Careful Words

charming (n.)

charming (adj.)

Ever charming, ever new,

When will the landscape tire the view?

John Dyer (1700-1758): Grongar Hill. Line 102.

  I shall detain you no longer in the demonstration of what we should not do, but straight conduct ye to a hillside, where I will point ye out the right path of a virtuous and noble education; laborious indeed at the first ascent, but else so smooth, so green, so full of goodly prospect and melodious sounds on every side that the harp of Orpheus was not more charming.

John Milton (1608-1674): Tractate of Education.

He saw her charming, but he saw not half

The charms her downcast modesty conceal'd.

James Thomson (1700-1748): The Seasons. Autumn. Line 229.

How charming is divine philosophy!

Not harsh and crabbed, as dull fools suppose,

But musical as is Apollo's lute,

And a perpetual feast of nectar'd sweets

Where no crude surfeit reigns.

John Milton (1608-1674): Comus. Line 476.

The Angel ended, and in Adam's ear

So charming left his voice, that he awhile

Thought him still speaking, still stood fix'd to hear.

John Milton (1608-1674): Paradise Lost. Book viii. Line 1.

  They are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear; which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely.

Old Testament: Psalm lviii. 4, 5.