William Collins quotes

William Collins was an English poet, renowned for his influential odes and lyrical poetry. A significant figure of 18th-century English literature, his works helped pave the way for Romanticism. He is remembered for his imaginative style and enduring contribution to poetry. Here are 22 of his quotes:

How sleep the brave, who sink to rest, By all their country's wishes blest! (William Collins)
By fairy hands their knell is rung, By forms unseen their dirge is sung. View quote
William Collins
In numbers warmly pure and sweetly strong. View quote
William Collins
With eyes up-raised, as one inspired, Pale Melancholy sate retired, And from her wild sequestered seat, In notes by distance made more sweet, Poured thro' the mellow horn her pensive soul. View quote
William Collins
Fill'd with fury, rapt, inspired. View quote
William Collins
To fair Fidele's grassy tomb Soft maids and village hinds shall bring Each opening sweet of earliest bloom, And rifle all the breathing spring. View quote
William Collins
O Music! sphere-descended maid, Friend of Pleasure, Wisdom's aid! View quote
William Collins
Now air is hushed, save where the weak-eyed bat, With short shrill shriek flits by on leathern wing, Or where the beetle winds His small but sullen horn, As oft he rises 'midst the twilight path, Against the pilgrim borne in heedless hum. View quote
William Collins
Well may your hearts believe the truths I tell: 'T is virtue makes the bliss, where'er we dwell. View quote
William Collins
Each lonely scene shall thee restore; For thee the tear be duly shed; Beloved till life can charm no more, And mourn'd till Pity's self be dead. View quote
William Collins
But thou, lorn stream, whose sullen tide No sedge-crown'd sister now attend, Now waft me from the green hill's side Whose cold turf hides the buried friend! (William Collins)
When Music, heavenly maid, was young, While yet in early Greece she sung. View quote
William Collins
He had employed his mind chiefly on works of fiction, and subjects of fancy; and, by indulging some peculiar habits of thought, was eminently delighted with those flights of imagination which pass the bounds of nature, and to which the mind is reconciled only by a passive acquiescence in popular traditions. He loved fairies, genii, giants, and monsters; he delighted to rove through the meanders of enchantment, to gaze on the magnificence of golden palaces, to repose by the waterfalls of Elysian gardens. View quote
William Collins
In yonder Grave a Druid lies Where slowly winds the Stealing Wave! The Year's best Sweets shall duteous rise To deck its Poet's sylvan Grave! View quote
William Collins
For when thy folding-star arising shows His paly circlet, at his warning lamp The fragrant hours, and elves Who slept in buds the day, And many a nymph who wreathes her brows with sedge And sheds the fresh'ning dew, and lovelier still, The pensive pleasures sweet Prepare thy shadowy car. View quote
William Collins
By fairy hands their knell is rung; By forms unseen their dirge is sung; There Honour comes, a pilgrim gray, To bless the turf that wraps their clay; And Freedom shall awhile repair, To dwell a weeping hermit there! View quote
William Collins
Love of peace, and lonely musing, In hollow murmurs died away. View quote
William Collins
T was sad by fits, by starts 't was wild. View quote
William Collins
Too nicely Jonson knew the critic's part; Nature in him was almost lost in Art. View quote
William Collins
Always mistrust a subordinate who never finds fault with his superior. View quote
William Collins
Prior to Wordsworth, humor was an essential part of poetry. I mean, they don't call them Shakespeare comedies for nothing. (William Collins)
When a writer becomes a reader of his or her own work, a lot can go wrong. It's like do-it-yourself dentistry. View quote
William Collins