Careful Words

soil (n.)

soil (v.)

soil (adj.)

  The soil out of which such men as he are made is good to be born on, good to live on, good to die for and to be buried in.

James Russell Lowell (1819-1891): Garfield.

Fame is no plant that grows on mortal soil.

John Milton (1608-1674): Lycidas. Line 78.

The trivial round, the common task,

Would furnish all we ought to ask.

John Keble (1792-1866): Morning.

Must I thus leave thee, Paradise?—thus leave

Thee, native soil, these happy walks and shades?

John Milton (1608-1674): Paradise Lost. Book xi. Line 269.

When Spring unlocks the flowers to paint the laughing soil.

Reginald Heber (1783-1826): Seventh Sunday after Trinity.

Ay, call it holy ground,

The soil where first they trod:

They have left unstained what there they found,—

Freedom to worship God.

John Keble (1792-1866): Landing of the Pilgrim Fathers.