Hoyt & Roberts, comps. Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations. 1922.
Rainbow
God’s glowing covenant.
Hosea Ballou—MS. Sermons.
And, lo! in the dark east, expanded high,
The rainbow brightens to the setting Sun.
Beattie—The Minstrel. Bk. I. St. 30.
’Tis sweet to listen as the night winds creep
From leaf to leaf; ’tis sweet to view on high
The rainbow, based on ocean, span the sky.
Byron—Don Juan. Canto I. St. 122.
Triumphal arch, that fill’st the sky
When storms prepare to part,
I ask not proud Philosophy
To teach me what thou art.
Campbell—To the Rainbow.
Over her hung a canopy of state,
Not of rich tissue, nor of spangled gold,
But of a substance, though not animate,
Yet of a heavenly and spiritual mould,
That only eyes of spirits might behold.
Giles Fletcher—The Rainbow. L. 33.
O beautiful rainbow;—all woven of light!
There’s not in thy tissue one shadow of night;
Heaven surely is open when thou dost appear,
And, bending above thee, the angels draw near,
And sing,—“The rainbow! the rainbow!
The smile of God is here.”
Mrs. Sarah J. Hale—Poems.
God loves an idle rainbow,
No less than laboring seas.
Ralph Hodgson—Three Poems.
There was an awful rainbow once in heaven;
We know her woof, her texture; she is given
In the dull catalogue of common things.
Philosophy will clip an Angel’s wings.
Keats—Lamia. Pt. II. L. 231.
Pride of the dewy morning,
The swain’s experienced eye
From thee takes timely warning,
Nor trusts the gorgeous sky.
Keble—Christian Year. (25th Sunday after Trinity.) On the Rainbow.
A rainbow in the morning
Is the Shepherd’s warning;
But a rainbow at night
Is the Shepherd’s delight.
Old Weather Rhyme.
What skilful limner o’er would choose
To paint the rainbow’s varying hues,
Unless to mortal it were given
To dip his brush in dyes of heaven?
Scott—Marmion. Canto VI. St. 5.
Mild arch of promise! on the evening sky
Thou shinest fair with many a lovely ray,
Each in the other melting.
Southey—Sonnets. The Evening Rainbow.
Rain, rain, and sun! a rainbow in the sky!
Tennyson—Idylls of the King. The Coming of Arthur. L. 401.
Hung on the shower that fronts the golden West,
The rainbow bursts like magic on mine eyes!
In hues of ancient promise there imprest;
Frail in its date, eternal in its guise.
Charles Tennyson Turner—Sonnets and Fugitive Pieces. The Rainbow.
Bright pledge of peace and sunshine! the sure tie
Of thy Lord’s hand, the object of His eye!
When I behold thee, though my light be dim,
Distinct, and low, I can in thine see Him
Who looks upon thee from His glorious throne,
And minds the covenant between all and One.
Vaughan—The Rainbow.