O, now, forever
Farewell the tranquil mind! farewell content!
Farewell the plumed troop, and the big wars,
That make ambition virtue! O, farewell!
Farewell the neighing steed, and the shrill trump,
The spirit-stirring drum, the ear-piercing fife,
The royal banner, and all quality,
Pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war!
And, O you mortal engines, whose rude throats
The immortal Jove's dread clamors counterfeit,
Farewell! Othello's occupation's gone!
Othello, Act iii. Sc. 3. SHAKESPEARE.
SOLITUDE.
All heaven and earth are still,—though not in sleep,
But breathless, as we grow when feeling most:
And silent, as we stand in thoughts too deep;—
All heaven and earth are still;
* * * * *
Then stirs the feeling infinite, so felt
In solitude, where we are least alone.
Childe Harold, Canto III. LORD BYRON.
When, musing on companions gone,
We doubly feel ourselves alone.
Marmion, Canto II. Introduction. SIR W. SCOTT.
Alone!—that worn-out word,
So idly spoken, and so coldly heard;
Yet all that poets sing, and grief hath known,
Of hopes laid waste, knells in that word—Alone!
The New Timon, Pt. II. E. BULWER-LYTTON.
O! lost to virtue, lost to manly thought,
Lost to the noble, sallies of the soul!
Who think it solitude to be alone.
Night Thoughts, Night IV. DR. E. YOUNG.
Converse with men makes sharp the glittering wit,
But God to man doth speak in solitude.
Highland Solitude. J.S. BLACKIE.