Seems, madam! nay, it is; I know not "seems."

'T is not alone my inky cloak, good mother,

Nor customary suits of solemn black.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 2.

Sapping a solemn creed with solemn sneer.

Lord Byron 1788-1824: Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iii. Stanza 107.

The solemn fop; significant and budge;

A fool with judges, amongst fools a judge.

William Cowper (1731-1800): Conversation. Line 299.

It was the calm and silent night!

Seven hundred years and fifty-three

Had Rome been growing up to might,

And now was queen of land and sea.

No sound was heard of clashing wars,

Peace brooded o'er the hushed domain;

Apollo, Pallas, Jove, and Mars

Held undisturbed their ancient reign

In the solemn midnight,

Centuries ago.

Alfred Domett (1811-1887): Christmas Hymn.

No solemn sanctimonious face I pull,

Nor think I'm pious when I'm only bilious;

Nor study in my sanctum supercilious,

To frame a Sabbath Bill or forge a Bull.

Thomas Hood (1798-1845): Ode to Rae Wilson.

Sapping a solemn creed with solemn sneer.

Lord Byron 1788-1824: Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iii. Stanza 107.

Our revels now are ended. These our actors,

As I foretold you, were all spirits, and

Are melted into air, into thin air:

And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,

The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces,

The solemn temples, the great globe itself,

Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,

And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,

Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff

As dreams are made on; and our little life

Is rounded with a sleep.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): The Tempest. Act iv. Sc. 1.

Thou say'st an undisputed thing

In such a solemn way.

Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894): To an Insect.