sight (n.)

sight (v.)

sight (adv.)

sight (adj.)

She was a form of life and light

That seen, became a part of sight,

And rose, where'er I turn'd mine eye,

The morning-star of memory!

Yes, love indeed is light from heaven;

A spark of that immortal fire

With angels shared, by Alla given,

To lift from earth our low desire.

Lord Byron 1788-1824: The Giaour. Line 1127.

The Spanish fleet thou canst not see, because—it is not yet in sight!

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

Joy is the sweet voice, joy the luminous cloud.

We in ourselves rejoice!

And thence flows all that charms or ear or sight,

All melodies the echoes of that voice,

All colours a suffusion from that light.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834): Dejection. An Ode. Stanza 5.

Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): The Rape of the Lock. Canto v. Line 34.

Who hath not proved how feebly words essay

To fix one spark of beauty's heavenly ray?

Who doth not feel, until his failing sight

Faints into dimness with its own delight,

His changing cheek, his sinking heart, confess

The might, the majesty of loveliness?

Lord Byron 1788-1824: The Bride of Abydos. Canto i. Stanza 6.

He that had neyther been kith nor kin

Might have seen a full fayre sight.

Thomas Percy (1728-1811): Guy of Gisborne.

She was a phantom of delight

When first she gleamed upon my sight,

A lovely apparition, sent

To be a moment's ornament;

Her eyes as stars of twilight fair,

Like twilights too her dusky hair,

But all things else about her drawn

From May-time and the cheerful dawn.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850): She was a Phantom of Delight.

Heaven's Sovereign saves all beings but himself

That hideous sight,—a naked human heart.

Edward Young (1684-1765): Night Thoughts. Night iii. Line 226.

And finds, with keen, discriminating sight,

Black's not so black,—nor white so very white.

George Canning (1770-1827): New Morality.

'T is sweet, as year by year we lose

Friends out of sight, in faith to muse

How grows in Paradise our store.

John Keble (1792-1866): Burial of the Dead.

This song—written and composed by Linley for Mr. Augustus Braham, and sung by him—is given entire, as so much inquiry has been made for the source of "Though lost to Sight, to Memory dear." It is not known when the song was written,—probably about 1830.

None ever loved but at first sight they loved.

George Chapman (1557-1634): The Blind Beggar of Alexandria.

Who ever loved that loved not at first sight?

Christopher Marlowe (1565-1593): Hero and Leander.

Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men.

New Testament: Romans xii. 17.

Curse on all laws but those which love has made!

Love, free as air at sight of human ties,

Spreads his light wings, and in a moment flies.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Eloisa to Abelard. Line 74.

How oft the sight of means to do ill deeds

Make deeds ill done!

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): King John. Act iv. Sc. 2.

Though inland far we be,

Our souls have sight of that immortal sea

Which brought us hither.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850): Ode. Intimations of Immortality. Stanza 9.

Thus with the year

Seasons return; but not to me returns

Day, or the sweet approach of even or morn,

Or sight of vernal bloom or summer's rose,

Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine;

But cloud instead, and ever-during dark

Surrounds me; from the cheerful ways of men

Cut off, and for the book of knowledge fair

Presented with a universal blank

Of Nature's works, to me expung'd and raz'd,

And wisdom at one entrance quite shut out.

John Milton (1608-1674): Paradise Lost. Book iii. Line 40.

And when he is out of sight, quickly also is he out of mind.

Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471): Imitation of Christ. Book i. Chap. 23.

And out of mind as soon as out of sight.

Lord Brooke (1554-1628): Sonnet lvi.

Love took up the harp of Life, and smote on all the chords with might;

Smote the chord of Self, that, trembling, pass'd in music out of sight.

Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892): Locksley Hall. Line 33.

Is this a dagger which I see before me,

The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.

I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.

Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible

To feeling as to sight? or art thou but

A dagger of the mind, a false creation,

Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Macbeth. Act ii. Sc. 1.

Visions of glory, spare my aching sight!

Ye unborn ages, crowd not on my soul!

Thomas Gray (1716-1771): The Bard. III. 1, Line 11.

One thought of thee puts all the pomp to flight;

Priests, tapers, temples, swim before my sight.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Eloisa to Abelard. Line 273.

Tho' lost to sight, to mem'ry dear

Thou ever wilt remain;

One only hope my heart can cheer,—

The hope to meet again.

Oh fondly on the past I dwell,

And oft recall those hours

When, wand'ring down the shady dell,

We gathered the wild-flowers.

Yes, life then seem'd one pure delight,

Tho' now each spot looks drear;

Yet tho' thy smile be lost to sight,

To mem'ry thou art dear.

Oft in the tranquil hour of night,

When stars illume the sky,

I gaze upon each orb of light,

And wish that thou wert by.

I think upon that happy time,

That time so fondly lov'd,

When last we heard the sweet bells chime,

As thro' the fields we rov'd.

Yes, life then seem'd one pure delight,

Tho' now each spot looks drear;

Yet tho' thy smile be lost to sight,

To mem'ry thou art dear.

George Linley (1798-1865): Song.

A thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.

Old Testament: Psalm xc. 4.

Birds in their little nests agree;

And 't is a shameful sight

When children of one family

Fall out, and chide, and fight.

Isaac Watts (1674-1748): Divine Songs. Song xvii.

A sight to delight in.

Robert Southey (1774-1843): The Cataract of Lodore.

A sight to dream of, not to tell!

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834): Christabel. Part i.

O Christ! it is a goodly sight to see

What Heaven hath done for this delicious land.

Lord Byron 1788-1824: Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto i. Stanza 15.

By Heaven! it is a splendid sight to see

For one who hath no friend, no brother there.

Lord Byron 1788-1824: Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto i. Stanza 40.

Truth will come to sight; murder cannot be hid long.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): The Merchant of Venice. Act ii. Sc. 2.

We understood

Her by her sight; her pure and eloquent blood

Spoke in her cheeks, and so distinctly wrought

That one might almost say her body thought.

Dr John Donne (1573-1631): Funeral Elegies. On the Death of Mistress Drury.

We walk by faith, not by sight.

New Testament: 2 Corinthians v. 7.