Hoyt & Roberts, comps. Hoyts New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations. 1922.
Owl
The large white owl that with eye is blind, That hath sate for years in the old tree hollow, Is carried away in a gust of wind. E. B. BrowningIsabels Child. St. 19.
The Roman senate, when within The city walls an owl was seen, Did cause their clergy, with lustrations * * * * The round-facd prodigy t avert, From doing town or country hurt. ButlerHudibras. Pt. II. Canto III. L. 709.
In the hollow tree, in the old gray tower, The spectral Owl doth dwell; Dull, hated, despised, in the sunshine hour, But at duskhes abroad and well! Not a bird of the forest eer mates with him All mock him outright, by day: But at night, when the woods grow still and dim, The boldest will shrink away! O, when the night falls, and roosts the fowl, Then, then, is the reign of the Horned Owl! Barry CornwallThe Owl.
The screech-owl, with ill-boding cry, Portends strange things, old women say; Stops every fool that passes by, And frights the school-boy from his play. Lady MontaguThe Politicians. St. 4.
When cats run home and light is come, And dew is cold upon the ground, And the far-off stream is dumb, And the whirring sail goes round, And the whirring sail goes round; Alone and warming his five wits, The white owl in the belfry sits. TennysonSong. The Owl.