Careful Words

parent (n.)

parent (v.)

parent (adj.)

Me let the tender office long engage

To rock the cradle of reposing age;

With lenient arts extend a mother's breath,

Make languor smile, and smooth the bed of death;

Explore the thought, explain the asking eye,

And keep awhile one parent from the sky.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot. Prologue to the Satires. Line 408.

On parent knees, a naked new-born child,

Weeping thou sat'st while all around thee smiled;

So live, that sinking in thy last long sleep,

Calm thou mayst smile, while all around thee weep.

Sir William Jones (1746-1794): From the Persian.

These are thy glorious works, Parent of good!

John Milton (1608-1674): Paradise Lost. Book v. Line 153.

  Sheer necessity,—the proper parent of an art so nearly allied to invention.

Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751-1816): The Critic. Act i. Sc. 2.

The people's parent, he protected all.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): The Odyssey of Homer. Book iv. Line 921.