 | Thomas Gray - Poets, English - 1912 - 480 pages
...had told him nothing about the new edition of the Poems. 2 By Foulis. ' Walpole to Gray, Feb. 18. » whenever the humour takes me, I will write, because...like it; and because I like myself better when I do so.Jlf I do not write much, it is because I cannot. As you nave not this last plea, I see no reason... | |
 | Thomas Humphry Ward - English poetry - 1913 - 632 pages
...civilly, that I ought to write more, I will be candid, and avow to you, that till fourscore and upward, whenever the humour takes me, I will write ; because...so. If I do not write much, it is because I cannot.' How simply said, and how truly also ! Fain would a man like Gray speak out if he could, he 'likes himself... | |
 | Alden Sampson - 1913 - 336 pages
...civilly, that I ought to write more, I will be candid and avow to you, that till fourscore and upward, whenever the humour takes me, I will write, because...it and because I like myself better when I do so." Gray was a striking example among the poets of one who was but rarely moved to express himself in verse.... | |
 | Paget Jackson Toynbee - English letters - 1915 - 478 pages
...pamphleteer, who is going to confute you out of your own mouth), What has one to do, when turned of fifty y but really to think of finishing? However, I will...much, it is because I cannot. As you have not this 1 The volume was published * The Glasgow edition also apthis year (in July) — Poems by peared this... | |
 | Thomas Humphry Ward - English poetry - 1921 - 626 pages
...civilly, that I ought to write more, I will be candid, and avow to you, that till fourscore and upward, whenever the humour takes me, I will write ; because...so. If I do not write much, it is because I cannot.' How simply said, and how truly also ! Fain would a man like Gray speak out if he could, he 'likes himself... | |
 | Oswald Doughty - English poetry - 1922 - 492 pages
...the prosaic Johnson. " I will be candid. . . . and avow to you," Gray writes to Walpole in 1768, " that till fourscoreand-ten, whenever the humour takes...it ; and because I like myself better when I do so. // / do not write much, it is because I cannot." ' « " I by no means pretend to inspiration," he had... | |
 | Thomas Gray - English letters - 1925 - 450 pages
...two ounces of stuff ; viz. The Fatal Sisters, The Descent of Odin (of both which PERKIN WARBECK 327 you have copies), a bit of something from the Welch,...yourself, and to all such as have any curiosity or judgment in the subjects you choose to treat. By the way let me tell you (while it is fresh) that lord... | |
 | Matthew Arnold - Literary Criticism - 1973 - 508 pages
...civilly, that I 15 ought to write more, I will be candid, and avow to you, that till fourscore and upward, whenever the humour takes me, I will write; because...so. If I do not write much, it is because I cannot.' How simply said, and how truly also! Fain would a man like 10 Gray speak out if he could, he 'likes... | |
 | Frank H. Ellis - Literary Criticism - 2005 - 244 pages
...words which he wrote to Walpole near the end of his life: "whenever the humour takes me," he said, "I will write, because I like it; and because I like myself better when I do so."16 And even as he wrote these words to a lifelong friend, Gray recognized that he was being preternaturally... | |
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I will be candid (for you seem to be so with me), and avow to you, that till fourscore-and-ten, whenever the humour takes me, I will write, because I like it ; and because I like myself better when I do so. If I do not write much, it is because I cannot. 
