Grocott & Ward, comps. Grocott’s Familiar Quotations, 6th ed. 189-?.
Rainbow
Look upon the rainbow, and praise him that made it; very beautiful it is in the brightness thereof; it compasseth the heaven about with a glorious circle, and the hands of the Most High have bended it.
Ecclesiasticus, Chap. xliii. Verses 11, 12.
So shines the setting sun on adverse skies,
And paints a rainbow on the storm.
Dr. Watts.—Lyric Poems, The Disappointment and Relief.
That gracious thing, made up of tears and light.
Coleridge.—The Two Founts, Verse 5.
What skilful limner e’er would choose
To paint the rainbow’s various hues,
Unless to mortal it were given
To dip his brush in dyes of heaven?
Scott.—Marmion, Verse 5.
Thou, my Zuleika, share and bless my bark;
The dove of peace and promise to mine ark!
Or, since that hope’s denied in worlds of strife,
Be thou the rainbow to the storms of life!
The evening beam that smiles the clouds away,
And tints to-morrow with prophetic ray!
Byron.—The Bride of Abydos, Canto II. Stanza 20.
See in the rear of the warm sunny shower,
The visionary boy from shelter fly;
For now the storm of summer rain is o’er,
And cool, and fresh, and fragrant is the sky.
And lo! in the dark east, expanded high,
The rainbow brightens to the setting sun!
Fond fool, that deem’st the streaming glory nigh,
How vain the chase thine ardour has begun!
’Tis fled afar ere half thy purposed race be run.
Beattie.—The Minstrel, Book I. Stanza 30.
So to the unthinking boy the distant sky
Seems on some mountain’s surface to rely;
He with ambitious haste climbs the ascent,
Curious to touch the firmament;
But when with an unwearied pace,
He is arrived at the long-wish’d for place,
With sighs the sad defeat he does deplore,
His heaven is still as distant as before!
John Norris.—The Infidel.