Careful Words

hearth (n.)

hearth (adj.)

  A clear fire, a clean hearth, and the rigour of the game.

Charles Lamb (1775-1834): Mrs. Battle's Opinions on Whist.

Far from all resort of mirth

Save the cricket on the hearth.

John Milton (1608-1674): Il Penseroso. Line 81.

Since every mortal power of Coleridge

Was frozen at its marvellous source,

The rapt one, of the godlike forehead,

The heaven-eyed creature sleeps in earth:

And Lamb, the frolic and the gentle,

Has vanished from his lonely hearth.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850): Extempore Effusion upon the Death of James Hogg.