"Philomel" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... a man who saw him and heard him singing, caught him, and took him round the world in a cage for show. The value of him was discovered. Great crowds came to see the little Jackdaw, and to hear him sing. He was described now as the "Amphabulous Philomel, or the Mongrel-Minstrel"; but it gave ...
— The Blue Moon • Laurence Housman
... minstrelsy, farewell! The rose is colourless and withering fast, Sweet Philomel her song forgets to swell, And Summer's rich variety is past! The sear leaves wander, and the hoar of age Gathers her trophy for the dying year, And following in her noiseless pilgrimage, Waters her couch with many a pearly tear. ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction - Volume 14, No. 392, Saturday, October 3, 1829. • Various
... Princess, recognizing the voice of one of her favourites, 'Philomel, my sweet one, who taught ...
— The Green Fairy Book • Various
... vanish'd larks are carolling above, To wake Apollo with their pipings loud;— If ever thou hast heard in leafy shroud The sweet and plaintive Sappho of the dell, Show thy sweet mercy on this little crowd, And we will muffle up the sheepfold bell Whene'er thou listenest to Philomel." ...
— The Poetical Works of Thomas Hood • Thomas Hood
... replied Malcolm; 'Philomel, that pierces her breast with a thorn, and sings sweetly ...
— The Caged Lion • Charlotte M. Yonge
... and wakeful to destroy. In the full fold, the poor defenceless lamb, Seized by his guileful arts, with sweet warm blood Supplies a rich repast. The mournful ewe, Her dearest treasure lost, through the dun night Wanders perplexed, and darkling bleats in vain: 30 While in the adjacent bush, poor Philomel, (Herself a parent once, till wanton churls Despoiled her nest) joins in her loud laments, With sweeter notes, and more melodious woe. For these nocturnal thieves, huntsman, prepare Thy sharpest vengeance. Oh! how glorious 'tis To right the oppressed, and bring the felon vile To just disgrace! ...
— The Poetical Works of Addison; Gay's Fables; and Somerville's Chase • Joseph Addison, John Gay, William Sommerville
... grey-brown above and white beneath. Though larger than the nightingale, to which it has often been compared, it has a superior and more varied voice, but lacks that sweetness of expression and melancholy charm which have made the reputation of the plaintive Philomel. It has, however, a song of its own, composed of a dozen syllables, clear, sonorous, and harmonious, which runs over an extensive scale. At first, it entertained us with its own song, but in a short time began imitating those of other birds, which it did to perfection; indeed, ...
— In the Wilds of Florida - A Tale of Warfare and Hunting • W.H.G. Kingston
... the lea, With nimble wing she sporteth; By vows she'll flee from tree to tree Where Philomel resorteth: By break of day, the lark can say, I'll bid you a good-morrow, I'll streik my wing, and mounting sing, O'er ...
— The Life of Mansie Wauch - tailor in Dalkeith • D. M. Moir
... water's reflection is true, The green is enamell'd to view, And Philomel sings on the spray; The gale is the breathing of spring, 'Tis fragrance it bears on its wing, And the bee is assur'd it ...
— Memoirs of the Life of the Rt. Hon. Richard Brinsley Sheridan V1 • Thomas Moore
... Hovell-Thurlow The Jackdaw William Cowper The Green Linnet William Wordsworth To the Man-of-War-Bird Walt Whitman The Maryland Yellow-Throat Henry Van Dyke Lament of a Mocking-bird Frances Anne Kemble "O Nightingale! Thou Surely Art" William Wordsworth Philomel Richard Barnfield Philomela Matthew Arnold On a Nightingale in April William Sharp To the Nightingale William Drummond The Nightingale Mark Akenside To the Nightingale John Milton Philomela Philip Sidney Ode to a Nightingale John Keats Song, 'Tis sweet to hear the merry lark Hartley ...
— The Home Book of Verse, Vol. 1 (of 4) • Various
... plumes a cheerful white display, His quivering wings are dressed in sober gray, Sure all the Muses this their bird inspire, And he alone is equal to a choir. Oh, sweet musician! thou dost far excel The soothing song of pleasing Philomel: Sweet is her song, but in few notes confined, But thine, thou mimic of the feathery kind! Runs thro' all notes: thou only know'st them all, At once ...
— The Entailed Hat - Or, Patty Cannon's Times • George Alfred Townsend
... dry smooth-shaven green" paced on solitary evenings "to the far-off curfew's sound," beneath those groves of forest-trees among which "Philomel still deigns a song" and the spirit of contemplation lingers still; whether the silent avenues stand in the summer twilight filled with fragrance of the lime, or the long rows of chestnut engirdle the autumn river-lawns ...
— Wordsworth • F. W. H. Myers
... Flora and Zephyr there in painting drew The violets tinted, as of lovers' flame, The iris, and the rose all fair and fresh E'en as it doth on cheek of maiden blush.... Along the water sings the snow-white swan, While from the branch respondeth Philomel.... Here, in its bill, to the dear nest, with care, The rapid little bird the ...
— The Development of the Feeling for Nature in the Middle Ages and - Modern Times • Alfred Biese
... can stand Philomel's cooking," he went on, "though I might try to get her mother while you are here. Do you think she ...
— The Awakening and Selected Short Stories • Kate Chopin
... eves possess With the swift pilgrim's daubed nest; The groves already did rejoice In Philomel's ...
— The Complete Angler • Izaak Walton
... of love-lorn Poets, Philomel! How many Bards in city garret pent, While at their window they with downward eye Mark the faint lamp-beam on the kennell'd mud, And listen to the drowsy cry of Watchmen 5 (Those hoarse unfeather'd Nightingales of Time!), How many wretched Bards address thy name, And hers, the full-orb'd ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge - Vol I and II • Samuel Taylor Coleridge
... sing; And add to these retired Leisure, That in trim gardens takes his pleasure; But first, and chiefest, with thee bring Him that yon soars on golden wing, Guiding the fiery-wheeled throne, The cherub Contemplation; And the mute Silence hist along, 'Less Philomel will deign a song In her sweetest, saddest plight, Smoothing the rugged brow of Night, While Cynthia checks her dragon yoke, Gently o'er the accustomed oak; —Sweet bird, that shunn'st the noise of folly, Most musical, most melancholy; ...
— MacMillan's Reading Books - Book V • Anonymous
... varied shades of glimm'ring light, The distant landscape fade away In the last gleam of parting day: Or, on the quiv'ring lucid stream, To watch the pale moon's silv'ry beam; Or when, in sad and plaintive strains, The mournful Philomel complains, In dulcet tones bewails her fate, And murmurs for her absent mate; Inspir'd by sympathy divine, I'll weep her woes—for they are mine. Driv'n by my fate, where'er I go, O'er burning plains, o'er hills of snow, Or on the bosom of the wave, ...
— Beaux and Belles of England • Mary Robinson
... of the whole field seemed to be full of singing birds. There were larks and finches and linnets and thrushes, and I think other birds whose name I do not remember. But when the nightingale set up his song every other bird stopped. They seemed as much spellbound by the singing as he was, and Philomel had the field to himself till the song was over. It was as if Jenny Lind had come into a country church when the rustic choir of ...
— Autobiography of Seventy Years, Vol. 1-2 • George Hoar
... employ; And, unattended by sincere repose, The night assists my ever-wakeful woes; When nature's hush'd beneath her brooding shade, My echoing griefs the starry vault invade. As when the months are clad in flowery green, Sad Philomel, in bowery shades unseen, To vernal airs attunes her varied strains; And Itylus sounds warbling o'er the plains; Young Itylus, his parents' darling joy! Whom chance misled the mother to destroy; Now doom'd a wakeful bird to wail the beauteous boy. So in nocturnal solitude ...
— The Odyssey of Homer • Homer, translated by Alexander Pope |
