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When Misfortune is asleep, let no one wake her.

John Dryden

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John Dryden
Age: 68 †
Born: 1631
Born: August 7
Died: 1700
Died: May 12
Hymnwriter
Literary Critic
Playwright
Poet
Translator
Aldwincle
Northamptonshire
Misfortunes
Wake
Misfortune
Asleep

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Fowls, by winter forced, forsake the floods, and wing their hasty flight to happier lands.
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Having mourned your sin, for outward Eden lost, find paradise within.
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He wants worth who dares not praise a foe.
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Bold knaves thrive without one grain of sense, But good men starve for want of impudence.
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He who would search for pearls must dive below.
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Zeal, the blind conductor of the will.
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Imagination in a poet is a faculty so wild and lawless that, like a high ranging spaniel, it must have clogs tied to it, lest it outrun the judgment. The great easiness of blank verse renders the poet too luxuriant. He is tempted to say many things which might better be omitted, or, at least shut up in fewer words.
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Maintain your post: That's all the fame you need For 'tis impossible you should proceed.
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Railing in other men may be a crime, But ought to pass for mere instinct in him: Instinct he follows and no further knows, For to write verse with him is to transprose.
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He is a perpetual fountain of good sense.
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So poetry, which is in Oxford made An art, in London only is a trade.
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Beauty, like ice, our footing does betray Who can tread sure on the smooth, slippery way: Pleased with the surface, we glide swiftly on, And see the dangers that we cannot shun.
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