dots-menu
×

Home  »  Familiar Quotations  »  Page 644

John Bartlett (1820–1905). Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. 1919.

Page 644

 
 
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. (1807–1882) (continued)
 
6528
    With useless endeavour
Forever, forever,
Is Sisyphus rolling
His stone up the mountain!
          The Masque of Pandora. Chorus of the Eumenides.
6529
    All things come round to him who will but wait. 1 
          Tales of a Wayside Inn. Part i. The Student’s Tale.
6530
    A town that boasts inhabitants like me
Can have no lack of good society.
          Tales of a Wayside Inn. The Poet’s Tale. Part i. The Birds of Killingworth.
6531
    Ships that pass in the night and speak each other in passing;
Only a signal shown and a distant voice in the darkness;
So on the ocean of life we pass and speak one another, 2 
Only a look and a voice; then darkness again and a silence.
          Tales of a Wayside Inn. Part iii. The Theologian’s Tale: Elizabeth. iv.
6532
        Time has laid his hand
Upon my heart gently, not smiting it,
But as a harper lays his open palm
Upon his harp, to deaden its vibrations.
          The Golden Legend. iv.
6533
    Hospitality sitting with Gladness.
          Translation from Frithiof’s Saga.
 
Note 1.
See Emerson, page 617. [back]
Note 2.
And soon, too soon, we part with pain,
To sail o’er silent seas again.
Thomas Moore: Meeting of the Ships.

Two lives that once pass are as ships that divide.
Edward Bulwer Lytton. A Lament.

We twain have met like the ships upon the sea.
Alexander Smith. A Life Drama.

As two floating planks meet and part on the sea,
O friend! so I met and then parted from thee.
W. R. Alger: The brief chance Encounter.
  As vessels starting from ports thousands of miles apart pass close to each other in the naked breadths of the ocean, nay, sometimes even touch in the dark.
Holmes: Professor at the Breakfast Table. [back]