 | Charles Carleton Coffin - History, Universal (Juvenile) - 1879 - 426 pages
...wealth, e'er gave, Await, alike, th' inevitable hour ; The paths of glory lead but to the grave." " I would rather be the author of that poem than take Quebec to-morrow," said he. But would the poem ever have been written if the Army of God had not set up its... | |
 | Rufus Blanchard - Chicago - 1880 - 580 pages
...bank, he repeated to his companions one of its lines — "The path of glory leads but to the grave." "Now, gentlemen, I would rather be the author of that poem, than take Quebec," said he. ''Perhaps the noblest tribute ever paid by arms to letters, since that heroic era when hostile... | |
 | William Swinton - American literature - 1880 - 694 pages
...stanzas with which a country church-yard inspired the muse of Gray, and at the close of the recitation, 'Now, gentlemen, I would rather be the author of that poem than take Quebec."" For himself, he was within a few hours to find fulfilment of that noble line — " The paths of glory... | |
 | New national reading books - 1880 - 362 pages
...side, ' Gray's Elegy in a Country Churchyard ; ' and, as he concluded the beautiful verses said : ' Now, gentlemen, I would rather be the author of that poem than take Quebec ! ' 3. But while Wolfe thus, in the poet's words, gave vent to the intensity of his feelings, his eye... | |
 | Frederick Saunders - American poetry - 1880 - 474 pages
...must have seemed at such a time fraught with mournful meaning ; and turning to his officers, said : " Now, gentlemen, I would rather be the author of that poem than take Quebec !" There are two manuscripts of the Elegy in existence ; and they were recently (in 1854) sold at auction... | |
 | Alfred Hix Welsh - English literature - 1880 - 182 pages
...tones, to the other officers in his boat: 'Now gentlemen,' said he at the close of the recitation, 'I would rather be the author of that poem than take Quebec !' One stanza, one noble line, must have been fraught with a mournful meaning: The boast of Heraldry,... | |
 | Francis Turner Palgrave - Great Britain - 1881 - 394 pages
...those beauti' ful stanzas with which a Country Church Yard inspired the muse ' of Gray. At the close Wolfe added, Now, gentlemen, I would ' rather be the author of that poem, than take Quebec ' : (Mahon's Hist. ch. xxxv). Wolfe's brilliant victory is also one of the most critical in our history.... | |
 | Granville series - 1881 - 376 pages
...side, Gray's "Elegy in a Country Churchyard;" and as he concluded the beautiful verses, he said, " Now, gentlemen, I would rather be the author of that poem than take Quebec ! " 8. But while Wolfe thus in the poet's words gave vent to the intensity 10 of his feelings, his... | |
 | Rufus Blanchard - Chicago - 1881 - 812 pages
...bank, he repeated to his companions one of its lines — "The path of glory leads but to the grave." "Now, gentlemen, I would rather be the author of that poem than take Quebec," said he. "Perhaps the noblest tribute ever paid by arms to letters, since that heroic era when hostile... | |
 | Hezekiah Butterworth - United States - 1881 - 550 pages
...Elegy in a Country Churchyard," then newly received from England ; and he exclaimed at its close, " I would rather be the author of that poem than take Quebec to-morrow." He was a man of feeble bodily frame, but he wielded the power which genius in its higher... | |
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Not a word was spoken, not a sound was heard beyond the rippling of the stream. Wolfe alone, thus tradition has told us, repeated in a low voice to the other officers in his boat those beautiful stanzas with which a country churchyard inspired the muse... 
