Quote#Nature
Be sure from nature never to depart
Quote byChristopher Pitt · 1699–1748
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Vida's Art of Poetry (1725), Book II, p. 69.
English (original)
Be sure from nature never to depart; To copy nature is the task of art. The noblest poets own her sovereign sway, And ever follow where she leads the way.
— Christopher Pitt
More from Christopher Pitt
Arms! arms! my friends, with speed my arms supply, 'Tis our last hour, and summons us to die; My arms!—in vain you hold me,—let me go— Give, give me back this moment to the foe. 'Tis well—we will not tamely perish all, But die revenged, …
To all, proportioned terms he must dispense, And make the sound a picture of the sense.
As when sedition fires the ignoble crowd, And the wild rabble storms and thirsts for blood; Of stones and brands a mingled tempest flies, With all the sudden arms that rage supplies: If some grave sire appears, amid the strife, In morals …
Ah, mighty Queen! you urge me to disclose, And feel, once more, unutterable woes.
Nor would I scruple, with a due regard, To read sometimes a rude unpolished bard, Among whose labours I may find a line Which from unsightly rust I may refine, And, with a better grace, adopt it into mine.
Thrice round her neck my eager arms I threw; Thrice from my empty arms the phantom flew, Swift as the wind, with momentary flight, Swift as a fleeting vision of the night.