“Twas when the seas were roaring
With hollow blasts of wind,
A damsel lay deploring,
All on a rock reclined.”

—  John Gay

The What D'ye Call It (1715), Act II, sc. viii

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Twas when the seas were roaring With hollow blasts of wind, A damsel lay deploring, All on a rock reclined." by John Gay?
John Gay photo
John Gay 56
English poet and playwright 1685–1732

Related quotes

Frederic William Henry Myers photo
James Macpherson photo

“Go, view the settling sea: the stormy wind is laid. The billows still tremble on the deep. They seem to fear the blast.”

James Macpherson (1736–1796) Scottish writer, poet, translator, and politician

"Conlath and Cuthona"
The Poems of Ossian

Matthew Arnold photo
Torquato Tasso photo

“With equal rage, as when the southern wind,
Meeteth in battle strong the northern blast.”

Torquato Tasso (1544–1595) Italian poet

Canto IX, stanza 52 (tr. Fairfax)
Gerusalemme Liberata (1581)

Salvador Dalí photo
Thomas Gray photo

“Twas on a lofty vase's side,
Where China's gayest art had dyed
The azure flowers, that blow;
Demurest of the tabby kind,
The pensive Selima reclined,
Gazed on the lake below.”

Thomas Gray (1716–1771) English poet, historian

St. 1
On the Death of a Favourite Cat http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?textodfc (1747)

“As strong, as deep, as wide as is the sea,
Though by the wind made restless as the wind,
By billows fretted and by rocks confined,
So strong, so deep, so wide my love for thee.”

Francis William Bourdillon (1852–1921) British poet

"Sonnet II" in Scribner's Monthly Vol. IX (November 1874 - April 1875), p. 359.

“Race the roaring Fraser to the sea.”

Stan Rogers (1949–1983) Folk singer

Northwest Passage (1981)

Torquato Tasso photo

“Like as the wind, stopped by some wood or hill,
Grows strong and fierce, tears boughs and trees in twain,
But with mild blasts, more temperate, gentle, still,
Blows through the ample field or spacious plain;
Against the rocks as sea-waves murmur shrill,
But silent pass amid the open main:
Rinaldo so, when none his force withstood,
Assuaged his fury, calmed his angry mood.”

Torquato Tasso (1544–1595) Italian poet

Qual vento a cui s'oppone o selva o colle,
Doppia nella contesa i soffj e l'ira;
Ma con fiato più placido e più molle
Per le campagne libere poi spira.
Come fra scoglj il mar spuma e ribolle:
E nell'aperto onde più chete aggira.
Così quanto contrasto avea men saldo,
Tanto scemava il suo furor Rinaldo.
Canto XX, stanza 58 (tr. Fairfax)
Gerusalemme Liberata (1581)

Related topics