Joanna Baillie
Joanna Baillie
Joanna Bailliewas a Scottish poet and dramatist. Baillie was very well known during her lifetime and, though a woman, intended her plays not for the closet but for the stage. Admired both for her literary powers and her sweetness of disposition, she hosted a literary society in her cottage at Hampstead. Baillie died at the age of 88, her faculties remaining unimpaired to the last...
NationalityScottish
ProfessionPoet
hem earth speech
Stand there, damn'd meddling villain, and be silent; For if thou utt'rest but a single word, A cough or hem, to cross me in my speech, I'll send thy cursed spirit from the earth, To bellow with the damn'd!
law care
Me care for te laws when te laws care for me.
war rights iron
War is honorable In those who do their native rights maintain; In those whose swords an iron barrier are Between the lawless spoiler and the weak; But is, in those who draw th' offensive blade For added power or gain, sordid and despicable As meanest office of the worldly churl.
cases
The plainest case in many words entangling.
dream stupid struggle
To struggle when hope is banished! To live when life's salt is gone! To dwell in a dream that's vanished! To endure, and go calmly on! The brave man is not he who feels no fear, For that were stupid and irrational; But he, whose noble soul its fear subdues, And bravely dares the danger nature shrinks from.
blow heaven mercy
Heaven often smites in mercy, even when the blow is severest.
pride vanity vanity-and-pride
Pampered vanity is a better thing perhaps than starved pride.
sports ease degrees
Busy work brings after ease; Ease brings sport and sport brings rest; For young and old, of all degrees, The mingled lot is best.
eye dark moon
Good-morrow to thy sable beak, And glossy plumage, dark and sleek, Thy crimson moon and azure eye
triumph has-beens
This will be triumph! This will be happiness! Yea, that very thing, happiness, which I have been pursuing all my life, and have never yet overtaken.
beauty powerful rude
To make the cunning artless, tame the rude, subdue the haughty, shake the undaunted soul; yea, put a bridle in the lion's mouth, and lead him forth as a domestic cur,--these are the triumphs of all-powerful beauty.
self-esteem men coquette
She who only finds her self-esteem In others' admiration, begs an alms; Depends on others for her daily food, And is the very servant of her slaves; Tho' oftentimes, in a fantastic hour, O'er men she may a childish pow'r exert, Which not ennobles but degrades her state.
fate night darkness
My day is closed! the gloom of night is come! a hopeless darkness settles over my fate.
humble air hymns
The inward sighs of humble penitence Rise to the ear of Heaven, when peal'd hymns Are scatter'd with the sounds of common air.