Mark Akenside

Mark Akenside (November 9, 1721 – June 23, 1770) was an English poet and physician.

Man loves knowledge, and the beams of truth
More welcome touch his understanding's eye
Than all the blandishments of sound his ear,
Than all of taste his tongue.

Quotes

• Youth calls for Pleasure, Pleasure calls for Love.
  • "Love, An Elegy", line 90

• Seeks painted trifles and fantastic toys,
  And eagerly pursues imaginary joys.
  • The Virtuoso (1737), stanza x, lines 89–90

• O'er yonder eastern hill the twilight pale
  Walks forth from darkness; and the God of day,
  With bright Astraea seated by his side,
  Waits yet to leave the ocean.
  • Hymn to the Naiads (1746), lines 1–4

Epistle to Curio (1744)

• The man forget not, though in rags he lies,
  And know the mortal through a crown's disguise.
  • Lines 197–198

• Can art, alas! or genius guide the head
  Where truth and freedom from the heart are fled?
  Can lesser wheels repeat their native stroke,
  When the prime function of the soul is broke?
  • Lines 265–268

The Pleasures of the Imagination (1744)

• Pall on her temper, like a twice-told tale.
  • Book I, line 220

• Is aught so fair
  In all the dewy landscapes of the spring,
  In the bright eye of Hesper or the morn,
  In nature's fairest forms, is aught so fair
  As virtuous friendship? as the candid blush
  Of him who strives with fortune to be just?
  The graceful tear that streams for others' woes?
  Or the mild majesty of private life,
  Where peace with ever blooming olive crowns
  The gate; where Honour's liberal hands effuse
  Unenvied treasures, and the snowy wings
  Of Innocence and Love protect the scene?
  • Book I, line 500–511

• Man loves knowledge, and the beams of truth
  More welcome touch his understanding's eye
  Than all the blandishments of sound his ear,
  Than all of taste his tongue.
  • Book II, lines 100–103

• Oft the hours
  From morn to eve have stolen unmark'd away,
  While mute attention hung upon his lips.
  • Book II, lines 183–185

• Ask the faithful youth
  Why the cold urn of her whom long he loved
  So often fills his arms; so often draws
  His lonely footsteps at the silent hour
  To pay the mournful tribute of his tears?
  Oh! he will tell thee that the wealth of worlds
  Should ne'er seduce his bosom to forego
  That sacred hour, when, stealing from the noise
  Of care and envy, sweet remembrance soothes
  With virtue's kindest looks his aching breast,
  And turns his tears to rapture.
  • Book II, lines 683–693

• Others of graver mien; behold, adorn'd
  With holy ensigns, how sublime they move,
  And bending oft their sanctimonious eyes
  Take homage of the simple-minded throng;
  Ambassadors of heaven!
  • Book III, lines 109–113

• Adieu, for him,
  The dull engagements of the bustling world!
  Adieu the sick impertinence of praise!
  And hope, and action! for with her alone,
  By streams and shades, to steal these sighing hours,
  Is all he asks, and all that fate can give!
  • Book III, lines 173–178

• Such and so various are the tastes of men!
  • Book III, line 567

Odes on Several Subjects (1745)

• The Providence of heaven
  Has some peculiar blessing given
  To each allotted state below.
  • Book I, Ode II, No. 1: "For the Winter Solstice", stanza v, lines 48–50

• Heaven's all-subduing will,
  With good the progeny of ill,
  Attempreth every state below.
  • Book I, Ode II, No. 2: "On the Winter Solstice", stanza vi, lines 58–60

• Than Timoleon's arms require,
  And Tully's curule chair, and Milton's golden lyre.
  • Book I, Ode XVII: "On a Sermon against Glory", stanza ii, lines 17–18

• Rustic herald of the spring.
  • Book II, Ode III: "To the Cuckoo", stanza i, line 1

External links

• Works by Mark Akenside at Project Gutenberg