George Chapman
George Chapman
George Chapmanwas an English dramatist, translator, and poet. He was a classical scholar whose work shows the influence of Stoicism. Chapman has been identified as the Rival Poet of Shakespeare's sonnets by William Minto, and as an anticipator of the Metaphysical Poets of the 17th century. Chapman is best remembered for his translations of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, and the Homeric Batrachomyomachia...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionPoet
world trifles
He that shuns trifles must shun the world.
song courage voice
I will neither yield to the song of the siren nor the voice of the hyena, the tears of the crocodile nor the howling of the wolf.
weed ill grows
An ill weed grows apace.
fate
Fate's such a shrewish thing.
enough
Enough 's as good as a feast.
water
Words writ in waters.
action ends
He is at no end of his actions blestWhose ends will make him greatest, and not best.
soul tragedy fiction
And for the authentical truth of either person or actions, who (worth the respecting) will expect it in a poem, whose subject is not truth, but things like truth? Poor envious souls they are that cavil at truth's want in these natural fictions; material instruction, elegant and sententious excitation to virtue, and deflection from her contrary, being the soul, limbs, and limits of an authentical tragedy.
meaning-something oratory clarity
Poetry, unlike oratory, should not aim at clarity... but be dense with meaning, 'something to be chewed and digested'...
dream men wind
Man is a torch borne in the wind; a dream But of a shadow, summed with all his substance.
ambition immortality dies
Tis immortality to die aspiring.
mind spurs great-minds
Danger, the spur of all great minds.
kings law needs
Who to himself is law no law doth need; offends none and is king indeed.
failure responsibility order
The incompetent quickly throws himself into another impressive enterprise in order to escape his responsibility from previous disaster.