Hoyt & Roberts, comps. Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations. 1922.
Boating
Oh, swiftly glides the bonnie boat,
Just parted from the shore,
And to the fisher’s chorus-note,
Soft moves the dipping oar!
Joanna Baillie—Song. Oh, Swiftly glides the Bonnie Boat.
Like the watermen that row one way and look another.
Burton—Anatomy of Melancholy. Democritus to the Reader.
On the ear
Drops the light drip of the suspended oar.
Byron—Childe Harold. Canto III. St. 86.
But oars alone can ne’er prevail
To reach the distant coast;
The breath of Heaven must swell the sail,
Or all the toil is lost.
Cowper—Human Frailty. St. 6.
We lie and listen to the hissing waves,
Wherein our boat seems sharpening its keel,
Which on the sea’s face all unthankful graves
An arrowed scratch as with a tool of steel.
John Davidson—In a Music-Hall and Other Poems. For Lovers. L. 17.
The Owl and the Pussy-Cat went to sea
In a beautiful pea-green boat.
Edward Lear—The Owl and the Pussy-Cat.
And all the way, to guide their chime,
With falling oars they kept the time.
Andrew Marvell—Bermudas.
Like the watermen who advance forward while they look backward.
Montaigne—Bk. II. Ch. XXIX. Of Profit and Honesty.
Faintly as tolls the evening chime,
Our voices keep tune and our oars keep time,
Soon as the woods on shore look dim,
We’ll sing at St. Ann’s our parting hymn;
Row, brothers, row, the stream runs fast,
The rapids are near and the daylight’s past!
Moore—Canadian Boat Song.
Gracefully, gracefully glides our bark
On the bosom of Father Thames,
And before her bows the wavelets dark
Break into a thousand gems.
Thos. Noel—A Thames Voyage.
Like watermen who look astern while they row the boat ahead.
Plutarch—Whether ’twas rightfully said, Live concealed.
Learn of the little nautilus to sail,
Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale.
Pope—Essay on Man. Ep. III. L. 177.
The oars were silver:
Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke.
Antony and Cleopatra. Act II. Sc. 2. L. 199.