pen

  Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour: England hath need of thee: she is a fen Of stagnant waters: altar, sword and pen, Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower, Have forfeited their ancient English dower Of inward happiness.We are selfish men; Oh! raise us up, return to us again; And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power. Thy soul was like a star, and dwelt apart; Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea: Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free, So didst thou travel on life's common way, In cheerful godliness; and yet thy heart The lowliest duties on herself did lay.

—Wordsworth,William

When I have fears that I may cease to be Before my pen has gleaned my teeming brain, Before high-piled books, in charactery, Hold like rich garners the full ripened grain.

—Keats,John

   But words came halting forth, wanting Invention's stay; Invention, Nature's child, fled step-dame Study's blows† Biting my truant pen, beating myself for spite, 'Fool,'said my muse to me; 'look in thy heart, and write.'

—Shute, Nevil originally Nevil Shute Norway

Ireland never was contented† Say you so? You are demented. Ireland was contented when All could use the sword and pen, And whenTara rose so high That her turrets split the sky, And about her courts were seen Liveried Angels robed in green, Wearing, by St. Patrick's bounty, Emeralds big as half a county.

—Landor,Walter Savage

Every drop of ink in my pen ran cold.

—Walpole, Horace, 4th Earl of Orford

To give anaccurateand exhaustive account of the period would need a far less brilliant pen than mine.

—Beerbohm, Sir (Henry) Max(imilian)

Write with your spade, and garden with your pen, Shove your couplets to their long repose. And type your turnips down the field in rows.

—Campbell, (Ignatius) Roy Dunnachie

I would have been disappointed if I hung up my pen without ever getting one†[and] now I hope to get one every 30 years like clockwork.

—1st Viscount

Are simple women only fit To dress, to darn, to flower or knit, To mind the distaff, or the spit? Why are the needle and the pen Thought incompatible by men? 507

—Lewis, Esther married name  Clark

Every author's fairy godmother should provide him not only with a pen but also with a blue pencil.

—Lucas, F(rank) L(awrence)

Men have everyadvantage of us in telling their story. Education has been theirs in so much higher a degree; the pen has been in their hands.

—Austen,Jane

Beneath the rule of men entirely great, the pen is mightier than the sword.

—Lytton

Hinc quam sit calamus saevior ense patet. From this it is clear how much the pen is worse than the sword.

—Burton, Robert pseudonym DemocritusJunior

I describe imperfect characters. Every character in this book will be found to be more or less imperfect, my pen refusing to draw anything in the model line.

—Bronte«  , Charlotte

I am obnoxious to each carping tongue Who says my hand a needle better fits, A poet's pen all scorn I should thus wrong For such despite they cast on female wits; If what I do prove well, it won't advance, They'll say it's stolen, or else, it was by chance.

—Bradstreet, Anne ne¤  e Dudley

   Sir, My pa requests me to write to you. The doctors considering it doubtful whether he will ever recuvver the use of his legs which prevents his holding a pen.

—Dickens, CharlesJohn Huffam

For of all sad words of tongue or pen, The saddest are these: 'It might have been!'

—Whittier,John Greenleaf

   Between my finger and my thumb The squat pen rests. I'll dig with it.

—Heaney, SeamusJustin

   This pen's all I have of magic wand.

—Harrison,Tony

   Upon Saint Crispin's day Fought was this noble fray, Which fame did not delay To England to carry; Oh, when shall English men With such acts fill a pen, Or England breed again Such a King Harry?

—Drayton, Michael

If, of all words of tongue and pen, The saddest are,'It might have been,' More sad are these we daily see: 'It is, but hadn't ought to be.'

—Harte, (Francis) Bret