Careful Words

seat (n.)

seat (v.)

Mightier far

Than strength of nerve or sinew, or the sway

Of magic potent over sun and star,

Is Love, though oft to agony distrest,

And though his favorite seat be feeble woman's breast.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850): Laodamia.

Oh for a seat in some poetic nook,

Just hid with trees and sparkling with a brook!

Leigh Hunt (1784-1859): Politics and Poetics.

  Of Law there can be no less acknowledged than that her seat is the bosom of God, her voice the harmony of the world. All things in heaven and earth do her homage,—the very least as feeling her care, and the greatest as not exempted from her power.

Richard Hooker (1553-1600): Ecclesiastical Polity. Book i.

As if Misfortune made the throne her seat,

And none could be unhappy but the great.

Nicholas Rowe (1673-1718): The Fair Penitent. Prologue.

Earth felt the wound; and Nature from her seat,

Sighing through all her works, gave signs of woe

That all was lost.

John Milton (1608-1674): Paradise Lost. Book ix. Line 782.

This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle,

This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,

This other Eden, demi-paradise,

This fortress built by Nature for herself

Against infection and the hand of war,

This happy breed of men, this little world,

This precious stone set in the silver sea,

Which serves it in the office of a wall

Or as a moat defensive to a house,

Against the envy of less happier lands,—

This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): King Richard II. Act ii. Sc. 1.

This castle hath a pleasant seat; the air

Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself

Unto our gentle senses.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 6.

That in our proper motion we ascend

Up to our native seat: descent and fall

To us is adverse.

John Milton (1608-1674): Paradise Lost. Book ii. Line 75.

I saw young Harry, with his beaver on,

His cuisses on his thighs, gallantly arm'd,

Rise from the ground like feather'd Mercury,

And vaulted with such ease into his seat

As if an angel dropp'd down from the clouds,

To turn and wind a fiery Pegasus

And witch the world with noble horsemanship.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): King Henry IV. Part I. Act iv. Sc. 1.

While memory holds a seat

In this distracted globe. Remember thee!

Yea, from the table of my memory

I 'll wipe away all trivial fond records.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 5.