"Wist" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... Travels, Essays, too, I wist, And Sermons, to thy mill bring grist; And then thou hast the Navy List, ...
— The Works of Lord Byron, Vol. 7. - Poetry • George Gordon Byron
... for a man, and she caused him to shave off the seven locks of his head; and she began to afflict him, and his strength went from him. And she said, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And he awoke out of his sleep, and said, I will go out as at other times before, and shake myself. And he wist not that the Lord was departed ...
— The Dore Gallery of Bible Illustrations, Complete • Anonymous
... laid unto her, for the manner sake, that she went about to bewitch him, and that she was of counsel with the lord chamberlain to destroy him; in conclusion, when no colour could fasten upon this matter, then he laid heinously to her charge the thing that herself could not deny, that all the world wist was true, and that natheless every man laughed at to hear it then so suddenly so highly taken—that she was naught of her body.'—Reign of Richard III., quoted by Bishop Percy in Reliques of Old English Romance ...
— The Superstitions of Witchcraft • Howard Williams
... for any abbey or monasterie, not one was left in all the countrie, neither did any man (for the space of two hundred yeares) take care for the repairing or building vp of any thing in decaie, so that the people of that countrie wist not what a moonke ment, and if they saw any, they woondered at the ...
— Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland (2 of 6): England (1 of 12) - William the Conqueror • Raphael Holinshed
... she caused him to shave off the seven locks of his head; and she began to afflict him, and his strength went from him. And she said, "The Philistines be upon thee, Samson." And he awoke out of his sleep, and said, "I will go out as at other times before, and shake myself." And he wist not that the Lord was departed ...
— Types of Children's Literature • Edited by Walter Barnes
... follow His career to the end. There was a secret understanding between Himself and her. As for instance, when she found Him among the doctors of the law, she for one moment suffered her humanity to get the better of her in anxious inquiries; and His reply, 'Why sought ye Me? Wist ye not that I must be about My Father's business?' was a sort of reminder to her, which she at once accepted. Again, at the marriage feast in Cana of Galilee, when Christ turned the water into wine, He said to His mother, ...
— A Romance of Two Worlds • Marie Corelli
... a summer sea; that she might bring My bride, who wist not that I loved her so— This is no bitter day ...
— The Judgment House • Gilbert Parker
... (earthen-), ware (aware), wear, where, were. way, weigh, whey. weal (wealth), weal (a swelling), wheel. weald, wield, wheeled. while, wile. whine, wine, white, wight. whether, weather. whither, wither. whig, wig. whit, wit. what, wot. whet, wet. whirr, were wer'. whin, win. whist, wist. ...
— Society for Pure English, Tract 2, on English Homophones • Robert Bridges
... grace not unworthy of, nay, necessary to, even the perfect humanity. But one thing stands out always: His was the consecrated life. It was all given to its purpose. "He was called Jesus because he should save his people from their sins." "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" "Behold we go up to Jerusalem and the Son of Man shall be betrayed." "To this end was I born and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear ...
— The world's great sermons, Volume 8 - Talmage to Knox Little • Grenville Kleiser
... preaching we have none," reports a zealous Protestant, "without which the ignorant can have no knowledge." The prelates who used the new Prayer Book were simply regarded as heretics. The Bishop of Meath was assured by one of his flock that, "if the country wist how, they would eat you." Protestantism had failed to wrest a single Irishman from his older convictions, but it succeeded in uniting all Ireland against the Crown. The old political distinctions which had been produced by the conquest ...
— History of the English People - Volume 4 (of 8) • John Richard Green
... equip th' antagonist of God, prompt in harness:— he had a guileful mind. A magic helm on head he set, he bound it hard and tight, braced it with buckles. Speeches many wist he ...
— Anglo-Saxon Literature • John Earle
... the business with Miss Nelly, the nabob's maiden sister. Mr M'Lucre was not a little confounded at this, for he had imagined that I was the agent on behalf of my lord, who was of the government side, so he wist not what to do, in the morning when he came to me, till ...
— The Provost • John Galt
... 'Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone.' In all regions of life, the consummate apex and crowning charm of excellence is unconsciousness of excellence. Whenever a man begins to imagine that he is good, he begins ...
— Expositions of Holy Scripture - Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers • Alexander Maclaren
... I wist, 15 Would think I were a mighty mechanist, Bent with sublime Archimedean art To breathe a soul into the iron heart Of some machine portentous, or strange gin, Which by the force of figured spells might ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley Volume I • Percy Bysshe Shelley
... "But had I wist or heard it told That love so strong should be, Ne'er had I held those twain apart For ...
— Poems By The Way & Love Is Enough • William Morris
... but verily Never an answer looked should be. But it came to pass from shade Pacing to an open glade, Which the oaks a mighty wall Fence about, methought a call Sounded, then a pale thin mist Rose, a pillar, and fronted me, Rose and took a form I wist, And it wore a hood on 'ts head, And a long white garment spread, And I saw the ...
— Poems by Jean Ingelow, In Two Volumes, Volume II. • Jean Ingelow
... occur in the Gospels receive from them a colouring of the same kind, as the answer which He gave His mother when He was twelve years old, 'Wist ye not that I must be about My Father's business?'" ...
— The Lost Gospel and Its Contents - Or, The Author of "Supernatural Religion" Refuted by Himself • Michael F. Sadler
... simple goatherd who treads places high, Beholding there his shadow (it is wist) Dilated to a giant's on the mist, Esteems not his own stature larger by The apparent image; but more patiently Strikes his staff down beneath his clenching fist— While the snow-mountains lift their amethyst And sapphire crowns of splendour, ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 61, No. 380, June, 1847 • Various
... heart, thou bonnie bird, That sings beside thy mate; For so I sat, and so I sang, And wist not of my fate." ...
— The Entailed Hat - Or, Patty Cannon's Times • George Alfred Townsend
... magic shoes carried him with greater speed than before down the Rhine valley, and through Burgundy-land, and the low meadows, until he came to the shores of the great North Sea. He sought the halls of old AEgir, the Ocean-king; but he wist not which way to go,—whether across the North Sea towards Isenland, or whether along the narrow channel between Britain-land and the main. While he paused, uncertain where to turn, he saw the pale-haired daughters of old AEgir, the white-veiled Waves, playing in the moonlight near the shore. Of ...
— The Story of Siegfried • James Baldwin
... clerks a great rout,[98] Which fast did write by one assent; There stood up one and cried about "Richard, Robert, and John of Kent!" I wist not well what this man meant, He cried so thickly there indeed. But he that lacked ...
— English Satires • Various
... cast away thy life. 1620 Caes. Tis dastard cowardize and childish feare, To dread those dangers that do not appeare: Cal. Thou must sad chance by fore-cast, wise resist, Or being done say boote-les had I wist. Caes. But for to feare wher's no suspition, Will to my greatnesse be derision. Cal. There lurkes an adder in the greenest grasse, Daungers of purpose alwayes hide their face: Caes. Perswade no more Caesar's resolu'd to go. Cal. The Heauens resolue that hee may safe returne, ...
— The Tragedy Of Caesar's Revenge • Anonymous
... I wist before I kiss'd That love had been so ill to win, I'd lock'd my heart in a case of gold, And pinn'd it with a silver pin. And oh! if my young babe were born, And set upon the nurse's knee, And I mysel' were dead and gane, Wi' the green ...
— English Songs and Ballads • Various
... is there no remedy? But have I thus lost it wilfully? I-wis, it was a thing all too dear To be bestowed, and wist not where! It was mine heart! I pray you heartily ...
— Tudor and Stuart Love Songs • Various
... contrary: forty years sparing Is scarce three seven years spending,—never caring What will ensue, when all their coin is gone, And all too late, then thrift is thought upon: Oft have I heard, that pride and riot kissed, And then repentence cries, 'for had I wist.' ...
— The London Prodigal • William Shakespeare [Apocrypha]
... asked me again, by my oath, where Master Garret was, and whither I had conveyed him. I said I had not conveyed him, nor yet wist where he was, nor whither he was gone, except he were gone to Woodstock, as I had before said. Surely, they said, I brought him some whither this morning, for they might well perceive by my foul shoes and dirty hosen that I had travelled ...
— The Reign of Henry the Eighth, Volume 1 (of 3) • James Anthony Froude
... Olindo hight the youth, Both or one town, both in one faith were taught, She fair, he full of bashfulness and truth, Loved much, hoped little, and desired nought, He durst not speak by suit to purchase ruth, She saw not, marked not, wist not what he sought, Thus loved, thus served he long, but not regarded, ...
— Jerusalem Delivered • Torquato Tasso
... eche thing els worth Siluer walkes, although the price be small. Because thou louest to play friend Parker other while, I wish thee there the weary day with dicing to beguile. But thou weart better farre at home, I wist it well, And wouldest be loath among such lowts so long a time to dwell. Then iudge of vs thy friends, what kinde of life, we had, That neere the frozen pole to waste our weary dayes were glad. In such a sauage soile, weere lawes do ...
— The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries of The English Nation v. 4 • Richard Hakluyt
... I wist all their sport in the Park is but a shadow to that pleasure I find in Plato. Alas! good folk, they never felt what true pleasure meant. ...
— The Guide to Reading - The Pocket University Volume XXIII • Edited by Dr. Lyman Abbott, Asa Don Dickenson, and Others
... and many with the leprosy," to preach in several tongues the glad tidings of the Kingdom to the heathen of England as well as of India, and all with a loving tenderness and patient humility learned in the childlike school of Him who said, "Wist ye not that I must be about my ...
— The Life of William Carey • George Smith
... that was Sir Lucan de Butlere, and his brother Sir Bedivere: and they full were sore wounded. Jesu mercy, said the king, where are all my noble knights becomen. Alas that ever I should see this doleful day. For now, said Arthur, I am come to mine end. But would to God that I wist where were that traitor Sir Mordred, that hath caused all this mischief. Then was king Arthur ware where Sir Mordred leaned upon his sword among a great heap of dead men. Now give me my spear, said Arthur ...
— The Ontario Readers: Fourth Book • Various
... he hied him thence, I wist he stood not still, And soon he met fair Emmeline's page Come ...
— The Book of Brave Old Ballads • Unknown
... am/ Peter answered/ thou arte the sonne of the lyuinge God/ as though Peter had bene as perfecte as an angell. But immediatly after/ when Christ preached vn to them of his deeth & passion/ Peter was angre & rebuked Christe & thought ernestly [that] he had raued & not wist what he sayde: as at a nother time/ when Christ was so feruently busied in healinge [the] people/ [that] he had not leyser to eate/ they went out to holde him/ supposinge that he had bene besyde him selfe. Ande one [that] cast out deuels in Christes name/ they forbade/ because he wayted not on them/ ...
— The prophete Ionas with an introduccion • William Tyndale
... clasp; when, rising, The bird—as if surmising - Bore due to southward, crossing by the Froom, And Durnover Great-Field and Fort, the soldier clear advising - Prompted he wist by Whom. ...
— Wessex Poems and Other Verses • Thomas Hardy
... senatours were assemblid/ And cryed wyth an hye voys/ that they had leuer/ and also hit were better for the comyn wele that a wyf shold haue two husbondes than a man two wyues/ The senatours heerynge this. were gretly abasshid and wist not what to saye/ ner how to answere/ tyll at laste that the child papire reherced to them all the caas and feet how hit was happend And whan the senatours herd & understood the mater they were gretly abasshid/ and comended gretly y'e Ingenye & wytte of the child that ...
— Game and Playe of the Chesse - A Verbatim Reprint Of The First Edition, 1474 • Caxton
... nightly impossibilise, which is the sin against the Holy Ghost, Very God, Lord and Giver of Life? For, sirs, he said, our lust is brief. We are means to those small creatures within us and nature has other ends than we. Then said Dixon junior to Punch Costello wist he what ends. But he had overmuch drunken and the best word he could have of him was that he would ever dishonest a woman whoso she were or wife or maid or leman if it so fortuned him to be delivered of his ...
— Ulysses • James Joyce
... world said: They have brought only their greed with them. And still the struggle went on. The continent was taken; man abolished the wilderness. A new civilization rose. And because it was strong, the world said it was not of the old America, but of a new, soft, wicked order, which wist not that ...
— In the Heart of a Fool • William Allen White
... and prudence, and has astonished them at its profound doctrine of unbounded love; it has grown in favor with God and man, and answered to its half doubting, half hoping parents of the church and state, "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" and now is it driven away into the wilderness of poverty and hard toil, of loneliness and mortification, to be tempted of ...
— Brook Farm • John Thomas Codman
... liked him well; nor did I hide it from him; nay indeed, now and again I may have lent him courage, though truly with no evil intent, since I was not ill pleased with the tale his eyes told me. And I was but a young thing then, and wist not as yet that a maid who gives hope to a suitor though she has no mind to hear him, is guilty of a sin grievous enough to bring forth much sorrow and heart-ache. It was not till I had had a lesson which came upon me all too soon, that ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers
... full of fancies fraile, She woxe: yet wist she neither how nor why: She wist not, silly Mayd, what she did aile, Yet wist she was not well at ease, perdie; Yet thought it was not ...
— The Diary of an Ennuyee • Anna Brownell Jameson
... a draught, (As thilk holy Jew our elders taught) His beasts and his store shall multiplie: And sirs, also it healeth jealousie, For, though a man be fall in jealous rage, Let make with this Water his potage, And never shall he more his wife mistrist, Thughe, in sooth, the defaut by her wist: All had she taken priests two or three! Here is a mittaine eke, that ye may see. He that has his hand well put in this mittaine; He shall have multiplying of his graine, When he hath sowen, be it wheat or otes; So that he ...
— The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753) - Volume I. • Theophilus Cibber
... Brute your father dying, no man of men May fasten hearts with hands in one accord. The love our master knew not that he lacked Fulfilled him even as heaven by dawn is filled With fire and light that burns and blinds and leads All men to wise or witless works or deeds, Beholding, ere indeed he wist or willed, Eyes that sent flame through veins that age ...
— Locrine - A Tragedy • Algernon Charles Swinburne
... token that his love's unsound, While Lubberkin sticks firmly to the last; O were his lips to mine but joined so fast! With my sharp heel I three times mark the ground, And turn me thrice around, around, around. As Lubberkin once slept beneath a tree, I twitch'd his dangling garter from his knee; He wist not when the hempen string I drew. Now mine I quickly doff of inkle blue; Together fast I tye the garters twain, And while I knit the knot, repeat the strain: Three times a true-love's knot I tye secure, Firm be the knot, firm may his love endure. With ...
— The Mysteries of All Nations • James Grant
... must, Mr. Beckett always when he can. We give without comment a mere list of these:—maugre, 'sdeath, eke, erst, deft, romaunt, pleasaunce, certes, whilom, distraught, quotha, good lack, well-a-day, vermeil, perchance, hight, wight, lea, wist, list, sheen, anon, gliff, astrolt, what boots it? malfortunes, ween, God wot, I trow, emprise, duress, donjon, puissant, sooth, rock, bruit, ken, eld, o'ersprent, etc. Of course, such a word as "lady" is ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 5, No. 32, June, 1860 • Various
... seemed a little speck, And then it seemed a mist; 150 It moved and moved, and took at last A certain shape, I wist. ...
— Coleridge's Ancient Mariner and Select Poems • Samuel Taylor Coleridge
... unto Luke Evangelist: For he it was (the aged legends say) Who first taught Art to fold her hands and pray. Scarcely at once she dared to rend the mist Of devious symbols: but soon having wist How sky-breadth and field-silence and this day Are symbols also in some deeper way, She looked through these to ...
— The Education of Catholic Girls • Janet Erskine Stuart
... the idols; and pray'd they in words, That he, the ghost-slayer, would frame for them helping 'Gainst the folk-threats and evil So far'd they their wont, The hope of the heathen; nor hell they remember'd In mood and in mind. And the Maker they knew not, 180 The Doomer of deeds: nor of God the Lord wist they, Nor the Helm of the Heavens knew aught how to hery, The Wielder of Glory. Woe worth unto that man Who through hatred the baneful his soul shall shove into The fire's embrace; nought of fostering weens he, Nor of changing one whit. But well is he soothly That after the death-day shall ...
— The Tale of Beowulf - Sometime King of the Folk of the Weder Geats • Anonymous
... for more worlds the Macedonian cried, He wist not Thetis in her lap did hide Another yet; a world reserved for you, To make more great than that he ...
— Poetical Works of Edmund Waller and Sir John Denham • Edmund Waller; John Denham
... Nannie, far before the rest, Hard upon noble Maggie prest, And flew at Tam wi' furious ettle; But little wist she Maggie's mettle— Ae spring brought off her master hale, But left behind her ain grey tail: The carlin claught her by the rump, And left poor Maggie scarce ...
— Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern, Vol. 7 • Various
... for staying with him so long, saying, "As for this Moses,—we wot not what is become of him" (Exo 32:1). Well, the next time he went up thither, and came down, the Spirit of glory was upon him; his face shone, though he wist it not, to his honour, and their amazement (Exo 34:29-35). Also while Stephen stood before the council to be accused, by suborned men, "All that sat in the council, looking steadfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel" (Acts 6:15). Those that honour ...
— The Works of John Bunyan • John Bunyan
... for me, mother?" asked Wallace, turning round and regarding her with an impressive look; "some spirit you wist not ...
— The Scottish Chiefs • Miss Jane Porter
... as best sets ye,' said the bailie, as Andrew pressed forward to catch the answer to some question I had asked about Campbell; 'ye wad fain ride the forehorse an ye wist how. That chield's aye for being out o' the cheese-fat he was ...
— The Proverbs of Scotland • Alexander Hislop
... I wist, before I lost, That love had been sae ill to win; I had lockt my heart in a case of gowd And pinn'd it with a siller pin.... O waly! waly! but love be bonny A little time while it is new, But when 'tis auld, it waxeth cauld, And fades awa' like ...
— Forsyte Saga • John Galsworthy
... has no right to call himself a child of God who does not work for Him. Was it not so with Christ himself? Did He not, even when a boy, say, "Wist ye not that I must be about My Father's business?" and the work of God is the delight of the heir of God. We do not join the church merely for what we can get, but for what we can do. How is it with you? Do you say, "What can I do?" ...
— Broken Bread - from an Evangelist's Wallet • Thomas Champness
... hermit's prophecy ran on: Though she her lost sheep wist not where to find, Yet should she bid her weary care begone, And banish every doubt from her sweet mind: They, with their little snow-white tails behind, Homeward would go, if ...
— Poems • William D. Howells
... lieth heavily Over the ladye's grave; I wist of three That bore it, of a blessed verity! But he hath lifted it in his pure madness, As it were lightsome as a summer gladness, And from the carved niche hath ta'en the lamp, And hung it by the ...
— The Death-Wake - or Lunacy; a Necromaunt in Three Chimeras • Thomas T Stoddart
... over the thought," said Randall, "but there was no way of living. I wist not whether the Ranger might not stir up old tales, and moreover old Martin is ill to move. We brought him down by boat from Windsor, and he has never quitted the house since, nor his bed for the last two years. You'll come and see the housewife? ...
— The Armourer's Prentices • Charlotte M. Yonge
... both spurring and reining his supple, cringing steed. "Eeeeeee-yip-yeeeee!" Thus vociferating, he rode straight at the footman, with apparently the deliberate wish to ride him down. He wist not that the latter had seen cavalry in his day, and was not easily to be disconcerted, and, finding that he failed to create a panic, he pulled up with the pony's nose ...
— The Girl at the Halfway House • Emerson Hough
... into her child life—rather into the life her childhood wist of, but missed—and would live it all over, now, with these little ones, taken already, before even they were seen or found, out of their strangerhood into ...
— Faith Gartney's Girlhood • Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney
... "Wist!" exclaimed the dame, lifting her hands. "Not to Amsterdam tonight, and you've owned your legs were aching under you. Nay, nay—it'll be soon enough ...
— Hans Brinker - or The Silver Skates • Mary Mapes Dodge
... and read the words, "How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" And I sat silent ...
— The Seaboard Parish Volume 1 • George MacDonald
... believe all would have gone wrong but for me. I put my foot down and said, 'Not guilty,' and would not budge. The rest were almost all inclined to give against you, Matabel, but there was a fellow with a wist in his stupid noddle against capital punishment. He was just as resolute as I was, and between us, we worked the rest round to our way of thinking. But I should like to know the truth about it all, for ...
— The Broom-Squire • S. (Sabine) Baring-Gould
... full filled with good odours, and every knight had such meats and drinks as he best loved in this world; and when the Holy Grail had been borne through the hall, then the holy vessel departed suddenly, that they wist not where it became. Then had they all breath to speak. And then the King yielded thankings unto God of His good grace that He had sent them. "Certes," said the King, "we ought to thank our Lord Jesu greatly, for that he hath shewed us this day ...
— MacMillan's Reading Books - Book V • Anonymous
... as with a garment, and his wits were wildered and he began to rub his eyes, lest they be dimmed or darkened, and to gaze intently; but at last he was certified that no trace of the pavilion remained nor sign of its being; nor wist he the why and the wherefore of its disappearance. So his surprise increased and he smote hand upon hand and the tears trickled down his cheeks over his beard, for that he knew not what had become of his daughter. Then he sent out officials ...
— Supplemental Nights, Volume 3 • Richard F. Burton
... which had fixed upon him the frightful doom of the Wehr-Wolf! But little suspected Fernand Wagner that one morning, while he slept, his boat had borne him through the proud fleet of the Ottomans—little wist he that his beloved Nisida had caught sight of him as he was wafted rapidly past the stern of the kapitan-pasha's ship! For on that occasion he had slept during hours; and when he had awakened, not a bark nor sail save his own was visible on ...
— Wagner, the Wehr-Wolf • George W. M. Reynolds
... 30 And he shall stand with fear, and wist not what to say. And behold, he shall deny unto you; and he shall make as if he were astonished; nevertheless, he shall declare unto you ...
— The Book Of Mormon - An Account Written By The Hand Of Mormon Upon Plates Taken - From The Plates Of Nephi • Anonymous
... one relapse—a short one, but painful. In an incautious moment, when I wist not wot I wotted, I accepted an invitation from the chief engineer to go below. We went below—miles and miles, I think—to where, standing on metal runways that were hot to the foot, overalled Scots ministered to the heart and the lungs and the bowels of that ship. Electricity spat cracklingly ...
— Europe Revised • Irvin S. Cobb
... true men, my Lord Grey de Wilton," [Note 2] said Philippa, "and right glad are mine to light on no unfriendlier face. Truly at the first we took you for rebels, and had it not been for your coats and your standard, I had picked you off with my matchlock ere I wist who it were." ...
— Robin Tremain - A Story of the Marian Persecution • Emily Sarah Holt
... to shun another's fist, Though he expound old saws,—yet, well I wist, With pummelled nose and ...
— The Lives Of The Twelve Caesars, Complete - To Which Are Added, His Lives Of The Grammarians, Rhetoricians, And Poets • C. Suetonius Tranquillus
... like manner, for practical success, there must not be too much design. A man will not be observed in doing that which he can do best. There is a certain magic about his properest action which stupefies your powers of observation, so that though it is done before you, you wist not of it. The art of life has a pudency, and will not be exposed. Every man is an impossibility until he is born; every thing impossible until we see a success. The ardors of piety agree at last ...
— Essays, Second Series • Ralph Waldo Emerson
... hold to be an inseparable mark of truth. No true man is conscious that he is true; he is rather conscious of insincerity. No brave man is conscious of his courage; bravery is natural to him. The skin of Moses' face shone after he had been with God, but Moses wist not of it. ...
— Sermons Preached at Brighton - Third Series • Frederick W. Robertson
... as he was able to saile in other 3. dayes. At the end whereof he perceiued that the coast turned towards the East, or els the sea opened with a maine gulfe into the land, he knew not how farre. Well he wist and remembred, that he was faine to stay till he had a Westerne winde, and somewhat Northerly: and thence he sailed plaine East along the coast still so far as he was able in the space of 4. dayes. At the end of which time he was compelled againe to stay till he had a full Northerly winde, ...
— The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries - of the English Nation, v. 1, Northern Europe • Richard Hakluyt
... next befell me then and there I know not well—I never knew— First came the loss of light, and air, And then of darkness too: I had no thought, no feeling—none— Among the stones I stood a stone,[21] And was, scarce conscious what I wist, As shrubless crags within the mist; For all was blank, and bleak, and grey; It was not night—it was not day; 240 It was not even the dungeon-light, So hateful to my heavy sight, But vacancy absorbing space, And fixedness—without a place; ...
— The Works of Lord Byron, Volume 4 • Lord Byron
... wist! Live, day by day, With little and with little swelling Thy tale of duty done—the way The ...
— Poems with Power to Strengthen the Soul • Various
... glowed; they were the psalm lines that had haunted her thought yesterday, among the opening visions of the hill-country. Marmaduke Wharne bent his keen eyes upon her, from under their gray brows, noting her narrowly. She wist not that she was noted, or that her ...
— A Summer in Leslie Goldthwaite's Life. • Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney
... two men unto me, but I wist not whence they were: And it came to pass about the time of shutting of the gate, when it was dark, that the men went out: pursue after them quickly; ...
— Fair to Look Upon • Mary Belle Freeley
... queint, and quicke conceit, Which makes hir walke which way she list, And rootes them vp, that lie in wait To worke hir treason, ere she wist: Hir force is such against hir foes That whom ...
— Microcosmography - or, a Piece of the World Discovered; in Essays and Characters • John Earle
... web with tears. Unnumber'd punctures small yet sore Full fretfully the maiden bore, 40 Till she her lily finger found Crimson'd with many a tiny wound; And to her eyes, suffus'd with watery woe, Her flower-embroider'd web danc'd dim, I wist, Like blossom'd shrubs in a quick-moving mist: 45 Till vanquish'd the despairing ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge - Vol I and II • Samuel Taylor Coleridge
... perceptible. Even now doth she stand before me in all her beauty. 'Read not Propertius and Tibullus'—that is easily refrained from; but read what I will, in a minute the type passeth from my eyes, and I see but her face beaming from the page. Nay, cast my eyes in what direction I may wist, it is the same. If I looked at the stained wall, the indistinct lines gradually form themselves into her profile; if I look at the clouds, they will assume some of the redundant outlines of her form; if I cast mine eyes ...
— Jacob Faithful • Captain Frederick Marryat
... good many things first, I'm afraid, and it wasn't very easy to find you. Case of 'None could see Valerius, And none wist where he lay.' By the bye, Hal, should you say that those dangawalas[1] of Granthis were playing fair to-day, or not? Did they fire ...
— The Path to Honour • Sydney C. Grier
... the Burial Office, there was a play of light and shade upon this man of God who, like Moses, "wist not that his face shone." The majestic notes of faith and assurance which reverberate in the words of this service were, on his lips and in his sympathetic and superb reading, like the overtones and rich harmonies of an organ. ...
— Frank H. Nelson of Cincinnati • Warren C. Herrick
... cheek-pillows held the head of the earl, while all about him seamen hardy on hall-beds sank. None of them thought that thence their steps to the folk and fastness that fostered them, to the land they loved, would lead them back! Full well they wist that on warriors many battle-death seized, in the banquet-hall, of Danish clan. But comfort and help, war-weal weaving, to Weder folk the Master gave, that, by might of one, over their enemy all prevailed, by single strength. In sooth 'tis told that highest God o'er human kind ...
— Beowulf • Anonymous
... all, and went and made himself a friar minor, taking the name of Fra Alberto da Imola. With his habit he put on a shew of austerity, highly commending penitence and abstinence, and eating or drinking no sort of meat or wine but such as was to his taste. And scarce a soul was there that wist that the thief, the pimp, the cheat, the assassin, had not been suddenly converted into a great preacher without continuing in the practice of the said iniquities, whensoever the same was privily possible. And withal, having got himself made priest, ...
— The Decameron, Volume I • Giovanni Boccaccio
... "Lord God, I thank thee, for I am healed of this malady." Soo when the holy vessell had been there a great while, it went into the chappell againe, with the candlesticke and the light, so that Sir Launcelot wist not where it became, for he was overtaken with sinne, that he had no power to arise against the holy vessell, wherefore afterward many men said of him shame. But he tooke repentance afterward. Then the sicke knight dressed him upright, ...
— Marmion • Sir Walter Scott
... diligently for men the work of the day. Already often have they been privily watched, but one may not interrupt them, only let them, come and go at their listing. By such speeches was the herdsman made curious, and would fain have wist wherefore the Dwarfs hid so carefully their feet, and whether these were otherwise shapen than men's feet. When, therefore, the next year, summer again came, and the season that the Dwarfs did stealthily pluck the cherries, and bear ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXLV. July, 1844. Vol. LVI. • Various
... the seaman trusts his bark, I'd trust That nought could harm the boy:— Alas! I wist not that the whirling gust Would shipwreck all ...
— Japanese Literature - Including Selections from Genji Monogatari and Classical - Poetry and Drama of Japan • Various
... I wist sum magic w'u'd ellow, (By charm or craf'—doan mattah how) You stay jes lak you is right now, Mah ...
— The Book of American Negro Poetry • Edited by James Weldon Johnson
... wayting her besyde: Whom seeing such, for dread he durst not show Himselfe too nigh at hand, but turned wyde Unto an hill; from whence when she him spyde, 230 By his like seeming shield, her knight by name She weend it was, and towards him gan ryde: Approaching nigh, she wist it was the same, And with faire fearefull ...
— Spenser's The Faerie Queene, Book I • Edmund Spenser
... a draught of merry go down, The best it is in all the town. But yet I would not for my gown, My husband wist. Ye may me trist. ...
— Froude's Essays in Literature and History - With Introduction by Hilaire Belloc • James Froude
... strive to quench the passion in my breast; In vain thy blandishments would make me play: Still I desire far more than I can say. My knowledge halts, ah, sweet, be piteous, Instruct me still, while time remains to us, Be what thou wist, Goddess, moon-maid, Marquise, So that I gather from thy lips heart's ease, Nay, I implore thee, think ...
— The Poems And Prose Of Ernest Dowson • Ernest Dowson et al
... Sir Kay saw the sword he wist well it was the sword of the stone, and he rode to his father Sir Ector and said: 'Sir, lo here is the sword of the stone, wherefore I must be ...
— English Literature For Boys And Girls • H.E. Marshall
... I with the song Thorow ravished, that till late and long Ne wist I in what place I was ne where; ... And at the last, I gan full well aspie Where she sat in a fresh grene laurer tree On the further side, even right by me, That gave so passing a delicious smell According to ...
— The Development of the Feeling for Nature in the Middle Ages and - Modern Times • Alfred Biese
... the Englishmen were aland: the towns of Cotentin sent word thereof to Paris to king Philip. He had well heard before how the king of England was on the sea with a great army, but he wist not what way he would draw, other into Normandy, Bretayne or Gascoyne. As soon as he knew that the king of England was aland in Normandy, he sent his constable the earl of Guines, and the earl of Tancarville, who were but newly come to him from his son from the siege at Alguillon, ...
— Chronicle and Romance (The Harvard Classics Series) • Jean Froissart, Thomas Malory, Raphael Holinshed
... clouds, was almost such as mortal creatures might be thought to feel for some existence that had visibly come from heaven! Yet all who looked on her saw that she, like themselves, was mortal; and many an eye was wet, the heart wist not why, to hear such wisdom falling from her lips; for dimly did it prognosticate, that as short as bright would be her walk from the cradle to the grave. And thus for the "Holy Child" was their love elevated by awe, and ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 17, - Issue 479, March 5, 1831 • Various
... thou bonie bird, That sings beside thy mate: For sae I sat, and sae I sang, And wist ...
— The Hundred Best English Poems • Various
... fell off from his hands. And the angel said unto him, 'Gird thyself, and bind on thy sandals.' And so he did. And he saith unto him, 'Cast thy garment about thee, and follow me.' And he went out, and followed him, and wist not that it was true which was done by the angel; but thought he saw ...
— Raphael - A Collection Of Fifteen Pictures And A Portrait Of The - Painter With Introduction And Interpretation • Estelle M. Hurll
... the few, the very few, that wist His Atlantean labour, swerved Their eyes to seek, and in the triumph missed, The man that ...
— The Vigil of Venus and Other Poems by "Q" • Q
... romantic pages wist What romance is in the look. Oh, that I could be so bold, So romantic as to bold Half an hour the pensive wrist, And ...
— Ionica • William Cory (AKA William Johnson)
... wist not at first that this was He, That had raised such a boiling passion; For his old costume he had laid aside, And was come to court a mortal bride ...
— The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb IV - Poems and Plays • Charles and Mary Lamb
... four He set for the House of Keys, And all was order from shore to shore In the fairest Isle of the Seas: Though he came a destroyer, I wist He remained as a ruler to save, And yonder he sleeps in the roadside kist ...
— My Life as an Author • Martin Farquhar Tupper
... the burning fire of hell. 160 Seest thou yet yon fair castel, That standeth over yon highe hill? Of town and tower it bears the bell, In earth is none like it untill. For sooth, Thomas, yon is mine own, 165 And the king's of this country; But me were lever[42] be hanged and drawn Or that[43] he wist thou lay me by. When thou com'st to yon castle gay, I pray thee courteous man to be, 170 And whatso any man to thee say, Look thou answer none but me. My lord is served at each mess With thirty knightes fair and free; I shall say, sitting at the dess[44], 175 I took thy speech ...
— The Sources and Analogues of 'A Midsummer-night's Dream' • Compiled by Frank Sidgwick
... tears. Unnumbered punctures, small, yet sore, Full fretfully the maiden bore, Till she her lily finger found Crimson'd with many a tiny wound, And to her eyes, suffused with watery woe, Her flower-embroidered web danced dim, I wist, Like blossom'd shrubs, in a quick-moving mist; Till vanquish'd, the despairing maid ...
— Reminiscences of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey • Joseph Cottle
... No I wist ye offende, not so to be shent. But if he had, the Toure coulde not you so holde, But to breake out at all times ye would be bolde. What is it? hath any ...
— Roister Doister - Written, probably also represented, before 1553. Carefully - edited from the unique copy, now at Eton College • Nicholas Udall
... questions, And we were all astonished at his quickness. And when his mother came, and said: Behold Thy father and I have sought thee, sorrowing; He looked as one astonished, and made answer, How is it that ye sought me? Wist ye not That I must be about my Father's business? Often since then I see him here among us, Or dream I see him, with his upraised face Intent and eager, and I often wonder Unto what manner of manhood he hath grown! Perhaps a poor mechanic like his father, ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
... he hear confession, And pleasant was his absolution. He was an easy man to give penance, Whereso wist to have a good pittance; For unto a poor Order for to give, Is signe that a man is well y-shrive; For if he gave, he durste make a vaunt He wiste that a man was repentant. For many a man so hard is of his heart He can not weep although ...
— Chaucer • Adolphus William Ward
... Woman.—Winds wist not of the way they blow. Apart from your kindness, life's at best but a snare. Though a tongue now past praise this bitter thing doth say, I know What solitude means, and how, ...
— Collected Poems 1901-1918 in Two Volumes - Volume I. • Walter de la Mare
... suade' re spect'a ble shuf' fled dan' ger ous grate' ful wist' ful ly mit' tens outstretched' res' cue un daunt' ed ...
— De La Salle Fifth Reader • Brothers of the Christian Schools
... "That I wist aforetime," retorted she; "for no sooner set I my foot out of the door this morrow than I well-nigh stepped ...
— For the Master's Sake - A Story of the Days of Queen Mary • Emily Sarah Holt
... such a minister as Dr. Gillespie, the civil magistrate would be compelled to take a very back seat indeed. But it was on Communion Sabbath days that the Doctor became, as it were, transfigured, the face of him shining, though he wist not ...
— The Dew of Their Youth • S. R. Crockett
... instances are but repetitions of older ones. Three times the writer of Judges tells of Samson that "the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him," and then is added the pathetic sentence—"but he wist not that the Lord was departed from him." And between the two occurs the story of an act of disobedience. Twice the same thing is recorded of King Saul, "the spirit of God came mightily upon him," and the same sequel ...
— Quiet Talks on Power • S.D. Gordon
... be, Some men will have two wives, and some men three, In store. Some are woe that have any; But so far ken I, Woe is he who has many, For he feels it sore. But young men of wooing, for God that you bought, Be well ware of wedding, and think in your thought "Had I wist" is a thing it serves ye of nought; Mickle still mourning has wedding home brought, And griefs, With many a sharp shower, For thou may catch in an hour That shall serve thee full sour As long as thou lives. For as read I ...
— Everyman and Other Old Religious Plays, with an Introduction • Anonymous
... wist I of a woman bold, Who thrice my brow durst sign, I might regain my mortal mold, As fair a form as ...
— Lady of the Lake • Sir Walter Scott
... a mist, a shape, I wist! And still it near'd and near'd; And, as if it dodg'd a water-sprite, It plung'd and ...
— Lyrical Ballads, With Other Poems, 1800, Vol. I. • William Wordsworth
... a great while because no man wist what it meant, till Virgill opened the whole fraude by this deuise. He wrote aboue the same halfe metres this whole verse Exameter. Hos ego ...
— The Arte of English Poesie • George Puttenham
... pondering his case with a solicitude that he wist not of: the Reverend James Moore, the flute-playing Episcopal parson of the town, within whose flock this marriage was to take place and who may have regarded Amy as one of his most frisky wayward fleeces. Perhaps indeed as not wearing a ...
— The Choir Invisible • James Lane Allen
... forsware all love. Many a happy day thereafter the maiden lived without that she wist any whom she would care to love. In after days she became with worship a valiant here's bride. He was the selfsame falcon which she beheld in her dream that her mother unfolded to her. How sorely did she avenge this upon her nearest ...
— The Nibelungenlied • Unknown
... Seem'd like a grove faire braunched over hed: Therein the hermit, which his life here led In streight observance of religious vow, Was wont his hours and holy things to bed; And therein he likewise was praying now, Whenas these knights arrived, they wist not where ...
— Castles and Cave Dwellings of Europe • Sabine Baring-Gould
... thou turn From summer land to Eden walls? "The man Belike, ne'er loved thee. So is it young Eve can His pulses sway. Is she not passing fair? Her fancies wild, it is her daily care To bend beneath his ever fickle will. Red-lipped and soft, she deftly rules him still, Though he wist not. Yet sweeter Lilith's frown Than archest smile she wears. Great Soul! The crown Thou bearest of fadeless life. For fleeting dreams In Paradise, beside the winding streams, Wilt thou resign such boon? Thou art, in sooth, Of mold ...
— Lilith - The Legend of the First Woman • Ada Langworthy Collier
... "wist," and "wot," and "eke" are antiquated frippery, and unmodernize a poem rather than give it an antique air, as some strong old words may do. "I guess," "I know," "I knew," ...
— The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb (Vol. 6) - Letters 1821-1842 • Charles and Mary Lamb
... Tide they Talkde and Kist, For She was fayre and He was Kinde; The Sunne went down before She wist Another ...
— The Bed-Book of Happiness • Harold Begbie
... King, 'we thought thus—as ye wist—that the King o' Scots would come obedient to our summoning and that there we should lie some days awaiting and entertaining him. Thus did I wish to send my Queen swift message of our faring, and I was willing ...
— The Fifth Queen Crowned • Ford Madox Ford
... lady Prioresse, by your leve, So that I wist I sholde yow nat greve, I wolde demen that ye telle sholde A tale next, if so were that ye wolde. Now wol ye vouche-sauf, my lady dere?" —"Gladly," quod she, and seyde ...
— A Literary History of the English People - From the Origins to the Renaissance • Jean Jules Jusserand
... home, and thought no more of his chylde. As sone as he came home, his wyfe asked for her chyld. Whan she spake of the chylde, he loked on his shulder; and whan he sawe he was not ther, he said he wist nat where he was. Out vpon the, horson (quod she), thou hast let mi child fal in to the water (for he passed ouer the water of Dee at a brige). Thou list,[278] hore (quod he): for if he had fallen into the water, I shuld haue hard ...
— Shakespeare Jest-Books; - Reprints of the Early and Very Rare Jest-Books Supposed - to Have Been Used by Shakespeare • Unknown
... he never knew him till that time, nor wist what was said to him, nor wist where he had been, while he had been sick, till now; and he asked who were the godfathers, and the queen told him, and he was ...
— Margaret of Anjou - Makers of History • Jacob Abbott
... in his lungs, an' they fought death f'r him f'r five years, sindin' him out to th' Wist an' havin' masses said f'r him; an', poor divvle, he kept comin' back cross an' crool, with th' fire in his cheeks, till wan day he laid down, an' says he: 'Pah,' he says, 'I'm goin' to give up,' he says. 'An' I on'y ask that ye'll have th' mass sung over me be some man besides ...
— Mr. Dooley: In the Hearts of His Countrymen • Finley Peter Dunne
... to play four 'anded wist sometimes," said the mate, as he followed the skipper below to see what ...
— Sea Urchins • W. W. Jacobs
... is jealous of you," said he, smiling, to Nigel of Ely. He was one bishop; and William of Exeter, the other—Wal-wist the Saxons called him—laughed long. "Rahere is a priest at heart. Shall I make him a bishop, De Aquila?" ...
— Rewards and Fairies • Rudyard Kipling
... you, uncanny Phantom, wist!... Whose is that towering form That tears across the mist To where the shocks are sorest?—his with arm Outstretched, and grimy face, and bloodshot eye, Like one who, having ...
— The Dynasts - An Epic-Drama Of The War With Napoleon, In Three Parts, - Nineteen Acts, And One Hundred And Thirty Scenes • Thomas Hardy
... outlandish life He has quickened Mansoul, and it is only the part of a faithful Creator to provide for His creature her proper nourishment. What is it? asked the children of Israel at one another when they saw a small round thing, as small as hoarfrost, upon the ground. For they wist not what it was. And Moses said, Gather of it every man according to his eating, an omer for every man, according to the number of your persons. And the house of Israel called the name thereof Manna, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey. ...
— Bunyan Characters - Third Series - The Holy War • Alexander Whyte
... lay in my bed slepe full unmete Was unto me, but why that I ne might Rest I ne wist, for there n'as erthly wight [As I suppose] had more of hertis ese Than I, for I ...
— Poems 1817 • John Keats
... head is evil for the neck and shoulders.' To govern that lad shall ask no little wisdom; and if thou have it not, thou knowest where to ask. I would his mother had more, or that his father had lived. Well! that's evil wishing; God wist better than I. But the lad 'll be a sore care to thee, and ...
— It Might Have Been - The Story of the Gunpowder Plot • Emily Sarah Holt
... wist, before I kiss'd, That love had been sae ill to win, I'd lock'd my heart in a case of gold, And pin'd it with a ...
— Ballads of Scottish Tradition and Romance - Popular Ballads of the Olden Times - Third Series • Various
... worldes ije The Mirour of ensamplerie, To reulen and to taken hiede Betwen the men and the godhiede. Now forto speke of the comune, It is to drede of that fortune 500 Which hath befalle in sondri londes: Bot often for defalte of bondes Al sodeinliche, er it be wist, A Tonne, whanne his lye arist, Tobrekth and renneth al aboute, Which elles scholde noght gon oute; And ek fulofte a litel Skar Upon a Banke, er men be war, Let in the Strem, which with gret peine, If evere man it schal restreigne. 510 Wher lawe lacketh, errour groweth, He is noght wys ...
— Confessio Amantis - Tales of the Seven Deadly Sins, 1330-1408 A.D. • John Gower
... and yet more bitterly they bewailed them, and the mariners were at their wits' end, as the gale grew hourly more violent, nor knew they, nor might conjecture, whither they went, they drew nigh the island of Rhodes, albeit that Rhodes it was they wist not, and set themselves, as best and most skilfully they might, to run the ship aground. In which enterprise Fortune favoured them, bringing them into a little bay, where, shortly before them, was arrived the Rhodian ...
— The Decameron, Vol. II. • Giovanni Boccaccio
... boat she settled low, Till her gunwale kissed the faem, An' she didna loup nor row As she bare the deid folk hame; But she aye gaed swift an' licht, An' we naething saw nor wist, Wha sailed i' th' boat that nicht Through the mirk an' the ...
— The Haunted Hour - An Anthology • Various
... and a fool, was gifted, need only be duly exercised to win the day. When Susan was gone, that parting arrow did quiver for a moment in Nettie's heart; but the brave little girl had, for that one night, a protection which her sister wist not of. After the door closed, Nettie fell back once more into that hour of existence which expanded and opened out the more for every new approach which memory made to it. Sweet nature, gentle youth, and the Magician greater than either, came round her in a potent circle ...
— The Doctor's Family • Mrs. (Margaret) Oliphant
... that has sounded in my room Across the sill from the outer gloom. Each came singly unto her place, But all came every night with the mist; And often they brought so much to say Of things of moment to which, they wist, One so lonely was fain to list, That the stars were almost faded away Before the last went, heavy with dew, Back to the place from which she came— Where the bird was before it flew, Where the flower was before it grew, Where bird and flower were one and the ...
— A Boy's Will • Robert Frost
... real friends. I could be doing with more about me of the quality I mention; better than horse and foot would they be, more trusty than the claymores of my clan. It might be the slogan 'Cruachan' whenever it wist, and Archibald of Argile would be more puissant than he of Homer's story. People have envied me when they have heard me called the King of the Highlands—fools that did not know I was the poorest, ...
— John Splendid - The Tale of a Poor Gentleman, and the Little Wars of Lorn • Neil Munro
... till the worst word came; and then the ill deed. Did the maledicent Bodyguard, getting (as was too inevitable) better malediction than he gave, load his musketoon, and threaten to fire; and actually fire? Were wise who wist! It stands asserted; to us not credibly. Be this as it may, menaced Rascality, in whinnying scorn, is shaking at all Grates: the fastening of one (some write, it was a chain merely) gives way; Rascality is in the Grand ...
— The French Revolution • Thomas Carlyle
... Mordred back, that he fled and all his people. So when this battle was done, King Arthur let bury his people that were dead. And then was the noble knight Sir Gawaine found in a great boat, lying more than half dead. When King Arthur wist that Sir Gawaine was laid so low, he went unto him; and there the king made sorrow out of measure, and took Sir Gawaine in his arms, and thrice he swooned. And when he came to himself again, he said, "Alas! my sister's son, here now thou liest, the man in the world {2} that I loved most, ...
— A Book of English Prose - Part II, Arranged for Secondary and High Schools • Percy Lubbock
... But had I wist before I kissed That love had been so ill to win, I 'd locked my heart in a case o' goud, And pinn'd it wi' a siller pin. Oh, oh! if my young babe were born, And set upon the nurse's knee; And I mysel' were dead and gane, And the green grass ...
— The World's Best Poetry, Volume 3 - Sorrow and Consolation • Various
... of all things and the king of all things," was the word of Heraclitus the Wise. "It hath brought forth some as gods and others as men, and hath made some bond and others free. When Homer prayed that strife might depart from amongst gods and men, he wist not that he was cursing the birth of all things, for all things have their birth in war ...
— The Arena - Volume 4, No. 21, August, 1891 • Various
... supream and impartial judge of quick & dead—and when his poor Mother & her poor husband went to Jerusalem to keep the passover & he went with them, he disputed among the doctors, & when his Mother ask'd him about it he said "wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business,"—all this he said was a part of that wrighteousness for the sake of which a sinner is justafied—Aunt has been up stairs all the time I have been writeing & recollecting this—so no help from ...
— Diary of Anna Green Winslow - A Boston School Girl of 1771 • Anna Green Winslow
... elbow rais'd, with utterance weak, Such as his feeble strength avail'd to speak, Recounts his piteous chance, his name, his home, How up the vessel's side ere while he clomb, And then sunk down in sleep; but who impell'd Its ebon keel, or tissued canvas swell'd, He wist not: faint, and lacking vital heat, He sought some needful aid from looks so sweet. "So brave a knight!—to yield of succour nought— What heart of flint could cherish such a thought? Yet where to harbour him, and ...
— The Lay of Marie • Matilda Betham
... with sore weeping and said to him, "By Allah, I suspected not that passion had come to such a pass with thee, as to cast thee into the arms of death! Had I wist of this, I had been favourable to thy wish, and thou shouldst have had thy will." At this his tears streamed down even as the clouds rail rain, and he ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 5 • Richard F. Burton
... with a dastard's smile, 'O guest, thine hands are heavy; now rest them for a while!' So I stretched out my hands, and the hand-gyves lay cold on either wrist: And the wood of the wolf had been better than that feast-hall, had I wist That this was the ancient pit-fall, and the long expected trap, And that now for my heart's desire I ...
— The House of the Wolfings - A Tale of the House of the Wolfings and All the Kindreds of the Mark Written in Prose and in Verse • William Morris
... and the ear of the Dreamer This Dream out of darkness flew, Through the horn or the ivory portal, But he wist not which ...
— The Poems of William Watson • William Watson
... but deceiving!" sneered the incredulous Jack. "Thomas Fleming! why, who wist not that Thomas Fleming is more pirate than sea-captain, and that the 'Falcon' is well enough known for no ...
— Clare Avery - A Story of the Spanish Armada • Emily Sarah Holt
... went, and no man wist; Hapless, my child, no breast you kist; On no dear knees, a privileged babbler, clomb, Nor knew the kindly ...
— New Poems • Robert Louis Stevenson
... the body The roar of battle rose, Like the roar of a burning forest, When a strong north wind blows, Now backward, and now forward, Rocked furiously the fray, Till none could see Valerius, And none wist where he lay. For shivered arms and ensigns Were heaped there in a mound, And corpses stiff, and dying men That writhed and gnawed the ground; And wounded horses kicking, And snorting purple foam: Right well did such a couch befit ...
— Lays of Ancient Rome • Thomas Babington Macaulay
... ye must go nigh, and forcibly take hold of them; ye must wreathe them fast with strong sail-ropes, shove and heave with utmost strength trees great and long, that are exceeding strong, and go ye to one stone, all clean, and come again with strength, if ye may it stir." But Merlin wist well how it should happen. The knights advanced with mickle strength; they laboured full greatly, but they had not power, so that they ever any stone might stir! Merlin beheld Uther, who was the king's brother, and Merlin the prophet said these words: ...
— Brut • Layamon |
