Careful Words

ravished (?.)

With ravish'd ears

The monarch hears;

Assumes the god,

Affects to nod,

And seems to shake the spheres.

John Dryden (1631-1701): Alexander's Feast. Line 37.

For wheresoe'er I turn my ravish'd eyes,

Gay gilded scenes and shining prospects rise,

Poetic fields encompass me around,

And still I seem to tread on classic ground.

Joseph Addison (1672-1719): A Letter from Italy.

If parts allure thee, think how Bacon shin'd,

The wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind!

Or ravish'd with the whistling of a name,

See Cromwell, damn'd to everlasting fame!

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Essay on Man. Epistle iv. Line 281.

Delivers in such apt and gracious words

That aged ears play truant at his tales,

And younger hearings are quite ravished;

So sweet and voluble is his discourse.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Love's Labour's Lost. Act ii. Sc. 1.