James Gates Percival Quotes

• Roses bloom, and then they wither;
  Cheeks are bright, then fade and die;
  Shapes of light are wafted hither,
  Then, like visions, hurry by.

  James Gates Percival

  Light, Rose, Vision

  James Gates Percival, Erasmus Darwin North (1866). “The Poetical Works of James Gates Percival: With a Biographical Sketch”, p.363

  23 Copy quote

• There are moments of life that we never forget, which brighten and brighten as time steals away.

  James Gates Percival

  Never Forget, Moments, Stealing

  4 Copy quote

• The thundering voice that wrings, in one dark, damning moment, crimes of years!

  James Gates Percival

  Dark, Years, Voice

  7 Copy quote

• The world is full of poetry. The air is living with its spirit; and the waves dance to the music of its melodies, and sparkle in its brightness.

  James Gates Percival

  Air, Poetry, World

  James Gates Percival, Erasmus Darwin North (1859). “The poetical works of James Gates Percival”, p.1

  16 Copy quote

• Thought can wing its way
  Swifter than lightning-flashes or the beam
  That hastens on the pinions of the morn.

  James Gates Percival

  Wings, Lightning, Way

  James Gates Percival, Erasmus Darwin North (1866). “The Poetical Works of James Gates Percival: With a Biographical Sketch”, p.170

  7 Copy quote

• In Eastern lands they talk in flowers,
  And they tell in a garland their loves and cares;
  Each blossom that blooms in their garden bowers,
  On its leaves a mystic language bears.

  James Gates Percival

  Flower, Garden, Land

  James Gates Percival, Erasmus Darwin North (1859). “The poetical works of James Gates Percival”, p.361

  6 Copy quote

• Our thoughts are boundless, though our frames are frail,
  Our souls immortal, though our limbs decay;
  Though darken'd in this poor life by a veil
  Of suffering, dying matter, we shall play
  In truth's eternal sunbeams; on the way
  To heaven's high capitol our cars shall roll;
  The temple of the Power whom all obey,
  That is the mark we tend to, for the soul
  Can take no lower flight, and seek no meaner goal.

  James Gates Percival

  Play, Goal, Car

  James Gates Percival (1821). “Poems by James G. Percival ...”, p.322

  8 Copy quote

• Sweet flower, thou tellest how hearts as pure and tender as thy leaf, as low and humble as thy stem, will surely know the joy that peace imparts.

  James Gates Percival

  Sweet, Flower, Heart

  James Gates Percival, James Gordon Brooks, James Lawson, Henry Denison, George Robertson (jr. of Savannah, Ga) (1828). “The Columbian lyre: or, Specimens of transatlantic poetry”, p.228

  4 Copy quote

• Green sods are all their monument; and yet it tells A nobler history than pillared piles, Or the eternal pyramids.

  James Gates Percival

  Memorial Day, Pyramids, Green

  James Gates Percival, Erasmus Darwin North (1859). “The poetical works of James Gates Percival”, p.286

  55 Copy quote

• The recollection of one upward hour
  Hath more in it to tranquilize and cheer
  The darkness of despondency, than years
  Of gayety and pleasure.

  James Gates Percival

  Cheer, Years, Darkness

  James Gates Percival (1822). “Prometheus, part II, with other poems”, p.105

  5 Copy quote

• How awful is that hour when con, science stings.

  James Gates Percival

  Awful, Hours, Conscience

  James Gates Percival (1823). “Poems”, p.72

  4 Copy quote

• I am one who finds within me a nobility that spurns the idle pratings of the great, and their mean boasts of what their fathers were, while they themselves are fools effeminate.

  James Gates Percival

  Father, Mean, Fool

  7 Copy quote

• There is nothing but death
  Our affections can sever,
  And till life's latest breath
  Love shall bind us for ever.

  James Gates Percival

  Affection, Constancy, Breaths

  James Gates Percival, Erasmus Darwin North (1866). “The Poetical Works of James Gates Percival: With a Biographical Sketch”, p.133

  7 Copy quote

• Happy the life, that in a peaceful stream,
  Obscure, unnoticed through the vale has flow'd;
  The heart that ne'er was charm'd by fortune's gleam
  Is ever sweet contentment's blest abode.

  James Gates Percival

  Sweet, Heart, Peaceful

  4 Copy quote

• O rose! the sweetest blossom,
  Of spring the fairest flower,
  O rose! the joy of heaven.
  The god of love, with roses
  His yellow locks adorning,
  Dances with the hours and graces.

  James Gates Percival

  Spring, Flower, Yellow

  James Gates Percival, Erasmus Darwin North (1866). “The Poetical Works of James Gates Percival: With a Biographical Sketch”, p.494

  4 Copy quote

• Night steals on; and the day takes its farewell, like the words of a departing friend, or the last tone of hallowed music in a minister's aisles, heard when it floats along the shade of elms, in the still place of graves.

  James Gates Percival

  Farewell, Night, Shade

  8 Copy quote

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