A Manual, More Ancient Than The Art Of Printing, And Not To Be Found In Any Catalogue
There is a book, which we may call
(Its excellence is such)
Alone a library, though small;
The ladies thumb it much.
Words none, things numerous it contains:
And thing with words compared,
Who needs be told, that has his brains,
Which merits most regard?
Ofttimes its leaves of scarlet hue
A golden edging boast;
And open’d, it displays to view
Twelve pages at the most.
Nor name, nor title, stamp’d behind,
Adorns its outer part;
But all within ‘tis richly lined,
A magazine of art.
The whitest hands that secret hoard
Oft visit: and the fair
Preserve it in their bosoms stored,
As with a miser’s care.
Thence implements of every size,
And form’d for various use
(They need but to consult their eyes),
They readily produce.
The largest and the longest kind
Possess the foremost page;
A sort most needed by the blind,
Or nearly such, from age.
The full charged leaf which next ensues,
Presents in bright array
The smaller sort, which matrons use,
Not quite so blind as they.
The third, the fourth, the fifth supply
What their occasions ask,
Who with a more discerning eye
Perform a nicer task.
But still with regular decrease,
From size to size they fall,
In every leaf grow less and less;
The last are least of all.
Oh! what a fund of genius, pent
In narrow space is here!
This volume’s method and intent
How luminous and clear!
It leaves no reader at a loss
Or posed, whoever reads:
No commentator’s tedious gloss,
Nor even index needs.
Search Bodley’s many thousands o’er!
No book is treasured there,
Nor yet in Granta’s numerous store,
That may with this compare.
No!—rival none in either host
Of this was ever seen,
Or, that contents could justly boast,
So brilliant and so keen.
poem by William Cowper
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Related quotes
The Book, Trees and Leaves
The book
at the used book store
had a leaf pressed between its pages,
its veins showing;
pressed flat
and brown;
an unwilling bookmark-
the pages of the ages.
The tree
its mother,
died for those pages
her offspring
flattened out
upon mother's page breast
tiny lines and squiggles
between the veins;
no tree can read
no leaf can comprehend.
I take the leaf to give it a proper burial
in the compost heap
so that its remains
have a small chance
of one day
becoming part of a tree.
I lay its leafy body down
thinking;
'I think I shall never see
anything a lovely as a tree.'
In years
a bookmark it will make
upon my backyard landscape
marking Nature's Chapter entitled
'Ironies.'
.
poem by Lonnie Hicks
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From the Forests
Where in a green, moist, myrtle dell
The torrent voice rings strong
And clear, above a star-bright well,
I write this woodland song.
The melodies of many leaves
Float in a fragrant zone;
And here are flowers by deep-mossed eaves
That day has never known.
I'll weave a garland out of these,
The darlings of the birds,
And send it over singing seas
With certain sunny words -
With certain words alive with light
Of welcome for a thing
Of promise, born beneath the white,
Soft afternoon of Spring.
The faithful few have waited long
A life like this to see;
And they will understand the song
That flows to-day from me.
May every page within this book
Be as a radiant hour;
Or like a bank of mountain brook,
All flower and leaf and flower.
May all the strength and all the grace
Of Letters make it beam
As beams a lawn whose lovely face
Is as a glorious dream.
And may that strange divinity
That men call Genius write
Some deathless thing in days to be,
To fill those days with light.
Here where the free, frank waters run,
I pray this book may grow
A sacred candour like the sun
Above the morning snow.
May noble thoughts in faultless words -
In clean white diction - make
It shine as shines the home of birds
And moss and leaf and lake.
This fair fresh life with joy I hail,
And this belief express,
Its days will be a brilliant tale
Of effort and success.
Here ends my song; I have a dream
Of beauty like the grace
Which lies upon the land of stream
In yonder mountain place.
poem by Henry Kendall
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A Closed Book
A book unopened
leaves words to die.
A book unopened
leaves words to lie
in perpetuity,
never alive, never free
to deliver its thoughts
for any to see.
Who was the writer?
What did he pen?
The absence of readers
are lost and then
the book lies quietly
on a shelf
and maybe all by itself it knows.
It will never be opened.
It will always be closed,
just like some people
who won't open up
and speak their words to you.
Their life is something
you'll never know,
something you won't view.
For they are a closed book too.
poem by Edwina Reizer
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Alankar (Decor) -11
Symbol-Temple
He makes His abode
Huge much His size
The size of cosmos
Sized full His size
That room is small
But His holy house
He makes His abode
But full His size
Dim, dumb, mute occult
Lit hearts light Him
Leaning on a measure
He sleeps wide awake
Lonely boons line lot
Like Kupera for myself
My soul's hunting quest
VaiththaMaaNidhi peeks
(On a visit to Thirukoloor
one of the 108 Vishnu-shrines)
poem by Indira Renganathan
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Shes Actual Size
Words fail
Buildings tumble
The ground opens wide
Light beams down from heaven
She stands before my eyes
Shes actual size, but she seems much bigger to me
Squares may look distant in her rear view mirror but theyre actual size
As she drives away
Big men
Often tremble
As they step aside
I thought I was big once
She changed my mind
Shes actual size, but she seems much bigger to me.
Ive never known anybody like her, shes actual size
Nationwide, believe
Shes got
All the money
Money couldnt buy
Shes got something special
That someone left behind
Shes actual size, but she seems much bigger to me
Squares may look distant in her rear view mirror but theyre actual size
Actual size to her
Her face
Hangs in portrait
On the post office wall
Shes stuck in my heart now
Where my blood belongs
Shes actual size, but she seems much bigger to me
Ive never known anybody like her, shes actual size
Actual size, believe
Notes
Heres the best guess so far about the lyrics to larger than life. please give input. I need help with all of the reggae lyrics!
Shes actual size, but she seems much bigger to me
Words fail
Buildings tumble
The ground opens wide
Light beams down from heaven
She stands before my eyes
Shes actual size, but she seems much bigger to me
Squares may look distant in her rear view mirror but theyre actual size
As she drives away
Big men
Often tremble
As they step aside
I thought I was big once
She changed my mind
Shes actual size, but she seems much bigger to me
Ive never known anybody like her, shes actual size
Nationwide, believe
You think shes big, you think shes larger than life
But if you open up your eyes youll see shes actual size
You think shes big, you think shes larger than life
But if you open up your eyes youll see shes actual
In your mind you have her on a pedestal
You admire her from afar like shes a china doll
You need to realize
Before you ? ? ? ?
So go ahead, approach the girl, it up to you ? ? ? ?
You think shes big, you think shes larger than life
But if you open up your eyes youll see shes actual size
You think shes big, you think shes larger than life
But if you open up your eyes youll see shes actual
Shes got
All the money
Money couldnt buy
Shes got something special
That someone left behind
Shes actual size, but she seems much bigger to me
Ive never known anybody like her, shes actual size
Actual size, believe
Words fail
Buildings tumble
Light beams down from heaven
Shes actual size, but she seems much bigger to me
song performed by by They Might Be Giants
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Book Of Brilliant Things
Thank you for the voice, the eyes and the memories shine
Thank you for the pictures of living in the beautiful black and the white
Some say well be together for a very long time
Some say that our first impressions never will lie
I open up to take a look into the bright and shiny book
Into the open scheme of things
Book of brilliant things
Book of brilliant things
I open up to take a look into the bright and shiny book;
Into the open scheme of things
Book of brilliant things
Oh, book of brilliant things
I thank you for the shadows
It takes two or three to make company
I thank you for the lightning that shoots up and sparkles in the rain
Some say this could be the great divide
Some day some of them say that our hearts will beat
Like the wheels of the fast train, all around the world
I open up to take a look into the bright and shiny book
Into the open scheme of things
Book of brilliant things
Book of brilliant things
Some say we can be together for a very long time
Some say our hearts will beat like the wheels of a fast train
All around the world
All around the world
All around the world
Some say our hearts beat like the wheels of a fast train
All around the world
All around, all around, around, around
All around the world
Our hearts beat like the wheels of a fast train
A very long time
All around and all around and all around and all around the world
Some say well be together
Some say
A very long time, some of them will say
A very long time all around the world
Words & music : james kerr, charlie burchill, mel gaynor, derek forbes, michael macneil (c) emi publishing ltd reproduced without permission
song performed by by Simple Minds
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Book Of My Life
Let me watch by the fire and remember my days
And it may be a trick of the firelight
But the flickering pages that trouble my sight
Is a book I'm afraid to write
It's the book of my days, it's the book of my life
And it's cut like a fruit on the blade of a knife
And it's all there to see as the section reveals
There's some sorrow in every life
If it reads like a puzzle, a wandering maze
Then I won't understand 'til the end of my days
I'm still forced to remember,
Remember the words of my life
There are promises broken and promises kept
Angry words that were spoken, when I should have wept
There's a chapter of secrets, and words to confess
If I lose everything that I possess
There's a chapter on loss and a ghost who won't die
There's a chapter on love where the ink's never dry
There are sentences served in a prison I built out of lies.
Though the pages are numbered
I can't see where they lead
For the end is a mystery no-one can read
In the book of my life
There's a chapter on fathers a chapter on sons
There are pages of conflicts that nobody won
And the battles you lost and your bitter defeat,
There's a page where we fail to meet
There are tales of good fortune that couldn't be planned
There's a chapter on god that I don't understand
There's a promise of Heaven and Hell but I'm damned if I see
Though the pages are numbered
I can't see where they lead
For the end is a mystery no-one can read
In the book of my life
Now the daylight's returning
And if one sentence is true
All these pages are burning
And all that's left is you
Though the pages are number
song performed by by Sting
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Take Back the Virgin Page
Written on Returning a Blank Book
Take back the virgin page,
White and unwritten still;
Some hand, more calm and sage,
The leaf must fill.
Thoughts come, as pure as light
Pure as even you require;
But, oh! each word I write
Love turns to fire.
Yet let me keep the book:
Oft shall my heart renew,
When on its leaves I look,
Dear thoughts of you.
Like you, 'tis fair and bright;
Like you, too bright and fair
To let wild passion write
One wrong wish there.
Haply, when from those eyes
Far, far away I roam,
Should calmer thoughts arise
Towards you and home;
Fancy may trace some line,
Worthy those eyes to meet,
Thoughts that not burn, but shine,
Pure, calm, and sweet.
And as, o'er ocean far,
Seamen their records keep,
Led by some hidden star
Through the cold deep;
So may the words I write
Tell through what storms I stray --
You still the unseen light,
Guiding my way.
poem by Thomas Moore
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Eminent Domain
The numerous dirty-white mounds
Of snow that lined the narrow street
Stood like fortified embankments;
Each varying in height and width
Depending on the autos size.
Each space of eminent domain
Was illegally claimed either
By dozens of plastic lawn chairs,
Trash cans, anything to obstruct
Entry into this reserved spot.
I wonder if the yellow snow
I see dotting a few places
Is from a neighborhood canine
Or from a property owner?
poem by Albert Ahearn
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Sonnet: All Creatures are Equal ‘fore God’s Eyes
‘What mammoth frame, ivory tusks, I’ve got! ’
‘No forest-king or beast dare challenge me! ’
‘I lift tree-trunks and battles too I’ve fought! ’
‘I stand and sleep: eat grass, green leaves only.’
The Ant that heard the Elephant’s words said:
‘Tho’ small in size, I labor hard, day/night! ’
‘I eat the biggest beast and men who’re dead! ’
‘I disappear in small cracks out of sight! ’
Each one on earth has merits/demerits;
God made all beings with purpose innate;
One can’t compare the poets that have writ,
Nor can we harbor jealousy or hate.
God expects just some things for which we’re made;
A heart’s a heart: a spade always a spade.
9-13-2002
poem by John Celes
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Life's Lesson Book
Life is a ponderous lesson-book, and Fate
The teacher. When I came to love's fair leaf
My teacher turned the page and bade me wait.
'Learn first,' she said, 'love's grief';
And o'er and o'er through many a long tomorrow
She kept me conning that sad page of sorrow.
Cruel the task; and yet it was not vain.
Now the great book of life I know by heart.
In that one lesson of love's loss and pain
Fate doth the whole impart.
For, by the depths of woe, the mind can measure
The beauteous unscaled summits of love's pleasure.
Now, with the book of life upon her knee,
Fate sits! the unread page of love's delight
By her firm hand is half concealed from me,
And half revealed to sight.
Ah Fate! be kind! so well I learned love's sorrow,
Give me its full delight to learn tomorrow.
poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
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One is valued for its future
Upcoming train is growing in size;
Down going train dwindle in size.
Incoming things look more than life size.
Outgoing things fade less than life size.
23.11.2004
poem by Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar
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I wish I could shrink down to the size of an ant. And maybe there would be thousands of other people shrunken down to ant-size, and we would get together and dig tunnels down into the ground and live there. But don't ever call us 'ants,' because we hate that.
Jack Handey in Deep Thoughts
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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They Want War
They are young and theyre kids
And believe what they see
To do what theyve been told
And so they walk away with open eyes
Some are eight or nine or ten
And they die like a fly, and no one knows
Who they are, theyre smaller than the gun they load
See their eyes open wide
They died before they ever cried
They die in the streets and they die in the fields
When they do what theyve been told
But now theyre lying dead
Their eyes are closed
Some are eight or nine or ten
And they die like a fly and no one knows
Who they are, theyre smaller than the gun they load
See their eyes open wide, they died before they ever cried
Who taught them how, how to pray
Who told them theyre in paradise when theyre gonna die
They are blind and they cant fight
They want war
They are blind and they cant fight
They want war
They are blind and they cant fight
They want war
They are blind and they cant fight
They want war
They are blind and they cant fight
They want war
They are blind and they cant fight
They want war...
Youre gonna pay the price, you little devil in disguise
For taking life with no regard, youll go to hell
And there youll burn
Children in the battlefield, please dont go
Little birds with fluttering hearts, please dont go
song performed by by U. D. O.
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Blind Love
Words and music by tom waits
Now youre gone
And its hotels and whiskey and sad luck days
And I dont care if they miss me
I never remember their names
They say if you get far enough away
Youll be on your way back home
Well Im at the station
And I cant get on the train
Must be blind love
The only kind of love is stone blind love
The only kind of love is stone blind love
The only kind of love is stone blind love
Oh blind love
Blind love
Stone blind love
Stone blind love
Well the streets turning blue
The dogs are barking and the night has come
And its tears that are falling
From these brown eyes now
And I wonder where you are
And I whisper your name
(I whisper your name)
And the only way to find you
Is if I close my eyes
And find you with my blind love
The only kind of love is stone blind love
The only kind of love is stone blind love
The only kind of love is stone blind love
Oh blind love
Blind love
Stone blind love
Stone blind love
Oh its blind love
The only kind of love is stone blind love
The only kind of love is stone blind love
The only kind of love is stone blind love
Oh blind love
Blind love
Stone blind love
song performed by by Bob Seger
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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A Valentine
For her this rhyme is penned, whose luminous eyes,
Brightly expressive as the twins of Leda,
Shall find her own sweet name, that nestling lies
Upon the page, enwrapped from every reader.
Search narrowly the lines!- they hold a treasure
Divine- a talisman- an amulet
That must be worn at heart. Search well the measure-
The words- the syllables! Do not forget
The trivialest point, or you may lose your labor
And yet there is in this no Gordian knot
Which one might not undo without a sabre,
If one could merely comprehend the plot.
Enwritten upon the leaf where now are peering
Eyes scintillating soul, there lie perdus
Three eloquent words oft uttered in the hearing
Of poets, by poets- as the name is a poet's, too,
Its letters, although naturally lying
Like the knight Pinto- Mendez Ferdinando-
Still form a synonym for Truth- Cease trying!
You will not read the riddle, though you do the best you can do.
poem by Edgar Allan Poe
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The Book
My life is a leaf
Bind together in a book
Written
With sweat and blood
Pages after pages
With the taste of Pain and joy
Every emotion
Big or small
Fully charged
Packed and sealed
Every incident
Recoded in details
For the experience
Good or bad
If you want to learn
Whether there is any love
For you and mankind
You just need to turn
The page number twenty one
Chapter after chapter
Written with mixture
Of success and failure
If any one
Written badly
And Tastes sour
It is my life
Full of blood and flesh
Please pass on to another
poem by Abdul Wahab
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Over The Shoulder
Big size, small size
Any size, round and round
We need, we take
Burn it all to the ground
Started over and learned to walk
We teach you how to talk
Please try and understand
Were helping all mankind
We use them a while then its over the shoulder
We use them a while then its over the shoulder
We are serious
O, serious
Dollar here, dollar there
Dollars flying everywhere
Were only here to please
Stop the killing, trust me
Well only be a while
Big while, big big smile
We use them a while then its over the shoulder
We use them a while then its over the shoulder
We have in our hands
Every woman and every man
Things are gonna go far
Down a real big fast car
And what you see is what you get
Keep em hungry, you bet
You need security
To keep you from the enemy
We use them a while then its over the shoulder
We use them a while then its over the shoulder
song performed by by Ministry
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Humans have stomachs twice the size of their brains and three times the size of their hearts.
aphorism by Patrick Hunt
Submitted by Dan Costinaş
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Female Philosophy
Ladies, ladies don't speak from the heart
'cause most of these words seem to fall apart.
Men might hear them if you cry
but never understand just why?
Ladies, don't be an open book
'cause most of the pages have a frayed look.
Men might read between the lines
but never pick up on what defines
your heart.
poem by Edwina Reizer
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