Careful Words

adorn (v.)

He left the name at which the world grew pale,

To point a moral, or adorn a tale.

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784): Vanity of Human Wishes. Line 221.

Her modest looks the cottage might adorn,

Sweet as the primrose peeps beneath the thorn.

Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774): The Deserted Village. Line 329.

A Poet, Naturalist, and Historian,

Who left scarcely any style of writing untouched,

And touched nothing that he did not adorn.

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784): Epitaph on Goldsmith.