G.W.P.

Dorchester, mass.,
July, 1901.

HANDY DICTIONARY OF POETICAL QUOTATIONS.

* * * * *

==A.==

=Abashed.=

Abash’d the devil stood,
And felt how awful goodness is, and saw
Virtue in her shape how lovely.
1
Milton:  Par.  Lost, Bk. iv., Line 846.

=Abbots.=

To happy convents bosom’d deep in vines, Where slumber abbots purple as their wines. 2 Pope:  Dunciad, Bk. iv., Line 301.

=Abdication.=

I give this heavy weight from off my head,
And this unwieldy sceptre from my hand,
The pride of kingly sway from out my heart;
With mine own tears I wash away my balm,
With mine own hands I give away my crown,
With mine own tongue deny my sacred state,
With mine own breath release all duteous oaths.
3
SHAKS.:  Richard II., Act iv., Sc. 1.

=Abdiel.=

So spake the seraph Abdiel, faithful found; Among the faithless, faithful only he. 4 Milton:  Par.  Lost, Bk. v., Line 896.

=Ability.=

I profess not talking; only this,
Let each man do his best.
5
SHAKS.:  1 Henry IV., Act v., Sc. 2.

=Absence.=

What! keep a week away!  Seven days and nights? 
Eight score eight hours? and lovers’ absent hours,
More tedious than the dial eight score times? 
O weary reckoning!
6
SHAKS.:  Othello, Act iii., Sc. 1.

Though lost to sight, to memory dear
Thou ever wilt remain.
7
George Linley:  Song, Though Lost to Sight.

Condemn’d whole years in absence to deplore, And image charms he must behold no more. 8 Pope:  Eloisa to A., Line 361.

O last love!  O first love! 
My love with the true heart,
To think I have come to this your home,
And yet—­we are apart!
9
Jean Ingelow:  Sailing Beyond Seas.

’Tis said that absence conquers love;
  But oh believe it not! 
I’ve tried, alas! its power to prove,
  But thou art not forgot.
10
Frederick W. Thomas:  Absence Conquers Love.

=Abstinence.=

Against diseases here the strongest fence
Is the defensive virtue abstinence.
11
HERRICK:  Aph.  Abstinence.

=Abuse.=

Thou thread, thou thimble,
Thou yard, three quarters, half-yard, quarter, nail,
Thou flea, thou nit, thou winter cricket thou: 
Away thou rag, thou quantity, thou remnant.
12
SHAKS.:  Tam. of the S., Act iv., Sc. 3.

=Accident.=

As the unthought-on accident is guilty
Of what we wildly do, so we profess
Ourselves to be the slaves of chance, and flies
Of every wind that blows.
13
SHAKS.:  Wint.  Tale, Act iv., Sc. 3.