Heart on her lips, and soul within her eyes,

Soft as her clime, and sunny as her skies.

Lord Byron 1788-1824: Beppo. Stanza 45.

Tender-handed stroke a nettle,

And it stings you for your pains;

Grasp it like a man of mettle,

And it soft as silk remains.

'T is the same with common natures:

Use 'em kindly, they rebel;

But be rough as nutmeg-graters,

And the rogues obey you well.

Aaron Hill (1685-1750): Verses written on a window in Scotland.

Beautiful as sweet,

And young as beautiful, and soft as young,

And gay as soft, and innocent as gay!

Edward Young (1684-1765): Night Thoughts. Night iii. Line 81.

That soft bastard Latin,

Which melts like kisses from a female mouth.

Lord Byron 1788-1824: Beppo. Stanza 44.

There was a sound of revelry by night,

And Belgium's capital had gather'd then

Her beauty and her chivalry, and bright

The lamps shone o'er fair women and brave men.

A thousand hearts beat happily; and when

Music arose with its voluptuous swell,

Soft eyes look'd love to eyes which spake again,

And all went merry as a marriage bell.

Lord Byron 1788-1824: Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iii. Stanza 21.

Her voice was ever soft,

Gentle, and low,—an excellent thing in woman.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): King Lear. Act v. Sc. 3.

Soft is the music that would charm forever;

The flower of sweetest smell is shy and lowly.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850): Not Love, not War.

Soft is the strain when zephyr gently blows,

And the smooth stream in smoother numbers flows;

But when loud surges lash the sounding shore,

The hoarse rough verse should like the torrent roar.

When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw,

The line too labours, and the words move slow:

Not so when swift Camilla scours the plain,

Flies o'er th' unbending corn, and skims along the main.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Essay on Criticism. Part ii. Line 166.

Oh swiftly glides the bonnie boat,

Just parted from the shore,

And to the fisher's chorus-note

Soft moves the dipping oar.

Joanna Baillie (1762-1857): Oh swiftly glides the Bonnie Boat.

O sleep, O gentle sleep,

Nature's soft nurse! how have I frighted thee,

That thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down

And steep my senses in forgetfulness?

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

O fairest flower! no sooner blown but blasted,

Soft silken primrose fading timelessly.

John Milton (1608-1674): Ode on the Death of a fair Infant, dying of a Cough.

How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank!

Here we will sit and let the sounds of music

Creep in our ears: soft stillness and the night

Become the touches of sweet harmony.

Sit, Jessica. Look how the floor of heaven

Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold:

There's not the smallest orb which thou behold'st

But in his motion like an angel sings,

Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins.

Such harmony is in immortal souls;

But whilst this muddy vesture of decay

Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): The Merchant of Venice. Act v. Sc. 1.

Some to the fascination of a name

Surrender judgment hoodwink'd.

William Cowper (1731-1800): The Task. Book vi. Winter Walk at Noon. Line 101.

Fair laughs the morn, and soft the zephyr blows;

While proudly riding o'er the azure realm

In gallant trim the gilded vessel goes,

Youth on the prow, and Pleasure at the helm;

Regardless of the sweeping whirlwind's sway,

That hush'd in grim repose expects his evening prey.

Thomas Gray (1716-1771): The Bard. II. 2, Line 9.

With that she dasht her on the lippes,

So dyed double red:

Hard was the heart that gave the blow,

Soft were those lips that bled.

William Warner (1558-1609): Albion's England. Book viii. chap. xli. stanza 53.

Soft-heartedness, in times like these,

Shows sof'ness in the upper story.

James Russell Lowell (1819-1891): The Biglow Papers. Second Series. No. vii.