Grocott & Ward, comps. Grocott’s Familiar Quotations, 6th ed. 189-?.
Poets
Painters and poets have been still allow’d
Their pencils, and their fancies unconfined.
Roscommon.—Horace’s Art of Poetry, Line 10.
Painters and poets our indulgence claim,
Their daring equal, and their art the same.
Francis’ Horace.—Art of Poetry, Line 11.
Painters and poets never should be fat,
Sons of Apollo listen well to that.
Wolcot.—Ode 5.
No man can be a poet
That is not a good cook, to know the palates,
And several tastes of the time.
Ben Jonson.—The Staple of News, Act III. Scene 1.
They both are born artificers, not made.
Ben Jonson.—Discoveries. Poeta nascitur, non fit.
They are not born every year as an alderman.
Ben Jonson.—Every man in his humour, Act V. Scene last.
[Taylor, the Water Poet, seems to have found a correct copy of some old Latin verses which he thus gives:—
Consules flunt quotannis, et novi proconsules,
Solus aut rex aut poeta non quotannis nascitur.
which are usually attributed to one Florus:—Consuls are made every year, and new proconsuls, only a king or a poet is not born every year. See Mr. W. Gifford’s edition of Jonson.]
A poet no industry can make if his own genius be not carried into it; and therefore it is an old proverb, orator fit; Poeta nascitur.
Sidney.—An Apology for Poetry. (Arber’s reprint, 62.)
Widely extensive is the poet’s aim,
And in each verse he draws a bill on fame.
Lady Winchelsea.—To Pope.
Though ’tis a fate that’s pretty sure,
If born a poet to be poor;
I’d rather be a bard by birth,
Than live the richest dunce on earth.
Anonymous.—Collet’s Relics of Lit. 234.
Poets of the air.
Longfellow.—Walter Von Der Vogelweld, V. 5.
Who live on fancy, and can feed on air.
Gay.—Epi. VII. Line XX.
With wild variety
Draw boars in waves, and dolphins in a wood.
Roscommon.—Art of Poetry.
Spare the poet for his subject’s sake.
Cowper.—Charity, last line.
There is a pleasure in poetic pains,
Which only poets know.
Cowper.—The Task, Bk. II. Line 285.
They best can judge a poet’s worth,
Who oft themselves have known
The pangs of a poetic birth
By labours of their own.
Cowper.—To Dr. Darwin.
Three poets, in three distant ages born,
Greece, Italy, and England did adorn.
The first in loftiness of thought surpass’d;
The next, in majesty; in both, the last.
The force of nature could no further go;
To make a third, she join’d the former two.
Dryden.—Lines under Milton’s Picture.
Ages elapsed ere Homer’s lamp appear’d,
And ages ere the Mantuan swan was heard;
To carry nature lengths unknown before,
To give a Milton birth, ask’d ages more.
Cowper.—Table Talk, Line 557.