swainish

Updated: May 26, 2025

Turn his heart from lovely maids, And make the darlings of the earth Swainish, coarse, and nothing worth, these moments of exaltation pass, and the singer finds himself a mere man, with an unusually rich sensuous nature, Eager for good, not hating ill; On his tense chords all strokes are felt, The good, the bad, with equal zeal.

Elizabeth Atkins - The Poet's Poet : essays on the character and mission of the poet as interpreted in English verse of the last one hundred and fifty years

As the reader may expect a specimen of Milton's prose style, I quote a part of this autobiographical paragraph: Whereof not to be sensible when good and fair in one person meet, argues both a gross and shallow judgment, and withal an ungentle and swainish breast.

Mark Pattison - Milton