Her cabined ample Spirit, It fluttered and failed for breath. Tonight it doth inherit The vasty hall of death.

-Arnold, Matthew
  Poems:  A New Edition,'Requiescat'.

Talis, inquiens, mihi videtur, rex, vita hominum praesens in terris, ad comparationem eius, quod nobis incertum est, temporis, quale cum te residente, ad caenam cum ducibus ac ministris tuis tempore brumale†adveniens unus passerum domum citissime, pervolaverit; qui cum per unum ostium ingrediens, mox per aliud exierit. Ipso quidem tempore, quo intus est, hiemis tempestate non tangitur, sed tamen parvissimo spatio serenitatis ad momentum excurso, mox de hieme in hiemem regrediens, tuis oculis elabitur. Ita haec vita hominum ad modicum apparet; quid autem sequatur, quidve praecesserit, prorsus ignoramus. 'Such,' he said,'O King, seems to me the present life of menon earth, incomparisonwiththattimewhichtousis uncertain, as if when on a winter's night you sit feasting with your ealdormen and thegnsöa single sparrow should flyswiftly intothehall, and coming inat one door, instantly flyoutthrough another.Inthattime inwhichit is indoorsit isindeed nottouched by thefuryofthewinter, and yet, this smallest space of calmness being passed almost in a flash, from winter going into winter again, it is lost to your eyes. Somewhat like this appears the life of man; but of what follows or what went before, we are utterly ignorant.'

-Bede known as  'theVenerable'
Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis  Anglorum (Ecclesiastical History of the English People, translated byB Colgrave,1969), bk.2, ch.13.

As a rule Corde avoided cemeteries and never went near thegravesof hisparents.Hesaidit wasjustaseasy for your dead tovisit you, only by now he would haveto hire a hall.

-Bellow, Saul
  The Dean's December, ch.15.

Yet, when confinement's lingering hour was done, Our sport, our studies, and our souls were one: Together we impell'd the flying ball; Together waited in our tutor's hall; Together join'd in cricket's manly toil.

-Rochdale
  Hours of Idleness,'Childish Recollections'. Of his childhood days at Harrow public school.

Sagest in the council was he, kindest in the hall: Sure we never won a battleö'twas Owen won them all. Had he lived, had he lived, our dear country had been free; But he's dead, but he's dead, and 'tis slaves we'll ever be.

-Davis,Thomas Osborne
  'Lament for the Death of Owen Roe O'Neil'.

And those who watch at that midnight hour From Hall orTerrace or loftyTower, Cry as the wild light passes along, 'The Dong!öthe Dong! The wandering Dong through the forest goes! The Dong!öthe Dong! The Dong with a Luminous Nose!'

-Lear, Edward
Nonsense Songs, Stories, Botany and  Alphabets,'The Dong with a Luminous Nose'.

I could have transformed this greyassembly hall into an armed camp of Blackshirts, a bivouac for corpses. I could have nailed up the doors of Parliament.

-Mussolini, Benito also called Il Duce [the Leader]
  Inaugural speech to the Lower House as Prime Minister, 16 Nov.

And by his smile, I knew that sullen hall, By his dead smile I knew we stood in Hell.

-Owen,Wilfred
  'Strange Meeting', collected in Poems (published1920).

   They filled our hall like a monogrammed Stonehenge.

-Riva, Maria
  Of the six closet-size wardrobe trunks used by her mother. Marlene Dietrich.

And dar'st thou then To beard the lion in his den, The Douglas in his hall?

-Scott, Sir Walter
  Marmion, canto 6, stanza14.

Let Eli rejoice with Leuconöhe is an honest fellow, which is a rarity. For I have seen theWhite Raven and Thomas Hall of Willingham andam myselfa greatercuriosity thanboth. Let Jemuel rejoice with Charadrius, who is from the and the sight of him isgood for the jaundice. For I look up to heaven which is my prospect to escape envy by surmounting it.

-Smart, Christopher
HEIGHT1758^63  JubilateAgno, fragmentB, stanzas 25^6 (first published 1939). Both the white raven andThomas Hall, a giant of four feet at the age of three, were curiosities exhibited in the1740s.

  Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour: England hath need of thee: she is a fen Of stagnant waters: altar, sword and pen, Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower, Have forfeited their ancient English dower Of inward happiness.We are selfish men; Oh! raise us up, return to us again; And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power. Thy soul was like a star, and dwelt apart; Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea: Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free, So didst thou travel on life's common way, In cheerful godliness; and yet thy heart The lowliest duties on herself did lay.

-Wordsworth,William
  'Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour', complete poem (published1807).