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Welkin

noun
1.
The apparent surface of the imaginary sphere on which celestial bodies appear to be projected.  Synonyms: celestial sphere, empyrean, firmament, heavens, sphere, vault of heaven.






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"Welkin" Quotes from Famous Books



... Sugarloaf, Bray Head, the mountains of Mourne, the Galtees, the Ox and Donegal and Sperrin peaks, the Nagles and the Bograghs, the Connemara hills, the reeks of M Gillicuddy, Slieve Aughty, Slieve Bernagh and Slieve Bloom. Amid cheers that rent the welkin, responded to by answering cheers from a big muster of henchmen on the distant Cambrian and Caledonian hills, the mastodontic pleasureship slowly moved away saluted by a final floral tribute from the representatives of the fair sex who were present in ...
— Ulysses • James Joyce

... they partit, Then on each other sprang; They lungit, they plungit, Till all the welkin rang. They ogglit, they gogglit, Amidst the dread deray; They chirnit, they girnit, Like bluidy ...
— Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland, Volume XXIV. • Revised by Alexander Leighton

... one (barrin' cyclones) as ever I see. 'T had like to ha' blow me off my pins, half a dozen times. Then nat'rally the sea kem up; and 'twas all creation on them rocks, now I tell ye. 'The sea, mountin' to the welkin's ...
— Captain January • Laura E. Richards

... mine the treasures fair Of purple grape and yellow pear, And fruits of various hue, And harvests rich of golden grain, That dance in waves along the plain To merry song of reaping swain, Beneath the welkin blue; ...
— The Sylphs of the Season with Other Poems • Washington Allston

... free heart's hope and home! By angel hands to valor given; Thy stars have lit the welkin dome, And all thy hues were born in heaven. Forever float that standard sheet! Where breathes the foe but falls before us, With Freedom's soil beneath our feet, And ...
— Poems Teachers Ask For • Various

... saddest and the sorest sight, One's own love weeping. But why call on God? But that the feeling of the boundless bounds All feeling; as the welkin does the world; It is this which ones us with the whole and God. Then first we wept; then closed and clung together; And my heart shook this building of my breast Like a live engine booming up and down; She fell upon me like a snow-wreath thawing. Never ...
— Woman in the Ninteenth Century - and Kindred Papers Relating to the Sphere, Condition - and Duties, of Woman. • Margaret Fuller Ossoli

... thane and father, descended from his war steed, and threw himself into the arms of the faithful partner of his joys and sorrows, who awaited his embrace; there was a moment of almost reverential silence as he pressed her to his manly breast, and then arose a cry which made the welkin ring: ...
— The Rival Heirs being the Third and Last Chronicle of Aescendune • A. D. Crake

... each man lays about him with his every ounce of strength and strikes home with his blade: lances shiver: the welkin rings with the roar of heroes: up from their gasping, panting breath a cloud arises: men drop ...
— Amphitryo, Asinaria, Aulularia, Bacchides, Captivi • Plautus Titus Maccius

... of the Indian troop, much more is it altered in the general aspect and behaviour of those who compose it—a very contrast to what was exhibited on their way downward. No longer mirthful, making the welkin ring with their jests and loud laughter; instead, there is silence upon their lips, sadness in their hearts, and gloom—even fear—on their faces. For they are carrying home one of their number a corpse, and dread telling the ...
— Gaspar the Gaucho - A Story of the Gran Chaco • Mayne Reid

... which the heroine exclaims, 'Peace with thine impudence, sir knave. Dost thou dare to speak thus in presence of the Lady Eleanore de Selby? . . . A greybeard's ire shall never—,' while the hero remarks that 'the welkin reddenes i' the west.' In fact, they considered that language like this is exceedingly picturesque and gives the necessary historical perspective. Nowadays, however, few people have the time to read a novel that requires a glossary to explain ...
— Reviews • Oscar Wilde

... peals, Forked lightnings blaze about the sky, The sand in clouds is whirled on high; From east, from west, from south, from north, The winds in mad career rush forth, And elemental battle join; The welkin mingles with the brine; Upon me comes in flood and fire The blast of the Almighty's ire. Look, holy mother, on this sight; Look on it, Aether, source of light, ...
— Specimens of Greek Tragedy - Aeschylus and Sophocles • Goldwin Smith

... enough with this impression. He will roar you down, he will bury his face in his hands, he will undergo passions of revolt and agony; and meanwhile his attitude of mind is really both conciliatory and receptive; and after Pistol has been out-Pistol'd, and the welkin rung for hours, you begin to perceive a certain subsidence in these spring torrents, points of agreement issue, and you end arm-in-arm, and in a glow of mutual admiration. The outcry only serves to make your final union the more unexpected and precious. ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson, Volume 9 • Robert Louis Stevenson

... terror of the rest. On pressed the hunters, driving the game closer and closer together, till, pressed up in one dense mass, even the most wary could no longer attempt to turn and fly. Fearful was the din of the shrieks and shouts which rent the welkin. The leading animals dashed madly forward, thinking to escape from their foes behind. The remainder followed, unable to see over the heads of those in front, but hoping that they had ...
— In the Wilds of Africa • W.H.G. Kingston

... steaming vapour snuffs Inquisitive, nor leaves one turf untried, Till, conscious of the recent stains, his heart Beats quick. His snuffing nose, his active tail, Attest his joy. Then, with deep opening mouth, That makes the welkin tremble, he proclaims Th' audacious felon. Foot by foot he marks His winding way. Over the watery ford, Dry sandy heaths, and stony barren hills, Unerring he pursues, till at the cot Arrived, and seizing by his guilty throat The caitiff ...
— The Dog - A nineteenth-century dog-lovers' manual, - a combination of the essential and the esoteric. • William Youatt

... was shown by a subsequent message to Congress on the subject, condemning the process by which the Democracy had vaulted into power. When the dispatch from Washington recognizing Baxter was received at the Antony House the faithful, while making the welkin ring, made immediate preparations to take undisturbed possession of the State House. The march of Governor Baxter and his adherents to the capital was made, as imposing as had his former exclusion been humiliating. A band playing inspiring music not unlike "See, the Conquering ...
— Shadow and Light - An Autobiography with Reminiscences of the Last and Present Century • Mifflin Wistar Gibbs

... words in two columns, putting in the first column words that are in good use, in the second, words that are not in good use. Consult Hill's "Foundations of Rhetoric," pp. 27-29: Omnibus, succotash, welkin, ere, nA(C)e, depA't, veto, function (in the sense of social entertainment), to pan out, twain, on the docket, kine, gerrymander, carven, caucus, steed, to coast (on sled or bicycle), posted (informed), to watch out, right (very). 2. Give good English equivalents for ...
— Practical Exercises in English • Huber Gray Buehler

... made haste to scramble to the ground, where he stood with his teeth chattering and knees knocking together in a manner pitiable to see. "Ha, ha, ha!" That wild laugh of Deadwood Dick's made the welkin ring out a weird chorus. "Bill McGucken, you should join the regular army, you are so ...
— Deadwood Dick, The Prince of the Road - or, The Black Rider of the Black Hills • Edward L. Wheeler

... We raised a loud cry, which made the welkin ring. We had got within thirty yards, when the main body, including some of the sentry bulls, turned tail and went off along the plain. Two, however, as if acting in concert, advanced towards us—these we had singled out ...
— My First Voyage to Southern Seas • W.H.G. Kingston

... impartiality as Philip's royal son, as the Man of Ross, as the divine Clarinda. He elected him Professor of Marital Diplomacy to the University of Cramond. He passed the bottle and called on him for a toast, a song—"Oblige me, Sheepshanks, by making the welkin ring." Mr. Sheepshanks beamed, and gave us a sentiment instead. The little man was enjoying himself amazingly. "Fund of spirits your friend has, to be sure, ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 20 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson

... time, the Brenton baby came, a sturdy little youngster who, from the start, kicked lustily and lifted up his voice out of a pair of brazen lungs that made the domestic welkin ring. Kathryn, somewhat weak and very languid, opened her eyes listlessly, when the nurse approached the bed, the new-born heir, swaddled and shrieking, in ...
— The Brentons • Anna Chapin Ray

... Till free consent the gods among Make her his eternal Bride, And from her fair unspotted side Two blissful twins are to be born, Youth and Joy; so Jove hath sworn. 1010 But now my task is smoothly don, I can fly, or I can run Quickly to the green earths end, Where the bow'd welkin slow doth bend, And from thence can soar as soon To the corners of the Moon. Mortals that would follow me, Love vertue, she alone is free, She can teach ye how to clime 1020 Higher then the Spheary chime; Or if Vertue feeble were, Heav'n it ...
— The Poetical Works of John Milton • John Milton

... from scathers in numbers 5 From many a people their mead-benches tore. Since first he found him friendless and wretched, The earl had had terror: comfort he got for it, Waxed 'neath the welkin, world-honor gained, Till all his neighbors o'er sea were compelled to 10 Bow to his bidding and bring him their tribute: An excellent atheling! After ...
— Beowulf - An Anglo-Saxon Epic Poem • The Heyne-Socin

... through the welkin hurled, That scores with flames the way, and every eye With terror ...
— England's Antiphon • George MacDonald

... by your art, my dearest father, you have Put the wild waters in this roar, allay them. The sky, it seems, would pour down stinking pitch, But that the sea, mounting to the welkin's cheek, Dashes the fire out. O, I have suffer'd 5 With those that I saw suffer! a brave vessel, Who had, no doubt, some noble creature in her, Dash'd all to pieces. O, the cry did knock Against my very heart! Poor souls, ...
— The Tempest - The Works of William Shakespeare [Cambridge Edition] [9 vols.] • William Shakespeare

... the railway, and along the fringe of Swilford Wood, to the open heath beyond. How half the hunt was out of it before they went up the other side of the valley, and scattered the gravel on the top of Welkin Beacon. How those who were left dropped thence suddenly on Lowhouse, and swam the Gurgle a mile above the ford. How from Lowhouse they swerved eastward, and caught the railway again at Norton Cutting. How they lost the scent in Durdon Copse, but found it again ...
— Follow My leader - The Boys of Templeton • Talbot Baines Reed

... can I fly About this airy welkin soon, And, in a minute's space, descry Each thing that's done below the moon. There's not a hag Or host shall wag, Or cry, ware goblins! where I go; But Robin I Their feats will spy, And send them ...
— English Songs and Ballads • Various

... of the patriots of thirty years ago Mrs. Trollope committed the unpardonable sin, when she published her book on America; and certainly no country ever rendered itself more ridiculous than did ours, when it made the welkin ring with cries of indignation. The sensible American of to-day reads this same book and wonders how his countrymen lashed themselves into such a violent rage. In her comments upon America Mrs. Trollope is certainly frequently at fault, but unintentionally. She firmly believed ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 14, No. 86, December, 1864 • Various

... horizon. Suddenly it appeared; both men saw it at once; and this time it made a clear, beautiful arc straight for the zenith. As it raised, it grew in size, a beautiful, delicate cherry star spanning the whole welkin. The two men got to their knees and watched ...
— Astounding Stories, July, 1931 • Various

... by day, Midst losses, gains, toil, and monotony, The ignorance of social apathy, And artifice which men to men display: Like one who tramps a long and lonely way Under the constant rain's inclemency, With vast clouds drifting in obscurity, And sudden lightnings in the welkin grey. To-morrow may be bright with healthy pleasure, Banishing discontents and vain defiance: The pearly clouds will pass to a slow measure, Wayfarers walk the dusty road in joyance, The wide heaths spread far in the sun's alliance, Among the furze ...
— The Germ - Thoughts towards Nature in Poetry, Literature and Art • Various

... When two or three years had gone by, and it began to be apparent that Mrs. Tarbell had a long and up-hill struggle before her, she became very impatient of enthusiasm. She had never liked it, even when the female welkin (if there be such a thing) had first rung with applause for her, and now it was painfully uncomfortable. Mrs. Lucretia Pegley (authoress of "Woman's Wrongs," "The Weaker Sex?" "Eve v. Adam," etc., etc., editor of "Woman's Sphere," and chief contributor to the "Coming ...
— Lippincott's Magazine, October 1885 • Various

... whirling into space and sailed in the air like a blown leaf. Pushing upward through the hatchway was a smooth, square column of cat. Grandly and impressively it grew—slowly, serenely, majestically it rose toward the welkin, the relaxing keel parting the mastheads to give it a fair chance. I have stood at Naples and seen Vesuvius painting the town red—from Catania have marked afar, upon the flanks of AEtna, the lava's awful pursuit ...
— The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Volume 8 - Epigrams, On With the Dance, Negligible Tales • Ambrose Bierce

... din died; The shuddering stars in the welkin wide Crowded, crowded, to see him ride. The beating hearts of the stars aloof kept time to the beat of the horse's hoof, "What is the throb that thrills so sweet? Heart of my lady, I feel it beat!" But his own strong pulse the fainter fell, ...
— Ride to the Lady • Helen Gray Cone

... and descending upon his shoulder, came forth gleaming from the tendons of his throat and severed his arm at the armpit; whereupon he fell down, wallowing in his blood, and Al-Abbas turned upon his host; not had the sun departed the dome of the welkin ere Hodhayfah's army was in full flight before Al-Abbas and the saddles were empty of men. Quoth Sa'ad, "By the virtue of Mustafa the Chosen Prophet, whom Allah save and assain, I saw Al-Abbas with ...
— Supplemental Nights, Volume 2 • Richard F. Burton

... of one ardent soul: irradiated, let us say, as this dazzling ray shot round the horizon, glancing from heaven to earth, and touching the gloom with fire. We need not, even to-day, be tempted from truth, or pretend that the light is permanent or complete. It has long ceased to flash round the welkin, and its very scintillations have disturbed our true vision. But we remember still its dazzling power and its revelation of things that our eyes had ...
— Beacon Lights of History, Volume XIV • John Lord

... war appears Waged in the troubled sky, and armies rush To battle in the clouds; before each van Prick forth the faery knights, and couch their spears, Till thickest legions close; with feats of arms From either end of heaven the welkin burns. ...
— The Adventure of Living • John St. Loe Strachey

... John. His face, blank with surprise at first, would presently have glowed and widened, and his whole bulk have begun to quiver. Lest he should miss one word, he would have mastered himself. But the final words would have been the signal for release of all the roars pent up in him; the welkin would have rung; the roars, belike, would have gradually subsided in dreadful rumblings of more than utterable or conquerable mirth. Thus and thus only might his life have been rounded off with dramatic fitness, secundum ipsius naturam. ...
— And Even Now - Essays • Max Beerbohm

... down, And half-way to the mosses brown; While the grass beneath the rime Has hints of the propitious time, And upward pries and perforates Through the cold slab a thousand gates, Till the green lances peering through Bend happy in the welkin blue, * * * * * The ground-pines wash their rusty green, The maple-tops their crimson tint, On the soft path each track is seen, The girl's foot leaves its neater print. The pebble loosened from the frost Asks of the urchin to be tost. In flint and marble beats a heart, The kind Earth takes ...
— Choice Specimens of American Literature, And Literary Reader - Being Selections from the Chief American Writers • Benj. N. Martin

... will have nothing of all this," said young Kilhugh. "If thou wilt open the door, well and good. But if not, I will bring dishonor upon Arthur and shame upon thee. Here, on the spot where I stand, I will shout thrice and make the welkin ring. Sounds more deadly than 5 those three shouts have never been heard in this land. They shall resound from Land's End to Cold Blast Ridge in Ireland, and turn the hearts of youths and maidens cold as stone. Matrons shall grow wan and weakly and many a mother's child shall die of fright—so dreadful ...
— Story Hour Readings: Seventh Year • E.C. Hartwell

... what art thou, Execrable Shape?" Nick MIGHT have cried, could he have found a tongue, But his distended jaws could only gape, And not a sound upon the welkin rung, His gooseberry orbs seem'd as they would have sprung Forth from their sockets,—like a frightened Ape He sat upon his haunches, bolt upright, And shook, and ...
— The Humourous Poetry of the English Language • James Parton

... Banner, as he used to sing it around the camp fire in happier days, when we were in the field. He sang the rousing "Rally Round the Flag," with its wealth of patriotic fire and martial vigor, and we, with throats hoarse from shouting; joined in the chorus until the welkin rang again. ...
— Andersonville, complete • John McElroy

... Winchester had been defeated, when the army of the Northwest had surrendered, and when the feeling of despondency hung like a cloud over the land,—who first relit the fires of national glory, and made the welkin ring with the shouts of victory? It was the American sailor. And the names of Hull and the Constitution will be remembered as long as we ...
— The American Union Speaker • John D. Philbrick

... To hear by the nose, it is dulcet in contagion. But shall we make the welkin dance indeed? Shall we rouse the night-owl in a catch, that will draw three souls out of one weaver? Shall ...
— Shakespeare and Music - With Illustrations from the Music of the 16th and 17th centuries • Edward W. Naylor

... man, and the standard-staff was hewn through. Old Michael collected all his strength, hurled the flag far from the sinking ship, and then stood erect one moment and shouted, "God save Queen Bess!" and the English answered with a "Hurrah!" which rent the welkin. ...
— The Junior Classics • Various

... something—something about the two of them. You know that sort of—sort of—what the devil is it?—sort of stiffish feeling you sometimes feel in the air with two people who don't quite click. Well, that was it. Probably only my fancy. As to that, you can pretty well cut the welkin with a knife at my place sometimes when me and my missus get our tails up; and we're fearful pals. Daresay I just took 'em on an off day. But that was my impression though—that she wasn't just the sort of woman for old Sabre. But after all, what the dickens sort of woman ...
— If Winter Comes • A.S.M. Hutchinson

... days of old Adam the welkin has rung With the praises of sweet-scented posies, And poets in rapturous phrases have sung The paramount beauty ...
— Eugene Field, A Study In Heredity And Contradictions - Vol. I • Slason Thompson

... give the fatal blow! The seer, in Sky, shriek'd as the blood did flow, When headless Charles warm on the scaffold lay! As Boreas threw his young Aurora[43] forth, In the first year of the first George's reign, 75 And battles raged in welkin of the North, They mourn'd in air, fell, fell Rebellion slain! And as, of late, they joy'd in Preston's fight, Saw, at sad Falkirk, all their hopes near crown'd! They raved! divining, through their second sight,[44] 80 Pale, red ...
— The Poetical Works of William Collins - With a Memoir • William Collins

... Outwit some Roman general, And sit securely in his tent, The legions on some other scent. But certain dogs, kept back To tell the errors of the pack, Arriving where the traitor hung, A fault in fullest chorus sung. Though by their bark the welkin rung, Their master made them hold the tongue. Suspecting not a trick so odd, Said he, "The rogue's beneath the sod. My dogs, that never saw such jokes, Won't ...
— A Hundred Fables of La Fontaine • Jean de La Fontaine

... hitting it off himself—'"makin' the welkin ring with their melody!" makin' the welkin ring with their melody,' repeated he, ...
— Mr. Sponge's Sporting Tour • R. S. Surtees

... gave them a substantial fee, and filled their poor trembling cup of Auld lang syne with joy and thanksgiving, and dismissed them with honour, almost reeling with the intoxication of so unwonted a success, the boys giving them a mighty three-times-three which shook the welkin, and stirred amazingly the pulsation of two hearts that have long desisted ...
— The Bed-Book of Happiness • Harold Begbie

... the staggering carts, Like overladen beasts, crawled homeward still, Sped fieldward light and low. The laugh broke yet, That lightning of the soul's unclouded skies— Though not so frequent, now that toil forgot Its natural hour. Still on the labour went, Straining to beat the welkin-climbing heave Of the huge rain-clouds, heavy with their floods. Sleep, old enchantress, sided with the clouds, The hoisting clouds, and cast benumbing spells On man and horse. One youth who walked beside A ponderous load of sheaves, ...
— The Poetical Works of George MacDonald in Two Volumes, Volume I • George MacDonald

... lightning falls the Vengeance from above! A shriek from thousand voices; a thunder crash; a groan; A thousand homes in mourning—a thousand deaths in one! Woe to the Sons of Darkness, for the Stranger wields his own! Oh, hide that scene of horror in the deepest shades of night! Look upward to the welkin, where the Vessel fades from sight ... But the Veil is rent for ever by the Hand that veiled the Shrine; And, on a peace of ages, the Star ...
— Across the Zodiac • Percy Greg

... Jessie was making rare progress with her skating. After a few awkward falls and a few bumps and bruises, she learned "the how," as Guy called it; and then, though still awkward, oh! how joyously she sped across the little pond chasing after Guy and Carrie, and shouting until the welkin rang again. ...
— Jessie Carlton - The Story of a Girl who Fought with Little Impulse, the - Wizard, and Conquered Him • Francis Forrester

... that man will be, And happy in his life alway, Who still at eve can say with free Contented soul, 'I've lived to-day! Let Jove to-morrow, if he will, With blackest clouds the welkin fill, ...
— Horace • Theodore Martin

... the proclamation, and then 'Tum ab certo jam gaudio, tantus cum clamore, plausus est ortus, totiesque repetitus, ut facile appararet nihil omnium bonorum multitudini gratius quam libertatem esse.—Then rang the welkin with long and redoubled shouts of exultation, clearly proving that, of all the enjoyments accessible to the hearts of men, nothing is so delightful to them as liberty.' Upwards of two thousand years have revolved since that day, and the First of August is to the Briton of ...
— Memoir of the Life of John Quincy Adams. • Josiah Quincy

... granaries were full to choking all the weather-cocks of Casterbridge creaked and set their faces in another direction, as if tired of the south-west. The weather changed; the sunlight, which had been like tin for weeks, assumed the hues of topaz. The temperament of the welkin passed from the phlegmatic to the sanguine; an excellent harvest was almost a certainty; and as a ...
— The Mayor of Casterbridge • Thomas Hardy

... splinters were borne; Halberd and hauberk then Braved the claymore in vain, Buckler and armlet in shivers were shorn. See how they wane, the proud files of the Windermere, Howard—ah! woe to thy hopes of the day! Hear the wide welkin rend, While the Scots' shouts ascend, "Elliot of Lariston, ...
— The Modern Scottish Minstrel, Volume II. - The Songs of Scotland of the past half century • Various

... I have not seen the sun arise, When heaven was clearest of all cloudy stain— The welkin-bow I have not after rain Seen varied with so many shifting dyes, But that her aspect in more splendid guise Upon the day when I took up Love's chain Diversely glowed, for nothing mortal vies ...
— The Development of the Feeling for Nature in the Middle Ages and - Modern Times • Alfred Biese

... of a summer's night— The earth is dark, but the heavens are bright; Naught is seen in the vault on high But the moon, and the stars, and the cloudless sky, And the flood which rolls its milky hue, A river of light on the welkin blue. The moon looks down on old Cro'nest; She mellows the shades on his craggy breast; And seems his huge gray form to throw In a silver cone on the waves below. His sides are broken by spots of shade, By the walnut-bough and the cedar made, And ...
— The Evolution of Expression Vol. I • Charles Wesley Emerson

... tried to push one of their number in with the straw. In one doorway two men were seeking to render their uniforms less of a target by inking their brass-buttons black, while two rollicking fellows perched high upon a bread-wagon were making the welkin ring with vociferous demands for passage way. That was what everybody wanted. We, too, ...
— In the Claws of the German Eagle • Albert Rhys Williams

... that are very heavy sleepers. In fact, it's hopeless to try and wake them without the welkin." ...
— The Brother of Daphne • Dornford Yates

... the sounds akin to these, That make a man in summer time Feel only fit for rest and rhyme. Joy springs all radiant in my breast; Though pauper poor, than king more blest, The tide beats in my soul so strong That happiness breaks forth in song, And rings aloud the welkin blue With all the songs I ever knew. O time of rapture! time of song! How swiftly glide thy days along Adown the current of the years, Above the rocks of grief and tears! 'Tis wealth enough of joy for me In summer time ...
— The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar • Paul Laurence Dunbar

... my sonne Came riding downe with might and main He raised a shout as he drew on, Till all the welkin rang again, "Elizabeth! Elizabeth!" (A sweeter woman ne'er drew breath Than ...
— Poems by Jean Ingelow, In Two Volumes, Volume I. • Jean Ingelow

... love; which, like the child listening to the murmuring sea-shell, catches the far-off sound of the solemn future, and hears celestial harmonies in silentest hours. It is that which in infancy gathers in its first excursion the stuff that infant dreams are made of; which in childhood makes the welkin ring with joy and laughter, crowns itself with flowers, and arches life and the world, and all inaccessible things and places, with airy bridges; which sees angel-forms in flitting clouds, and in the gorgeous glory of setting suns ...
— The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine, April 1844 - Volume 23, Number 4 • Various

... Athwart the welkin slant the snows and pile On sill and balcony, their feathery feet Trip o'er the landscape, and pursuing sleet Earth's brow beglooming, robs the skies of smile: Lies in her mourning-shroud our Northern Isle And bitter winds in battle o'er her meet. Her world is death-like, when behold! we greet ...
— Supplemental Nights, Volume 6 • Richard F. Burton

... adreed he lay, Till up the welkin rose the day, Then deem'd the dole was o'er; But wot ye well his harder lot? His seely back the bunch has got ...
— Poetical Works of Johnson, Parnell, Gray, and Smollett - With Memoirs, Critical Dissertations, and Explanatory Notes • Samuel Johnson, Thomas Parnell, Thomas Gray, and Tobias Smollett

... from my window at night, And the welkin above is all white, All throbbing and panting with stars, Among them majestic is standing Sandalphon the angel, expanding His pinions in ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

... company brought up the rear. Nothing could have exceeded the beauty and brilliancy of the occasion. A flashing light from a hundred flaming torches completely banished the gloom of night, while hundreds of delighted spectators made the welkin ring with cheers. They soon reached the wide portals of Joram's mansion. The charioteers alighted. The bridegroom and bride first entered, the guests following in regular order. "They that were ready entered with him into the marriage, and ...
— The Young Captives - A Story of Judah and Babylon • Erasmus W. Jones

... person raised a cheer, and the multitude took it up and cheered the bridal procession until the welkin rang ...
— Her Mother's Secret • Emma D. E. N. Southworth

... big to betray any joy over a Christmas dinner, but he whistled while doing the chores until the bare welkin in the yard rang, and Teddy, in spite of unheard of misdemeanours, was not collared off into the ...
— Lucy Maud Montgomery Short Stories, 1896 to 1901 • Lucy Maud Montgomery

... fastened to the head of the tree, and the welkin resounded with the rapid strokes of the hatchets. It was a task of some difficulty, but such zeal and energy were displayed by the woodmen that ere long the giant trunk lay prostrate on the ...
— Windsor Castle • William Harrison Ainsworth

... indifferent to the risk of snoozing on the watch. Kazimoto produced a thing called a kiboko—a whip of hippopotamus-hide a yard and a half long, and with the aid of that and Will's good humor we constituted a yelling brigade, whose business was to make the welkin ring with godless noises whenever a lion came close ...
— The Ivory Trail • Talbot Mundy

... nouns that are not used in prose, or are used but rarely; as, benison, boon, emprise, fane, guerdon, guise, ire, ken, lore, meed, sire, steed, welkin, yore. ...
— The Grammar of English Grammars • Goold Brown

... the gods and the goddesses for what you dare extempore; and now I begin. "Mount thee my Phlegon muse, and testify, How Saturn sitting in an ebon cloud, Disrobed his podex, white as ivory, And through the welkin thunder'd all aloud." There's ...
— Every Man In His Humour • Ben Jonson

... from the marshes; Tiny finches, green and golden, Flew in flocks that darkened sunlight, Came in myriads to listen ' Perched upon the head and shoulders Of the charming Wainamoinen, Sweetly singing to the playing Of the ancient bard and minstrel. And the daughters of the welkin, Nature's well-beloved daughters, Listened all in rapt attention; Some were seated on the rainbow, Some upon the crimson cloudlets, Some upon the dome of heaven. In their hands the Moon's fair daughters Held their weaving-combs of silver; In their hands ...
— The Kalevala (complete) • John Martin Crawford, trans.

... of alms during the journey, was busy helping Philip, and only when everything had been put straight and Philip had resumed the reins again had he time to look for his purse. Hardly had the britchka begun to move when a blinding flash filled the welkin with a blaze of light which brought the horses to their haunches. Then, the flash was followed by such an ear-splitting roar that the very vault of heaven seemed to be descending upon our heads. The wind blew harder than ever, and Vassili's cloak, ...
— Boyhood • Leo Tolstoy

... at strains, As of ten thousand clanking chains; And once, methought, that overthrown, The welkin's oaks came whelming down; Upon my head upstarts my hair: Why hunt abroad the hounds of air? What cursed hag is screeching high, Whilst ...
— Isopel Berners - The History of certain doings in a Staffordshire Dingle, July, 1825 • George Borrow

... at strains, As of ten thousand clanking chains; And once, methought that, overthrown, The welkin's oaks came whelming down; Upon my head up starts my hair: Why hunt abroad the hounds of air? What cursed hag is screeching high, Whilst crash ...
— Lavengro - The Scholar, The Gypsy, The Priest • George Borrow

... a shadow, he stepped out, hoping to escape the attention of his canine guards; but in a moment, every cur was on his feet and were about to make the welkin ring, when he threw at the leader the contents of his vial. Instantly, all fawned at his feet, and he ...
— The Gentleman from Everywhere • James Henry Foss

... wee stern that glints in heaven may be a lowin' sun, Though like a speck of light it seem amid the welkin dun; The humblest sodger on the field may win a warrior's crest: The birdie sure to sing is ...
— Chantry House • Charlotte M. Yonge

... the Triple Fork, When the spent sun reels and blunders Down a welkin lit with the flare of the Pit As it seethes in spate and thunders, Stern on the glare of the tortured air Your lines august shall gloom, And your master-beam be the last thing whelmed In the ...
— The Song of the Sword - and Other Verses • W. E. Henley

... manner of talk which suits well enough with this impression. He will roar you down, he will bury his face in his hands, he will undergo passions of revolt and agony; and meanwhile his attitude of mind is really both conciliatory and receptive; and after Pistol has been out Pistol'd, and the welkin rung for hours, you begin to perceive a certain subsidence in these spring torrents, points of agreement issue, and you end arm-in-arm, and in a glow of mutual admiration. The outcry only serves ...
— Memories and Portraits • Robert Louis Stevenson

... her silent reign, Her half orb'd moon declining to the main; O'er Valladolid's regal turrets hazed The drizzly fogs from dull Pisuerga raised; Whose hovering sheets, along the welkin driven, Thinn'd the pale stars, and shut the eye from heaven. Cold-hearted Ferdinand his pillow prest, Nor dream'd of those his mandates robb'd of rest, Of him who gemm'd his crown, who stretch'd his reign To realms that weigh'd the tenfold poise of Spain; Who ...
— The Columbiad • Joel Barlow

... is the lordly tree That scatters cooling shade! The landscape, O how fair and free By loving Nature made; The birds that build in leafy bough Hail each returning spring, And in the emerald forests now They make the Welkin ring. ...
— Ohio Arbor Day 1913: Arbor and Bird Day Manual - Issued for the Benefit of the Schools of our State • Various

... have they broken their necks? No! there they come, in the rear. They were a little thrown out at the last leap, but two are making ground upon the green usurper; and now they are once more all in full sight and full speed, while the Roman welkin rings to strange sounds! "Guardi il Verde;" "Per me guadagna il Giallo." "I'll take you two to one on the Maid of the Mill." "Done." "Who's riding the bay-mare?" "Mr A. for Lord G. and a pretty mess he's making of it." "Das ist wunderbar, nicht wahr?" "Ya, gut!" "Les Anglais ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine - Volume 62, No. 384, October 1847 • Various

... grey out o'er the welkin keeks, Whan Batie ca's his owsen to the byre, Whan Thrasher John, sair dung, his barn-door steeks, And lusty lasses at the dighting tire: What bangs fu' leal the e'enings coming cauld, And gars snaw-tappit winter ...
— English Dialects From the Eighth Century to the Present Day • Walter W. Skeat

... noble sons of Old Eli!" he began, with a spread-eagle gesture that came near causing him to lose his balance and fall off headlong. "This is the great day when we can get up on our hind legs and make the welkin ring with war whoops of victory. To-day we stand with one foot on Princeton's neck and the heel of the other foot gouging into Harvard's back. They have bitten the dust before us, oh, mighty warriors in blue! They have fallen like autumn leaves before a gale. We have carried our colors ...
— Frank Merriwell's Races • Burt L. Standish

... with golden curb checking her coursers superb— All her ethereal beauty elate with Love's infinite issues, Whilst this enchantment slips forth from her sibylline lips: "Herb and tree in your kinds, free lives of the mountain and forest, Shoals of the stream and the flood, flights of the welkin and wood, Herd and flock of the field, and ye, whose need is the sorest, Suffering spirits of men, lo! I am with you again. Fear no more for the tyrant hoar as he rushes to battle Armoured in ice, ...
— A Celtic Psaltery • Alfred Perceval Graves

... and, baring his arm, he struck the blow—not now fatal, for before even a hair had been injured, his arm was paralysed, the knife dropped from his hand, and the whole company was electrified by a piercing cry that awakened an echo in a dozen hills, and made the welkin ring again; and lo and behold! the whole assemblage saw a female figure, clad in green, with uplifted arms, standing on one of the rocks overhanging Llyn Barfog, and heard her calling with a ...
— Welsh Folk-Lore - a Collection of the Folk-Tales and Legends of North Wales • Elias Owen

... of mist came Grendel from the moor; he bare God's anger. The criminal meant to entrap some one of the race of men in the high hall. He went under the welkin, until he saw most clearly the wine hall, the treasure house of men, variegated with vessels. That was not the first time that he had sought Hrothgar's home. Never he, in all his life before or since found bolder ...
— English Literature For Boys And Girls • H.E. Marshall

... and they all together raised their heads to look; but she flew between them, and the rocks again rushed together and crashed as they met face to face. And the foam leapt up in a mass like a cloud; awful was the thunder of the sea; and all round them the mighty welkin roared. ...
— The Argonautica • Apollonius Rhodius

... we'll dance and sing, Hurra, Hurra, Hurra, With shouts we'll make the welkin ring, Hurra, Hurra, Hurra, Shout! shout aloud! the bondsman's free! This, this is Freedom's jubilee! Hurra, Hurra, ...
— The Anti-Slavery Harp • Various

... the brook with sleep-inviting sound, Or when Dan Sol to slope his wheels began, Amid the broom he basked him on the ground, Where the wild thyme and camomil are found; There would he linger, till the latest ray Of light sate trembling on the welkin's bound, Then homeward through the twilight shadows stray, Sauntering and slow: so had he passed many ...
— English Poets of the Eighteenth Century • Selected and Edited with an Introduction by Ernest Bernbaum

... most acute Iuuenall, voluble and free of grace, By thy fauour sweet Welkin, I must sigh in thy face. Most rude melancholie, Valour giues thee place. My Herald is ...
— The First Folio [35 Plays] • William Shakespeare

... answered succinctly, "but not low enough. I couldn't touch her, of course. If I stopped for a while and kept quiet as the dead, she'd come much closer. But the instant I made a move towards—bing!—she hit the welkin. But the way she rubbered. And, Lord, how easy scared. Once I waved my handkerchief—she nearly threw a fit. Strangest sensation I've ever had in my life to be walking calmly along like that with a girl beside me—flying. She isn't so plain when you get close—she does look like a Kanaka, ...
— Angel Island • Inez Haynes Gillmore

... prowess of people-kings of spear-armed Danes, in days long sped, we have heard, and what honor the athelings won! Oft Scyld the Scefing from squadroned foes, from many a tribe, the mead-bench tore, awing the earls. Since erst he lay friendless, a foundling, fate repaid him: for he waxed under welkin, in wealth he throve, till before him the folk, both far and near, who house by the whale-path, heard his mandate, gave him gifts: a good king he! To him an heir was afterward born, a son in his halls, whom ...
— Beowulf • Anonymous

... the jambs of my door) a huge and familiar figure, carrying a great suit-case. He put this on the ground, rushed up to Doria, shook her by both hands, swung Susan in the air and kissed her, and was still laughing and making the welkin ring—that is to say, making a thundering noise—when I, having sped across the lawn, ...
— Jaffery • William J. Locke

... home on high. 830 They left the holy man, that gracious saint, Beside the highway, 'neath the vault of heaven, Peacefully sleeping near the city wall And near his foes malignant all night long, 'Till God sent forth the candle of the day Brightly to shine. Vanished the shadows dark Beneath the welkin; then the torch of heaven, The clear light of the sky, came forth and shone Above the town. The warrior brave awoke And gazed upon the fields; before the gates 840 Steep hills high towered; about the hoary cliff Stood buildings wrought of many-colored ...
— Andreas: The Legend of St. Andrew • Unknown

... I like that sky of steel; I like the sternness and stillness of the world under this frost. I like Thornfield, its antiquity, its retirement, its old crow-trees and thorn-trees, its grey facade, and lines of dark windows reflecting that metal welkin: and yet how long have I abhorred the very thought of it, shunned it like a great plague-house? How I do ...
— Jane Eyre - an Autobiography • Charlotte Bronte

... the angry roar of the sea. Now some white dots might be discerned in the midst of the surging black mass. They came nearer and grew more distinct; these dots were the heads of white horses. They advanced very slowly, but the cheers made the welkin ring more rapidly and were reechoed by thousands and thousands of voices. Amidst these jubilant cheers the procession drew near, now it turned from the street into the market- place. Josephine, uttering a joyful cry, opened the window ...
— LOUISA OF PRUSSIA AND HER TIMES • Louise Muhlbach

... apparel: flowers of great beauty and curious forms grew everywhere, many of the forest trees having palmated leaves, the trunks being covered with lichens, while magnificent ferns were seen in all the moister situations. In the cool morning the welkin rang with the singing of birds, and the ...
— Great African Travellers - From Mungo Park to Livingstone and Stanley • W.H.G. Kingston

... back yonder should be turning out from the corral by now," he said finally, anxious to break the silence, for she had not spoken since he ended his tale. "It will not be long until they discover Hawley's predicament, and perhaps the welkin already rings with profanity. That may even account for the blue haze ...
— Keith of the Border • Randall Parrish

... which arose from a thousand throats rang to the welkin, and methinks must have smote with dread import upon the English ears. The Maid's voice seemed to float through the air, and penetrate to the extreme limits of the crowd, or else her words were taken up and repeated by a score of eager tongues, and so ran through the mighty ...
— A Heroine of France • Evelyn Everett-Green

... the bluebird, whose song is only a short, mellow warble, is heard nearly at the same time with the robin, and the song sparrow joins them soon after with his brief but finely modulated strain. The different species follow rapidly, one after another, in the chorus, until the whole welkin rings with their ...
— McGuffey's Sixth Eclectic Reader • William Holmes McGuffey

... than Apollo; For, oft when he lies sleeping, I behold the stars At mortal wars, And the rounded welkin weeping. The moon embraces her shepherd, And the Queen of Love her warrior; While the first does horn The stars of the morn, And the ...
— Curiosities of Literature, Vol. II (of 3) - Edited, With Memoir And Notes, By His Son, The Earl Of Beaconsfield • Isaac D'Israeli

... All the mighty gods assembled, All the mighty gods in council. And, for that her sov'reign grandeur The great goddess of the day-star Rul'd th' ethereal realms of heaven, Downward through the many-piled Welkin did they waft her grandson, Bidding him, till earth and heaven, Waxing old, should fall together, O'er the middle land of reed-plains, O'er the land of waving rice-fields, Spread abroad his ...
— Japanese Literature - Including Selections from Genji Monogatari and Classical - Poetry and Drama of Japan • Various

... ground. Guy still laid about him like a dragon, which gave great encouragement to the English; until Colbran in the end growing faint, Guy brought the Giant to the ground. Upon which the English all shouted with so much joy, that the welkin rang again. After this battle the Danes retired back ...
— Traditional Nursery Songs of England - With Pictures by Eminent Modern Artists • Various

... brought down the house with the merriest tale of all. It was so irresistibly absurd that Jeannette, helpless with her mirth, buried her face in her cobweb handkerchief, Stuart rocked upon his knees and made the welkin ring, and Mr. Jefferson laughed in a growling bass that gathered volume as the preposterousness of the situation grew upon him with consideration of it. Even Mr. Warne, whose expressions of amusement were usually noiseless, gave way to soft little chuckles of appreciation, ...
— Under the Country Sky • Grace S. Richmond

... whate'er his tongue In idle arrogance hath flung. 'Tis the world's way, the common lot— Foe tortures foe and pities not. Therefore I challenge him to dash His bolt on me, his zigzag flash Of piercing, rending flame! Now be the welkin stirred amain With thunder-peal and hurricane, And let the wild winds now displace From its firm poise and rooted base The stubborn earthly frame! The raging sea with stormy surge Rise up and ravin and submerge Each high star-trodden way! Me let ...
— Suppliant Maidens and Other Plays • AEschylus

... that Infantry, advancing up the hill. We worked rapidly, for the case was urgent, and we made it as lively for those fellows as we possibly could. In a few minutes a pretty neat little battle was making the welkin ring. The sound of our guns crashing over the country behind us made our people, in the camp back there, sit up and take notice. In a few minutes we heard the sound of a horse's feet running at full speed, and Gen. Dick Ewell, commanding the Second ...
— From the Rapidan to Richmond and the Spottsylvania Campaign - A Sketch in Personal Narration of the Scenes a Soldier Saw • William Meade Dame

... or Parade Ground, with its long-drawn arrays of Sepoy chivalry, its grand reviews before the Burra Lard Sahib, (as in domestic Bengalee we designate the Governor-General,) its solemn sham battles, and its welkin-rending regimental bands, by whose brass and sheepskin God saves the Queen twice a day; from Government House, with its historic pride, pomp, and circumstance, and its red tape, its aides-de-camp, and its adjutant-birds, its stirring associations, and its stupid ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. I., No. 3, January 1858 - A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics • Various

... sir, you mistake me: if he were here now, by this welkin, I would not draw my weapon on him. Let this gentleman do his mind: but I will bastinado him, by the bright ...
— Every Man In His Humor - (The Anglicized Edition) • Ben Jonson

... cheers for Grant!" shouted Bailey, as the crew of the Emma rose and made the welkin ring ...
— In School and Out - or, The Conquest of Richard Grant. • Oliver Optic

... one side to the other so lightly and unexpectedly, and parried each thrust so surely, that presently the giant relaxed a little from the fury of his onslaught. Then the youth ran in and gave him such a crack as to make the welkin ring. ...
— Robin Hood • Paul Creswick

... as has been said, planted himself in the middle of the road, made the welkin ring with words to this effect: "Ho ye travellers and wayfarers, knights, squires, folk on foot or on horseback, who pass this way or shall pass in the course of the next two days! Know that Don Quixote of La Mancha, knight-errant, is posted here to ...
— Don Quixote • Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

... streets without being startled by the unseemly spectacles of go-ahead citizens straddled upon such revolutionary contrivances, threading their way with breakneck velocity under the very noses of omnibus and other horses, and ringing the shrill welkin of a ...
— Baboo Jabberjee, B.A. • F. Anstey

... stupendous reception as they followed the Young Men Christians, mustered in overwhelming force. The "Marseillaise" here broke out with considerable severity, and Mr. Balfour broke out into a broad smile, which ran over into a laugh, as the too familiar strains of "Ta-ra-ra-boom-de-ay" made the welkin ring. Then came "The March of the Men of Harlech," mixed with "Home Sweet Home" and "The Boyne Water," till ...
— Ireland as It Is - And as It Would be Under Home Rule • Robert John Buckley (AKA R.J.B.)

... hear the welkin ring would have been enough for you. I know that you are sincere in thinking so. And the ringing welkin is all we should have heard in Michigan. But the more truly a man loves a girl, the less can he bear taking her from an easy to a hard life. ...
— Mother • Owen Wister

... mornings, Then it's wake, ye people all! For another day Of song and play Has come at our darling's call! And, till she gets her dinner, She makes the welkin ring, And she won't keep still till she's had her ...
— Love-Songs of Childhood • Eugene Field

... valley gallops the brooklet; Over the welkin travels the cloud; Touch'd by the zephyr, dances the harebell; Cuckoo sits somewhere, singing so loud; Two little children, seeing and hearing, Hand in hand wander, shout, laugh, and sing: Lo, in their ...
— The Victories of Love - and Other Poems • Coventry Patmore

... "Ye powers infernal, worthier far to sit About the sun, whence you your offspring take, With me that whilom, through the welkin flit, Down tumbled headlong to this empty lake; Our former glory still remember it, Our bold attempts and war we once did make Gainst him, that rules above the starry sphere, For which like traitors we lie ...
— Jerusalem Delivered • Torquato Tasso

... flames, to burn his body, and to place him on the pile, wretchedly upon his shoulder the lady mourned; she lamented with songs; the warrior mounted the pile; the greatest of death-fires whirled; the welkin sounded before the mound; the mail-hoods melted; the gates of the wounds burst open; the loathly bite of the body, when the blood sprang forth; the flame, greediest of spirits, devoured all those whom there death took away: of both the people was ...
— The Ethnology of the British Islands • Robert Gordon Latham

... flags, formed a glad procession to the farmer's house, where they found the fuelled chimney blazing wide, and "the strong table groaning beneath the smoking sirloin." The feast over, they retired to some near hillock, and made the welkin ring with their shouts, "Holla, holla, holla, largess!"—largess being the presents of money and good things which the farmer had bestowed. Such was the harvest home in the good old days, a joy and delight to both old and young. Shorn of much of its merriment and quaint customs, ...
— English Villages • P. H. Ditchfield

... choice extracts from Tasso in the liquid Venesian or harsh, gritty Tuscan dialect, he occasionally beguiled his monotonous jog-trot with a plaintive ballad, in which he rehearsed the charms of a certain "Pretty little Sarah;" or else, "made the welkin ring"—though what a "welkin" is, I have never yet been able to discover—with repeated injunctions to his somewhat lazy steed to "gee whup" and ...
— She and I, Volume 1 • John Conroy Hutcheson

... his bow and shouldering his fiddle, struck up in first-rate style the glorious tune, which I had so often heard with rapture in the days of my boyhood in the barrack-yard of Clonmel; whilst I, walking by his side as he stumped along, caused the welkin to resound with the words, which were the delight of the young gentlemen of the Protestant academy of that beautiful ...
— Wild Wales - Its People, Language and Scenery • George Borrow

... is chained to a renaissance column with Corinthian capital and classical draperies. Hughes' glossary of obsolete terms includes words which are in daily use by modern writers: aghast, baleful, behest, bootless, carol, craven, dreary, forlorn, foray, guerdon, plight, welkin, yore. If words like these, and like many which Warton annotates in his "Observations," really needed explanation, it is a striking proof, not only of the degree in which our older poets had been forgotten, but also of the poverty to which the ...
— A History of English Romanticism in the Eighteenth Century • Henry A. Beers

... crown from his head, set it on the head of his son, whereupon the people raised cries of joy, whilst the trumpets blared and the kettledrums beat and there befel a mighty great rejoicing. They decorated the city and it was a glorious day; even the birds stayed their flight in the welkin, for the greatness of the greeting and the clamour of the crying. The army and the folk carried the prince to the palace in splendid procession, and the news came to his mother Bahrjaur, who fared forth and threw ...
— Supplemental Nights, Volume 1 • Richard F. Burton

... She, satiate of the world, (and this to shun, The damsel so had vowed) to God will flee: And hence, in Denmark's land, to live a nun, Straight from her native Scotland sailed the sea. But it is time Rogero to pursue, Who on his courser posts the welkin through. ...
— Orlando Furioso • Lodovico Ariosto

... forward swiftly like a conqueror; and like a conqueror he whistled. Then he found the clothes-line, suddenly, pitched forward and fell, not heavily, for the mud was thick, but sprawling. He rose, oozy and dripping, took a long breath, and the welkin shuddered ...
— The Terrible Twins • Edgar Jepson

... describe, caused a thrill of horror to pass through the frame of every bystander; whilst Frank, uttering a loud cry, threw himself with his face upon the ground, and grasped the turf in all the frenzied agony of grief, till the loud cheers that made the welkin ring again, aroused him to a state of consciousness, when all his grief was turned into joy by discovering the friend whose loss he had just begun to deplore, again safely landed on the earth's surface, and apparently but little the worse for ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 59, No. 364, February 1846 • Various

... the Water-pourer's sign, some at the Fishes; some will lie at the Crown, some at the Harp, some at the Golden Eagle and the Dolphin; some at the Flying Horse, some at the Ship, some at the great, some at the little Bear; and so throughout the glistening hostelries of the whole twinkling asteristic welkin. There will be sojourners come from the earth, who, longing after the taste of the sweet cream, of their own skimming off, from the best milk of all the dairy of the Galaxy, will set themselves at table down with us, drink of our nectar and ambrosia, and take to their own beds at night for wives ...
— Gargantua and Pantagruel, Complete. • Francois Rabelais

... asleep in its rosy crown. The west wind of May haunts you with its twilight-odours; and when you waltz, so have I seen the waterspout gyrate on the blue floor of the Mediterranean. Your voice is as the harp of Selma; and when you look out of your welkin eyes— no! there I am wrong! Allow me!—ah, I thought so!—dark ...
— What's Mine's Mine • George MacDonald

... mouth, may yet be lost sight of by all. No more curious chapter in the history of language could be written than one which should trace the violations of analogy, the transgressions of the most primary laws of a language, which follow hereupon; the plurals like 'welkin' (wolken, the clouds){178}, 'chicken'{179}, which are dealt with as singulars, the singulars, like 'riches' (richesse){180}, 'pease' (pisum, pois){181}, 'alms', 'eaves'{182}, which are assumed to ...
— English Past and Present • Richard Chenevix Trench

... some hundred or so of active urchins who were congregated in a square near the centre of the main street, nothing could be more ardent than this city's gratitude, for these delegates beat drums, blew fifes, fired crackers, and huzzaed until the welkin rang with their shrill small yells. We found, upon inquiry, that there was no ball, dinner, or other public demonstration; the reason was ascribed to the extreme violence of party politics, which at this period completely divided the community, and were carried out to an extent without ...
— Impressions of America - During the years 1833, 1834 and 1835. In Two Volumes, Volume I. • Tyrone Power

... the athelings a-faring in framing of valour. Oft then Scyld the Sheaf-son from the hosts of the scathers, From kindreds a many the mead-settles tore; It was then the earl fear'd them, sithence was he first Found bare and all-lacking; so solace he bided, Wax'd under the welkin in worship to thrive, Until it was so that the round-about sitters All over the whale-road must hearken his will 10 And yield him the tribute. A good king was that, By whom then thereafter a son was begotten, A youngling in garth, whom the ...
— The Tale of Beowulf - Sometime King of the Folk of the Weder Geats • Anonymous

... said, "it's not a parallel case. Our brothers are free agents,—they adore doing it. They're toiling and sweating and praying for the chance—perhaps for years,—and they're heroes, and thousands are making the welkin ring ...
— Jane Journeys On • Ruth Comfort Mitchell

... watched his movements. For a moment he stood still, next he trumpeted till the welkin rang, and then very slowly, and with great dignity, he knelt down. At this point I ...
— Maiwa's Revenge - The War of the Little Hand • H. Rider Haggard

... for more than a month had been one of marching and counter-marching, though hazardous and patriotic. When on the 18th, they entered upon the more active duty of soldiers, they found the 3rd Division of the 18th Corps, composed of the Phalanx of the Army of the James, covered with glory, and the welkin ringing with praises of their recent achievements. The men of the 4th Division chafed with eager ambition to rival their brothers of the 18th Corps, in driving the enemy from the Cockade City. General Burnside was equally as anxious to give his black boys a chance to try ...
— The Black Phalanx - African American soldiers in the War of Independence, the - War of 1812, and the Civil War • Joseph T. Wilson

... put his whistle to his lips a crisp volley from the rifles of his platoon rent the welkin, then with fierce shouts the khaki-clad, barefooted Waffs leapt to their feet, their bayonets ...
— Wilmshurst of the Frontier Force • Percy F. Westerman

... quarrel bold, When she to arms appealed, Sought like the Christian knights of old, His laurels on the field: Where victory rent the welkin-dome, ...
— Poems • George P. Morris

... was a fleet of two hundred Hurons, who had swept down the rapids, and were now approaching slowly and in a dignified and impressive order. On coming near, they set up a simultaneous shout, the token of savage greeting, which made the welkin ring. This salute was answered by a hundred French arquebuses from barque and boat and shore. The unexpected multitude of the French, the newness of the firearms to most of them, filled the savages with dismay. ...
— Voyages of Samuel de Champlain, Vol. 1 • Samuel de Champlain

... the air, flew upwards. And after rising high from the circle of the saloon she ceased not winging her way through air and ascending skywards till she drew near the heaven of this world, the lowest of the heavens. And behold, she heard the noisy flapping of wings cleaving the welkin and, directing herself by the sound, she found when she drew near it that the noise came from an Ifrit called Dahnash. So she swooped down on him like a sparrow-hawk and, when he was aware of her and knew her to be Maymunah, the ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 3 • Richard F. Burton

... with masses of blue clouds. And he commanded the clouds, saying, Pour ye, your vivifying and blessed drops!' And those clouds, luminous with lightning, and incessantly roaring against each other in the welkin, poured abundant water. And the sky, in consequence of those wonderful and terribly-roaring clouds that were incessantly begetting vast quantities of water, looked as if the end of Yuga had come. And in consequence of the myriads of ...
— The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa - Translated into English Prose - Adi Parva (First Parva, or First Book) • Kisari Mohan Ganguli (Translator)

... into his opponent's face, and they both stripped in a second. Separating several yards, they levelled their heads like two telescopes on stands, and ran butt at each other like ram—goats, and quite as odoriferous, making the welkin ring again as their flint—hard skulls cracked together. Finding each other invulnerable in this direction, they closed, and began scrambling and biting and kicking, and tumbling over and over in the ...
— Tom Cringle's Log • Michael Scott

... their tawny ears That were pierced with the points of their shining spears. To honor Heyoka Wakawa lifts His fuming pipe from the Red-stone Quarry.[23] The warriors follow. The white cloud drifts From the Council-lodge to the welkin starry, Like a fog at morn on the fir-clad hill, When the meadows are damp and the ...
— The Feast of the Virgins and Other Poems • H. L. Gordon

... Then the entire grove seemed veiling itself in a drifting film of blue, the whole charging circle to crown itself with a dun cloud of dust that swept eastward over the prairie, driven by the stiff, unhampered breeze. The welkin rang with savage yell, with answering cheer, with the sputter and crackle of rifle and revolver, the loud bellow of Springfield, and then, still yelping, the feathered riders veered and circled, ever at magnificent speed, each man for himself, apparently, ...
— A Daughter of the Sioux - A Tale of the Indian frontier • Charles King

... save the Queen. The time has been When these charmed words, or said or sung, Have through the welkin proudly rung; And, heads uncovered, every tongue Has echoed back—"God save the ...
— Roughing it in the Bush • Susanna Moodie

... a rich golden haze upon the landscape, and as my own spirits rose amid the voluptuous atmosphere, she pointed to the waning planet, discernible like a faint gash in the welkin, and wondered how long it would be before the leaves would fall. Strange girl! did she mean to rebuke my joyous mood, as if we had no right to be happy while Nature, withering in her pomp, and the sickly moon, wasting in the blaze ...
— The Man In The Reservoir • Charles Fenno Hoffman

... funerals. well Cele sed that in Scalploc Sam a bear had a deth grip on his dogs throte when Scalploc Sam he grabed his pepper pot and throwed a hanful of pepper in his eys and nose and while the bear was ritheing in agony and filling the welkin with horid roars and snarls and growls Scalploc Sam loded his thrusty riffle and ...
— Brite and Fair • Henry A. Shute

... with, and Governor, Recorder, officials and spectators all left the Court room, the mob being of the impression that the prisoners had been acquitted, and that trading for furs was no longer illegal. Though this was not the decision yet the crowd so took it up, and made the welkin ring with shouts (Le Commerce est libre, vive la liberte) "Commerce ...
— The Romantic Settlement of Lord Selkirk's Colonists - The Pioneers of Manitoba • George Bryce

... than lightning can I flye About this aery welkin soone; And, in a minute's space, descrye Each thing that's done ...
— Traditions of Lancashire, Volume 1 (of 2) • John Roby

... skies were dark and lowering, and ominous of tempest; for it was a sirocco, and the welkin was overcast with sheets of vapory cloud, not very dense, indeed, or solid, but still sufficient to intercept the feeble twinkling of the stars, which alone held dominion in the firmament; since the young crescent of the moon ...
— The Roman Traitor (Vol. 1 of 2) • Henry William Herbert



Words linked to "Welkin" :   celestial point, zenith, apex of the sun's way, solar apex, nadir, apex, zodiac, surface, celestial sphere



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