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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

519. Ballad on Mr. Heron’s Election—No. 2

FY, let us a’ to Kirkcudbright, For there will be bickerin’ there; For Murray’s light horse are to muster, And O how the heroes will swear!

Universal

Robert Burns

620 words

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Poetry

Ode on St Cecilia's Day,

Descend, ye Nine!

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Alexander Pope

1264 words

Poetry

185. The Humble Petition of Bruar Water

MY lord, I know your noble ear Woe ne’er assails in vain; Embolden’d thus, I beg you’ll hear Your humble slave complain, How saucy Phoebus’ scorching beams, In flaming summer-pride, Dry-withering, waste my foamy streams, And drink my crystal tide.

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.

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.

Epithalamion

YE learned sisters, which have oftentimes Beene to me ayding, others to adorne, Whom ye thought worthy of your gracefull rymes, That even the greatest did not greatly scorne To heare theyr names sung in your simple layes, But joyed...

Paradise Lost: Book 12

As one who in his journey bates at noon, Though bent on speed; so here the Arch-Angel paused Betwixt the world destroyed and world restored, If Adam aught perhaps might interpose; Then, with transition sweet, new speech resumes.

Paradise Lost: Book 05

Now Morn, her rosy steps in the eastern clime Advancing, sowed the earth with orient pearl, When Adam waked, so customed; for his sleep Was aery-light, from pure digestion bred, And temperate vapours bland, which the only sound Of leaves...

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John Milton

5994 words

Fable

The Dog and the Shadow

Beware lest you lose the substance by grasping at the shadow

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Aesop

Short16 words

Poetry

The Shepheardes Calender: April

APRILL: Ægloga QuartaTHENOT & HOBBINOLL Tell me good Hobbinoll, what garres thee greete? hath some Wolfe thy tender Lambes ytorne? Or is thy Bagpype broke, that soundes so sweete? Or art thou of thy loved lasse forlorne?

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Edmund Spenser

883 words

Fable

The Tortoise and the Birds

Never soar aloft on an enemy's pinions

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Aesop

Short12 words

Poetry

Passage to India.

1 SINGING my days, Singing the great achievements of the present, Singing the strong, light works of engineers, Our modern wonders, (the antique ponderous Seven outvied,) In the Old World, the east, the Suez canal, The New by its mighty...

Paradise Regained: The Third Book

So spake the Son of God; and Satan stood A while as mute, confounded what to say, What to reply, confuted and convinced Of his weak arguing and fallacious drift; At length, collecting all his serpent wiles, With soothing words...

The Morgante Maggiore of Pulci

CANTO THE FIRST. In the beginning was the Word next God; God was the Word, the Word no less was He: This was in the beginning, to my mode Of thinking, and without Him nought could be: Therefore, just Lord!

Universal

George Gordon, Lord Byron

5240 words

Poetry

Saul

Said Abner, "At last thou art come! Ere I tell, ere thou speak. Kiss my cheek, wish me well!" Then I wished it, and did kiss his cheek.

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Robert Browning

3902 words

Fable

The Man and the Satyr

No one should blow hot and cold with the same breath

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Aesop

Short16 words

Poetry

The Revolt of Islam. a Poem in Twelve Cantos

Osais de Broton ethnos aglaiais aptomestha perainei pros eschaton ploon nausi d oute pezos ion an eurois es Uperboreon agona thaumatan odon. DEDICATION.

The Task: Book VI, The Winter Walk at Noon (excerpts)

Thus heav'nward all things tend. For all were once Perfect, and all must be at length restor'd. So God has greatly purpos'd; who would else In his dishonour'd works himself endure Dishonour, and be wrong'd without redress. Haste then, and...

56. Epistle to Davie, A Brother Poet

WHILE winds frae aff Ben-Lomond blaw, An’ bar the doors wi’ driving snaw, An’ hing us owre the ingle, I set me down to pass the time, An’ spin a verse or twa o’ rhyme, In hamely, westlin jingle.

Universal

Robert Burns

1047 words

Fable

The Lion and the Statue

We can easily represent things as we wish them to be

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Aesop

Short16 words

Fable

The Fox and the Mosquitoes

Better a known evil than an unknown

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Aesop

Short12 words

Poetry

The Strayed Reveller

1 Faster, faster, 2 O Circe, Goddess, 3 Let the wild, thronging train 4 The bright procession 5 Of eddying forms, 6 Sweep through my soul! 7 Thou standest, smiling 8 Down on me!

Salut au Monde.

1 O TAKE my hand, Walt Whitman! Such gliding wonders! such sights and sounds! Such join’d unended links, each hook’d to the next! Each answering all—each sharing the earth with all. What widens within you, Walt Whitman? What waves and soils exuding?

Epistle From Mr. Murray to Dr. Polidori

DEAR Doctor, I have read your play, Which is a good one in its way,-- Purges the eyes, and moves the bowels, And drenches handkerchiefs like towels With tears, that, in a flux of grief, Afford hysterical relief To shattered...

Universal

George Gordon, Lord Byron

495 words