does he then but reveal Himself to his servants, and as his manner is, first to his Englishmen?Collection: Church
With thee conversing I forget all time.Collection: Time
In dim eclipse, disastrous twilight sheds On half the nations, and with fear of change Perplexes monarchs.Collection: Change
In contemplation of created things, by steps we may ascend to God.Collection: Nature
Taste this, and be henceforth among the Gods thyself a Goddess.Collection: God
Our state cannot be severed, we are one, One flesh; to lose thee were to lose myself.Collection: Flesh
Tis chastity, my brother, chastity; She that has that is clad in complete steel, And, like a quiver'd nymph with arrows keen, May trace huge forests, and unharbour'd heaths, Infamous hills, and sandy perilous wilds; Where, through the sacred rays of chastity, No savage fierce, bandite, or mountaineer, Will dare to soil her virgin purity.Collection: Brother
When the new light which we beg for shines in upon us, there be [those] who envy and oppose, if it come not first in at their casements.Collection: Light
Hence, loathèd Melancholy, Of Cerberus and blackest Midnight born, In Stygian cave forlorn, 'Mongst horrid shapes, and shrieks, and sights unholy.Collection: Sight
So dear to heav'n is saintly chastity, That when a soul is found sincerely so, A thousand liveried angels lackey her, Driving far off each thing of sin and guilt, And in clear dream and solemn vision Tell her of things that no gross ear can hear, Till oft converse with heav'nly habitants Begin to cast a beam on th' outward shape.Collection: Dream
Such sights as youthful poets dream On summer eves by haunted stream. Then to the well-trod stage anon, If Jonson's learned sock be on, Or sweetest Shakespeare, Fancy's child, Warble his native wood-notes wild.Collection: Summer
Beauty stands In the admiration only of weak minds Led captive.Collection: Beauty
Courtesy which oft is found in lowly sheds, with smoky rafters, than in tapestry halls and courts of princes, where it first was named.Collection: Firsts
God is thy law, thou mine: to know no more Is woman's happiest knowledge and her praise. With thee conversing I forget all time.Collection: Time
Haste thee, Nymph, and bring with thee Jest, and youthful Jollity, Quips, and Cranks, and wanton Wiles, Nods, and Becks, and wreathed Smiles, Such as hang on Hebe's cheek, And love to live in dimple sleek; Sport that wrinkled Care derides, And Laughter holding both his sides.Collection: Sports
(That last infirmity of noble mind) To scorn delights, and live laborious days; But the fair guerdon when we hope to find, And think to burst out into sudden blaze, Comes the blind Fury with th' abhorred shears And slits the thin-spun life.Collection: Life
And the more I see Pleasures about me, so much more I feel Torment within me.Collection: Pleasure
Say, heavenly pow'rs, where shall we find such love? Which of ye will be mortal to redeem Man's mortal crime, and just th' unjust to save.Collection: Men
It was from out the rind of one apple tasted, that the knowledge of good and evil, as two twins cleaving together, leaped forth into the world.Collection: Two
Hail universal Lord, be bounteous still To give us only good; and if the night Have gathered aught of evil or concealed, Disperse it, as now light dispels the dark.Collection: Dark