Adjective : a prosaic mind. From Dictionary.com.
“Wartah” = precipice, quagmire, quicksand and hence sundry secondary and metaphorical significations, under which, as in the “Semitic” (Arabic) tongues generally, the prosaical and material sense of the word is clearly evident. From Wordnik.com. [The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night] Reference
Ned Vickery sang with the most exquisite smoothness, but stumbled a little in prosaical conversation. From Wordnik.com. [Cape Cod Folks] Reference
Moor is a prosaical Richard III., ennobled by none of the properties which in the latter mingle admiration with aversion. From Wordnik.com. [Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature] Reference
A few Spaniards, apostates from the old national taste, extol highly the prosaical and moral dramas of Moratin; but we see no reason for seeking in. From Wordnik.com. [Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature] Reference
This passage illustrates also the difference between the highly-developed imagination of the one and the stodgy prosaical temperament of the other. From Wordnik.com. [The Art of the Story-Teller] Reference
This passage illustrates also the difference between the highly - developed imagination of the one and the stodgy prosaical temperament of the other. From Wordnik.com. [The Art of the Story-Teller] Reference
In short, the views and demands with which poets are often oppressed by a prosaical public are very cleverly and amusingly personified in these caricatures of spectators. From Wordnik.com. [Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature] Reference
The uncertainty in which I yet stand whether I can come or no damps my spirits, reduces me a degree below prosaical, and keeps me in a suspense that fluctuates between hope and fear. From Wordnik.com. [The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb — Volume 5 The Letters of Charles and Mary Lamb] Reference
Wallencamp received their deathblow, and my labors, which had before been cheered by a dream of partially satisfying success, at least, took on an utterly goal-less and prosaical form. From Wordnik.com. [Cape Cod Folks] Reference
We may, however, find the foundation of all the erroneous opinions of the moderns on this subject, and the same prosaical mode of viewing it, in Plutarch's parallel between Aristophanes and. From Wordnik.com. [Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature] Reference
Homer's prose essay on the gun-powder-plot, is reckoned by all critics inferior to the Iliad; and Warburton's rhyming satire on the methodists is allowed by all to be superior to his prosaical notes on. From Wordnik.com. [Boswell's Correspondence with the Honourable Andrew Erskine, and His Journal of a Tour to Corsica] Reference
It would appear, too, that in his poetical mind there was a certain prosaical corner in which there still lurked a disposition to reject the wonderful, and the bold play of fancy, as contrary to probability and nature. From Wordnik.com. [Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature] Reference
I found that they could not read, but they could write in a truly fluent and unconventional style; they could not commit prosaical facts to memory, but they could sing songs containing any number of irrelevant stanzas. From Wordnik.com. [Cape Cod Folks] Reference
He will sacrifice every thing like the gladsome inspiration of fun and all truly poetical amusement, for the dull and formal seriousness of prosaic life, and for prosaical applications stamped with the respectable name of morals. From Wordnik.com. [Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature] Reference
Other voices, too, are merely raised to pour forth these as melodious lamentations or rejoicings, or to dwell in reflection on what has taken place; and in a serious drama without chorus this must always be more or less the case, if we would not have it prosaical. From Wordnik.com. [Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature] Reference
Every one in the neighbourhood knew that "Batushka" (papa), as he was familiarly called, was too prosaical, practical a man to see things ethereal, that he was an irrepressible talker, and that when he could not conveniently find an audience he created one by his own imagination. From Wordnik.com. [Russia] Reference
But when we are once brought from a world in which it was a part of the very order of things, into a world entirely prosaical and historically settled, then whatever marvel the poet may exhibit must, from the insulated state in which it stands, appear only so much the more incredible. From Wordnik.com. [Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature] Reference
Brunton, who afterward became Lady Craven; a very eccentric as well as attractive and charming woman, who contrived, too, to be a very charming actress, in spite of a prosaical dislike to her business, which used to take the peculiar and rather alarming turn of suddenly, in the midst of. From Wordnik.com. [Records of a Girlhood] Reference
This prosaical incredulity may be carried so far as to render it utterly impossible for the theatrical artists, who in every constitution of the theatre require many indulgences, to amuse the spectators by their productions; and thus they are, in the end, the enemies of their own enjoyment. From Wordnik.com. [Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature] Reference
The French tragedians, however, could not bring their minds to submit to this, and hence their works are frequently deficient in those circumstances which give life and truth to a picture; and when an obstinate prosaical circumstance must after all be mentioned, they avail themselves of laboured and artificial circumlocutions. From Wordnik.com. [Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature] Reference
Why do men listen with more strict attention to an inflammatory harangue, that may not be argumentative, than to a prosaical discourse, that is, to an anecdote than to a prayer, to an extravaganza than to a lecture, or derive more pleasure from pantomimic drollery than from Hamlet, or hearing an opera they do not understand than from reading an essay they do. From Wordnik.com. [A Controversy Between "Erskine" and "W. M." on the Practicability of Suppressing Gambling.] Reference
"Next day, sadness and sentiment gave way, for a while at least, to more prosaical feelings. From Wordnik.com. [Christmas: Its Origin and Associations Together with Its Historical Events and Festive Celebrations During Nineteen Centuries] Reference
It is not dramatic truth, but absolute imitation of life, and instead of the mitigated emotion which a poetical representation of tragic events excites, it produces a sense of positive suffering too acutely painful for an artistic result; it is a perfectly prosaical reproduction of the familiar vice and its inseparable misery of modern everyday life; it wants elevation and imagination -- aërial perspective; it is close upon one, and must be agonizing to see well acted. From Wordnik.com. [Records of a Girlhood] Reference
The extraordinary events which are produced by intrigue are consequently banished from it: to cover this want of motion, the writer has recourse to a characterization wholly individual, and capable of receiving vividness from a practised player, but attaches itself to external peculiarities just as a bad portrait-painter endeavours to attain a resemblance by noticing every pit of small-pox and wart, and peculiar dress and cravat-tie: the motives and situations are sometimes humorous and droll, but never truly diverting, as the serious and prosaical aim which is always kept in view completely prevents this. From Wordnik.com. [Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature] Reference
"Lucid, but ambiguous; pathetic, but amusing; poetical, but comprehensive; prosaical, but full of emphasis. From Wordnik.com. [Autobiography of a Pocket-Handkerchief] Reference
To tell you the prosaical truth, I am afraid I should not take half as much interest in the/Lakes/as in the Manchester Mills! my tastes being decidedly/Utilitarian/for the moment!. From Wordnik.com. [New Letters and Memorials of Jane Welsh Carlyle] Reference
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