Click in the field, then press CTRL+C to copy the HTML code
Copy
<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=529875" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>Sir Hornbook</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">I.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">O'er bush and briar Childe Launcelot sprung<br>With ardent hopes elate,<br>And loudly blew the horn that hung<br>Before Sir Hornbook's gate.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The inner portals opened wide,<br>And forward strode the chief,<br>Arrayed in paper helmet's pride,<br>And arms of golden leaf.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">--"What means,"--he cried,--"This daring noise,<br>That wakes the summer day?<br>I hate all idle truant boys:<br>Away, Sir Childe, away!"--</div><div style="margin:10px 0">--"No idle, truant boy am I,"--<br>Childe Launcelot answered straight;<br>--"Resolved to climb this hill so high,<br>I seek thy castle gate.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">"Behold the talisman I bear,<br>And aid my bold design:"--<br>Sir Hornbook gazed, and written there,<br>Knew Emulation's sign.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">"If Emulation sent thee here,"<br>Sir Hornbook quick replied,<br>"My merrymen all shall soon appear,<br>To aid thy cause with shield and spear,<br>And I will head thy bold career,<br>And prove thy faithful guide."--</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Loud rung the chains; the drawbridge fell;<br>The gates asunder flew:<br>The knight thrice beat the portal bell,<br>And thrice he call'd "Halloo."</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And out, and out, in hasty rout,<br>By ones, twos, threes, and fours;<br>His merrymen rush'd the walls without,<br>And stood before the doors.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br>II.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Full six and twenty men were they,<br>In line of battle spread:<br>The first that came was mighty A,<br>The last was little Z.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Six Vocal men Sir Hornbook had,<br>Four Double men to boot,<br>And four were Liquids soft and sad,<br>And all the rest were Mute.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">He called his Corporal, Syllable,<br>To range the scatter'd throng;<br>And Captain Word dispos'd them well<br>In bands compact and strong.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">--"Now mark, Sir Childe,"--Sir Hornbook said:--<br>"These well-compacted powers,<br>Shall lead thy vent'rous steps to tread<br>Through all the Muses' bowers,</div><div style="margin:10px 0">"If rightly thou thyself address,<br>To use their proffer'd aid:<br>Still unallur'd by idleness,<br>By labor undismay'd;</div><div style="margin:10px 0">"For many troubles intervene,<br>And perils widely spread,<br>Around the groves of evergreen,<br>That crown this mountain's head:<br>But rich reward he finds, I ween,<br>Who through them all has sped."--</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Childe Launcelot felt his bosom glow<br>At thought of noble deed;<br>Resolved through every path to go,<br>Where that bold knight should lead.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Sir Hornbook wound his bugle horn,<br>Full long, and loud, and shrill;<br>His merrymen all, for conquest born,<br>With armour glittering to the morn,<br>Went marching up the hill.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br>III.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">--"What men are you beside the way?"--<br>The bold Sir Hornbook cried:<br>--"My name is The, my brother's A,"--<br>Sir Article replied.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">"My brother's home is any where,<br>At large and undefin'd;<br>But I a preference ever bear<br>For one fix'd spot, and settle there;<br>Which speaks my constant mind."</div><div style="margin:10px 0">--"What ho! Childe Launcelot! seize them there,<br>And look you have them sure!"--<br>--Sir Hornbook cried,--"my men shall bear<br>Your captives off secure."--</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The twain were seized: Sir Hornbook blew<br>His bugle loud and shrill:<br>His merrymen all, so stout and true,<br>Went marching up the hill.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br>IV.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And now a wider space they gained,<br>A steeper, harder ground,<br>Where by one ample wall contained,<br>All earthly things they found:</div><div style="margin:10px 0">All beings, rich, poor, weak, or wise,<br>Were there, full strange to see,<br>And attributes and qualities<br>Of high and low degree.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Before the circle stood a knight,<br>Sir Substantive his name,<br>With Adjective, his lady bright,<br>Who seemed a portly dame;</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Yet only seemed; for whenso'er<br>She strove to stand alone,<br>She proved no more than smoke and air,<br>Who looked like flesh and bone.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And therefore to her husband's arm<br>She clung for evermore,<br>And lent him many a grace and charm<br>He had not known before;</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Yet these the knight felt well advised,<br>He might have done without;<br>For lightly foreign help he prized<br>He was so staunch and stout.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Five sons had they, their dear delight,<br>Of different forms and faces;<br>And two of them were Numbers bright,<br>And three they christened Cases.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Now loudly rung Sir Hornbook's horn;<br>Childe Launcelot poised his spear;<br>And on they rushed, to conquest borne,<br>In swift and full career.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Sir Substantive kicked down the wall:<br>It fell with furious rattle:<br>And earthly things and beings all<br>Rushed forth to join the battle.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">But earthly things and beings all,<br>Through mixed in boundless plenty,<br>Must one by one dissolving fall<br>To Hornbook's six-and-twenty.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Childe Launcelot won the arduous fray,<br>And, when they ceased from strife,<br>Led stout Sir Substantive away,<br>His children, and his wife.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Sir Hornbook wound his horn again,<br>Full long, and loud, and shrill:<br>His merrymen all, a warlike train,<br>Went marching up the hill.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br>V.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Now when Sir Pronoun look'd abroad,<br>And spied the coming train,<br>He left his fort beside the road,<br>And ran with might and main.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Two cloth-yard shafts from I and U,<br>Went forth with whizzing sound:<br>Like lightning sped the arrows true;<br>Sir Pronoun pressed the ground:<br>But darts of science ever flew<br>To conquer, not to wound.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">His fear was great: his hurt was small:<br>Childe Launcelot took his hand:<br>--"Sir Knight,"--said he,--"though doomed to fall<br>Before my conquering band,</div><div style="margin:10px 0">"Yet knightly treatment shall you find,<br>On faith of cavalier:<br>Then join Sir Substantive behind,<br>And follow our career."--</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Sir Substantive, that man of might,<br>Felt knightly anger rise;<br>For he had marked Sir Pronoun's flight<br>With no approving eyes.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">"Great Substantive, my sovereign liege!"--<br>Thus sad Sir Pronoun cried,<br>--"When you had fallen in furious siege,<br>Could I the shock abide?"</div><div style="margin:10px 0">"That all resistance would be vain,<br>Too well, alas! I knew:<br>For what could I, when you were ta'en,<br>Your poor lieutenant, do?"</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then louder rung Sir Hornbook's horn,<br>In signals long and shrill:<br>His merrymen all, for conquest born,<br>Went marching up the hill.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br>VI.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Now steeper grew the rising ground,<br>And rougher grew the road,<br>As up the steep ascent they wound<br>To bold Sir Verb's abode.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Sir Verb was old, and many a year,<br>All scenes and climates seeing,<br>Had run a wild and strange career<br>Through every mode of being.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And every aspect, shape, and change<br>Of action, and of passion:<br>And known to him was all the range<br>Of feeling, taste, and fashion.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">He was an Augur, quite at home<br>In all things present done,<br>Deeds past, and every act to come<br>In ages yet to run.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Entrenched in intricacies strong,<br>Ditch, fort, and palisado,<br>He marked with scorn the coming throng,<br>And breathed a bold bravado:</div><div style="margin:10px 0">--"Ho! who are you that dare invade<br>My turrets, moats, and fences?<br>Soon will your vaunting courage fade,<br>When you on the walls, in lines array'd,<br>You see me marshal undismay'd<br>My host of moods and tenses."--</div><div style="margin:10px 0">--"In vain,"--Childe Launcelot cried in scorn,--<br>--"On them is your reliance;"--<br>Sir Hornbook wound his bugle horn,<br>And twange'd a loud defiance.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">They swam the moat, they scal'd the wall,<br>Sir Verb, with rage and shame,<br>Beheld his valiant general fall,<br>Infinitive by name.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Indicative declar'd the foes<br>Should perish by his hand;<br>And stout Imperative arose,<br>The squadron to command.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Potential and Subjunctive then<br>Came forth with doubt and chance:<br>All fell alike, with all their men,<br>Before Sir Hornbook's lance.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Action and Passion nought could do<br>To save Sir Verb from fate;<br>Whose doom poor Participle knew,<br>He must participate.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then Adverb, who had skulk'd behind,<br>To shun the mighty jar,<br>Came forward, and himself resign'd<br>A prisoner of war.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Three children of Imperative,<br>Full strong, though somewhat small,<br>Next forward came, themselves to give<br>To conquering Launcelot's thrall.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Conjunction press'd to join the crowd;<br>But Preposition swore,<br>Though Interjection sobb'd aloud,<br>That he would go before.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Again his horn Sir Hornbook blew,<br>Full long, and loud, and shrill;<br>His merrymen all, so stout and true,<br>Went marching up the hill.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br>VII.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Sir Syntax dwelt in thick fir-grove,<br>All strown with scraps of flowers,<br>Which he had pluck'd to please his love,<br>Among the Muses' bowers.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">His love was gentle Prosody,<br>More fair than morning beam;<br>Who liv'd beneath a flowering tree,<br>Beside a falling stream.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And these two claim'd, with high pretence<br>The whole Parnassian ground,<br>Albeit some little difference<br>Between their taste was found:<br>Sir Syntax he was all for sense,<br>And Prosody for sound.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Yet in them both the Muses fair<br>Exceedingly delighted;<br>And thought no earthly thing so rare,<br>That might with that fond twain compare,<br>When they were both united.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">--"Ho! yield, Sir Syntax!"--Hornbook cried,<br>"This youth must pass thy grove,<br>Led on by me, his faithful guide,<br>In yonder bowers to rove."--</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Thereat full much, Sir Syntax said,<br>But found resistance vain:<br>And through his grove Childe Launcelot sped,<br>With all Sir Hornbook's train.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">They reach'd the tree where Prosody<br>Was singing in the shade:<br>Great joy Childe Launcelot had to see,<br>And hear that lovely maid.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Now, onward as they press'd along,<br>Did nought their course oppose;<br>Till full before the martial throng<br>The Muses' gates arose.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">There Etymology they found,<br>Who scorn'd surrounding fruits;<br>And ever dug in deepest ground,<br>For old and mouldy Roots.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Sir Hornbook took Childe Launcelot's hand,<br>And tears at parting fell:<br>--"Sir Childe,"--he said,--"with all my band<br>I bid you here farewell.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">"Then wander through these sacred bowers,<br>Unfearing and alone:<br>All shrubs are hear, and fruits, and flowers,<br>To happiest climates known."--</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Once more his horn Sir Hornbook blew,<br>A parting signal shrill:<br>His merrymen all, so stout and true,<br>Went marching down the hill.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Childe Launcelot pressed the sacred ground,<br>With hope's exulting glow;<br>Some future song perchance may sound<br>The wondrous thing which there he found,<br>If you the same would know.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Thomas+Love+Peacock">Thomas Love Peacock</a><div class=q> <img src="https://www.citatepedia.ro/g/32share.png" style="float:left" alt="Share"> <script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=529875" data-title="Sir Hornbook de Thomas Love Peacock" data-description="I. O'er bush and briar Childe Launcelot sprung With ardent hopes elate, And loudly blew the horn that hung Before Sir Hornbook's gate. The inner portals opened wide, And forward strode the chief, Arrayed in paper helmet's pride, And arms of gold..."></div> </div> </div>
solid border
dashed border
dotted border
double border
groove border
ridge border
inset border
outset border
no border
blue
green
red
purple
cyan
gold
silver
black