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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

The Task: Book V, The Winter Morning Walk (excerpts)

'Tis morning; and the sun, with ruddy orb Ascending, fires th' horizon: while the clouds, That crowd away before the driving wind, More ardent as the disk emerges more, Resemble most some city in a blaze, Seen through the leafless wood.

Universal

William Cowper

450 words

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Poetry

Abt Vogler: After he has been extemporizing upon the musical instrument of his invention

Would that the structure brave, the manifold music I build, Bidding my organ obey, calling its keys to their work, Claiming each slave of the sound, at a touch, as when Solomon willed Armies of angels that soar, legions of...

The Changeling ( From The Tent on the Beach )

FOR the fairest maid in Hampton They needed not to search, Who saw young Anna favor Come walking into church,-- Or bringing from the meadows, At set of harvest-day, The frolic of the blackbirds, The sweetness of the hay.

Universal

John Greenleaf Whittier

545 words

Poetry

The Woodman and the Nightingale

A woodman whose rough heart was out of tune (I think such hearts yet never came to good) Hated to hear, under the stars or moon, One nightingale in an interfluous wood Satiate the hungry dark with melody;-- And as...

The Blues: A Literary Eclogue

"Nimium ne crede colori."--Virgil, ECLOGUE THE FIRST. _London.--Before the Door of a Lecture Room_. _Enter_ TRACY, _meeting_ INKEL. You're too late. Is it over? Nor will be this hour. But the benches are crammed, like a garden in flower.

Universal

George Gordon, Lord Byron

5055 words

Poetry

Satire IV.

THE SATIRES OF DR JOHN DONNE, DEAN OF ST PAUL'S, VERSIFIED. Well, if it be my time to quit the stage, Adieu to all the follies of the age! I die in charity with fool and knave, Secure of peace at least beyond the grave.

Windsor-Forest.

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE GEORGE LORD LANSDOWNE. 'Non injussa cano: te nostrae, Vare, myricae, Te nemus omne canet; nee Phoebo gratior ulla est, Quam sibi quae Vari praescripsit pagina nomen.' VIRG. Thy forests, Windsor! and thy green retreats, At once...

Monna Innominata: A Sonnet of Sonnets

1 Lo dм che han detto a' dolci amici addio. - Dante Amor, con quanto sforzo oggi mi vinci!

Universal

Christina Rossetti

1700 words

Fable

The Hart in the Ox-Stall

Nothing escapes the master's eye

Universalvigilancedeception

Aesop

Short10 words

Poetry

The Cry Of The Children

Do ye hear the children weeping, O my brothers, Ere the sorrow comes with years? They are leaning their young heads against their mothers, And that cannot stop their tears.

Universal

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

1084 words

Poetry

Proud Music of The Storm.

Blast that careers so free, whistling across the prairies! Strong hum of forest tree-tops! Wind of the mountains! Personified dim shapes! you hidden orchestras! You serenades of phantoms, with instruments alert, Blending, with Nature’s rhythmus, all the tongues of nations;...

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.

Universal

Robert Burns

498 words

Fable

The Tortoise and the Birds

Never soar aloft on an enemy's pinions

Universaltrustdanger

Aesop

Short12 words

Poetry

Alastor: Or, the Spirit of Solitude

'The good die first, And those whose hearts are dry as summer dust, Burn to the socket!' Earth, Ocean, Air, beloved brotherhood!

Song of the Indian Maid, from 'Endymion'

Why dost borrow The natural hue of health, from vermeil lips?-- To give maiden blushes To the white rose bushes? Or is it thy dewy hand the daisy tips? Why dost borrow The lustrous passion from a falcon-eye?-- To give the glow-worm light?

Universal

John Keats

940 words

Fable

The Old Man and Death

We would often be sorry if our wishes were gratified

Universalwishesconsequences

Aesop

Short15 words

Poetry

The Sensitive Plant

A Sensitive Plant in a garden grew, And the young winds fed it with silver dew, And it opened its fan-like leaves to the light. And closed them beneath the kisses of Night.

Endymion: Book III

There are who lord it o'er their fellow-men With most prevailing tinsel: who unpen Their baaing vanities, to browse away The comfortable green and juicy hay From human pastures; or, O torturing fact!

Ode From the French

We do not curse thee, Waterloo!

Universal

George Gordon, Lord Byron

526 words

Fable

The Jay and the Peacock

It is not only fine feathers that make fine birds

Universalidentitypretense

Aesop

Short15 words

Poetry

Sleepers, The.

1 I WANDER all night in my vision, Stepping with light feet, swiftly and noiselessly stepping and stopping, Bending with open eyes over the shut eyes of sleepers, Wandering and confused, lost to myself, ill-assorted, contradictory, Pausing, gazing, bending, and stopping.

Manfred: A Dramatic Poem

"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy." [_Hamlet,_ Act i. Scene 5, Lines 166, 167. _The Scene of the Drama is amongst the Higher Alps--partly in the Castle of Manfred, and...

Universal

George Gordon, Lord Byron

13677 words

Poetry

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...

Universal

Alexander Pope

559 words

Fable

The Eagle and the Arrow

We often give our enemies the means for our own destruction

Universalself-destructionenemies

Aesop

Short16 words