The English Garden: A Poem in Four Books |
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Common terms and phrases
Æneid againſt ALCANDER alfo antient beauty becauſe beft beſt BOOK cauſe charms claffic CLEON confequently confideration cry'd defign deſcription diſtance divine SIMPLICITY ENGLISH GARDEN Ev'n ev'ry faid fame Fancy Faſhion fcene fcorn feems feen felect fence fhade fhall fhould fides firft firſt fituation flope fmile foil foliage fome fong foon foreft foreground fpecies ftands ftate ftill ftream fubject fuch fufficient furface Gardening give Gothic grace grove heav'n herſelf himſelf imitation inftance inftructed itſelf juſt landſcape lawn Lord Burlington moſt muft muſt Naiad Nature Nature's neceffary NOTE NOTE o'er obfervation ornament parterre perchance picturefque pleaſure Poem Poet praiſe precept prefent preſcribed purpoſe racter reafon rife rill ſcene ſcenery ſeem ſhade ſhall ſhe ſkill ſmile ſpace ſpread ſtate ſtep ſuch tafte taſte thee thefe theſe thofe thoſe thou thro tion uſe vafe vale verdure Verfe Verſe weft whofe whoſe wiſh καὶ
Popular passages
Page i - GOD ALMIGHTY first planted a Garden. And indeed it is the purest of human pleasures. It is the greatest refreshment to the spirits of man; without which buildings and palaces are but gross handyworks...
Page 16 - Led by the worst of guides, fell Tyranny, And ruthless Superstition, we now trace Her footsteps with delight; and pleas'd revere What once had rous'd our hatred.
Page 4 - Great Nature scorns control : she will not bear One beauty foreign to the spot or soil She gives thee to adorn : 'tis thine alone To mend, not change her features. . Does her hand Stretch forth a level lawn ? Ah, hope not thou To lift the mountain there. Do mountains frown •Around ? Ah, wish not there the level lawn.
Page 211 - I should hardly advise any of these attempts in the figure of gardens among us; they are adventures of too hard achievement for any common hands; and though there may be more honour if they succeed well, yet there is more dishonour if they fail, and it is twenty to one they will; whereas in regular figures it is hard to make any great and remarkable faults.
Page 209 - For all that nature by her mother wit Could frame in earth, and forme of substance base, Was there, and all that nature did omit, Art playing second natures part, supplyed it.
Page 210 - ... there may be other forms wholly irregular, that may, for aught I know, have more beauty than any of the others; but they must owe it to some extraordinary dispositions of nature in the seat, or some great race of fancy or judgment in the contrivance, which may reduce many disagreeing parts into some figure, which shall yet, upon the whole, be very agreeable.
Page 201 - On this account, our English gardens are not so entertaining to the fancy as those in France and Italy, where we see a large extent of ground covered over with an agreeable mixture of garden and forest, which represent every where an artificial rudeness, much more charming than that neatness and elegancy which we meet with in those of our own country.
Page 223 - Letters, and more from Chambers's little discourse, published some years ago ;* but it is very certain we copied nothing from them, nor had any thing but Nature for our model. It is not forty years since the art was born among us...
Page 8 - His reverend image in th' expanse below. If distant hills be wanting, yet our eye Forgets the want, and with delighted gaze Rests on the lovely fore-ground ; there applauds The art, which, varying forms and blending hues, If 5 Gives that harmonious force of shade and light, Which makes the landscape perfect.
Page 23 - The pencil's power : f but, fir'd by higher forms Of beauty, than that pencil knew to paint, Work'd with the living hues that Nature lent, And realiz'd his landscapes.