"Woo" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... hurt him. What was to become of herself? Mercy upon her, I believe she never thought of that. His honour was her necessity: the watch-fires in the north told her the hour was at hand. The old King was come up with a host to drive his son to bed. Richard must go, and she woo him out. Son of a king, heir of a king, he must go to the king his father; and he knew he must go. Two days' maddening delight, two nights' biting of nails, miserable entreaty from Jehane, grown newly pinched and grey in the face, and he ...
— The Life and Death of Richard Yea-and-Nay • Maurice Hewlett
... me to reverse thy Husband's Doom, And I woo thee for Mercy on my self, Why shoud'st thou sue to him for Life and Liberty, For any other, who himself lies dying, Imploring from thy Eyes a ...
— The Works of Aphra Behn, Vol. II • Aphra Behn
... from Anne Hathaway's thatched, half-timber cottage at Shottery, with its carved, four-post Elizabethan bedstead, its garden full of rustic flowers, and its ingle-nook where perhaps Shakespeare sat to woo. ...
— A harum-scarum schoolgirl • Angela Brazil
... church-yard yews round which his fathers sleep; [c] All rouse Reflection's sadly-pleasing train. And oft he looks and weeps, and looks again. So, when the mild TUPIA dar'd explore Arts yet untaught, and worlds unknown before, And, with the sons of Science, woo'd the gale That, rising, swell'd their strange expanse of sail; So, when he breath'd his firm yet fond adieu, [d] Borne from his leafy hut, his carv'd canoe, And all his soul best lov'd—such tears he shed, While each soft scene of summer-beauty ...
— Poems • Samuel Rogers
... you are dreaming. If he were in love with the Santelli, he would not tell me that he loves me. If he were so entirely preoccupied with this creature, he would not woo me. If he coveted her, he would not desire me ...
— A Comedy of Marriage & Other Tales • Guy De Maupassant
... does he who has embraced the sacramental life come to perceive in the "sensuous manifold" of nature, that one divine Reality which ever seeks to instruct him in supermundane wisdom, and to woo him to superhuman blessedness and peace. In time, this reading of earth in terms of heaven, becomes a settled habit. Then, in Emerson's phrase, he has hitched his wagon to a star, and changed his grocer's cart into a ...
— Architecture and Democracy • Claude Fayette Bragdon
... has thus begun to woo the girl he loves, he should spend his time with her and amuse her with various games and diversions fitted for their age and acquaintanceship, such as picking and collecting flowers, making garlands ...
— The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana - Translated From The Sanscrit In Seven Parts With Preface, - Introduction and Concluding Remarks • Vatsyayana
... wind may woo the world from grief, And tell the old tales at my door; The rainbirds in the rain may plead their far refrain, In the glad ...
— Behind the Arras - A Book of the Unseen • Bliss Carman
... La-o-tsee and Wu-sank-Wei, criticise Chung-tang and Fu-Tche, compare Tchieu Lung with his great successor, whose name I have forgotten, and the Napoleonic vigour of Li with the weak opportunism of Woo. Before I have done I hope people will be looking behind for my pig-tail. The name I ...
— Gilbert Keith Chesterton • Maisie Ward
... take the chair again when the company is so miscellaneous; though they all behaved perfectly well. Meadowbank taxed me with the novels, and to end that farce at once I pleaded guilty, so that splore is ended. As to the collection, it was much cry and little woo', as the deil said when he shore the sow. Only L280 from 300 people, but many were to send money to-morrow. They did not open books, which was impolitic, but circulated a box, where people might put in what they pleased—and some gave shillings, which gives but a poor idea of the company. Yet ...
— The Journal of Sir Walter Scott - From the Original Manuscript at Abbotsford • Walter Scott
... that step. Two strides back and you are standing awestruck on the edge of the stupendous precipice. The fascination of the place is overpowering, whether you gaze straight down into the black depths or whether the mists, rolling up like great waves of foam, woo you gently to certain death. No wonder the place is called "The Rejection of the Body," and that men and women longing to free themselves from the weary Wheel of Life, seek the "Peace of the Great Release" with one wild ...
— A Wayfarer in China - Impressions of a trip across West China and Mongolia • Elizabeth Kendall
... lowest round, Imperial realm amid the slavish world, Where Freedom's banner ever floats unfurl'd, Fair island of the blest, earth's richest wealth, Her plague-struck body's little all of health, Home, gentle name, I woo thee to my song, To thee my praise, to thee my prayers belong: Inspire me with thy beauty, bid me teem With gracious musings worthy of my theme: Spirit of Love, the soul of Home thou art, Fan with ...
— The Complete Prose Works of Martin Farquhar Tupper • Martin Farquhar Tupper
... her selfe requitall be, And worthyly to th' life paynt her owne story In its true colours and full native glory; Which when perhaps she shal be heard to tell, Buffoones and theeves, ceasing to do ill, Shal blush into a virgin-innocence, And then woo others from the same offence; The robber and the murderer, in 'spite Of his red spots, shal startle into white: All good (rewards layd by) shal stil increase For love of her, and villany decease; Naught be ignote, not so ...
— Lucasta • Richard Lovelace
... in my veins (I, of course, allude to my purse and my pocket), the doors of the Astor Place Opera House were closed upon the public. It was my determination to woo the fickle goddess Fortune elsewhere. Possibly her blinded eyes might not recognize her old adorer, and she might even yet bestow upon me a few of her ...
— Chapters of Opera • Henry Edward Krehbiel
... must be refilled with fresh rose-infusion, and then they can all go to bed. Timar begged for the bee-house to sleep in, where Frau Therese spread him a couch of fresh hay, and Noemi arranged his pillow. Very little was needed to woo him to slumber. Hardly had he lain down before sleep closed his eyes; he dreamed all night that he had become a gardener's boy, ...
— Timar's Two Worlds • Mr Jkai
... With regard to our working people, in the ordinary sense of the term working, the study of Physics would, I imagine, be profitable, not only as a means of intellectual culture, but also as a moral influence to woo them from pursuits which now degrade them. A man's reformation oftener depends upon the indirect, than upon the direct action of the will. The will must be exerted in the choice of employment which shall break the force of temptation ...
— Fragments of science, V. 1-2 • John Tyndall
... sutor being toucht with inward love, Approached neare his lovely sute to move, Then stooping downe he whispered in her eare Saying he bore her love, as might appeare, In that so soone he shewed his love unto her, Before any else did app[r]och to woo her, Alass (said she) your labour is in vaine, Last night a husband I ...
— Shakespeare Jest-Books; - Reprints of the Early and Very Rare Jest-Books Supposed - to Have Been Used by Shakespeare • Unknown
... were high. It was the care-free spirit which belongs to the real adventurer. That spirit which alone can woo and win the smiles of the wanton gods of the wilderness. The landing was alive with activity. Father Jose found excuse for his presence there. Even Ailsa Mowbray detached herself from the daily routine of her ...
— The Triumph of John Kars - A Story of the Yukon • Ridgwell Cullum
... be wondered at that when she grew up, she too wished to choose her lover. Many came to woo, but at the age of twenty-three the rich and gifted girl was still single. The reason came out at last. In the house lived a quick-witted youth, whom Aslaug had taken in out of pity. He went by the name of the tramp or gipsy, though he was neither. But Aslaug was ...
— The Bridal March; One Day • Bjornstjerne Bjornson
... slight favor of a thoughtless girl. A dance or two is nothing, sir; a whispered word is less. If you were the broad man of the world that you would have me believe, you have known this. Instead, you come dashing in here like a savage and claim the right to woo her. Preposterous! She is beyond your world, sir. Go back to your wild riding, Macdonald, and try ...
— The Rustler of Wind River • G. W. Ogden
... smile I'd witch and woo; With gay and girlish guile I'd frenzy you— I'd madden you with my caressing, Like turtle, her first love confessing— That it was "mock", no mortal would be guessing, With so much winsome wile ...
— The Complete Plays of Gilbert and Sullivan - The 14 Gilbert And Sullivan Plays • William Schwenk Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan
... I died by pitying Heaven's decree, Nor proved so black, so base, a mind in thee! But vain the wish; my heart was doomed to prove Each torturing pang, but not one joy of love. Wouldst thou again fallacious prospects spread, And woo me from the confines of the dead? The pleasing scenes that charmed me once retrace— Gay scenes of rapture and ecstatic bliss? How did my heart embrace the dear deceit, And fondly cherish the deluding ...
— The Coquette - The History of Eliza Wharton • Hannah Webster Foster
... of the marriage of George Deaves to Maud Warrender and what followed thereupon. In other words, Maud had been engaged in the amiable occupation of fouling her own nest. According to this account Simeon Deaves had instigated his weak and complaisant son to woo Miss Warrender because her father was President of a railroad that Simeon Deaves coveted. As a result of the marriage Deaves, who up to that time had only been a money-lender, had succeeded in entering the ...
— The Deaves Affair • Hulbert Footner
... Princess Marya, the second the Princess Olga, the third the Princess Anna. When their father and mother lay at the point of death, they had thus enjoined their son:—"Give your sisters in marriage to the very first suitors who come to woo them. Don't go ...
— Russian Fairy Tales - A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore • W. R. S. Ralston
... 'tis impossible I should hold mine. Well, after all, there is something very moving in a lovesick face. Ha, ha, ha! Well I won't laugh; don't be peevish. Heigho! Now I'll be melancholy, as melancholy as a watch-light. Well, Mirabell, if ever you will win me, woo me now.—Nay, if you are so tedious, fare you well: I see they are ...
— The Way of the World • William Congreve
... thy maidenhood is not for long, Whom the Phoeacian chiefs already woo, Lords of the land whence thou thyself art sprung. Soon as the shining dawn comes forth anew, For wain and mules thy noble father sue, Which to the place of washing shall convey Girdles and shawls and ...
— Health and Education • Charles Kingsley
... distance. This appears to arise from the primitive rule of exogamy that marriage should not be allowed between those who have been brought up together. The young men can choose for themselves, and at dances, festivals and other social gatherings they freely woo their sweethearts, giving them flowers for the hair and presents of grilled field-mice, which the Oraons consider to be the most delicate of food. Father Dehon, however, states that matches are arranged by the parents, and the bride and bridegroom have nothing to say in the matter. Boys are usually ...
— The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India - Volume IV of IV - Kumhar-Yemkala • R.V. Russell
... Their mutual road perchance, and how they thrive. That friendly greeting parted, ere dispatch Of the first onward step, from either tribe Loud clamour rises: those, who newly come, Shout Sodom and Gomorrah!" these, "The cow Pasiphae enter'd, that the beast she woo'd Might rush unto her luxury." Then as cranes, That part towards the Riphaean mountains fly, Part towards the Lybic sands, these to avoid The ice, and those the sun; so hasteth off One crowd, advances ...
— The Divine Comedy • Dante
... little native vale Doubt thou the stars are fire Drink to me only with thine eyes Duncan Gray came here to woo ...
— English Songs and Ballads • Various
... been a crow," said he, "I would have married her myself, although I am engaged. He spoke just as well as I do, when I speak the crows' language, so I heard from my tame sweetheart. He was quite free and agreeable and said he had not come to woo the princess, but to hear her wisdom; and he was as pleased with her ...
— Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen • Hans Christian Andersen
... Badr al-Budur ceased speaking, Alaeddin resumed, "Tell me the intent of this Accursed in thy respect, also what he sayeth to thee and what be his will of thee?" She replied, "Every day he cometh to visit me once and no more: he would woo me to his love and he sueth that I take him to spouse in lieu of thee and that I forget thee and be consoled for the loss of thee. And he telleth me that the Sultan my sire hath cut off my husband's head, adding that thou, the son of pauper parents, ...
— Supplemental Nights, Volume 3 • Richard F. Burton
... under the explosion of the fifty-eight pieces of artillery which Rosencrans hastily massed at four o'clock Friday, for the relief of his overpowered left. "What's them that go 'boo-woo-woo,' like great ...
— The Red Acorn • John McElroy
... the pits of O-Tar!" he cried, and again his thin laughter jarred upon the silence of the subterranean vaults. "A strange place to woo! A strange place to woo, indeed! When I was a young man we roamed in the gardens beneath giant pimalias and stole our kisses in the brief shadows of hurtling Thuria. We came not to the gloomy pits to speak ...
— The Chessmen of Mars • Edgar Rice Burroughs
... George Walter Thornbury 223 When the snow begins to feather Lord de Tabley 66 Where winds abound Michael Field 97 Who is the baby, that doth lie Thomas Lovell Beddoes 36 Winds to-day are large and free Michael Field 94 With deep affection Francis Mahoney 149 Woo thy lass while May is ...
— Victorian Songs - Lyrics of the Affections and Nature • Various
... Let him woo his Dulcinea swiftly and tempestuously, as King Hal wooed Kate, or let him serve twice seven years as Jacob served for Rachel, but let him never search out printed forms whereby to declare his passion; nor ...
— Social Life - or, The Manners and Customs of Polite Society • Maud C. Cooke
... thy chant anew; But I cannot mimic it, Not a whit of thy tuhoo, Thee to woo to thy tuwhit, Thee to ...
— Birds Illustrated by Color Photography [June, 1897] - A Monthly Serial designed to Promote Knowledge of Bird-Life • Various
... cold and calculating guile; but it shall be the last. By Heaven, my very heart leaps upward in anticipation of thy coming hour. Woman, thy hatred to this man has made me love thee; yes, thou shall be my bride, and with my plans of vengeance will I woo thee. By ...
— Wacousta: A Tale of the Pontiac Conspiracy (Complete) • John Richardson
... who, in the simplicity of his heart, neither perceived the quiz nor the reproof, fell to answer with great sincerity,—"It's the woo, sir—it's the woo that makes the difference. The lang sheep hae the short woo, and the short sheep hae the lang thing; and these are just kind o' names we gie them like." Mr. Scott could not preserve his grave ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction - Vol. 14, Issue 383, August 1, 1829 • Various
... not talk much in the train, he and Tyler. It was a sleepy lot of boys that that train carried back to the Great Central Naval Station. Tyler was undressed and in his hammock even before Moran, the expert. He would not have to woo sleep to-night. Finally Moran, too, had swung himself up to his precarious nest and relaxed with a tired, ...
— Cheerful—By Request • Edna Ferber
... by the name of Toribio, who had a daughter named Aning. The people considered Aning the most beautiful lady in the province. However, none of the young men of the town courted Aning, for they felt unworthy and ashamed to woo the richest and most beautiful girl. One fine day the monkey went to town and sold wild chickens, as usual. On his way home he stopped at Don Toribio's house. Don Toribio asked what he wanted, and the monkey said that his master had sent him to ...
— Filipino Popular Tales • Dean S. Fansler
... Elizabethan note of defiance. Passion obliterates for them the past and throws a mystically hued veil over Nature. The gentle Romantic sentiments hardly touch the fresh springs of their emotion. They may meet and woo "among the ruins," as Coleridge met and wooed his Genevieve "beside the ruined tower"; but their song does not, like his, "suit well that ruin old and hoary," but, on the contrary, tramples with gay scorn upon the lingering memories of the ruined city,—a faded ...
— Robert Browning • C. H. Herford
... maiden who reigned beyond the sea: From sunrise to the sundown no paragon had she. All boundless as her beauty was her strength was peerless too, And evil plight hung o'er the knight who dared her love to woo. For he must try three bouts with her; the whirling spear to fling; To pitch the massive stone; and then to follow with a spring; And should he beat in every feat his wooing well has sped, But he who fails must lose his love, ...
— The Travels of Marco Polo, Volume 2 • Marco Polo and Rustichello of Pisa
... green eyes rather resembling those of a cat, and her step as stealthy. Norah tried hard to talk to her on other matters than housekeeping, but found her so stolidly unresponsive that at last she gave up the attempt. Life, as she said to Wally, was too short to woo a cruet-stand! ...
— Captain Jim • Mary Grant Bruce
... sister. Did you see A young man tall and strong, Swift-footed to uphold the right And to uproot the wrong, 40 Come home across the desolate sea To woo me for his wife? And in his heart my heart is locked, And in his life my life.'— 'I met a nameless man, sister, Hard by your chamber door: I said: Her husband loves her much. And yet she loves ...
— Goblin Market, The Prince's Progress, and Other Poems • Christina Rossetti
... to this point? O, would it were! therein I could afford My spirit should draw a little near to theirs, To gaze on novelties; so vice were one. Tut, she is stale, rank, foul; and were it not That those that woo her greet her with lock'd eyes, In spight of all th' impostures, paintings, drugs, Which her bawd, Custom, dawbs her cheeks withal, She would betray her loath'd and leprous face, And fright the enamour'd dotards from themselves: But such is the perverseness ...
— Cynthia's Revels • Ben Jonson
... Lady Beatrice And I the Florentine, I'd never waste my time like this— If you were Lady Beatrice I'd woo and then demand a kiss, Nor weep like Dante here, I ween, If you were Lady Beatrice ...
— Helen of Troy and Other Poems • Sara Teasdale
... covered with a cap of richest Mechlin lace, which had been her mother's and her grandmother's before it came to her. Men spoke already, though she had but twelve years, of the good wife she would be for their sons to woo and win; but she herself was a little gay, simple child, in no wise conscious of her heritage, and she loved no playfellows so well as Jehan Daas's grandson ...
— Stories of Childhood • Various
... the yellow dust a kind, handsome face looking up at you, pale but scarcely reproachful, just before the horse-hoofs trod it down; ah! fairest Ninons and Dianas—prizes that, like the Whip at Newmarket, were always to be challenged for—you were proud when your reckless lover came to woo, with the blood of last night's favorite not dry on his blade; but what were your fatal honors compared to those of a reigning toast in the rough, ancient days? The demigods and heroes that were suitors ...
— Guy Livingstone; - or, 'Thorough' • George A. Lawrence
... imagine the place under some weird spell, and was half-minded to search out the princess. An old ragged black man, honest, simple, and improvident, told us the tale. The Wizard of the North—the Capitalist—had rushed down in the seventies to woo this coy dark soil. He bought a square mile or more, and for a time the field-hands sang, the gins groaned, and the mills buzzed. Then came a change. The agent's son embezzled the funds and ran off with them. Then the agent himself disappeared. ...
— The Souls of Black Folk • W. E. B. Du Bois
... “Riding to woo, Sir Dwarf, I am, Riding to wed a beauteous lady; To break a spear I do not fear, For weal or woe alike ...
— Ermeline - a ballad - - - Translator: George Borrow • Thomas J. Wise
... was at once a blow and a salute. That unaccomplished air had helped to woo Olivia in her bower, but yet it gave a link with her, the solace of the thought that here was one she knew. Was it not something of good fortune that it should lead him to identify and meet one whose very name was still unknown to him, but with whom he was, in a faint ...
— Doom Castle • Neil Munro
... 'Twere idle then each tale to tell, Of ancient feat by stream or dell, From Benychonzie's snow-clad breast To green Glenartney in the west, Or round by sweet Dunira's den, Where "bonnie Kilmanie gaed up the glen." No need I ween of distant view My sauntering footsteps hence to woo; No need of song or knightly feat To add new charm to my retreat. Its own associations claim Far better meed than modern fame, With books and scenes and neighbours sage, I commune with a ...
— Chronicles of Strathearn • Various
... with a sigh the simple sweetness of Susan, and I feel as if I deceived both my mistress and myself. Perhaps, however, all the circumstances of this connection tend to increase my doubts. It is humiliating to me to know that I woo clandestinely and upon sufferance; that I am stealing, as it were, into a fortune; that I am eating Sir Miles's bread, and yet counting upon his death; and this shame in myself may make me unconsciously unjust to Lucretia. But it is useless ...
— Lucretia, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... "Woo her thus, and she shall give thee Of her heart the sinless whole, All the girl within her bosom, And her ...
— Poems of Henry Timrod • Henry Timrod
... day and another day hath sped; the breezes woo our sails, and the canvas blows out to the swelling south. With these words I accost the prophet, and thus ...
— The Aeneid of Virgil • Virgil
... Home, and woo the downy, But your soul doth quake, At most fearful night-mares— Turkey, oysters, cake. While each leaden horror That your rest appalls, Cries, "Dear heart! how pleasant; ...
— Point Lace and Diamonds • George A. Baker, Jr.
... the teary dews, I'd woo her with such wondrous art As well might stanch the songs that ooze Out of the mockbird's breaking heart; So light, so tender, and so sweet Should be the words I would repeat, Her casement, on my gradual sight, Would blossom as ...
— Pipes O'Pan at Zekesbury • James Whitcomb Riley
... melancholy lute, Were night owl's hoot To my low-whispered coo— Were I thy bride! The skylark's trill Were but discordance shrill To the soft thrill Of wooing as I'd woo— Were I ...
— Bab Ballads and Savoy Songs • W. S. Gilbert
... foe, Were in their strength subdued, The virgin Earth Gave instant birth To springs that ne'er did flow— That in the sun Did rivulets run, And all around rare flowers did blow— The wild rose pale Perfumed the gale, And the queenly lily adown the dale (Whom the sun and the dew And the winds did woo), With the gourd and ...
— Edgar Allan Poe's Complete Poetical Works • Edgar Allan Poe
... enemy to thyself; my wealth Shall weigh his titles down, and make you equals. Now for the means to assure him thine, observe me; Remember he's a courtier, and a soldier, And not to be trifled with; and therefore, when He comes to woo you, see you do not coy it. This mincing modesty hath spoil'd many a match By a first refusal, in vain after ...
— The Mirror of Taste, and Dramatic Censor, Vol. I, No. 4, April 1810 • Various
... lay there in the forest, By the ford across the river; Beat his timid heart no longer. But the heart of Hiawatha Throbbed and shouted and exulted, As he bore the red deer homeward; And WOO and Nokomis ...
— The Elson Readers, Book 5 • William H. Elson and Christine M. Keck
... thou, nor count thy lingering vain, Though comrades chide, and breezes woo the fleet. Approach the prophetess; with prayer unchain Her voice to speak. She shall the tale repeat Of wars in Italy, thy destined seat,— What toils to shun, what dangers to despise,— And make the triumph of thy quest complete. Thou hast whate'er 'tis lawful ...
— The Aeneid of Virgil - Translated into English Verse by E. Fairfax Taylor • Virgil
... Averted till I woo thee turn again And thou shalt stand to all posterity, The eternal game and laughter, with thy neck Writh'd to thy tail, like a ridiculous cat. Avoid these fumes, these superstitious lights, And all these cozening ceremonies: you, Your pure and spiced ...
— Sejanus: His Fall • Ben Jonson
... to woo her properly he would be compelled to neglect financial duties that needed every particle of brain-energy at his command. He found himself opposed at the outset by a startling embarrassment, made absolutely clear by the computations of the night before. ...
— Brewster's Millions • George Barr McCutcheon
... lady's ear With rhymes of this per cent. and that per year? Or court a wife, spread out his wily parts, Like nets or lime-twigs, for rich widows' hearts; Call himself barrister to every wench, And woo in language of the pleas and bench? Language, which Boreas might to Auster hold More rough than forty Germans when they scold. Cursed be the wretch, so venal and so vain: Paltry and proud, as drabs in Drury Lane. 'Tis such a bounty as was never known, If Peter deigns ...
— Essay on Man - Moral Essays and Satires • Alexander Pope
... between God and man, As God's ambassador, the grand concerns Of judgment and of mercy, should beware Of lightness in his speech. 'Tis pitiful To court a grin, when you should woo a soul; To break a jest, when pity would inspire Pathetic exhortation; and to address The skittish fancy with facetious tales, When sent with God's commission to the heart. So did not Paul. Direct me to a quip Or merry turn in all he ever wrote, And I consent you take it for your text, ...
— The Task and Other Poems • William Cowper
... you were afraid of dying in your prime that you would never woo Fame then yourself?" asked Lelis, with ...
— Wisdom, Wit, and Pathos of Ouida - Selected from the Works of Ouida • Ouida
... lost his self-assurance and became sullen. "You stay away from that kid," he growled, thinking of George Willard, and then, not knowing what else to say, turned to go away. "If I catch you together I will break your bones and his too," he added. The bartender had come to woo, not to threaten, and was angry with himself ...
— The Best Short Stories of 1919 - and the Yearbook of the American Short Story • Various
... aid? Ah! why forsaken thus my breast With inauspicious damps oppress'd? Where is the dread prophetic heat With which my bosom wont to beat? Where all the bright mysterious dreams Of haunted groves and tuneful streams, That woo'd my genius to ...
— Poetical Works of Akenside - [Edited by George Gilfillan] • Mark Akenside
... world may go her divers ways The while I draw or write or smoke, Happy to live laborious days There among simple painter folk; To wed the olive and the oak, Most patiently to woo the Muse, And wear a great big Tuscan cloak To guard against the ...
— Punch, 1917.07.04, Vol. 153, Issue No. 1 • Various
... Deor's Lament, v. 21. He was a king of the Goths. After his death, about 375 A.D., he came to be known as the typical bad king, covetous, fierce, and cruel. According to the Scandinavian form of the story, the king sends his son and a treacherous councillor, Bikki (the Becca of v. 19) to woo and bring to the court the maiden Swanhild. Bikki urges the son to woo her for himself and then betrays him to his father, who has him hanged and causes Swanhild to be trampled to death by horses. Her brothers revenge her death and wound ...
— Old English Poems - Translated into the Original Meter Together with Short Selections from Old English Prose • Various
... never dwelt, but war and death! But if thou lov'dst to have thy soldiers fight, Or hearten the spent courages of men, Pembrooke could use a stile invincible. Lov'dst thou a towne, Ide teach thee how to woo her With words of thunder-bullets wrapt in fire,[109] Till with thy cannon battry she relent And humble her proud heart to stoop to thee. Or if not this, then mount thee on a steed Whose courage never awde an yron Bit, And thou shalt heare me hollow to the beast And with commanding ...
— A Collection of Old English Plays, Vol. III • Various
... but keep cool, keep cool— cucumbers is the word —easy, easy —only start her like grim death and grinning devils, and raise the buried dead perpendicular out of their graves, boys —that's all. Start her! Woo-hoo! Wa-hee! screamed the Gay-Header in reply, raising some old war-whoop to the skies; as every oarsman in the strained boat involuntarily bounced forward with the one tremendous leading stroke which the eager Indian gave. .. But his wild ...
— Moby-Dick • Melville
... disposed to take much trouble in looking far afield for a wife when here was one ready-made to his hand. Still, he was not so rash as to commit himself too soon. Fine play is never precipitate; and even the most lordly lover, if an English gentleman, thinks it seemly to pretend to woo the woman whom he means to take, and ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science - February, 1876, Vol. XVII, No. 98. • Various
... them] The Duke said rightly that I was alone; Deserted, and dishonoured, and defamed, Stood ever woman so alone indeed? Men when they woo us call us pretty children, Tell us we have not wit to make our lives, And so they mar them for us. Did I say woo? We are their chattels, and their common slaves, Less dear than the poor hound that licks their hand, Less fondled than the hawk ...
— The Duchess of Padua • Oscar Wilde
... the corner of the next bight of the river which I could not quite see from where I was, but over which one can see clear of houses and into Richmond Park, looking like the open country; and dirty as the river was, and harsh as was the January wind, they seemed to woo me toward the country-side, where away from the miseries of the "Great Wen" I might of my own will carry on a daydream of the friends I had made in the dream of the night and against ...
— A Dream of John Ball, A King's Lesson • William Morris
... of the Sea—for such there was no doubt were the strangers— came on with a fresh breeze, rapidly approaching the Spanish squadron. In vain every sail which the Spanish ships could carry was set to woo the breeze. Their enemies came up rapidly with them. Seeing this, the Admiral ordered Don Rodrigo to alter his course, and to do his utmost to escape, directing him to return to the first ...
— The Golden Grasshopper - A story of the days of Sir Thomas Gresham • W.H.G. Kingston
... I should have taken the Princess myself, although I am engaged. It is said he spoke as well as I speak when I talk crow language; this I learned from my tame sweetheart. He was bold and nicely behaved; he had not come to woo the Princess, but only to hear her wisdom. She pleased ...
— Library Of The World's Best Literature, Ancient And Modern, Vol. 2 • Charles Dudley Warner
... sunbeams lay on Church Leet, as if to woo the bare hedges into verdant life, the cold fields to smiling plains. Even the mounds of the graveyard, interspersed amidst the old tombstones, looked green and cheerful to-day in ...
— The Argosy - Vol. 51, No. 2, February, 1891 • Various
... the instant unaided In the strict, level, ultimate phrase that allowed or dissuaded; To foresee, to allay, to avert from us perils unnumbered; To stand guard at our gates when he guessed that our watchman had slumbered; To win time, to turn hate, to woo folly to service, and mightily schooling His strength to the use of his nations; to rule as not ruling. These were the works of our King; earth's peace is the proof of them. God gave him great works to fulfil and to use ...
— The Life of King Edward VII - with a sketch of the career of King George V • J. Castell Hopkins
... faculties, perhaps even introduce an element of calculation and actual cowardice before great alternatives, and so shadow his powers and modify his future success. But now, ten years later, he thought otherwise, found himself willing to receive impressions, ready even to woo and wed if the right girl should present herself. He dreamed of some well-educated woman who would lighten his own ignorance of many branches ...
— The Red Redmaynes • Eden Phillpotts
... that thou, my dear, My reproaches dost not fear? In the park don't come to walk That we there might have a talk? Come now, answer me, my dear, Dost thou hold me in contempt? Later on, thou knowest, dear, Thou'lt get sober and repent. Soon to woo thee I will come, And when we shall married be Thou wilt weep because ...
— The Cossacks • Leo Tolstoy
... her heart. She wished to feel, she longed for the long ache of regret which she read of in books, she yearned for tears. Tears were a divine solace, grief was beautiful. And all along the streets she continued to woo sorrow— she thought of his tenderness, the real goodness of his nature, his solicitude for her, and she allowed her thoughts to dwell on the pleasant hours ...
— Celibates • George Moore
... prepared from all the world To part, and to become a happy spirit, Whom earthly inclinations tempt no more! Now, Leicester, I may venture to confess Without a blush the frailty I have conquered; Farewell, my lord; and, if you can, be happy! To woo two queens has been your daring aim; You have disdained a tender, loving heart, Betrayed it in the hope to win a proud one: Kneel at the feet of Queen Elizabeth! May your reward not prove your punishment. Farewell; I now have nothing more ...
— The Works of Frederich Schiller in English • Frederich Schiller
... more he looked at her The less he liked her; and his ways were harsh; But Dora bore them meekly. Then before The month was out he left his father's house, And hired himself to work within the fields; And half in love, half spite, he woo'd and wed A labourer's daughter, ...
— Successful Recitations • Various
... blue, this wide land that laughs in festive summer, these winds that lift my hair and come heavy with odors,—these do not fit with me, I burlesque the fair face of creation. O invisible airs, that softly sport round the castle-towers, why do you not woo my soul forth and bear it and lose it in the ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 11, Issue 67, May, 1863 • Various
... entered Guido's heart than he had determined to do some great feat of emprise or adventure, some high achievement of deringdo which should make him worthy to woo her. ...
— Nonsense Novels • Stephen Leacock
... these remarks, once in her room, was in no hurry to woo the slumber she had expressed a desire for. In her mind anxiety was battling with anger and disappointment. Whether or not she really loved Ennis, or had turned to him merely because his general ways and appearance showed him to be a man of some breeding, with ...
— The Peace of Roaring River • George van Schaick
... took his heart; And cast it in the wailing sea— "Go, thou, with all my cunning art And woo my bride for me!" ...
— John Smith, U.S.A. • Eugene Field
... "Woo her! Win her! They do not know you. You will be Thomas Adams to them, not Thomas Cadwalader. Gather this budding flower into your bosom, and then—Oh, he must love his child! Through her we have our hand on his heart. Make her suffer—she's but a country ...
— The Circular Study • Anna Katharine Green
... from Freedom's councils come, Now pleas'd retires to lash his slaves at home; Or woo, perhaps, some black Aspasia's charms, And dream of freedom in ...
— A History of the Nineteenth Century, Year by Year - Volume Two (of Three) • Edwin Emerson
... vanity, frowardness—behold reflected the blackness and the justice of thy fate! Who setteth his whole soul upon a flower, and findeth its fragrance at last to be a deadly poison, if he escape from its contact, placeth no more flowers in his bosom. In vain they woo him with their beauteous eyes and breath of perfume. He heeds them not, or, at best, plucks them disdainfully, to gaze upon in listless indifference for a moment, and then cast them behind him, to be crushed beneath the ...
— Graham's Magazine Vol XXXII. No. 5. May 1848 • Various
... In thy life's blossom, a resistless spell Amid the wild wood, and irriguous dell, O'er thymy hill, and thro' illumin'd glade, Led thee, for her thy votive wreaths to braid, Where flaunts the musk-rose, and the azure bell Nods o'er loquacious brook, or silent well.— Thus woo'd her inspirations, their rapt aid Liberal she gave; nor only thro' thy strain Breath'd their pure spirit, while her charms beguil'd The languid hours of Sorrow, and of Pain, But when Youth's tide ran high, and tempting smil'd Circean Pleasure, rescuing ...
— Original sonnets on various subjects; and odes paraphrased from Horace • Anna Seward
... SIDO. Why! This was the way I woo'd the haughty Lara, But I'll not hold such passages approach The gentle lady of ...
— Count Alarcos - A Tragedy • Benjamin Disraeli
... of the beauty of Kriemhild, Siegfried decides to go and woo her, taking with him only a troop of eleven men. His arrival at Worms causes a sensation, and Hagen of Tronje—a cousin of King Gunther—informs his master that this visitor once distinguished himself by slaying a dragon and that he is owner of the vast ...
— The Book of the Epic • Helene A. Guerber
... we read "Love winged my hopes and taught me how to fly," (p. 73); but the vain hopes, seeking to woo the sun's fair light, were scorched with fire and ...
— Lyrics from the Song-Books of the Elizabethan Age • Various
... indiwidool," continued Mr. Tappan, "is what artists need. Woo the muses in solitude; cultiwate 'em in isolation. Didn't Benjamin West live out in the backwoods? And I guess he managed to make good without raising hell in the Eekole di Boze Arts with a lot of dissipated wagabonds at his elbow, inculcating immoral precepts and wasting ...
— The Danger Mark • Robert W. Chambers
... "except whistlin'," but there had been a great deal of "whistlin'" about the cabin up Lone River; whistling of robins in spring—nothing sweeter—the chordlike whistlings of thrush and vireo after sunset, that bubbling "mar-guer-ite" with which the blackbirds woo, and the light diminuendo with which the bluebird caressed the air after an April flight. Perhaps Joan's musical faculty was less untrained than any other. After all, that "Aubade Provencale" was just the melodious story of the woods in spring. Every note linked itself to an emotional, subconscious ...
— The Branding Iron • Katharine Newlin Burt
... worthy of me. For you are a lady tenderly nurtured and used to every luxury the age affords. There comes to woo you presently an excellent and potent monarch, not all unworthy of your love, who will presently share with you many happy and honourable years. Yonder is a lawless naked wilderness where I and my fellow desperadoes hope to ...
— Domnei • James Branch Cabell et al
... vril. You hesitate to tell me. Do not think it is only jealousy that prompts me to caution you. If the Tur's daughter should declare love to you—if in her ignorance she confides to her father any preference that may justify his belief that she will woo you, he will have no option but to request your immediate destruction, as he is specially charged with the duty of consulting the good of the community, which could not allow the daughter of the Vril-ya ...
— The Coming Race • Edward Bulwer Lytton
... pays it. The misery of us that are born great! We are forc'd to woo, because none dare woo us; And as a tyrant doubles with his words, And fearfully equivocates, so we Are forc'd to express our violent passions In riddles and in dreams, and leave the path Of simple virtue, which was never made To seem the thing it is not. ...
— The Duchess of Malfi • John Webster
... stood in his stirrups and gazed ahead. The wide mesas glowing in the sun, the sense of illimitable freedom, the keen, odorless air wrought him to a pitch of inspiration. He would, just over the next rise, draw rein and woo his muse. But the next rise and the next swept beneath the pinto's rhythmic hoofs. The poetry of motion swayed his soul. He was enjoying himself. At last, he reflected, he had mastered the art of sitting a horse. He had already mastered the art of ...
— Sundown Slim • Henry Hubert Knibbs
... mind. He had an uneasy feeling that Jimmy Sands and his followers would throw nuances to the winds when they found themselves in the public eye. When the critical morning was over he meant to propose to Lady Locke, and in the meanwhile he supposed that he ought to woo her, or court her, or do something of the kind. He was not in the least shy, but he had not the faintest idea how to woo a woman. The very notion of such a proceeding struck him as highly ridiculous and almost second-rate. It ...
— The Green Carnation • Robert Smythe Hichens
... thou'lt do: Woo't weep? Woo't fight? Woo't fast? Woo't tear thyself? Woo't drink up eisel? Eat a crocodile? I'll do't. Dost thou come here to whine? To outface me with leaping in her grave? Be buried quick with her, and so will I: And, if thou prate of mountains, ...
— The Journal of Arthur Stirling - "The Valley of the Shadow" • Upton Sinclair
... There had probably been communications to that end, not only with Buckingham himself, but even with Charles II.; and the result had been the Duke's return to England and appearance in Yorkshire, early in 1657, to woo Mary Fairfax or to complete the wooing. Who could resist him? It might have been better for Mary Fairfax had she died in her girlhood, fresh from Marvell's teaching; but now she was Duchess of Buckingham. York House and the estate in Yorkshire had been ...
— The Life of John Milton, Volume 5 (of 7), 1654-1660 • David Masson
... Tony, is to make ardent love to Myra, to woo her as if she had not already promised to marry you," Lady Fermanagh responded. "It is just possible, my dear Tony, if you will forgive my suggesting it, that you have not been playing the part of ...
— Bandit Love • Juanita Savage
... followed with alarming abruptness a general public repulsion against the playhouses, and to this, early in 1699, a roughly worded Royal Proclamation gave voice. During the whole of that year the stage was almost in abeyance, and even Congreve, with The Way of the World, was unable to woo his audience back to Lincoln's Inn. During this time of depression Catharine Trotter composed at least two tragedies, which she was unable to get performed, while the retirement of Congreve in a paroxysm of annoyance must have been a ...
— Some Diversions of a Man of Letters • Edmund William Gosse
... uncomfortable houses in uncomfortable suburbs elsewhere, that, like Acre Hill, had once been garden spots, but had been "improved." Even a professional improver of land finds sleep difficult to woo at the beginning of such an enterprise. In the first instance, when one buys land, giving a mortgage in full payment therefor, with the land as security, one appears to have assumed a moderately heavy burden. Then, when to this one adds the enormous ...
— The Booming of Acre Hill - And Other Reminiscences of Urban and Suburban Life • John Kendrick Bangs
... how well, It were madness to tell To one who hath mock'd at my madd'ning despair. Like the white wreath of snow On the Alps' rugged brow, Isabel, I have proved thee as cold as thou'rt fair! 'Twas thy boast that I sued, That you scorn'd as I woo'd— Though thou of my hopes were the Mount Ararat; But to-morrow I wed Araminta instead— So, fair Isabel, take your change out ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 1, September 5, 1841 • Various
... who share my sighs! Go seek the turf where Mano lies, And woo the dewy clouds of spring, To sweep ...
— Oriental Literature - The Literature of Arabia • Anonymous
... pronounced in such a manner as gave her to understand he had taken the hint, she would not cheapen her condescension so much as to explain herself further at that juncture, and he was very well contented to woo her on her own terms; accordingly he began to season his behaviour with a spice of gallantry, when he had opportunities of being particular with this new inamorata, and, in proportion to the returns she made, he gradually detached himself from ...
— The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom, Complete • Tobias Smollett
... who, by the goodhap of her life, knows no evil? At any rate, I am not sufficiently magnanimous to forego the opportunity should it occur. Therefore, among, the lengthening shadows of this June day I shall woo with my utmost skill one who may be able to banish the deeper shadows that are gathering around my life; and if I fail I shall carry the truth of her spring-time beauty and girlish innocence back to the city, and their memory will ...
— A Day Of Fate • E. P. Roe
... Maryland presents the example of complete success. Maryland is secure to liberty and union for all the future. The genius of rebellion will no more claim Maryland. Like another foul spirit being driven out, it may seek to tear her, but it will woo her ...
— The Papers And Writings Of Abraham Lincoln, Complete - Constitutional Edition • Abraham Lincoln
... three months later I should have been a man free to woo and win her. As it was I was bound. I must put a clasp of iron on my feelings. I must wear a mask. Cheerful, helpful, and full of narrative, I must yet let fall no word of love to ...
— Winsome Winnie and other New Nonsense Novels • Stephen Leacock |
