What Great Men Have Said About Women | Page 3

Book 9.
Greatness of mind and nobleness their seat?Build in her loveliest, and create an awe?About her, as a guard angelic placed.
Paradise Lost, Book 8.
Those graceful acts,?Those thousand decencies that daily flow?From all her words and actions mix'd with love?And sweet compliance, which declare unfeign'd?Union of mind, or in us both one soul;?Harmony to behold in wedded pair?More grateful than harmonious sound to the ear.
Paradise Lost, Book 8.
Come, pensive Nun, devout and pure,?Sober, steadfast, and demure.

With even step and musing gait;
And looks commercing with the skies,
Thy wrapt soul sitting in thine eyes.
Il Penseroso.
Innocence and virgin modesty?Her virtue, and the conscience of her worth,?That would be woo'd, and not unsought be won?Not obvious, not obtrusive, but retired?The more desirable.
Paradise Lost, Book 8.
Lady, thy care is fix'd, and zealously attends?To fill thy odorous lamp with deeds of light.?And hope that reaps not shame.
Sonnet.
A creature ...?... So lovely fair,?That what seem'd fair in all the world seem'd now?Mean, or in her summ'd up, in her contain'd.
Paradise Lost, Book 8.
All things from her air inspired?The spirit of love and amorous delight.
Paradise Lost, Book 8.
It is for homely features to keep home--?They had their name thence: coarse complexions?And cheeks of sorry grain will serve to ply?The sampler and to tease the housewife's wool.
Comus.
With dispatchful looks in haste?She turns, on hospitable thoughts intent.?What choice to choose for delicacy best,?What order, so contrived, as not to mix?Tastes, not well join'd, inelegant, but bring?Taste after taste upheld with kindliest change.
Paradise Lost, Book 5.
I do not think my sister ...?... So unprincipled in Virtue's book?And the sweet peace that goodness bosoms ever,?As that single want of light and noise?Could stir the constant mood of her calm thoughts,?And put them into misbecoming plight.?Virtue could see to do what Virtue would?By her own radiant light, though sun and moon?Were in the flat sea sunk. And Wisdom's self?Oft seeks to sweet retired solitude:?Where, with her best nurse, Contemplation,?She plumes her feathers, and lets grow her wings.?That in the various bustle of resort?Were all too ruffled, and sometimes impair'd.
Comus.
LORD BYRON.
Around her shone?The nameless charms unmark'd by her alone:?The light of love, the purity of grace,?The mind, the music breathing from her face,?The heart whose softness harmonized the whole--?And, oh! that eye was in itself a soul!
The Bride of Abydos, Canto 1.
Maidens, like moths, are ever caught by glare,?And Mammon wins his way where seraphs might despair.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto 1.
She was a form of life and light,?That, seen, became a part of sight;?And rose wher'er I turned mine eye,?The morning-star of memory!
The Giaour.
You know, or ought to know, enough of women,?Since you have studied, them so steadily,?That what they ask in aught that touches on?The heart, is dearer to their feelings or?Their fancy than the whole external world.
Sardanapalus, A. 4.
Oh! too convincing--dangerously dear--?In woman's eye the unanswerable tear!?That weapon of her weakness she can wield?To save, subdue--at once her spear and shield.
Corsair, Canto 2.
Who hath not proved how feebly words essay?To fix one spark of beauty's heavenly ray??Who doth not feel, until his failing sight?Faints into dimness with its own delight,?His changing cheek, his sinking heart confess?The might--the majesty of loveliness?
Bride of Abydos, Canto 1.
So bright the tear in beauty's eye,?Love half regrets to kiss it dry;?So sweet the blush of bashfulness,?Even pity scarce can wish it less!
The Bride of Abydos, Canto 1.
Her glossy hair was cluster'd o'er a brow?Bright with intelligence, and fair and smooth;?Her eyebrow's shape was like the a?rial bow?Her cheek all purple with the beam of youth?Mounting, at times to a transparent glow,?As if her veins ran lightning.
Don Juan, Canto 1.
Man's love is of man's life a thing apart,?Is woman's whole existence.
Don Juan, Canto 1.
Her very smile was haughty, though so sweet;?Her very nod was not an inclination;?There was a self-will even in her small feet,?As though they were quite conscious of her station;--

But nature teaches more than power can spoil,
And when a strong although a strange sensation
Moves--female hearts are such a genial soil
For kinder feelings, whatsoe'er their nation.
They naturally pour the "wine and oil,"
Samaritans in every situation.
Don Juan, Canto 5.
The earth has nothing like a she epistle,?And hardly heaven--because it never ends.?I love the mystery of a female missal,?Which like a creed ne'er says all it intends.
Don Juan, Canto 13.
Her chief resource was in her own high spirit,?Which judged mankind at their due estimation;?And for coquetry, she disdain'd to wear it:?Secure of admiration, its impression?Was faint, as of an every-day possession.
Don Juan, Canto 13.
An eye's an eye, and whether black or blue,?Is no great matter, so 'tis in request.?'Tis nonsense to dispute about a hue,?The kindest may be taken as a test.?The fair sex should be always fair; and no man?Till thirty, should perceive there's a plain woman.
Beppo.
She was not violently lively, but?Stole on your spirit like a May-day breaking;?Her eyes were not too sparkling, yet, half shut,?They put