George Arnold
Birthdate: June 24, 1834
Birthplace: New York City, New York, USA
Date of Death: November 9, 1865
Occupation: Author, Journalist, Painter, and Poet
Profile: Best known for
The Jolly Old Pedagogue.
Website: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Arnold_(poet)
Number of Quotes: 18
A silence reigns upon the air, Upon the pansies by the shore, Upon the violets, pale and fair, Upon the willow, bending o'er; The
reeds and liliessilent grow, The dark green waters silent sleep, Save when the summer breezes blow, Or silvery minnows leap.
Drift: A Sea-shore Idyl: and Other Poems (1866)
Ah, many a one has started forth with hope and purpose high; Has fought throughout a weary life, and passed all pleasure by;
Has burst all flowery chains by which men aye have been enthralled; Has been stone-deaf to voices sweet, that softly, sadly
called; Has scorned the flashing goblet with the bubbles on its brim; Has turned his back on jewelled hands that madly beckoned
him; Has, in a word, condemned himself to follow out his plan By stern and lonely labor—and has died, a conquered man!
Drift: A Sea-shore Idyl: and Other Poems (1866)
But leave me to my beer! Gold is dross, love is loss, so if I gulp my sorrows down, or see
them drown in foamy draughts of old nut-brown, then I do wear the crown, without the cross!
Beer
Experience is bitter, but its teachings we retain; It has taught me this--who once has loved, loves never on earth again!
Drift: A Sea-shore Idyl: and Other Poems (1866)
Good-by—because I love you.
This simple yet poignant line captures the bittersweet nature of love and parting.
Here with my beer I sit, while golden moments flit: alas! They pass unheeded by: and as they fly, I, being dry, sit idly sipping here, my beer.
Poems Grave and Gay (1867)
I hold that all the evil we know on earth finds in this violence done to love its true and legitimate birth.
Drift: A Sea-shore Idyl: and Other Poems (1866)
I let my summer days pass idly on.
Drift: A Sea-shore Idyl: and Other Poems (1866)
I love this simple maiden, She grows upon me more and more, And--ask the moon who 't was that kissed, Last night upon the shore!
Drift: A Sea-shore Idyl: and Other Poems (1866)
Life for the living, and rest for the dead!
Drift: A Sea-shore Idyl: and Other Poems (1866)
O sweet September, thy first breezes bring The dry leaf's rustle and the squirrel's laughter,
The cool fresh air whence health and vigor spring And promise of exceeding joy hereafter.
Poems Grave and Gay (1867)
O'er hill and field October's glories fade;
O'er hill and field the blackbirds southward fly;
The brown leaves rustle down the forest glade,
Where naked branches make a fitful shade,
And the lost blooms of Autumn withered lie.
October
Sweet are the uses of adversity.
While the phrasing resembles Shakespeare's, Arnold
often wrote on the theme of finding value in struggles, and this is commonly attributed to his sentiment.
The glass of your life is darkened, and darkly through it you see distorted and ghastly fragments of duty and destiny.
Drift: A Sea-shore Idyl: and Other Poems (1866)
The living need charity more than the dead.
The Jolly Old Pedagogue
The sky is bluer than the ocean, and I am more lost than the sky.
A reflective and melancholic line showcasing Arnold's
romantic and contemplative style.
Twas a jolly old pedagogue, long ago, Tall and slender, and sallow and dry; His form was bent, and his gait was slow, His
long thin hair was white as snow, But a wonderful twinkle shone in his eye. And he sang every night as he went to bed, Let
us be happy down here below: The living should live, though the dead be dead.
Said the jolly old pedagogue long ago.
The Jolly Old Pedagogue
What rare days were those, When my chief duty was to write a song.
Drift: A Sea-shore Idyl: and Other Poems (1866)
Last on Earth
