I am as one who is left alone at a banquet, the lights dead and the flowers faded.
Alone!—that worn-out word,
So idly spoken, and so coldly heard;
Yet all that, poets sing, and grief hath known,
Of hope laid waste, knells in that word—alone!
But 'midst the crowd, the hum, the shock of men,
To hear, to see, to feel, and to possess,
And roam along, the world's tired denizen,
With none who bless us, none whom we can
This is to be alone; this, this is solitude!
In solitude, when we are least alone.
Among them, but not of them.
'Tis solitude should teach us how to die;
It hath no flatterers; vanity can give
No hollow aid; alone—man with his God must strive.
Nunquam se minus otiosum esse quam cum otiosus; Dec minus solum quam cum solus esset.
That he was never less at leisure than when at leisure; nor that he was ever less alone than when alone.
Alone, alone, all, all alone,
Alone on a wide, wide sea.
So lonely 'twas that God himself
Scarce seemed there to be.
Coleridge—Ancient Mariner. Pt. VII.
I praise the Frenchman ; his remark was shrewd,—
"How sweet, how passing sweet is solitude."
But grant me still a friend in my retreat,
Whom I may whisper—Solitude is sweet.
| author = Cowper
| work = Retirement. L. 739. The quotation is attributed to Ia Broyere and to Jean Gttez de Balzac.
Oh, for a lodge in some vast wilderness,
Some boundless contiguity of shade,
Where rumour of oppression and deceit,
Of unsuccessful or successful war,
Might never reach me morel
| author = Cowper
| work = Task. Bk. II. L. 1.
| seealso = (See also Johnson under Summer)
{{Hoyt quote
| num = 13
| text = <poem>O solitude, where are the charms
That sages have seen in thy face?
Better dwell in the midst of alarms,
Than reign in this horrible place.
Solitude is the nurse of enthusiasm, and enthusiasm is the true parent of genius. In all
ages solitude has been called for—has been
flown to.
Isaac DTsraeli—Literary Character of Men
of Genius. Ch. X.
| author =
| work =
| place =
| note =
| topic = Solitude
| page = 730
}}
{{Hoyt quote
| num = 15
| text = There is a society in the deepest solitude.
Isaac D'Israeli—Literary Character of Men
of Genius. Ch. X.
So vain is the belief
That the sequestered path has fewest flowers.
Thrice happy he, who by some shady grove,
Far from the clamorous world; doth live his own;
Though solitary, who is not alone,
But doth converse with that eternal love.
Drummond—Urania; or, Spiritual Poems.
| seealso = (See also Cicero)
| topic = Solitude
| page = 730
}}
{{Hoyt quote
| num = 18
| text = We enter the world alone, we leave it alone.
| author = Froude
| work = Short Studies on Great Subjects. Sea Studies
| topic = Solitude
| page = 730
}}
{{Hoyt quote
| num = 19
| text =
I was never less alone than wheD by myself.
GrBBON—Memoirs. Vol. I. P. 117.
| seealso = (See also Cicero)
| topic = Solitude
| page = 730
}}
{{Hoyt quote
| num = 20
| text = <poem>Wer sich der Einsamkeit ergiebt,
Ach! der ist bald allein.
Whoever gives himself up to solitude,
Ah' he is soon alone.
Goethe—WUhelm Meister. II. 13.
Nobody with me at sea but myself.
Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife.
O Solitude! if I must with thee dwell,
Let it not be among the jumbled heap
Of murky buildings: climb with me the steep,—
Nature's observatory—whence the dell,
In flowery slopes, its river's crystal swell,
May seem a span; let me thy vigils keep
'Mongst boughs pavilion 'd, where the deer's
swift leap
Startles the wild bee from the foxglove bell.
Kelts*—Sonnet. Solitude' If I Must With
Thee Dwell.
Why should we faint and fear to live alone,
Since all alone, so Heaven has willed, we die,
Nor even the tenderest heart and next our own
Knows half the reasons why we smile and sigh.
Keble—Christian Year. Twenty-Fourth Sunday after Trinity.
