The Works of the Right Honourable Joseph Addison

Forsideomslag
Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2012 - 390 sider
Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: All this is done, when first the western breeze Becalms the year, and smooths the troubled seas; Before the chattering swallow builds her nest, Or fields in spring's embroidery are drest. Meanwhile the tainted juice ferments within, And quickens as it works: and now are seen A wondrous swarm, that o'er the carcass crawls, Of shapeless, rude, unfinished animals. No legs at first the insect's weight sustain, At length it moves its new-made limbs with pain; Now strikes the air with quivering wings, and tries To lift its body up, and learns to rise; Now bending thighs and gilded wings it wears Full grown, and all the bee at length appears; From every side the fruitful carcass pours Its swarming brood, as thick as summer showers, Or flights of arrows from the Parthian bows, When twanging strings first shoot 'em on the foes. Thus have I sung the nature of the bee. While Caesar, towering to divinity, The frighted Indians with his thunder awed, And claimed their homage, and commenced a god I flourished all the while in arts of peace, Eetired and sheltered in inglorious ease; I who before the songs of shepherds made, When gay and young my rural lays I played, And set my Tityrus beneath his shade. A SONG FOR ST. CECILIA'S DAY, AT OXFORD.i Cecilia, whose exalted hymns With joy and wonder fill the blest, In choirs of warbb'ng seraphima, Known and distinguished from the rest, i The success of Alexander's Feast made it fashionable for succeeding poets to try their hand at a musical ode; but they mistook the matter, when they thought it enough to contend with Mr. Dryden.'It was reserved for one or-two of our days to give us a true idea of lyric poetry in English. Attend, harmonious saint, and see Thy vocal sons of ha...

Andre udgaver - Se alle

Om forfatteren (2012)

Addison, son of the Dean of Litchfield, took high honors at Oxford University and then joined the British army. He first came to literary fame by writing a poem, "The Campaign" (1704), to celebrate the Battle of Blenheim. When Richard Steele, whom he had known in his public school Charterhouse, started The Tatler in 1709, Addison became a regular contributor. But his contributions to a later venture The Spectator (generally considered the zenith of the periodical essay), were fundamental. While Steele can be credited with the editorial direction of the journal, Addison's essays, ranging from gently satiric to genuinely funny, secured the journal's success. In The Spectator, No. 10, Addison declared that the journal aimed "to enliven morality with wit, and to temper wit with morality." His brilliant character of Sir Roger de Coverley (followed from rake to reformation) distinguishes the most popular essays. Addison died in 1719. He is buried in Westminster Abbey.

Bibliografiske oplysninger