Where the virgins are soft as the roses they twine,

And all save the spirit of man is divine?

Lord Byron 1788-1824: The Bride of Abydos. Canto i. Stanza 1.

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.

Can any mortal mixture of earth's mould

Breathe such divine enchanting ravishment?

John Milton (1608-1674): Comus. Line 244.

For ever singing as they shine,

The hand that made us is divine.

Joseph Addison (1672-1719): Ode.

Shalt show us how divine a thing

A woman may be made.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850): To a Young Lady. Dear Child of Nature.

Shalt show us how divine a thing

A woman may be made.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850): To a Young Lady. Dear Child of Nature.

Thus with the year

Seasons return; but not to me returns

Day, or the sweet approach of even or morn,

Or sight of vernal bloom or summer's rose,

Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine;

But cloud instead, and ever-during dark

Surrounds me; from the cheerful ways of men

Cut off, and for the book of knowledge fair

Presented with a universal blank

Of Nature's works, to me expung'd and raz'd,

And wisdom at one entrance quite shut out.

John Milton (1608-1674): Paradise Lost. Book iii. Line 40.

Divine in hookas, glorious in a pipe

When tipp'd with amber, mellow, rich, and ripe;

Like other charmers, wooing the caress

More dazzlingly when daring in full dress;

Yet thy true lovers more admire by far

Thy naked beauties—give me a cigar!

Lord Byron 1788-1824: The Island. Canto ii. Stanza 19.

A kick that scarce would move a horse

May kill a sound divine.

William Cowper (1731-1800): The Yearly Distress.

A servant with this clause

Makes drudgery divine;

Who sweeps a room as for Thy laws

Makes that and th' action fine.

George Herbert (1593-1632): The Elixir.

That mighty orb of song,

The divine Milton.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850): The Excursion. Book i.

The right divine of kings to govern wrong.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): The Dunciad. Book iv. Line 188.

Mammon, the least erected spirit that fell

From heaven; for ev'n in heaven his looks and thoughts

Were always downward bent, admiring more

The riches of heaven's pavement, trodden gold,

Than aught divine or holy else enjoy'd

In vision beatific.

John Milton (1608-1674): Paradise Lost. Book i. Line 679.

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.

Hold thou the good; define it well;

For fear divine Philosophy

Should push beyond her mark, and be

Procuress to the Lords of Hell.

Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892): In Memoriam. liii. Stanza 4.

She's all my fancy painted her;

She's lovely, she's divine.

William Mee: Alice Gray.

Ful wel she sange the service devine,

Entuned in hire nose ful swetely;

And Frenche she spake ful fayre and fetisly,

After the scole of Stratford atte bowe,

For Frenche of Paris was to hire unknowe.

Geoffrey Chaucer (1328-1400): Canterbury Tales. Prologue. Line 122.

To err is human, to forgive divine.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Essay on Criticism. Part ii. Line 325.

Too fair to worship, too divine to love.

Henry Hart Milman (1791-1868): The Belvedere Apollo.

The vision and the faculty divine;

Yet wanting the accomplishment of verse.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850): The Excursion. Book i.