John Bartlett (1820–1905). Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. 1919.
Robert Montgomery 1807-1855 John Bartlett
| 1 |
| And thou, vast ocean! on whose awful face Time’s iron feet can print no ruin-trace. 1 |
| The Omnipresence of the Deity. Part i. |
| 2 |
| The soul aspiring pants its source to mount, As streams meander level with their fount. 2 |
| The Omnipresence of the Deity. Part i. |
| 3 |
| The solitary monk who shook the world From pagan slumber, when the gospel trump Thundered its challenge from his dauntless lips In peals of truth. |
| Luther. Man’s Need and God’s Supply. |
| 4 |
| Ye quenchless stars! so eloquently bright, Untroubled sentries of the shadowy night. |
| The starry Heavens. |
| Note 1. See Byron, page 547. [back] |
| Note 2. We take this to be, on the whole, the worst similitude in the world. In the first place, no stream meanders or can possibly meander level with the fount. In the next place, if streams did meander level with their founts, no two motions can be less like each other than that of meandering level and that of mounting upwards.—Macaulay: Review of Montgomery’s Poems (Eleventh Edition). Edinburgh Review, April, 1830. These lines were omitted in the subsequent edition of the poem. [back] |