Careful Words

bore (n.)

bore (v.)

bore (adj.)

The leaf was darkish, and had prickles on it,

But in another country, as he said,

Bore a bright golden flow'r, but not in this soil;

Unknown, and like esteem'd, and the dull swain

Treads on it daily with his clouted shoon.

John Milton (1608-1674): Comus. Line 631.

  I have peppered two of them: two I am sure I have paid, two rogues in buckram suits. I tell thee what, Hal, if I tell thee a lie, spit in my face; call me horse. Thou knowest my old ward: here I lay, and thus I bore my point. Four rogues in buckram let drive at me—

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): King Henry IV. Part I. Act ii. Sc. 4.

The sightless Milton, with his hair

Around his placid temples curled;

And Shakespeare at his side,—a freight,

If clay could think and mind were weight,

For him who bore the world!

William Wordsworth (1770-1850): The Italian Itinerant.

And thus he bore without abuse

The grand old name of gentleman,

Defamed by every charlatan,

And soil'd with all ignoble use.

Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892): In Memoriam. cxi. Stanza 6.

by simon sarris • about