"Sing" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... stay on another half year, you know, because of the exam, but I failed again in that hateful arithmetic: I'm a perfect dunce over figures, father; I hope you don't mind. I can sing very well; my voice was better than any of the other girls, and that will give you more pleasure than if I could do all the sums in the world. They tried to teach me algebra, too. Such a joke; I once got an equation ...
— The Heart of Una Sackville • Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey
... took their leave, all the children accompanying them to the gate; and then after seeing him fairly started on a smart run to catch the stage, Prince scampering at his heels, they all began to sing his praises and to wish for ...
— Five Little Peppers And How They Grew • Margaret Sidney
... stood musing, there came to my mind suddenly the words of a song which I had heard some voyageurs sing on the St. Lawrence, as I sat on the cliff a hundred feet above them and watched them ...
— The Judgment House • Gilbert Parker
... grasshoppers keep up their perpetual chirrup, and if one looks among the flowers one can see the gleam of their scarlet wings as they jump; for the rest, the flowers and the birds have it all to themselves, and they sing their hymns and offer their incense in ...
— The Empire Annual for Girls, 1911 • Various
... perfumed waters play in basins of silver... where blue roses bloom in vases of alabaster... where the perspectives are all enchanted... where they walk with naked feet upon the thick green moss, soft as carpets of velvet... where all sing as they wander among the fragrant ...
— Life of Chopin • Franz Liszt
... chalice with the paten should be made entirely of gold, or of silver or at least of tin. But it is not to be made of brass, or copper, because the action of the wine thereon produces verdigris, and provokes vomiting. But no one is to presume to sing mass with a chalice of wood or of glass," because as the wood is porous, the consecrated blood would remain in it; while glass is brittle and there might arise danger of breakage; and the same applies to stone. Consequently, ...
— Summa Theologica, Part III (Tertia Pars) - From the Complete American Edition • Thomas Aquinas
... the time to sing as Datis did, as he abused himself at high noon, "Oh pleasure! oh enjoyment! oh delights!" 'Tis now, oh Greeks! the moment when freed of quarrels and fighting, we should rescue sweet Peace and draw ...
— Peace • Aristophanes
... that song in chorus, all upstanding, that sad Christmas Eve when Thackeray died, among his friends of the Kensington coterie. He had brought in the fatal news to the jovial party, and then, says Mr. Frederick Greenwood, he proceeded: "I'll tell you what we'll do. We'll sing the dear old boy's 'Mahogany Tree;' he'd like it." "Accordingly we all stood up, and with such memory of the words as each possessed ... and a catching of the breath here and there by about all of us, the song ...
— The History of "Punch" • M. H. Spielmann
... Simonds & White in building an aboideau and dykeing the marsh. In one respect the Indians perhaps did better than the English or the Acadians, for at the close of their service Mr. Wood desired them to sing an anthem which, he says, ...
— Glimpses of the Past - History of the River St. John, A.D. 1604-1784 • W. O. Raymond
... They became a sing-song monotone. "Tante is sad at heart. But her child is welcome. It is a heavy blow. But ...
— Tante • Anne Douglas Sedgwick
... Boul' Mich'—at Bulliers—" She stopped, falling into a dream; then, suddenly, from the farthest corner of the room, came the sound of a loud kiss, and the boy and girl at the distant table began to sing in unison—a ribald song, but instinct with the zest of life. Lize started, as though she had ...
— Max • Katherine Cecil Thurston
... jelly and fruit, and men clapped him on the shoulder and said, "How are you, my boy?" in voices that were not quite steady. Young girls brought him flowers, and asked Susan if they could not read or sing or do SOMETHING to amuse him. Children stood about the gate and stared, talking in awe-struck whispers, happy if they could catch a glimpse of his ...
— Dawn • Eleanor H. Porter
... Our Blessed Lady to take away my imperfections—which are as heaps of rubbish—and to build upon it a splendid tabernacle worthy of Heaven, and adorn it with her own adornments. Then I invite all the Angels and Saints to come and sing canticles of love, and it seems to me that Jesus is well pleased to see Himself received so grandly, and I share in His joy. But all this does not prevent distractions and drowsiness from troubling me, and not unfrequently I resolve ...
— The Story of a Soul (L'Histoire d'une Ame): The Autobiography of St. Therese of Lisieux • Therese Martin (of Lisieux)
... possessions I should compare with the Austrian dominions: and they would not suffer in the comparison. The Nabob of Oude might stand for the King of Prussia; the Nabob of Arcot I would compare, as superior in territory, and equal in revenue, to the Elector of Saxony. Cheit Sing, the Rajah of Benares, might well rank with the Prince of Hesse, at least; and the Rajah of Tanjore (though hardly equal in extent of dominion, superior in revenue) to the Elector of Bavaria. The polygars and the Northern ...
— The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. II. (of 12) • Edmund Burke
... accelerating lay; nor can I find it stated that the difference is sexual. Who can claim to have heard the whole song of the Robin? Taking shelter from a shower beneath an oak-tree, the other day, I caught a few of the notes which one of those cheery creatures, who love to sing in wet weather, tossed down to ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 10, Number 59, September, 1862 • Various
... cheerfulness was the greatest charm he possessed. He was a man in whom no force of fashion or companionship would ever engender the peevish blase-ness so much affected by modern youth. Did he dance? Of course he did, and he adored dancing. Did he sing? Well, he did his best, and had a fine volume of rich bass voice, that sounded remarkably well on the water, after a dinner at the Star and Garter, in that dim dewy hour, when the willow shadowed ...
— Henry Dunbar - A Novel • M. E. Braddon
... "How com' I don't 'member? Don't tell me I don't 'cause I do. I don't care if its done bin a thousand years." I know what Master said an' it is as fresh in my mind as it wuz dat day. Dis is de song I herd my Master sing: ...
— Slave Narratives: a Folk History of Slavery in the United States, From Interviews with Former Slaves - Virginia Narratives • Works Projects Administration
... learned good which dwells for those who can wrest it in a hateful taskwork, that faculty of "detachment" which Marcus Aurelius learnt so long ago, by means of which the soul may withdraw, into an inaccessible garden, and sing while the head bends above a ledger; or, in other words, the faculty of dreaming with one side of the brain, while calculating with the other. Mrs. Browning's great Aurora Leigh helped me more to the attainment of that than any ...
— The Book-Bills of Narcissus - An Account Rendered by Richard Le Gallienne • Le Gallienne, Richard
... bore to them, as well as theirs for his cause, filled her with hopes for a happy life." Napoleon's life at that time was one long deification. Louis XIV. himself, the Sun-King, had never received more flattery in prose and verse. All the official poets had tuned their lyres to sing his marriage, and the Moniteur was full of dithyrambs. It also published a translation of an Italian cantata entitled, "La Jerogamia di Creta, Inno del Cavaliere Vincenzo Monti," which began thus: ...
— The Happy Days of the Empress Marie Louise • Imbert De Saint-Amand
... and argument whereof was, that hee reteined diuers Cleargie men of the Christians. Hee had likewise at all times a Chappell of Christians, neere vnto his great Tent, where the Clearkes (like vnto other Christians, and according to the custome of the Gracians) doe sing publiquely and openly, and ring belles at certaine houres, bee there neuer so great a multitude of Tartars, or of other people in presence. And yet none of their Dukes doe the like. [Sidenote: His maiestie.] It is the manner of the Emperour neuer to talke his owne selfe ...
— The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries - Vol. II • Richard Hakluyt
... time, he said that: his master was a notorious gambler; then he denied that he ever said so; then he affirmed that his first statement was true, though he had been frightened into contradicting it. When his time was out at Sing Sing, he expressed to Friend Hopper and others his determination to remain at the North; but after an interview with Mr. Darg, he consented to return to the South with him. Although he was thus wavering in character, he could never be persuaded to say that any abolitionist ...
— Isaac T. Hopper • L. Maria Child
... She had built up a barrier between them which he was the last man to tear down. He would simply turn his back upon her now and go his own way. And she did not know how to call him back. She felt vaguely that her innocent little wiles were lost upon him. She might put on her prettiest dresses, and sing her sweetest songs, but they would never cause him to linger a moment longer by her side than was absolutely necessary. He had given ...
— Under False Pretences - A Novel • Adeline Sergeant
... with the Lamb in humility, the sign of the Spirit's presence and fulness will be peace. This is indeed to be the test of our walk all the way along. "Let the peace of God rule (or arbitrate) in your hearts" (Col. 3:15). If the Dove ceases to sing in our hearts at any time, if our peace is broken, then it can only be because of sin. In some matter we have departed from the humility of the Lamb. We must ask God to show us what it is, and be quick to repent of it and bring the ...
— The Calvary Road • Roy Hession
... been an excellent piper." And King Philip, to the same purpose, told his son Alexander, who once at a merry meeting played a piece of music charmingly and skillfully, "Are you not ashamed, my son, to play so well?" For it is enough for a king or prince to find leisure sometimes to hear others sing, and he does the muses quite honor enough when he pleases to be but present, while others engage in such ...
— The Boys' and Girls' Plutarch - Being Parts of The "Lives" of Plutarch • Plutarch
... explain to me, I pray, Why no one likes me as well as you, No matter what I may say or do. I have stores of knowledge packed in my head; I am learned and wise and very well read; I can dance, I can sing, I'm extremely polite; I am worth a large fortune all in my own right. But still,—and this question has caused me much thought,— While I am neglected, you're everywhere sought." Monsieur Elims replied: "My dear sir, that is true, But you see, I am I, and you see, you are you. If ...
— The Jingle Book • Carolyn Wells
... now three o'clock in the afternoon, and he felt ravenous. The Indians quickly collected dried wood, and four of the fish were soon frizzling on hot ashes, while the kettle, hung in the flame, was beginning to sing. ...
— In The Heart Of The Rockies • G. A. Henty
... of the moon is the whippoor-will. I do not recall hearing him sing on pitch black nights. Starshine is enough for him, but I am convinced that he is only half nocturnal and that he watches for signs of moonlight as eagerly as I do. Last night I saw the glint of it in the upper sky an hour before the moon rose, a silvery ...
— Old Plymouth Trails • Winthrop Packard
... moon appears over the mornes, very large, very bright— brighter certainly than many a befogged sun one sees in northern Novembers; and it seems to have a weird magnetism—this tropical moon. Night-birds, insects, frogs,—everything that can sing,— all sing very low on the nights of great moons. Tropical wood- life begins with dark: in the immense white light of a full moon this nocturnal life seems afraid to cry out as usual. Also, this ...
— Two Years in the French West Indies • Lafcadio Hearn
... Concealment," cries our Professor, "who shall speak or sing? SILENCE and SECRECY! Altars might still be raised to them (were this an altar-building time) for universal worship. Silence is the element in which great things fashion themselves together; that at length they may emerge, full-formed and majestic, into the daylight of Life, which they ...
— Sartor Resartus - The Life and Opinions of Herr Teufelsdrockh • Thomas Carlyle
... and lash. Once on the road with an ox team, and seated on the tongue of his cart, with no overseer to look after him, the slave was comparatively free; and, if thoughtful, he had time to think. Slaves are generally expected to sing as well as to work. A silent slave is not liked by masters or overseers. "Make a noise," "make a noise," and "bear a hand," are the words usually addressed to the slaves when there is silence amongst them. This may account for the almost constant singing{76} heard ...
— My Bondage and My Freedom • Frederick Douglass
... interrupted. "I'm loving much mit Miss Bailey, too," she wailed. "Und I don't know where is she neither." But the pride of learning upheld the others and they chanted in sing-song chorus, swaying rhythmically the while from ...
— Americans All - Stories of American Life of To-Day • Various
... of my provisions, I took possession of my seat as before. After composing myself and adjusting everything in the best manner, I began to eat and drink very heartily; and through the effects of the mountain, as I called it, was very cheerful, and began to sing a few verses of a song which I had learned when I was a boy: but the noise soon alarmed the eagles, who had been asleep, through the quantity of liquor which they had drunk, and they arose ...
— Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 5 • Charles Sylvester
... and the Puritans. Their faith is of the same unquestioning type, which no disappointment or delay can daunt, and their view of personal duty and obligation in regard to it is not less intense than that which led men to sing psalms and utter praises on board the storm-bound "Mayflower." The most English of all English attributes has, by a strange transmutation, become the leading element in the character of the Africo-American. The ...
— Bricks Without Straw • Albion W. Tourgee
... immediately depart in force; they find everything tranquil there, and no company but two or three friends, and no other arms than a few fowling-pieces.—The impulse, however, is given, and, on the 15th of January, the great federation of Pontivy has excited the wildest enthusiasm. The people drink, sing, and shout in honor of the new decrees before armed peasants who do not comprehend the French tongue, still less legal terms, and who, on their return home, arguing with each other in bas-breton, interpret ...
— The Origins of Contemporary France, Volume 2 (of 6) - The French Revolution, Volume 1 (of 3) • Hippolyte A. Taine
... holy rites:] Holinshed says, that when the king saw no appearance of enemies, he caused the retreat to be blown, and gathering his army together, gave thanks to Almighty God for so happy a victory, causing his prelates and chaplains to sing this psalm—In exitu Israel de Egypto; and commanding every man to kneel down on the ground at this verse—Non nobis domine, non nobis, sed nomini tuo da gloriam; which, done, he caused Te Deum and certain anthems to be ...
— King Henry the Fifth - Arranged for Representation at the Princess's Theatre • William Shakespeare
... unkindness that would have been, and finally resolved upon the middle course of staying for about an hour only, and gliding off unobserved, having from the first made up her mind that she could on no account dance, sing, or take any ...
— Far from the Madding Crowd • Thomas Hardy
... acquaintance of Leighton, then six-and-twenty. I saw a good deal of him, as I lived almost entirely amongst the artists, taking lessons myself in water colours of Leitch. Music also brought us into contact. He had a beautiful voice, and used to sing a good deal with Mrs. Sartoris - Adelaide Kemble - whom he greatly admired, and whose portrait is painted under a monk's ...
— Tracks of a Rolling Stone • Henry J. Coke
... often stand for a long time before a mirror and talk in a most amiable way to her own reflection, which she called, "my good neighbor" or "my dear neighbor." It was also her mania to sing with a most excessive ardor the Marseillaise, the Parisiennes, the "Song of Farewell," and all the noble songs of the transition time, which had been the rage ...
— The Story of a Child • Pierre Loti
... alarm to all the other feathered people in the grove. Here the nightingales warble day and night until they get their young, when, finding that hunting for worms and grubs to put into other beaks than their own is very prosaic business, they only sing when they have time to fly to some topmost twig and forget that ...
— Two Summers in Guyenne • Edward Harrison Barker
... the Metropolitanes, arch-bishops, bishops, abbots and priors, al richly clad in their pontificalibus. Then enter the Deacons with the quier of singers. Who so soone as the Emperor setteth foot into the church, begin to sing: Many yeres may liue noble Theodore Iuanowich, &c: Wereunto the patriarch and Metropolite with the rest of the cleargy answere with a certaine hymne, in forme of a praier, singing it altogether with a great noise. The hymne being ended, the patriarch with the Emperor mount ...
— The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries of The English Nation v. 4 • Richard Hakluyt
... is this voice from the tomb! Lowth's translation is very striking—'Thy dead shall live, my deceased; they SHALL arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust; for thy dew is as the dew of the dawn! But the earth shall cast forth, as an abortion, thy deceased tyrants.' Antichrist shall 'cease from troubling,' and be only seen afar off ...
— The Works of John Bunyan • John Bunyan
... "Had I been brought up in a decent family," he said, "instead of having been set afloat on a tombstone, matrimony wouldn't have been such unknown seas to me. But, you know how it is, Miles, with a fellow that has no relations. He may laugh, and sing, and make as much noise as he pleases, and try to make others think he's in good company the whole time; but, after all, he's nothing but a sort of bloody hermit, that's travelling through life, all the same as ...
— Miles Wallingford - Sequel to "Afloat and Ashore" • James Fenimore Cooper
... who's out to win a D.C.M. some night; And Hughes that's keen on wiring; and Davies ('79), Who always must be firing at the Boche front line. * * * * * "Old soldiers never die; they simply fide a-why!" That's what they used to sing along the roads last spring; That's what they used to say before the push began; That's where they are to-day, knocked over ...
— Counter-Attack and Other Poems • Siegfried Sassoon
... I could ascertain singing in church was the sole privilege of the choir, none of the congregation joined in the hymns. But to-day the church had a new congregation—the soldiers from England, the men who sing in the trenches, in the billet, and on the march; the men who glory in song on the last lap of a long, killing journey in full (p. 041) marching order. To-day they sang a hymn well-known and loved, ...
— The Red Horizon • Patrick MacGill
... with his ring, a unique Pompeian intaglio of Venus Anadyomene with the iynx. "The plates are fourteenth-century Venetian. The only other set is in the Vatican, you remember." He removed a drop of the Earl's champagne from his moustache. "Ah, I see Cantoforte's going to sing. Marvellous man! I remember him in Paris in the 'forties—the roaring 'forties, ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, June 10, 1914 • Various
... the shades of evening were already stealing over the landscape when they reached their inn. Though the Count was eager at once to set out for the house of Mynheer Van Arent, the Baron declared that, without his supper, he could not sing at all. By the time that was finished ...
— Voyages and Travels of Count Funnibos and Baron Stilkin • William H. G. Kingston
... haste new Palms to seize, Thy little, envious, angry Genius teize; Let thy weak wilful Head, unrein'd by Art, Obey the Dictates of thy flatt'ring Heart; Divide a busy, fretful Life between Smut, Libel, Sing-song, Vanity, and Spleen; With long-brew'd Malice warm thy languid Page, And urge delirious Nonsense into Rage; Let bawdy Emblems, now, thy Hours beguile; Now, Fustian Epic, aping Virgil's Stile; To Virgil like, to Indian Clay as Delf, Or Pulteney, drawn ...
— Two Poems Against Pope - One Epistle to Mr. A. Pope and the Blatant Beast • Leonard Welsted
... darkly hide Deep in thy inmost hold! Take all their mailed pomp and pride To deck thy mansions cold! Plunderer! thou hast but purified Their memories from alloy: Faults of the dead we scorn to chide— Their virtues sing with joy. ...
— The Baron's Yule Feast: A Christmas Rhyme • Thomas Cooper
... want at home, and spoke of the heavy taxes they had not been able to raise. The whole caravan thought of the same thing; therefore, the rising dawn seemed to them a message from the sun, of fortune that was to gleam brightly upon them. They heard the dying nightingale sing: it was no false prophet, but a harbinger of fortune. The wind whistled, therefore they did not understand that the nightingale sung, 'Fare away over the sea! Thou hast paid the long passage with all that was thine, and poor and helpless ...
— What the Moon Saw: and Other Tales • Hans Christian Andersen
... read it to you? Can you read? Probably you are ignorant. I ask questions, but don't answer them. I don't like the sound of your voice. It is soft. An extraordinary thing like you should snarl, and not speak. You sing harmoniously. I hate it. It is the only thing about you that I do not like. All the rest is terrible—is grand. In India you would be a god. Were you born with that frightful laugh on your face? No! No doubt it is a penal brand. I do hope you have committed some crime. ...
— The Man Who Laughs • Victor Hugo
... she said one night: "Oh, Tristan, I have heard that the castle is faery and that twice a year it vanishes away. So is it vanished now and this is that enchanted orchard of which the harpers sing." And as she said it, the ...
— The Romance Of Tristan And Iseult • M. Joseph Bedier
... however, full of stories about the Mutiny, which we found extremely exciting. She used to sing, or rather "croon" to us some of the mutineers' songs. One that I specially remember began ...
— The Adventure of Living • John St. Loe Strachey
... The same war party soon after made an onslaught upon ninety Hurons, working on the Isle of Orleans under French protection, slew six, and carried off the rest into captivity. As they passed before Quebec they made their unhappy prisoners sing aloud, insultingly attracting the attention of the garrison. The marauders were not pursued; they dragged the prisoners to their villages, burned the chiefs, and condemned the rest to a cruel bondage. M. de Lauson can hardly be excused for thus suffering ...
— The Conquest of Canada (Vol. 1 of 2) • George Warburton
... the holder, happened to be by at the time. Touching my arm, he said, "White-Jacket, this here reminds me of Sing-Sing, when a draft of fellows in darbies, came on from the State Prison at Auburn for a change of scene like, ...
— White Jacket - or, the World on a Man-of-War • Herman Melville
... man but he hath seen The World's Desire, the fairy queen. None but hath seen her to his cost, Not one but loves what he has lost. None is there but hath heard her sing Divinely through his wandering; Not one but he has followed far The portent of the Bleeding Star; Not one but he hath chanced to wake, Dreamed of the Star and found the Snake. Yet, through his dreams, a wandering fire, Still, still she flits, ...
— The World's Desire • H. Rider Haggard and Andrew Lang
... sing, timidly, like an artist afraid of an impending interruption. He uttered a few disconnected notes with anxious rests between them—love sighs they seemed, broken by sobs of passion. Then gradually he took courage, regained self-confidence, ...
— The Torrent - Entre Naranjos • Vicente Blasco Ibanez
... devil appear to Martin Luther in Germany for certain, And would have gull'd him with a trick But Mart was too, too politic? Did he not help the Dutch to purge At Antwerp their cathedral church? Sing catches to the saints at Mascon, And tell them all they came to ask him? Appear in divers shapes to Kelly, And speak i' th' nun of Loudun's belly? Meet with the Parliament's committee At Woodstock on a pers'nal treaty? ...
— The Superstitions of Witchcraft • Howard Williams
... I used to sing in the clear sharp air when I took to the frozen lake and saw those heights around me. I look back upon that winter, across what befell me afterwards, as a time of perfect peace; before virgin snows melted, when the world was a ...
— Lazarre • Mary Hartwell Catherwood
... forever gone. Her foot had passed the threshold, to come in, to go out, no more. Her canary hung in the window; how could he sing on the morrow, missing her accustomed voice? Her picture hung over the mantle, looking down with the old-time brightness upon the the solitary figures beforefire—Duncan ...
— Hubert's Wife - A Story for You • Minnie Mary Lee
... "Sing us that dreamy one, Banjo," Nola requested, "the one that begins 'Come sit by my side little—' you know the one ...
— The Rustler of Wind River • G. W. Ogden
... of this Warbler is sweet and pleasing. It begins to sing from its first appearance in May and continues to repeat its brief refrain at intervals almost until its departure in August and September. At first it is a monotonous ditty, says Nuttall, uttered in a strong but shrill and filing tone. These notes, as the season advances, become more ...
— Birds Illustrated by Color Photography [June, 1897] - A Monthly Serial designed to Promote Knowledge of Bird-Life • Various
... be all. On warm June mornings in green country lanes, with sweet pine-odours wafted in the breeze which sighs through the branches, and cloud-shadows flitting over far-off blue mountains, while little birds sing their love-songs, and golden-haired children weave garlands of wild roses; or when in the solemn twilight we listen to wondrous harmonies of Beethoven and Chopin that stir the heart like voices from an unseen world; at such times one feels that the profoundest answer ...
— The Unseen World and Other Essays • John Fiske
... is a name they gave to me from my infancy, for they say I could sing before I could speak,—"My dear little Songbird," thus the letter began, "All the world is coming to London this spring to see the most wonderful of sights; try and persuade my dear sister, that kind Mamma of yours, to let you pay your long-promised visit to me. You must come in May, and you may ...
— Comical People • Unknown
... times when one should control one's passion for candour; and as I was saying, Christmas waits excite no emotion in my breast save that of irritation. But I have known "Hark, the herald angels sing," wheezily chanted by fog-filled throats, and accompanied, hopelessly out of tune, by a cornet and a flute, bring a great look of gladness to a work-worn face. To her it was a message of hope and love, making ...
— The Second Thoughts of An Idle Fellow • Jerome K. Jerome
... the pastor this year, conducted the services; there was no sermon proper and no time for any, but there was much of the beautiful music of these colored people; they sing out their fervid souls with their rich and powerful voices. Nearly all were baptized, and much more was made of the right hand of fellowship than is usual in any Northern church. And it is needful for these children, for they ...
— American Missionary, Vol. XLII., May, 1888., No. 5 • Various
... equal brood, Thou varied chain of different States, yet one identity only, A special song before I go I'd sing o'er all the rest: For ...
— Outlines of English and American Literature • William J. Long
... The musicians soon discovered that British tunes were not in favor and endeavored to learn some American airs. Had the Americans no national airs of their own, they asked. "Oh, yes!" they were assured. "There was Hail Columbia." Would not one of the gentlemen be good enough to play or sing it? An embarrassing request, for musical talent was not conspicuous in the delegation; but Peter, Gallatin's black servant, rose to the occasion. He whistled the air; and then one of the attaches scraped out the melody on a fiddle, so that the quick-witted orchestra speedily composed l'air ...
— Jefferson and his Colleagues - A Chronicle of the Virginia Dynasty, Volume 15 In The - Chronicles Of America Series • Allen Johnson
... are right! I did that same. Of course—of course. What was I thinking of? How she did sing, too; ten thousand mocking birds in her throat, all piping away at once. What was I thinking of? Now, Mr. Closs, while I'm gone—for I mean to strike while the iron is hot—just have the goodness ...
— The Old Countess; or, The Two Proposals • Ann S. Stephens
... calamities of toiling manhood. But an element of the sublime is added in "The Bridge of Sighs." In that we have the truly tragic; for we have in it the union of guilt, grief, despair, and death. An angel from heaven, we think, could not sing a more gentle dirge, or one more pure; yet the ordinary associations suggested by the corpse of the poor, ruined, self-murdered girl are such as to the prudish and fastidious would not allow her to be mentioned, much less bring her into song. But in the pity almost divine ...
— Atlantic Monthly Volume 6, No. 37, November, 1860 • Various
... saint cured the blind," the priest continued in a sing-song voice. "He lived in a cell too small to lie down in. For twenty-two years he never opened his mouth. His body, like the bodies of all the holy saints in these catacombs, is preserved without a sign of decay under this cloth." ...
— Trapped in 'Black Russia' - Letters June-November 1915 • Ruth Pierce
... with, what a fine man I am and how well I am set up on my legs. Ay, and I have a face as it were a rose, more by token that I am a doctor of medicine, such as I believe you have none among you. Moreover, I know many fine things and goodly canzonets; marry, I will sing you one.' And incontinent ...
— The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio • Giovanni Boccaccio
... as good as new. He finds himself surrounded in the most touching manner by the attentions of Providence, and compares himself involuntarily with the lilies and the sky-larks. He does not precisely sing, of course; but then he looks so unassuming in his open landau! If all the world dined at one table this philosophy would meet with ...
— The Bibliotaph - and Other People • Leon H. Vincent
... of replies to my advertisement," was his first remark, "and the reason why your application is one of the few I have answered is that I liked the frank way in which you expressed yourself. Can you sing?" ...
— The Golden Face - A Great 'Crook' Romance • William Le Queux
... there and waited he began, of a sudden and at unawares, to sing to himself. It was the same tuneless chant that had taken possession of him by Harvington-on-Avon; but more instant now and more confident, breaking from him now upon the open sea, with moon and stars above him. Tilda did not hear it, for she slept. He himself was ...
— True Tilda • Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
... thrones. The taller holds two keys in one hand and a thunderbolt in the other. That is the Pope. Now he hurls his thunderbolt, and a thousand souls pass into perdition, while the rest kiss his foot and sing Gloria Deo—but he who is seated on the throne turns about and smiles. Now behold his companion. He has a sword and at sceptre. Bow down before the sceptre, lest the sword smite you. When he knits his brows ...
— Master Olof - A Drama in Five Acts • August Strindberg
... libido was of the quality that stimulated his soldiers to sing celebrations of his exploits. The first woman he was engaged to be jilted. Cornelia, his first wife, he divorced on the ground that "Caesar's wife must be above suspicion." Matrimony committed twice ...
— The Glands Regulating Personality • Louis Berman, M.D.
... six of those children, who had constant access to all parts of the ground. There we saw the cock rising up and singing, then taking his turn upon the eggs; and by-and-by, we observed him cease to sing, and saw them both constantly engaged in bringing food to the young ones. No unintelligible hint to fathers and mothers of the human race, who have, before marriage, taken delight in music. But the time came for mowing the grass! I waited a good ...
— Advice to Young Men • William Cobbett
... doest drink and dance and sing, Happier than the happiest king! All the fields which thou doest see, All the plants belong to thee, All the summer hours produce, Fertile made with early juice, Man for thee does sow and plough, Farmer he, ...
— An Elementary Study of Insects • Leonard Haseman
... are accomplished in other forms of dancing. I like to hear your voices and see your dances. They may be valuable aids to you in your stage work, even if not just of a stage character. I can tell about that when you sing or dance for me. Anyway, they indicate that you have talent and are accomplished and able to improve yourself, and that suggests that you possess a personality of your own, one of the great essentials of your future success. Sometimes we arrange ...
— The Art of Stage Dancing - The Story of a Beautiful and Profitable Profession • Ned Wayburn
... growled the sailor, grasping his glass. "I'm here on what you'd call a visit, but I go back to my home to-morrow. Then it's ho for Callao," he shouted in a sing-song voice. ...
— The Opal Serpent • Fergus Hume
... North Sing the glorious day's renown, When to the battle fierce came forth All the might of Denmark's ...
— The History of Napoleon Buonaparte • John Gibson Lockhart
... not like his looks. He raised himself in his chair. "'Den Lieben langen Tag,' Alix. Why don't you sing that now? You used to sing it when you were but a child," he said, relapsing into German. "Sing, Alix." He stared about as if suddenly remembering something. "If Yvonne were here, she would sing. Her voice is beautiful—ach, ...
— Hurricane Island • H. B. Marriott Watson
... light with songs; but when ties are broken, and grief enters the home, the hearts that were so full of praise refuse to take the consolation of the gospel. This ought not so to be. If we knew Christ as a comforter, we would sing our songs of trust even ...
— Personal Friendships of Jesus • J. R. Miller
... moved out, one of the older Hebrews in the forward ranks began to sing, in a wild recitative chant, of Canaan and the freedom of Israel. The elders in the line near him took it up and every face in the long column lighted and was lifted in silent concord with the singers. Atsu in his chariot, close by, scanned ...
— The Yoke - A Romance of the Days when the Lord Redeemed the Children - of Israel from the Bondage of Egypt • Elizabeth Miller
... in the meadow, In a hole in a tree, Lived a mother bluebird And her little birdies three. "Sing!" said the mother; "We sing," said the three; So they sang and were glad In the ...
— The Beacon Second Reader • James H. Fassett
... other people. 'But it should not be given with quite so extreme an accent; or we may be called affected by other parishes. And, Nathaniel Chapman, there's a jauntiness in your manner of singing which is not quite becoming. Why don't you sing more earnestly?' ...
— Two on a Tower • Thomas Hardy
... slipping out of the harness to be back at the Martels'. They held him up to no standard, and offered no counsel of perfection. He could tell his best stories without fear of reproof, laugh as loud as he liked, and whistle and sing without disturbing anybody. Rose mended his clothes, doctored him when he was sick, petted him in public as well as in private, and even made free to pawn his uniform when the collector threatened to turn off the gas if ...
— Quin • Alice Hegan Rice
... land of pine and palm, Over hills, and over rivers and savannas, Till my feelings undergo All their mortal overthrow, In celestial strains which flow, In a song of peace below, From those regions where archangels sing hosannas. ...
— Continental Monthly , Vol I, Issue I, January 1862 - Devoted to Literature and National Policy • Various
... trained his children into a regular choir, taught them to sing music at sight, and play on the violin, while at one time they had a music teacher for the piano too. There was also a French governess who came to teach the children languages. Every Saturday the whole family went to the evening service, and on their return sang hymns and burned incense. On ...
— Letters of Anton Chekhov • Anton Chekhov
... of crimson cloth ornamented with the King's arms. Within it was a company of 'prophets' in golden coats. As the King approached they set loose a great number of small birds, which fluttered about while the 'prophets' sung 'Cantate Domino canticum novum'—'Sing unto the ...
— The History of London • Walter Besant
... much that you would sing one of your favourite songs. It would be a great pleasure to very many ...
— An Algonquin Maiden - A Romance of the Early Days of Upper Canada • G. Mercer Adam
... waited, week after week, for the advent of the long-looked-for avenger. With the characteristic superstition of the times, he constrained his daughter to promise that, at the period of birth, during the most painful moments of her trial, she would sing a mirthful and triumphant song, that her child might possess a sanguine, joyous, ...
— Henry IV, Makers of History • John S. C. Abbott
... tear off a few patriotic poems now and slip them to him and he would send them to his paper and they would print them and maybe if some of them was good enough somebody would set down and write a song to them and probably everybody would want to buy it and sing it like Over There and I would clean up a good ...
— The Real Dope • Ring Lardner
... in a dogmatic way that amused Magdalen, and she said, "Well, I shall be able to judge when we are at the Goyle. Vera, I think you sing—" ...
— Modern Broods • Charlotte Mary Yonge
... morning the ship's company, having a minister on board with them, were at their exercises of devotion, which they have every morning, beginning with singing a psalm, as we do; then the minister prays, but not long, and the conclusion is to sing about two verses of another psalm, and so they part; except on the Lord's Day, as this was, their chaplain preached a short sermon in the morning in Swedish, but none in the afternoon. Whitelocke for his own company had the usual exercises of praying and preaching by his chaplain Mr. ...
— A Journal of the Swedish Embassy in the Years 1653 and 1654, Vol II. • Bulstrode Whitelocke
... honeysuckle and other such formalisms are attractive to uneducated eyes, owing to their manifest compliance with the first conditions of unity and symmetry, being to really noble ornamentation what the sing-song of a bad reader of poetry, laying regular emphasis on every required syllable of every foot, is to the varied, irregular, unexpected, inimitable cadence of the voice of a person of sense and feeling reciting the same lines,—not ...
— Modern Painters, Volume IV (of V) • John Ruskin
... said, "The young one screams like a cat!" which words my mother never forgot. A poor emigrant, Gomar, who stood as godfather, consoled her in the mean time by saying that the louder I cried as a child, all the more beautifully should I sing when I ...
— The True Story of My Life • Hans Christian Andersen
... name, by the way, was Buddensiek. A dozen years after, when it happened that a row of tenements he was building fell down ahead of time, before they were finished and sold, and killed the workmen, he was arrested and sent to Sing Sing ...
— The Battle with the Slum • Jacob A. Riis
... together in the evening all that went on in some way or other centred about her. By consent the choice of what game should be played was left to her to decide. She was asked if it was not time for some one to sing, and the very mistress of the household referred to her whether we should have another round or go in to supper. Of course, she always decided as she supposed the hostess wished. At supper, if there was a delicacy on the table ...
— The Open Air • Richard Jefferies
... past by about that hour When men are not most brave, It did not make my heart to fail, And I have heard the nightingale Sing sweetly on her grave. ...
— Poems, 1799 • Robert Southey
... to put the matter before Egbert Rumpus Bumpus, the poet, and ask his advice. He found Egbert busy writing poems on a slate. He was so busy that he only had time to sing out, ...
— The Magic Pudding • Norman Lindsay
... king, "I was not talking of a German theatre, which I dislike quite as much as yourself. No, we will have a French theatre and an Italian opera. The French alone can act and only the Italians can sing, but we Germans can play; I have therefore charged Graun to compose a new opera for the inauguration of the ...
— Frederick the Great and His Court • L. Muhlbach
... of the wildest disorder amidst those desperate men; and even the captain himself, perceiving that they could laugh, and shout, and sing, in the delirium of intoxication, rushed from the side of Wagner and joined the rest. It was dreadful to hear the obscene jest, the ribald song, and the reckless execration, sent forth from the cabin, as if in answer to the awful voices in which Nature was then speaking to the world. ...
— Wagner, the Wehr-Wolf • George W. M. Reynolds
... knew the silly fly would soon come back again: So he wove a subtle web, in a little corner, sly, And set his table ready to dine upon the fly. Then he went out to his door again, and merrily did sing, "Come hither, hither, pretty fly, with the pearl and silver wing; Your robes are green and purple—there's a crest upon your head— Your eyes are like the diamond bright, but mine are dull ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction - Volume 12, No. 338, Saturday, November 1, 1828. • Various
... asleep and slept long, then dozed at intervals. The caravan halted. Allie heard the familiar sing-song calls to the oxen. Soon all was bustle about her, and this fully awakened her. In a moment or more she must expect to be face to face with Durade. What should she tell him? How much should she let him know? Not one word about her mother! He would be less afraid of her if ...
— The U.P. Trail • Zane Grey
... got it through his head that Jim had substituted the child of a base-born churl for the Earl's daughter, he fairly raged. Threatened him with exposure and arrest if he didn't make restitution to Castle, but Jim simply grinned and asked him whether he allowed to sing his complaint to the police. Wound up by saying that, even though Thorn had rounded on him, old Jim was a square man, and he proposed to ...
— Old Gorgon Graham - More Letters from a Self-Made Merchant to His Son • George Horace Lorimer
... sing the magic chant. You mustn't say anything, but just follow wherever I go—like follow my leader, you know—and when there is gold underneath the magic rod will twist in the hand of the priestess like a live thing that seeks to ...
— The Story of the Treasure Seekers • E. Nesbit
... pink and one is blue, But neither one is in a stew Because the naughty Boolooroo Is out of sight, so what we'll do Is try to be a jolly crew And dance and sing our too-ral-loo And to our friends be ever true And to ...
— Sky Island - Being the further exciting adventures of Trot and Cap'n - Bill after their visit to the sea fairies • L. Frank Baum
... to know the gods, O Macareus! and from what source men, animals, and the elements of the universal fire have their origin? The aged ocean, the father of all things, keeps locked within his own breast these secrets; and the nymphs who stand around sing as they weave their eternal dance before him, to cover any sound which might escape from his lips, half opened by slumber. Mortals dear to the gods for their virtue have received from their hands lyres to give delight ...
— St. Elmo • Augusta J. Evans |
