Meadows trim with daisies pied,

Shallow brooks and rivers wide;

Towers and battlements it sees

Bosom'd high in tufted trees,

Where perhaps some beauty lies,

The cynosure of neighboring eyes.

John Milton (1608-1674): L'Allegro. Line 75.

A little learning is a dangerous thing;

Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring:

There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,

And drinking largely sobers us again.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Essay on Criticism. Part ii. Line 15.

Deep vers'd in books, and shallow in himself.

John Milton (1608-1674): Paradise Regained. Book iv. Line 327.

Passions are likened best to floods and streams:

The shallow murmur, but the deep are dumb.

Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1618): The Silent Lover.

By shallow rivers, to whose falls

Melodious birds sing madrigals.

Christopher Marlowe (1565-1593): The Passionate Shepherd to his Love.

Between two hawks, which flies the higher pitch;

Between two dogs, which hath the deeper mouth;

Between two blades, which bears the better temper;

Between two horses, which doth bear him best;

Between two girls, which hath the merriest eye,—

I have perhaps some shallow spirit of judgment;

But in these nice sharp quillets of the law,

Good faith, I am no wiser than a daw.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): King Henry VI. Part I. Act ii. Sc. 4.

Eternal smiles his emptiness betray,

As shallow streams run dimpling all the way.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot. Prologue to the Satires. Line 315.