Cowards [may] fear to die; but courage stout,

Rather than live in snuff, will be put out.

Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1618): On the snuff of a candle the night before he died.—Raleigh's Remains, p. 258, ed. 1661.

Here I and sorrows sit;

Here is my throne, bid kings come bow to it.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): King John. Act iii. Sc. 1.

In that fierce light which beats upon a throne.

Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892): Idylls of the King. Dedication.

The barge she sat in, like a burnish'd throne,

Burn'd on the water; the poop was beaten gold;

Purple the sails, and so perfumed that

The winds were love-sick with them; the oars were silver,

Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke, and made

The water which they beat to follow faster,

As amorous of their strokes. For her own person,

It beggar'd all description.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Antony and Cleopatra. Act ii. Sc. 2.

My bosom's lord sits lightly in his throne.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Romeo and Juliet. Act v. Sc. 1.

Night, sable goddess! from her ebon throne,

In rayless majesty, now stretches forth

Her leaden sceptre o'er a slumbering world.

Edward Young (1684-1765): Night thoughts. Night i. Line 18.

Should such a man, too fond to rule alone,

Bear, like the Turk, no brother near the throne.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot. Prologue to the Satires. Line 197.

This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle,

This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,

This other Eden, demi-paradise,

This fortress built by Nature for herself

Against infection and the hand of war,

This happy breed of men, this little world,

This precious stone set in the silver sea,

Which serves it in the office of a wall

Or as a moat defensive to a house,

Against the envy of less happier lands,—

This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): King Richard II. Act ii. Sc. 1.

Mont Blanc is the monarch of mountains;

They crowned him long ago

On a throne of rocks, in a robe of clouds,

With a diadem of snow.

Lord Byron 1788-1824: Manfred. Act i. Sc. 1.

High on a throne of royal state, which far

Outshone the wealth of Ormus and of Ind,

Or where the gorgeous East with richest hand

Showers on her kings barbaric pearl and gold,

Satan exalted sat, by merit rais'd

To that bad eminence.

John Milton (1608-1674): Paradise Lost. Book ii. Line 1.

He pass'd the flaming bounds of place and time:

The living throne, the sapphire blaze,

Where angels tremble while they gaze,

He saw; but blasted with excess of light,

Closed his eyes in endless night.

Thomas Gray (1716-1771): The Progress of Poesy. III. 2, Line 4.

They love their land because it is their own,

And scorn to give aught other reason why;

Would shake hands with a king upon his throne,

And think it kindness to his Majesty.

Alfred Bunn (1790-1860): Connecticut.

And lives to clutch the golden keys,

To mould a mighty state's decrees,

And shape the whisper of the throne.

Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892): In Memoriam. lxiv. Stanza 3.

Forbade to wade through slaughter to a throne,

And shut the gates of mercy on mankind.

Thomas Gray (1716-1771): Elegy in a Country Churchyard. Stanza 17.

United yet divided, twain at once:

So sit two kings of Brentford on one throne.

William Cowper (1731-1800): The Task. Book i. The Sofa. Line 77.

Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne.

James Russell Lowell (1819-1891): The Present Crisis.