Over the mirrors meant / To glass the opulent / The sea-worm crawls—grotesque, slimed, dumb, indifferent.

And at home by the fire, whenever you look up, there I shall be--and whenever I look up, there will be you.

Clouds spout upon her / Their waters amain / In ruthless disdain, – / Her who but lately / Had shivered with pain / As at touch of dishonour / If there had lit on her / So coldly, so straightly / Such arrows of rain

Purism, whether in grammar or in vocabulary, almost always means ignorance. Language was made before grammar, not grammar before language.

This scene, like my own life,' I said, 'is one / Where many glooms abide; / Toned by its fortune to a deadly dun-- / Lightless on every side.

The fundamental error of their matrimonial union; that of having based a permanent contract on a temporary feeling.

The beautiful things of the earth become more dear as they elude pursuit.

The beggarly question of parentage--what is it, after all? What does it matter, when you come to think of it, whether a child is yours by blood or not? All the little ones of our time are collectively the children of us adults of the time, and entitled to our general care.

A novel is an impression, not an argument; and there the matter must rest.

I can recall no word / Of anything he did; / For me he is a man who died and was interred / To leave a pyramid.