Careful Words

pagan (n.)

pagan (adj.)

Till Peter's keys some christen'd Jove adorn,

And Pan to Moses lends his pagan horn.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): The Dunciad. Book iii. Line 109.

Great God! I 'd rather be

A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn,

So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,

Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;

Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea,

Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850): Miscellaneous Sonnets. Part i. xxxiii.