The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1882-10-04

/ W Ellttu LOT LAS Gi0Oe O6inoCI3t.
Prevailiag Poet.-The oft repeated quo,s
tation;
Prevailing poet whose undoubting mind
Believed the magic wonders which he sung
is from Collins "Ode on the popular super
stitions OF the Highlands of Scotland" /" an,
probably alludes to Tasso, although pass
ing reference in the poem to Edward Fair
fax, the translator of Tasso's Jerusalem De
livered," led Sir Walter Scott upon what wa
evidently q careless reading, to apply to tht
British bard.
With Oar feathers are TEe .Saaittsa.-I.or
Byron, in " England Bards and Scotch Re
viewers beginning with line SIG, wrote;
Twas. thine. own genius gave the final blow,
And helP,d to plant the wound that laid thee
low;
So the struck eagle. stretched upon the plain,
No more through rolling clouds to soar again
Viewed his own feather on the fatal dart,
And wing'd the shaft that quiyered in his
heart;
Keen were his pangs. but keener far to feed
He nursed the pinion which impell'd the steel
While the same plumage that had warmed his
nest
Drank the life-drop of his bleeding breast.
Fully $50 years before Byron wrote the
above beautiful lines, Edmund Waller had
composed the following:
That eagles fate and mine are one.
Which on the shaft that made him die,
Espied feather of his'own,
Wherewith he won't to soar so high
After Lord Byron came Thomas Moore
with
Like young eagle who has lent his plume
To fedge the shaft by which he meets his
4
See their own feathers pluek'd to wing the
dart
Which rank corruption destines for their
| heart.
But Eschyius, the Greek poet, more than
1900 years before Waller, Byron or Burke,
originated the fable from which the quota
tion, With our own feathers are we smit-
ten, is taken, though the rendering does
not accord with the original which, as
translated, reads:
So in the Libyan fable it is told
| That once an eagle stricken with dart,
Said when he saw the fashion of the shaft
with cur own feathers, not bylothers' hands,
Are we now smltten.
,Skglqrkiaq.-A term originated by sail
ors for games or tricks upon each other in
the riggings and tops of ships. Skylarking
thence became general term for mischiev-
Gus frolieking, and has been abbreviated to
larkag.
Land o Cakes.--This phrase was first ap-
piled to Scotland by Burns in 1889, in his
poem, "Captain Crosses Peregrinations
Through Scotland" which begins with the
couplet:
Hear Land o Cakes and brither Scots,
From Maidenkirk to Johnny Groats.
stRF.:I.1-;I-yy =; -, :,,,,o-.;r,, &c a. = ,,~,, >,
of the most southerly parish of Scotland, |
Kirksmaiden.
-4nqel visits-The smile by Campbell in |
his pleasures of Hope, published in 1893, |
What though my winged hours of bliss have
been
Like angeI-visits, few and far between,
is one of the most proverbial of all the popu-
lar quotations. The idea was not original
with Campbell, fact which most people
who express it in the latter poets words are
not aware Of Roland Blair, in 1743, ex-
pressed the thought better, in our judgment,
than Campbell, when he wrote;
Alas too we'll he sped, the good he scorn'd
Stalk'd oft reluctant, like an ill-us'd ghost,
Not to return or, if it did, in visits
Like those of angels, short and far between.
The originator of the idea, however, was
neither Blair nor Campbell, but was one
John Norris, who wrote, twenty-five years
before the former was born, poem entitled
"The Parting" in which occurs the follow
ing verse:
How fading are the joys we dote upon,
Like apparitions, seen and gone;
But those which soonest take their fight
Are the most exquisite and strong.
Like angels visits, short and bright,
Mortality's too weak to bear them long.
The same author, in some lines TO the
memory Of his niece writes
No wonder such q noble mind
Her way again to Heaven so soon could
find
Angels, as tis but seldom they appear,
So neither do they make long stay,
They do but visit, and away,
Tis pain for them t'endure our too gross
sphere.
We could not hope for reprieve,
She must die soon, that made such haste
to live.
Wasting ,Steeetness on the Desert Air
This saying originated from the following
lines by Gray:
And waste its sweetness on the deser; air.
Tie elegy which contains it was begun in
l742 and finished in 1749. In 1764 Charles
Churchill, then very young poet, wrote
Gotham, and in book I'd, line 20, reads
Nor waste their sweetness in the desert air.
The one line is often taken for the other,
from which il is an unconscious plagiarism. ;
The Course Of True Lore Nerer Did Run
few of the very many who use
this quotation know from whence it comes,
although its authors name is immortal. 1t
is from Shakspeare's midsummer Nights
Dream" and occurs in act l., sc.
For aught that ever could read,
Could ever hear by tale or history,
The course Of true love never did run smooth.
CrinoIine This word, given to that spec
imen of toggery worn by ladies to expand
their skirts, is from erin, or horsehair, etofe
le erin, which was hair mixed with black
thread The invention was first heard of in
Italy by an abbreviated name, aud COM
mon street cry was: |
Cornete odorme che hauete priscini,
Acomprar questi bellinostri crini,
which is significant of the reason for the
first use Of this article of dress.
The Minds 8 the Standard of the Mdn.-This
quotation occurs in Watts, Hor9 Lgrioq
In his estimate of "False Greatness" he
wrote:
We're | so tall to reach the pole,
Or grasp the ocean with my span,
! must be measured by my soul;
The mind sthe standard Of the man.
As Queer as Dicks Hatba,ld. This pro-
verbal saying is said to allude to Richard (
Cromwell, who found the crown unsuitable
to his head. Another origin Of the expires