“Ruin seize thee, ruthless King!
Confusion on thy banners wait,
Though fanned by Conquest's crimson wing
They mock the air with idle state.”
I. 1. lines 1-4
The Bard (1757)
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Thomas Gray 81
English poet, historian 1716–1771Related quotes
“Thy possessions have made thee a hollow image; they have ruined thee and left thee.”
in A Spiritual Psalter (2004), p. 267
“Idleness ere now has ruined both kings and wealthy cities.”
Otium et reges prius et beatas
perdidit urbes.
LI, last lines
Carmina
“World-mothering air, air wild,
Wound with thee, in thee isled,
Fold home, fast fold thy child.”
"The Blessed Virgin compared to the Air we Breathe", lines 124-126
Wessex Poems and Other Verses (1918)
Arthur, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
On Mr. John Fletcher's Works. Compare: "Poets are sultans, if they had their will; For every author would his brother kill", Roger Boyle, 1st Earl of Orrery, Prologues (republished in Dramatic Works, 1739); "Should such a man, too fond to rule alone, Bear, like the Turk, no brother near the throne", Alexander Pope, Prologue to the Satires, line 197.
(2nd August 1823) both from Songs
The London Literary Gazette, 1823
“Take him, earth, for cherishing,
To thy tender breast receive him.
Body of a man I bring thee,
Noble even in its ruin.”
Nunc suscipe, terra, fovendum,<br/>gremioque hunc concipe molli.<br/>Hominis tibi membra sequestro,<br/>generosa et fragmina credo.
Nunc suscipe, terra, fovendum,
gremioque hunc concipe molli.
Hominis tibi membra sequestro,
generosa et fragmina credo.
"Hymnus X: Ad Exequias Defuncti", line 125 ; translation from Helen Waddell Mediaeval Latin Lyrics (London: Constable, [1929] 1943) p. 45.