How sweet, how passing sweet, is solitude! But grant me still a friend in my retreat, Whom I may whisper, Solitude is sweet. - William Cowper

Ages elapsed ere Homer's lamp appear'd, And ages ere the Mantuan swan was heard: To carry nature lengths unknown before, To give a Milton birth, ask'd ages more.

How fleet is a glance of the mind! Compared with the speed of its flight The tempest itself lags behind, And the swift-winged arrows of light.

"The Castaway"

Obscurest night involved the sky,
The Atlantic billows roared,
When such a destined wretch as I,
washed headlong from on board.
Of friends, of hope, of all bereft,
His floating home forever left...