What though my wing?d hours of bliss have been,
Like angel-visits, few and far between?

(Thomas Campbell (1777-1844), Scottish poet. repr. In Complete Poetical Works, ed. J.L. Robertson (1907). "The Pleasures of Hope," pt. 2, l. 375-376 (1799). The image is borrowed from the Scottish poet Robert Blair (1699-1746): "The good he scorned Stalked off reluctant, like an ill-used ghost, Not to return; or if it did, its visits Like those of angels, short, and far between." The Grave, l. 586-589 (1743).)

O Star-eyed Science! hast thou wandered there,
To waft us home the message of despair?

(Thomas Campbell (1777-1844), Scottish poet. "Pleasures of Hope," pt. 2.)

I'll meet the raging of the skies,
But not an angry father.'

(Thomas Campbell (1774-1844), Scottish poet. Lord Ullin's Daughter (l. 35-36). . . Faber Popular Reciter, The. Kingsley Amis, ed. (1978) Faber and Faber.)

The waters wild went o'er his child,
And he was left lamenting.

(Thomas Campbell (1774-1844), Scottish poet. Lord Ullin's Daughter (l. 55-56). . . Faber Popular Reciter, The. Kingsley Amis, ed. (1978) Faber and Faber.)

O leave this barren spot to me!
Spare, woodman, spare the beechen tree.

(Thomas Campbell (1777-1844), Scottish poet. repr. In Complete Poetical Works, ed. J.L. Robertson (1907). "The Beech-Tree's Petition," st. 1 (1800).)

What millions died that Caesar might be great!

(Thomas Campbell (1777-1844), Scottish poet. repr. In Complete Poetical Works, ed. J.L. Robertson (1907). "The Pleasures of Hope," pt. 2, l. 174 (1799).)

The popularity of that baby-faced boy, who possessed not even the elements of a good actor, was a hallucination in the public mind, and a disgrace to our theatrical history.

(Thomas Campbell (1777-1844), Scottish poet. Life of Mrs. Siddons, ch. 18 (1834). Campell referred to the child actor "Master Betty," William Henry West Betty (1791-1874), who had been taken up by the fashionable world, playing the roles of Romeo and Hamlet at the age of twelve, as well as that of Richard III. The craze lasted two years, to the despair of many, including journalist and poet Leigh Hunt. Hunt was eventually able to write in a contemporary newspaper: "The charm of novelty has at length broken ... and the town is just now somewhat in the position of the husband who, after passing the honeymoon with a beautiful but childish woman, finds his reason once more returning and is content to sit down and ask why he has been pleased.")

On Linden, when the sun was low,
All bloodless lay the untrodden snow,
And dark as winter was the flow
Of Iser, rolling rapidly.

(Thomas Campbell (1774-1844), Scottish poet. Hohenlinden (l. 1-4). . . New Oxford Book of English Verse, The, 1250-1950. Helen Gardner, ed. (1972) Oxford University Press.)

Stay?stay with us!?rest?thou art
weary and worn!'?
And fain was their war-broken soldier to stay;?
But sorrow return'd with the dawning of morn,
And the voice in my dreaming ear melted away.

(Thomas Campbell (1774-1844), Scottish poet. The Soldier's Dream (l. 21-24). . . Faber Popular Reciter, The. Kingsley Amis, ed. (1978) Faber and Faber.)

And the sentinel stars set their watch in the sky;

(Thomas Campbell (1774-1844), Scottish poet. The Soldier's Dream (l. 2). . . Faber Popular Reciter, The. Kingsley Amis, ed. (1978) Faber and Faber.)