Contents
-BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD
C.N. Douglas, comp. Forty Thousand Quotations: Prose and Poetical. 1917.
Visions
Gorgons, and Hydras, and Chimæras dire.
Milton.
Visions of glory, spare my aching sight!Ye unborn ages, crowd not on my soul.
Gray.
And like a passing thought, she fledIn light away.
Burns.
Fond man! the vision of a moment made!Dream of a dream! and shadow of a shade!
Young.
But shapes that come not at an earthly call,Will not depart when mortal voices bid.
Wordsworth.
My thoughts by night are often filledWith visions false as fair:For in the past alone, I buildMy castles in the air.
Thos. Love Peacock.
The people’s prayer, the glad diviner’s theme!The young men’s vision, and the old men’s dream!
Dryden.
O visions ill foreseen! Better had ILiv’d ignorant of future, so had borneBy part of evil only.
Milton.
An angel stood and met my gaze,Through the low doorway of my tent;The tent is struck, the vision stays;I only know she came and went.
Lowell.
It is a dream, sweet child! a waking dream,A blissful certainty, a vision bright,Of that rare happiness, which even on earthHeaven gives to those it loves.
Longfellow.
Hence the fool’s paradise, the statesman’s scheme,The air-built castle, and the golden dream,The maid’s romantic wish, the chemist’s flame,And poet’s vision of eternal fame.
Pope.
Our revels now are ended. These, our actors,As I foretold you, were all spirits, andAre melted into air, into thin air;And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces,The solemn temples, the great globe itself,Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,Leave not a rack behind.
Shakespeare.
Abou Ben Adhem (may his tribe increase!)Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace,And saw, within the moonlight in his room,Making it rich, and like a lily in bloom,An angel, writing in a book of gold;Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold,And to the presence in the room he said—“What writest thou?” The Vision raised its head,And, with a look made all of sweet accord,Answered, “The names of those who love the Lord.”
Leigh Hunt.
