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Home›Traditions›Traditional

Traditional Illustrations

The orthodox, historical consensus of biblical interpretation.

Key question: “What is the most widely accepted and historically grounded understanding of this text?”

25,889 sermon illustrations through the Traditional lens

Poetry

Troilus and Criseyde: Book III

O blisful light of whiche the bemes clere Adorneth al the thridde hevene faire! O sonnes lief, O Ioves doughter dere, Plesaunce of love, O goodly debonaire, In gentil hertes ay redy to repaire! O verray cause of hele and...

Universal

Geoffrey Chaucer

12709 words

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Fable

Belling the Cat

It is easy to propose impossible remedies

Universalplanningaction

Aesop

Short10 words

Poetry

The Task: Book IV, The Winter Evening (excerpts)

'tis the twanging horn!

Universal

William Cowper

837 words

Fable

The Old Man and Death

We would often be sorry if our wishes were gratified

Universalwishesconsequences

Aesop

Short15 words

Poetry

TO A CHILD

Dear child! how radiant on thy mother's knee, With merry-making eyes and jocund smiles, Thou gazest at the painted tiles, Whose figures grace, With many a grotesque form and face. The ancient chimney of thy nursery!

Universal

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

923 words

Fable

The Fox, the Cock, and the Dog

Cunning often outwits itself

Universalcunningwisdom

Aesop

Short11 words

Fable

The Fox Without a Tail

Distrust interested advice

Universaladviceself-interest

Aesop

Short8 words

Poetry

Julian and Maddalo. a Conversation

The meadows with fresh streams, the bees with thyme, The goats with the green leaves of budding Spring, Are saturated not--nor Love with tears.--VIRGIL'S "Gallus".

Abba Anthony's Prayer

Eastern Orthodox prayer by Abba Anthony

In Honour of that High and Mighty Princess, Queen ELIZABETH

1.1 Although great Queen, thou now in silence lie, 1.2 Yet thy loud Herald Fame, doth to the sky 1.3 Thy wondrous worth proclaim, in every clime, 1.4 And so has vow'd, whilst there is world or time.

Two Choruses to the Tragedy of Brutus.

CHORUS OF ATHENIANS. Ye shades, where sacred truth is sought; Groves, where immortal sages taught: Where heavenly visions Plato fired, And Epicurus' lay inspired; In vain your guiltless laurels stood Unspotted long with human blood. War, horrid war, your thoughtful...

The Zucca

Summer was dead and Autumn was expiring, And infant Winter laughed upon the land All cloudlessly and cold;--when I, desiring More in this world than any understand, Wept o'er the beauty, which, like sea retiring, Had left the earth bare...

Eloisa to Abelard.

In these deep solitudes and awful cells, Where heavenly-pensive Contemplation dwells, And ever-musing Melancholy reigns, What means this tumult in a vestal's veins? Why rove my thoughts beyond this last retreat? Why feels my heart its long-forgotten heat?

Universal

Alexander Pope

2512 words

Fable

The Frogs Desiring a King

Better no rule than cruel rule

Universalleadershipgovernance

Aesop

Short11 words

Fable

The Ass's Brains

Wit has always an answer ready

Universalwitcleverness

Aesop

Short9 words

Poetry

Ode to a Lady Whose Lover Was Killed by a Ball, Which at the Same Time Shivered a Portrait Next His Heart

_On peut trouver des femmes qui n'ont jamais eu de galanterie, mais il est rare d'en trouver qui n'en aient jamais eu qu'une_.--[_Réflexions_ ... du Duc de la Rochefoucauld, No.

Universal

George Gordon, Lord Byron

543 words

Poetry

Morituri Salutamus: Poem for the Fiftieth Anniversary

Tempora labuntur, tacitisque senescimus annis, Et fugiunt freno non remorante dies. Ovid, Fastorum, Lib. "O Cжsar, we who are about to die Salute you!" was the gladiators' cry In the arena, standing face to face With death and with the Roman populace.

Universal

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

1878 words

Poetry

Mother and Poet

One of them shot by the sea in the east, And one of them shot in the west by the sea. both my boys ! When you sit at the feast And are wanting a great song for Italy free,...

Universal

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

843 words

Poetry

Ginevra

Wild, pale, and wonder-stricken, even as one Who staggers forth into the air and sun From the dark chamber of a mortal fever, Bewildered, and incapable, and ever Fancying strange comments in her dizzy brain Of usual shapes, till the...

Soliloquy of a Bard in the Country

'Twas now the noon of night, and all was still, Except a hapless Rhymer and his quill.

Universal

George Gordon, Lord Byron

562 words

Poetry

I Sing the Body Electric.

1 I SING the Body electric; The armies of those I love engirth me, and I engirth them; They will not let me off till I go with them, respond to them, And discorrupt them, and charge them full with the charge of the Soul.

Fragment: Supposed to Be an Epithalamium of Francis Ravaillac and Charlotte Corday

'Tis midnight now--athwart the murky air, Dank lurid meteors shoot a livid gleam; From the dark storm-clouds flashes a fearful glare, It shows the bending oak, the roaring stream.

In a Gondola

I send my heart up to thee, all my heart In this my singing.

The Flight of the Duchess

You're my friend: I was the man the Duke spoke to; I helped the Duchess to cast off his yoke, too; So here's the tale from beginning to end, My friend!

Universal

Robert Browning

7775 words