MEMORY.
And, when the stream
Which overflowed the soul was passed away,
A consciousness remained that it had left,
Deposited upon the silent shore
Of memory, images and precious thoughts
That shall not die, and cannot be destroyed.
The Excursion, Bk. VII. W. WORDSWORTH.
I cannot but remember such things were,
That were most precious to me.
Macbeth, Act iv. Sc. 3. SHAKESPEARE.
This memory brightens o’er the past,
As when the sun concealed
Behind some cloud that near us hangs,
Shines on a distant field.
A Gleam of Sunshine. H.W. LONGFELLOW.
I count myself in nothing else so happy
As in a soul rememb’ring my good
friends;
And, as my fortune ripens with thy love,
It shall be still thy true love’s
recompense.
Richard II., Act ii. Sc. 3. SHAKESPEARE.
The sweet remembrance of the just
Shall flourish when he sleeps in dust.
Psalm CXII. TATE AND BRADY.
When he shall hear she died upon his words,
Th’ idea of her life shall sweetly
creep
Into his study of imagination,
And every lovely organ of her life
Shall come apparelled in more precious
habit,
More moving-delicate, and full of life,
Into the eye and prospect of his soul,
Than when she lived indeed.
Much Ado about Nothing, Act iv. Sc. 1.
SHAKESPEARE.
Thou, thou alone, shall dwell
forever.
And still shall recollection trace
In fancy’s mirror, ever
near,
Each smile, each tear, upon that face—
Though lost to sight, to memory
dear.
Though Lost to Sight, to Memory Dear.
T. MOORE.
Joy’s recollection is no longer
joy,
While sorrow’s memory is a sorrow still.
Doge of Venice. LORD BYRON.
Of
joys departed,
Not to return, how painful the remembrance!
The Grave. R. BLAIR.
He that is strucken blind cannot
forget
The precious treasure of his eyesight lost.
Romeo and Juliet, Act i. Sc. 1. SHAKESPEARE.
Oh, how cruelly sweet are the echoes
that start
When Memory plays an old tune on the heart!
Old Dobbin. R. COOK.
What peaceful hours I once enjoyed!
How sweet their memory still!
But they have left an aching void
The world can never fill.
Walking with God. W. COWPER.
While
memory holds a seat
In this distracted globe. Remember
thee?
Yea, from the table of my memory
I’ll wipe away all trivial fond
records,
All saws of books, all forms, all pressures
past,
That youth and observation copied there;
And thy commandment all alone shall live
Within the book and volume of my brain.
Hamlet, Act i. Sc. 5. SHAKESPEARE.
The leaves of memory seem to make
A mournful rustling in the dark.
The Fire of Driftwood. H.W. LONGFELLOW.