Careful Words

cell (n.)

Shall I, like an hermit, dwell

On a rock or in a cell?

Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1618): Poem.

Each in his narrow cell forever laid,

The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep.

Thomas Gray (1716-1771): Elegy in a Country Churchyard. Stanza 4.

The oracles are dumb,

No voice or hideous hum

Runs through the arched roof in words deceiving.

Apollo from his shrine

Can no more divine,

With hollow shriek the steep of Delphos leaving.

No nightly trance or breathed spell

Inspires the pale-eyed priest from the prophetic cell.

John Milton (1608-1674): Hymn on Christ's Nativity. Line 173.