In rigorous hours, when down the iron lane
The redbreast looks in vain
  For hips and haws,
Lo, shining flowers upon my window-pane
  The silver pencil of the winter draws.
2065
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON:  Winter.

=Wisdom.=

Wisdom and fortune combating together,
If that the former dare but what it can,
No chance may shake it.
2066
SHAKS.:  Ant. and Cleo., Act iii., Sc. 11.

What is it to be wise? 
’Tis but to know how little can be known;
To see all others’ faults, and feel your own.
2067
POPE:  Essay on Man, Epis. iv., Line 260.

The stream from Wisdom’s well,
Which God supplies, is inexhaustible.
2068
BAYARD TAYLOR:  Wisdom of All.

And Wisdom’s self
Oft seeks to sweet retired solitude.
2069
MILTON:  Comus, Line 373.

=Wishes.=

Thy wish was father, Harry, to that thought. 2070 SHAKS.:  2 Henry IV., Act iv., Sc. 4.

Our wishes lengthen, as our sun declines. 2071 YOUNG:  Night Thoughts, Night v., Line 662.

=Wit—­Wits.=

I hold a mouses wit not worth a leke,
That hath but one hole for to sterten to.
2072
CHAUCER:  Canterbury Tales, The Wif of Bathes Prologue, Line 6154.

Wit’s an unruly engine, wildly striking Sometimes a friend, sometimes the engineer. 2073 HERBERT:  Temple, Church Porch, St. 41.

Great wits are sure to madness near allied, And thin partitions do their bounds divide. 2074 DRYDEN:  Absalom and Achitophel, Pt. i., Line 163.

Men famed for wit, of dangerous talents vain, Treat those of common parts with proud disdain. 2075 CRABBE:  Patron, Line 229.

Though I am young, I scorn to flit
On the wings of borrowed wit.
2076
GEORGE WITHER:  The Shepherd’s Hunting.

=Witches.=

Midnight hags,
By force of potent spells, of bloody characters,
And conjurations, horrible to hear,
Call fiends and spectres from the yawning deep,
And set the ministers of hell at work.
2077
ROWE:  Jane Shore, Act iv., Sc. 1.

=Woe.=

But I have that within which passeth show; These but the trappings and the suits of woe. 2078 SHAKS.:  Hamlet, Act i., Sc. 1.

Woes cluster; rare are solitary woes; They love a train, they tread each other’s heel. 2079 YOUNG:  Night Thoughts, Night iii., Line 63.

Chords that vibrate sweetest pleasure
Thrill the deepest notes of woe.
2080
BURNS:  Sweet Sensibility.

=Wolf.=

He’s the symbol of hunger the whole earth through, His spectre sits at the door or cave, And the homeless hear with a thrill of fear The sound of his wind-swept voice on the air. 2081 HAMLIN GARLAND:  The Gaunt Gray Wolf.

=Woman.=

Women are as roses; whose fair flower, Being once display’d, doth fall that very hour. 2082 SHAKS.:  Tw.  Night, Act ii., Sc. 4.