Edward Young
Edward Young
Edward Youngwas an English poet, best remembered for Night-Thoughts...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth3 July 1683
men august deities
How poor, how rich, how abject, how august, How complicate, how wonderful, is man!... Midway from nothing to the Deity!
wise time angel
The bell strikes One. We take no note of time But from its loss. To give it then a tongue Is wise in man. As if an angel spoke, I feel the solemn sound. If heard aright, It is the knell of my departed hours.
tyrants guilt vengeance
A tardy vengeance shares the tyrant's guilt.
excellence oracles lasts
Some wits, too, like oracles, deal in ambiguities, but not with equal success; for though ambiguities are the first excellence of an imposter, they are the last of a wit.
may pay bed
Youth is not rich in time; it may be poor; Part with it as with money, sparing; pay No moment but in purchase of its worth, And what it's worth, ask death-beds; they can tell.
men light torches
When men of infamy to grandeur soar, They light a torch to show their shame the more.
envy comfort way
O let me be undone the common way, And have the common comfort to be pity'd, And not be ruin'd in the mask of bliss, And so be envy'd, and be wretched too!
gratitude giving empires
Who gives an empire, by the gift defeats All end of giving; and procures contempt Instead of gratitude.
men sky earth
This vast and solid earth, that blazing sun, Those skies, thro' which it rolls, must all have end. What then is man? The smallest part of nothing.
love wine giving
But love, like wine, gives a tumultuous bliss, Heighten'd indeed beyond all mortal pleasures; But mingles pangs and madness in the bowl.
life moving gone
Ah! what is human life? How, like the dial's tardy-moving shade, Day after day slides from us unperceiv'd! The cunning fugitive is swift by stealth; Too subtle is the movement to be seen; Yet soon the hour is up--and we are gone.
suicide wings soul
Britannia's shame! There took her gloomy flight, On wing impetuous, a black sullen soul . Less base the fear of death than fear of life. O Britain! infamous for suicide.
fall autumn men
When men once reach their autumn, sickly joys fall off apace, as yellow leaves from trees
dream men vision
Fond man! the vision of a moment made! Dream of a dream! and shadow of a shade!